Video Blogs round the corner...

User generated content is growing exponentially with a million+ bloggers worldwide.

What started as text blogs 3-4 years back is now increasingly video (though this piece is still text). Each of us is a ‘content provider’ in some way (like me writing this at wordpress), and a content user (me reading what you all post) in many more ways. I guess you may already be viewers of video-sharing sites like Metacafe, YouTube, Google Video, AOL video, myOrbit and others.

And as we access ever-growing amount of content, our expectations for audio and video quality run higher – we no longer want 30 second ads to run before we get to see the video clips (be in news or entertainment)- Discovery.com is discovering this the hard way.

The $900 mn that Google paid to mySpace.com two weeks back, to be the sole advertiser to 100mn+ mySpace audience is an just ‘early example’ of how new media and Internet content are becoming one, leaving companies like CNN, BBC, and Sky to do some serious introspection. Digital Media has delivered new ways for consumers to experience video and audio content as part of the overall Web experience.

But I see some challenges ahead for content distribution on the Web, including:

· Quality – most people have experienced “buffering” delays while accessing streaming media content on the Web, and most consumers do not have the patience to wait through these delays. Expectations are set by our TV/DVD watching experience.

· Security – Media content providers want assurances that their content will be protected and secure. At the same time, consumers want easy and convenient access. One password is the max you want to type.

· Reach – Similar to the slow start that the cable TV industry experienced, Internet media is very much in its early growth phase, and blogs are filling many gaps here.

· Cost – Content delivery on a large scale, especially video streaming, requires huge bandwidth throughput and storage to maintain the content. Google has built data storage towers in a football field sized place inOregon- these capital intensive projects. Production costs associated with digital media commerce include content creation, delivery, storage, and hosting; also transaction processing and licensing, plus tracking and reporting.

With 500 mn+ people online and video-enabled mobile phones becoming a mass reality, accessing Web content is becoming much faster and easier. But as expectations from digital media rise, the media industry is really challenged how to proceed, and find ways to deliver content on the Web that is high quality, secure, and supports their business models.

Blogs, especially the video blogs, will come to play a significant role as they bring out unedited version of events right in front of us – from both Lebanon and Israel in the last 4 weeks– often making CNN news look like just a preview!
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/201625/rocket_falling_in_haifa_live/


And like the transistor chip in 1950s which was thought good just for toys, the video blogs seem poised to take on powerful applications as the Internet infrastructure continues to improve, and with video content getting generated from almost every communication device.

We are in exciting times.
Shankar