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Friday, July 17, 2009
Video Views
Online video meets TV; face the future
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If you are interested in seeing the future of television, connect your computer to your TV and try Hulu Desktop or YouTube XL — streamlined versions of the video portals designed for use with large monitors and remote controls. Even with a 3-year-old TV and laptop you may be able to use an S-video cable to get online video to your television set, bypassing your cable, satellite or telco service. According to Forrester Research Inc., this is “a rising phenomenon,” and “the next big wave of change for the video market in the U.S.”
Microsoft Corp. has helped to make it possible, with its Media Center edition of Windows, which is now in tens of millions of PCs. Thanks largely to Hulu LLC and YouTube LLC, the quantity and quality of video have reached the point where connecting the PC to the TV is finally worth the effort.
According to Forrester principal analyst James L. McQuivey, nearly nine million homes in the U.S. watch at least some online video on a television set in a typical month. As McQuivey notes in his June 2009 report, “If people will attempt it in such numbers when there is no clear way for them to do it, imagine how big this market will get once it’s simple to do.”
Even while offering its TV-friendly desktop application, Hulu is proceeding cautiously with limited and delayed releases of popular TV shows. It’s in a delicate position of trying to satisfy consumers without upsetting the cable companies and their relationship with Hulu’s parent company, NBC Universal. “The fear is pretty concrete among programmers and broadcasters,” said McQuivey, “that at some point soon there will be a shift away from increased broadcast viewing toward increased PC-based viewing or online viewing. And once that becomes measurable, it may be too late to shape consumer behavior, so they’re starting to get cold feet about keeping these shows online.”
Manufacturers are stepping up to meet expected demand nonetheless, offering online video solutions with gaming consoles, Blu-ray players, and set-top boxes such as Apple TV. Of particular interest to analysts are television sets unveiled this year with built-in video streaming capability. The connected TV has “paradigm-altering power” according to Forrester, with “the potential to change the way content providers think about how they connect with and engage viewers.”
For now, PC-to-TV cables do the trick, for many consumers. With the addition of a wireless keyboard, a wireless remote control, or a mobile phone that supports remote control software, these viewers can enjoy a “lean back” viewing experience from their couches. In addition to TV shows on Hulu and TV network websites, they are starting to rent movies online from Netflix, Blockbuster and Amazon Video on Demand, and tapping many other free or fee-based content sources.
The PC today only accounts for 5 percent of all video that’s being watched. But even with gradual growth, it will soon have a serious impact. In two years, 10 percent of all video viewed may be coming from an online source. But as McQuivey points out “10 percent is still huge when you’re looking at a $70 billion ad market; 10 percent of that ad market would be $7 billion.”
McQuivey advises providers to give in sooner rather than later and offer their premium content now. “If giving people convenient access to their favorite shows seems to work, then we need to carry that out to its logical conclusion … otherwise consumers might start to take the matter into their own hands and resort to illegal means.” He envisions a new model for cable providers in which they charge for access to networks on TVs, PCs, mobile phones and other devices.
As I tried YouTube XL on my TV for the first time, with members of my family looking on, I played one of the featured clips — a high-quality video of President Obama inviting users to upload their questions for an “online town hall” on health care reform. On the TV, that Internet video suddenly gained a larger audience and purpose. It looked like progress to me.
Denise de Murcie is director of brand management at Liberty Medical Supply Inc. She can be reached at ddemurcie@gmail.com.
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