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BREAKING NEWS & VIEWS
The Content Cloud Is King—Then What? This is good news for content and even better news for major media companies that need to monetize the costly video and audio assets they were urged to create in recent years. Sometime in 2009 we will be seeing Bloomberg content flowing into Blu-ray disc players. Yahoo Widgets will float across Samsung, Toshiba and LG flat screens. One of these widgets will be MySpace TV, the second most popular video destination online. The most popular, YouTube, also will be showing up on a range of TVs and mobile devices. And Web video providers like Blip.tv and their partners will play from living room set-top boxes. Connectivity is king, at least so far as the manufacturers are concerned. Sony CEO Howard Stronger told the CES keynote audience that 90% of all Sony devices, from handheld game machines to clock radios and digital cameras, will be able to connect to the Internet and to one another by 2011. In some sense the shift to Internet-based content in the living room is already upon us, even before the Internet-capable TVs and advanced digital set-top boxes proliferate. Game consoles have already proven to be an effective way to distribute Web video to the TV. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console, for instance, has 17 million active “Xbox Live” subscribers who pull content and multiplayer gaming from the Internet. The video marketplace on these consoles has become surprisingly popular. Like the higher-profile Apple TV, but with a much larger user base, the Xbox console includes thousands of TV, film and Web programming assets that users can buy or rent. Mark Kroese, general manager of Microsoft’s entertainment division, told CES attendees that the Xbox Live service is the "number one HD download site in the world in terms of volume.” The process of proliferating Web video and audio content to a multitude of devices has begun, and the tech companies are looking for marquee content that gives consumers a rationale for buying into connectivity. But what kind of Web experience do consumers really want? According to research from Strategy Analytics, users basically want access to their favorite Web content from their PC. In a survey of preferred TV Web browser activities, the company found that consumers really wanted video on demand. The second most desired feature of connected TVs is access to home network and personal video assets. The third most popular feature is access to YouTube and other user-generated video. But most of all, 91% of respondents said they wanted freedom to roam with access to “any” multimedia Web site. The takeaway here is that the concept of “Web-based” content has already begin to morph into a notion of the content cloud. Internet content is destined to become less of a destination than a resource, much like electricity, that users will pull or turn on via a multitude of devices. The challenge for content providers is complex. Foremost, how do you ensure your content is malleable enough for these devices? Strategy Analytics also discovered that 74% of consumers said they wanted Web video on their TV but in formats and with interfaces more appropriate to TV. Moreover, there is a marketing problem in a world of multiple devices. Many media companies have successfully launched mobile and set-top versions of their content no one ever sees, perhaps because they think the mere presence of the brand is enough to attract eyeballs. Guess again. As the digital staffs on most magazines discovered by 1999, simply getting your URL in the print edition to raise visibility for the new platform is a chore. Now lets add to the mix mobile and set-top box promotion, out-of-home distribution and game consoles. What is the marketing plan for all of this distribution? Disseminating content is one thing. Dispersing promotion will be yet another. If you have breaking news to share please contact Steve Smith at ssmith@accessintel.com |
 Manager, Digital Media, NCC Media
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