New Video Frontiers: Taking It Beyond the PC

On the other hand, Google serves up the most online content—more than all of the other major providers combined—with its YouTube acquisition. It is also tinkering around with interesting concepts via the Android mobile phone product area. Between having mobile devices, software, and spectrum, Google could very well be envisioning a new mobile service, which would be a major disruptor to the market. If you believe all video content belongs in the cloud, served down to any device on demand, then you can believe Google probably has a play or two up its sleeve that could revolutionize the market beyond mobile.

Lastly, the popularizer of the place-shifting concept, Sling Media, which is now owned by EchoStar, cannot be counted out. While content and service delivery mechanisms are key, devices continue to define the consumer experience. Through recent product launches, Sling Media’s portfolio now provides TV-to-PC, TV-to-mobile, and PC-to-TV functionality. Brian Jaquet, director of public relations for Sling Media, explained that, from a device perspective, getting content from multiple sources to multiple devices is still in its infancy. A company with a fan base among the early adopters, Sling could very well choose to expand its role and take more power by providing more content, for example, and providing a more open sourced content garden.

Looking Toward 2009
2008 proved to be the year of the aha in the video market. More consumers watched more hours of content and more streams of content than anyone imagined just a year ago. Events such as the Beijing Olympics proved that consumers watch the same content both online and on TV. And eyeballs don’t necessarily drift off one source to another but rather move back and forth from source to source. In addition, time spent watching video appears to increase when it is available on multiple devices.

While many technical hurdles have been overcome, business models are in flux, and power might shift radically in the next few years. 2009 will prove whether 2008 was a trend or an anomaly in the march toward video ubiquity. But without hesitation, expect the industry to look entirely different in 5 years.