Web TV is the broadcasting of television and video content online through recognisable broadcast interfaces. Increasingly Web TV refers not only to the broadcast side but also the community participation and contribution.
Wikipedia Definition: Web TV is also used concerning TV transmissions over the Internet, usually by streaming.
- Blinkx - the leading video search engine
- Brightcove - leading web TV platform
- Joost - IPTV pioneer looking to put the television interface online
- YouTube - the leading user video sharing site
- Media Community
- Full TV, Video, VOD, Pay-per-view, EPG broadcast interface suite
- Monetise your media with embeddable media stores
- Gift your online media
- Personal Media Spaces
- Integrated Content Delivery Network (CDN) with Affino’s Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution.
- Embeddable Video Stores
- White Label Video Stores
- Affiliate Media Networks
- Media Editor with draggable video frames for media generation
- YouTube integration
- Incoming Media Feeds
- CoolIris / SMIL Feeds and Integration
- Multiple embeddable media interfaces for media browsing, viewing and sharing.
The Affino Web TV solution has at it’s core the Net TV and Video and Digital Asset Management solutions. These integrate fully with the eCommunity and eCommerce solutions to allow community participation and the commercialisation of your media.
Let us know if you find a good Web TV news source.
The Internet Television Revolution started with the advent of basic video streaming. It then took a vast leap forward with YouTube and is now in full swing. It is hard to see anything preventing the Internet and its associated technologies becoming the dominant means for people to access videos and live broadcasts. This will happen both directly through the Web and through systems built on Internet Protocol Television technologies.
Although the first few years of the web saw a slow start for online video, the maturing of the technologies and bandwidth available through the pioneering efforts of a number of companies means that video content is increasingly available online and increasingly this is high quality content which even recently could only be experienced on television, DVD and in cinemas.
The economics of launching a television channel are also undergoing a transformation. The distribution part of the equation used to cost in the £10,000,000s range only a couple of decades ago, this has since been reduced to £100,000s range with the evolution of satellite and cable distribution and since the advent of the Internet as a distribution medium it has dropped to the £10,000s for smaller channels.
The advent of Brightcove, Joost and Babelgum means that production companies can distribute their video content for free with a revenue share in place. As the net based distribution channels gain in market presence the focus will be shifting increasingly to maximizing the value of the content and less about setting up distribution channels.
Whilst most content owners will have part of their catalogue on the major networks; part on the online free distribution channels; most will be running their own community based broadcast portals in the near future where they can directly interact with their customers and maximize their revenue generation opportunities.
There are distinct approaches to ‘TV on Internet’ technologies. The first is the IPTV approach, this involves placing the traditional TV interface at the core and rolling out set top boxes or dedicated player applications for PCs. The second is placing the Web browsers first and embedding the TV player within the web experience.
IPTV is a direct competitor to traditional broadcasters. It is also much more likely to be regulated on a traditional broadcast basis. Companies such as Joost and Tiscali with Homechoice are taking the conventional broadcast setup and rolling it out over IPTV.
Joost does this directly to the PC by having the user install an application which then presents a television interface which has the benefit of being able to access all the video back catalogue and have community tools overlaid over the video broadcast.
Tiscali with Homechoice runs over a dedicated IPTV box and allows the user to view their video and broadcast content through the television with a dedicated remote control. It means that users buy into a subscription and the hardware has to be installed by a technician in the same way as traditional cable television is set up. The main difference being that it runs over the telephone line and has a connection box simply attached to the telephone line.
Net TV operates on a different level and is built around the web browser. The leading company in web video is without doubt YouTube which has gone through a phenomenal growth curve over recent months.
Net TV seamlessly mixes video media with the browsing experience and allow the users to watch video on any page and in any context. It also extends the viewing experience greatly by adding community features such as chat, ratings and related videos.
The Net TV market is going to be much bigger than the IPTV market since every company will be able to launch its own Net TV presence and place its media online. Increasingly companies will be launching their own television channels and video libraries online, many with strong revenue streams.
The broadcasting market is going to become increasingly fragmented as it makes the transition online.
