Online Video Usage Up 45%

Online video for the most part remains a supplemental activity, complementing multichannel video subscription services. But online usage continues to grow, raising obvious questions about when a tipping point might be reached. But no tipping point can be reached unless content owners can create a viable and substantial new revenue model from online video, and advertising already is seen as merely supplemental. That likely means subscriptions, one way or the other. Up to this point Netflix and Hulu have been the leaders in that regard, despite efforts by iTunes and others.

Online views, or online viewers, are important. But ultimately those metrics alone will not drive a shift to major online availability of professionally-produced content. Some combination of subscriptions and on-demand payments will have to emerge, large enough in volume to create a viable expectation that revenues from such alternative streams can rival the revenues now earned from cable and other video distributors. Views and viewers are important, but not as important as the emergence of paid models of some size.

Among the ten most heavily used brands in January, YouTube continues to hold the top position among online video sites with nearly 8.5 billion video streams – 10 times the number of streams than its closest rival, Hulu. YouTube and Hulu are followed by VEVO in total streams, with MTV Networks Music (+79.1%), Netflix (+37.5%) and MSN/Windows Live/Bing (+36.3%) showing the strongest month-over-month growth in streams.

When looking at the most engaging video brands – as measured by time spent – Netflix was the top destination as the average U.S. video viewer spent over 11 hours watching video on the site from home and work locations, which isn’t surprising considering Netflix subscribers can now watch full-length movies and television shows from their PC/Mac/laptops.

Online video usage in the United States grew 45 percent over the last year, according to Nielsen. Although the number of unique online video viewers only increased by 3.1 percent from last January, level of activity was up as viewers streamed 28 percent more video and spent 45 percent more time watching. Total video streams also saw significant year-over-year growth, up 31.5 percent to 14.5 billion streams.

January 2011: Online Video Usage Up 45% | Nielsen Wire

Cord Swapping, More than Cord Cutting

It might not matter much, in the near term, that end user preferences about consuming video are changing. But it might be quite a dangerous assumption to ignore those changes for the long term.

Many younger users simply have acquired the habit of using online methods for video consumption, as a primary behavior, with linear viewing being supplementary.

CRTC Rethinks Wholesale Broadband Access Policy

Wholesale policies historically have had huge implications for smaller contestants in the telecommunications business. One might rightly point to wholesale policies as the single most-important determinant of competitive local exchange carrier success in the U.S. market, for example.

Something similar seems to have been happening in Canada, where the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has moved to change wholesale access pricing policies relating to wholesale Internet access.

After concluding that wholesalers could charge their ISP customers on a metered basis, it now is taking another look at the policy.

CRTC to review billing practices for wholesale Internet services

Apple to "iPod" the iPhone?

Apple is working on the first of a new line of less-expensive iPhones and an overhaul of software services for the devices, people familiar with the matter said, moving to accelerate sales of its smartphones amid growing competition. In a sense, those moves would mean Apple is pursuing an "iPod" strategy, to a certain extent, creating a line of iPhones with various capabilities.

One of the people, who saw a prototype of the phone late last year, said it is intended for sale alongside Apple's existing line. The new device would be about half the size of the iPhone 4, which is the current model.

The new phone—one of its code names is N97—would be available to carriers at about half the price of the main iPhones. That would allow carriers to subsidize most or all of the retail price, putting the iPhone in the same mass-market price range as rival smartphones, the person said. Apple currently sells iPhones to carriers for $625 each on average. With carrier subsidies, consumers can buy iPhones for as little as $199 with a two-year contract.

Apple Works on Line of Less-Expensive iPhones - WSJ.com (subscription required)

Ericsson and Akamai Team for Mobile CDN

Ericsson and Akamai Technologies have announced an "exclusive strategic alliance" focused on bringing to market mobile cloud acceleration solutions aimed at improving end-user Internet experiences such as mobile ecommerce, enterprise applications and internet content.

The companies will jointly develop solutions for the fast-growing market of content and applications delivered to mobile devices. Working with Ericsson, the content and applications already being accelerated over the Internet by Akamai will now also be accelerated over mobile broadband.

Ericsson and Akamai establish exclusive strategic alliance to create mobile cloud acceleration solutions - Ericsson

Real Issues with Broadband

The thing about "problems" is that you have to know when a problem has been largely solved, substantially solved or is so close to being solved that one has to move on to tackle the next set of problems. Internet access and broadband are, in many ways, those sorts of problems. Availability is less and less a problem. Redesigning life and business to take advantage of the changes is where the real work awaits.

The Social Media “Formula”

“Advertising doesn’t work,” one sometimes hears, and is true, at least some of the time, largely because targeting is so difficult. The way people have expressed this is that "half my investment is wasted; I just don't know which half."

Social media typically is seen as a nearly-free way to create earned media results. But sooner or later, you'll start to hear people complaining that "social media doesn't work." That shouldn't be surprising. To the extent that social media works, it is because the speakers have something to say, that people are willing to listen to. That takes effort.

The content can either be something people cannot find someplace else, content that seems to express matters better than can be found elsewhere, or gathers enough of the "good stuff" that people can get to it quickly, without having to work so hard. It's almost the same classic rules that have governed "journalism" for decades.

The Social Media “Formula” : Technology :: American Express OPEN Forum