Video On Demand
To keep you ahead of the competition!

Looking at Video online.

 

For those marketers who are savvy enough to recognize the opportunity in the digital marketplace, they will recognize that the whole driving factor is distribution of digital broadband. Not only online through our PDA's, cell phones and laptops, but into all of our television sets.  The commitment of Microsoft to their entertainment center product (Called, Microsoft Media Center) and so many others will help usher in these changes. The fragmentation of the marketplace is only a small part of the real story of what's going on in television and in digital compression.

Today the average American home has 85 channels. By 2008 the average American home will have 160 channels, not counting Pay Per View, Video on Demand or music channels -- just video content channels. So the fragmentation continues. And that creates financial opportunities for the Marketing industry. There are partnerships and alliances taking place, but the networks are the future. The video networks, the content networks of the future are AOL, AOL television, AOL broadband and others not yet known.

 

I can see the future -- and its wonderful!

Other companies like Amazon have already started down the path to become a programmer with its 'Agent Orange.' You haven't seen 'Agent Orange,' Amazon's new little mini-video? Not a big deal. I strongly recommend you go to Amazon and see what they're doing. There's no marketing component here yet, this is just content. It's Amazon's first step into becoming a programming source and it's a pretty good little video with some very good directing.

How many of you have heard of Jib-Jab? In 2004 during the presidential race they put on a political parody. 10.4 million U.S. internet users visited the site in July, more than three times the combined total for JohnKerry.com and GeorgeWBush.com, and that was during the presidential race. Boy, that tells you something, doesn't it?

Just goes to show there's a lot of content coming out of the online community and that's exciting, that's part of our future, that's dynamic and that will find advertising and marketing models, business models, to build around i.

 

wireless

And wireless is the next big edition for that distribution content. Wireless is not competitive to traditional media, it's complementary to traditional media. And the high speed, the ultra high speed, the content, the social networks are being built up around wireless uses, plus combined with GPS -- are you aware, by January 2006 every cell phone has to be GPS connected for 911 services?. Well, that creates not only an opportunity for 911, but it creates a marketing opportunity, because every time you use the cell phone they'll know exactly where you are.

Think of that in context of the new phones that are already offering 13 channels of video that will, with broadband, become full high speed, and even high definition content being brought into the cell phone on a real-time basis. So Monday night you could be at the bar, you could also be watching ESPN's Monday Night Football.

It's already in cars, in the back seat of a lot of cars. And with Sirius and XM Radio, both have long-term plans to move to video. Just the idea of streaming video coming into the back seat of cars, the opportunities boggle the mind. When those cars are also equipped with GPS technology so they know exactly where you are, and can send you specific messages and specific content.

Just think for a moment, you're driving in your car and you're about to pass your favorite ice cream parlor. Today they're having a special discount on your favorite flavor of ice-cream. Now, somewhere in a database a machine puts these two factors together and immediately while you're still in front of this ice-cream parlor, sends a digital coupon directly to your car and notifies you. Think of the possibilities!

The advances taking place in On Demand are among the most exciting in this business. And that's what Poltrack in his commentary was really talking about, the opportunities in On Demand to drive complete new business models based around people paying for content. In fact, in an On Demand world, right now in the DVR world, 70 percent of the downloads and play backs are 20 top programs. Those programs --'CSI' is Number 1, 'Desperate Housewives' is Number 2. But 'The Daily Show' is in there and so is 'The Simpsons' as well, among the top 20 play backs.

The advances taking place in On Demand are among the most exciting in this business. And that's what Poltrack in his commentary was really talking about, the opportunities in On Demand to drive complete new business models based around people paying for content. In fact, in an On Demand world, right now in the DVR world, 70 percent of the downloads and play backs are 20 top programs. Those programs --'CSI' is Number 1, 'Desperate Housewives' is Number 2. But 'The Daily Show' is in there and so is 'The Simpsons' as well, among the top 20 play backs.

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FCC & Tivo / DVR

So there's a lot of content being driven through video on Demand, not only in the context of storage but also file sharing. The FCC has said, in a limited way, video file sharing where you can capture programming on your TiVo, send it to your computer and then upload it to friends and family, now has been approved by the FCC. Tremendous opportunities in navigation and sponsorship of GPS navigation, and of course, even more opportunity in search and gaming on demand.

So the dynamics of the business with Video on Demand, the economic opportunities that are being created by the digital video recorder, the dynamics of search with the automobile industry -- how long will it be before you can click on BMW or Cadillac, or any other vehicle and see a video direct from the manufacturer through your Yahoo! search, or your Google search?

 

HGTV

HDTV
I believe in HDTV, it's the driving technology for the digital age. It's kind of the sleeper technology, but it's the one that people are embracing. When you go into Circuit City or Best Buy, you see walls of high def, and 90 percent of the TVs being sold are high def or high def compatible, 16 x 9 format. The technology that delivers high definition programming into the home, will require people to upgrade to digital to participate and enjoy these new features. This will then open the door to other digital and broadband services.

So, I believe high def is the exciting technology of the future. And I believe it's the one that is going to radically alter, in many ways, the distribution models that several of the forecasters are putting out -- that are relatively slow by comparison. I think distribution of new media technologies is going to be accelerated. And as the DVR and the high definition come together in a more compatible way, that's going to accelerate broadband distribution even more quickly.