The Net TV market is going through rapid growth. Broadcasters are looking to put on their video catalogues; corporations are publishing their promotional advertisements and infomercials throughout the web; and individuals can now broadcast globally at minimal cost and in huge volume.
There were two key milestone reached last year: the average person in the UK spent more time online than watching traditional television and spent more money online than on the high street.
If we project these trends there a high possibility that at some point in the medium term the average person will spend more time and money on video content online than through traditional DVD and TV broadcast media.
The Skype Effect (Joost Effect) is going to be a big factor in the economics of the market. In markets where industries have previously made the transition to the net, such as the telecoms market, aspects of the market have gone through extreme pricing pressures and changes. Joost and Bright Cove are just two of the companies offering free distribution of media for shared advertising revenue.
The new IPTV broadcast networks will have a disruptive impact on the market over the short-term. They offer a low-cost route for the content creators to target the global market and a new generation of pay-per-view and subscriptions services come into effect there will be a viable alternative route for premium content.
Today’s broadcast schedules operate around two cornerstones: prime slots and advertisements. Everything else is just filler, either lesser shows, news slots or the back catalogue. The most important tasks for the success of any network are getting hit shows and maximizing the returns around the ad slots.
There is a crisis emerging for traditional broadcasters as the audience figures for the major channels are in a long-term decline. This is the result of the fragmenting of the broadcast landscape and the new ways in which people consume their video content.
The diffusion of the television audience means that advertisers have to place their ads on many more channels, each with their own niche community, shows and positioning. It means that for many advertisers the economics are no longer adding up. A number of key brands have now decided to reallocate resources from traditional TV advertising to launch their own Net TV channels with their own content to better target their community.
With an increasing percentage of ad spend going online it is clear that web based television is well placed to capitalise on the overall market growth.
Traditional broadcasters are moving online in increasing numbers as they look to retain market leadership in the new era. Start up broadcasters are increasingly focusing all their efforts on the online space as initial costs and associated risks are significantly reduced when compared with start up costs via traditional broadcasting mediums. Not only does the Internet allow organisations to test and prove their business models, it also gives them access to revenue streams and user analytics which are not available via traditional broadcasting methods.
Online television channels are one of the cornerstones of Web 2.0 along with social networking, video sharing, social news, online applications and blogs.
The social networking scene has led to an explosion of online video sharing sites and social networks. These have given individuals the ability to publish low cost videos to an audience in the tens of millions. So far the revenue models have yet to catch up with the market presence as YouTube, the market leader, generated only £10 million in revenue for 2006 with no profits in sight.
A merger of the Web 2.0 technologies is leading to the advent of Social Marketplaces. These are industry focused sites which look to replicate online the economic, social and promotional environment which exists in the ‘real world’. All aspects of Web 2.0 are required to make these a success, and it is important that social marketplaces have television channels which complement and service the community.
Since the cost of distributing original material globally has dropped significantly, new economics are coming into place for talented individuals and groups whereby they can release their own productions online through their own branded presence. It is still early in this evolution but without doubt a collaborative online production model will emerge over the coming months.
Another area which is gaining traction is the Video Search Engine. Blinkx is one of the pioneers in this space and their ability to give previews and full length viewings of seven million hours of video shows that this area is going to grow into a major factor in online video over the coming years in the same way as Google is in text based searches today.
Peer-to-peer / BitTorrent technologies and video sharing sites such as YouTube are creating a nightmare scenario for many content owners, especially those with high value content. This is because within minutes of any public broadcast, Cinema screening or video release some or all of the content is available freely online, in high quality. It is estimated that 30% of Internet traffic now involves the illegal exchange of content.
The culture of sharing copyrighted content is now so prevalent, especially among younger people, that it is hard to see what can be done to stop it. It is removing a significant amount of revenue from the pockets of the content owners but in turn the content owners are failing to deal with the loss of revenue in the right way.
The clearest way to combat fraud is for the major video sharing and social networking sites to increase their commitment to vet the content that’s on them. If the average user can see that the top content for a given day is a copyrighted clip then it is clear that the site owners can do so as well and can execute their right to suspend the content or account. The other thing that has to happen is that the content owners need to make their content available in as many legitimate ways as possible.
