One of the amazing things about the online video is the way it is changing viewing habits and as a result, changing the way all media is produced.

The most wildly successful online videos achieve 20 million + views. YouTube has had only 10 of these videos in its history, and it takes months or years to get that many views.

After the Filipino Thriller video went viral several weeks ago it continued to grow by blogs and word of mouth until eventually it peaked and viewing slowed down at least in the U.S.

Then a little while later someone reposted the video with a French caption on video sharing site DailyMotion and it subsequently spread across the French speaking countries of the world. Online video popularity runs in waves.

Similarly, after being featured on ABC’s UGC show i-CAUGHT last night, Battle at Krueger already a viral success, is again atop video Viral Video Chart’s rankings four months after its initial posting.

To put this in perspective, more than 20 million Americans a night watch the national news. TV is still where people get information, and it still spreads information far more effectively than the internet.

The fact that there is no ‘broadcast time’ online, is both a good and a bad thing. On the one hand it means anyone can create content and have it be successful - if given the time to allow it to spread.

The bad news is that because anyone can view content on their schedule, and because online promotion can’t match TV, a viewer may be watching a video months or years after production.

This can force producers to ignore external events in production. If you don’t know when the viewer will watch, why integrate that joke about George Bush or mention the state of the economy?

These coexisting storylines have long added to television programming. Some, like Studio 60 (it’s cancellation in itself an example of the demise of quality programming) thrived on them.

Sites such as Funny Or Die have attempted to draw viewers by promoting the release of a new video at a specified date and time, but these have not generated much in terms of viewer anticipation.

This has resulted in the two opposing theoriess of new media distribution we are seeing today.

• The CBS ’syndicate everything’ model - just get content out there because the viewer with so many choices will no longer come to you.
• The NBC/NewsCorp NewSite model - put the best professional content in one protected portal and viewers will need to come to you.

The professional content producers have an advantage in quality and promotion. The independent producers have an advantage in cost and originality.

So the question remains: what will the mature content marketplace look like in the long run of convergence?

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 9th, 2007 at 8:43 pm and is filed under Video Portals, Web 2.0, WebTV, editorial, technology, video syndication. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.