Content owners should not force a failed Digital Rights Management (DRM) approach towards delivering their content. Video content can always be copied, which means that the current generation of DRM is curtailing fair use for the consumers who are in turn rejecting the idea that they should be buying their content for any one single format and having to buy the same content many times.
Consumers end up buying the same song on vinyl, cassette tape and CD and to enjoy it fully would also need to buy it from iTunes or other digital sources. The most successful companies will look towards a multi-format distribution model where a single purchase of media means that the user can download the content in multiple formats for use on a variety of devices.
There is large number of video formats available, ranging from QuickTime to Real, Java and MPG. The reason for the variety of formats is that each has its niche and strengths. Flash Video is the market leader for delivering video on demand and Windows Media is the leader in live broadcasting.
Right now the format with the dominant mind-share is Flash / Flex and it could be the clear leader across the board if Adobe gets the economics right for its live streaming platform.
Flash is the cost leader for video on demand; when delivered through the Flex platform it can be tailored and branded extensively; and most significantly it has around 96% market penetration.
Windows Media has the same strong leadership position in the live broadcasting space. It provides an effective platform at low cost and is probably the most ubiquitous player for receiving live video streams.
MPG has a strong presence thanks to Video Podcasts which means that currently if a user wants to promote a video effectively then they need to generate MPGs.
Key formats:
- Embedded Video – Flash
- Video on Demand – Flash (Windows Media, Java, QuickTime)
- Live Broadcast – Windows Media (Real)
- Podcasting – MPG
- Downloads – MPG, Windows Media, QuickTime
- Mobile Phones - MPG
Video Podcasts are now an established part of the online market space and are becoming part of the mainstream. All media companies will need to have a strategy in place for providing downloadable content that users can play on an on-demand.
The online media space offers significant new revenue generating opportunities for television companies, production companies, publishers, training and educational organisations, and individuals. There are multiple revenue streams both for the media catalogue and for running promotions alongside the media catalogue:
- Advertising
- Product Placements
- Pay-per-view
- Subscriptions
- Rentals
- Downloads
- Interactive Services
- Catalogue Sales
An increasing number of providers are offering free access to their broadcast platforms and to their websites. These are a real boon to viral marketers, individuals and companies wanting to promote themselves using their video and advertisement back catalogue. It means that they can have global distribution of their content at no cost.
Increasingly these companies are starting to offer a revenue share to the content owners, but usually on terms which are more beneficial to themselves than to those who provide the content.
Content owners who want to realise a larger slice of the revenues generated from their content and are confident of their brand pull will place an increasing amount of content on their own websites. This allows them to directly target their consumer with promotions and it gives them ownership of their viewers’ details and the relationship with the views.
Content owners will ultimately all need to run their own online media space and that requires their own Net TV Setup.
The full Net TV setup is extensive; the points listed below are simply the essential checklist of elements which need to be covered.
- Staff
- Video Cameras & Other Equipment
- Location / Studio
- Video Encoding
- Post Production
- Video Conversion
- Media Catalogue
- Meta Data
- Security and Digital Rights Management
- Storage
- Distribution
- Hosting
- Bandwidth
- Live Streaming
- Content Delivery Network
- Web Front End
- Video Catalogue
- eCommerce
- Community Engine
- Promotion / Advertising
- Analytics
The majority of the listed items will need to be in place for any organisation which is looking to generate its own media and to distribute it online. There is no doubt some tasks in the process will need to be outsourced and strong project management is needed to ensure a successful Net TV deployment.
Emojo have coined the term ‘TVoDAM’ for the combined Affino Net TV and Digital Asset Management solutions. To run an effective online TV presence requires a number of solutions which need to be tightly integrated.
Emojo’s Solution Suite Affino delivers all aspects of online broadcasting including commerce, promotion, content and community for Net Television. It is the front-end where the community watches the media; buys access to the content and the watches the broadcasts and pay-per-view content; browses the libraries and electronic programme guides; and participates in the online experience.
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