The Content Revolution Continues

A content revolution is drastically changing the traditional media and distribution landscape. No one knows where this will lead us but we are all witnessing the seismic change and trying to determine the best course of action. The market for online content especially video and audio is growing at an extraordinary pace. Open standards for digital media, the deployment/falling costs of broadband access, the falling cost of production equipment/tools, the growth of broadband, mobile, set-top boxes and digital recording devices will make new television related services over the Internet and mobile phones cheaper, viable and more common. That is great news. Distribution and monetization are forever ingrained on our brains. In the past, aggregators and those who provided content worked only with traditional means of distributing content to its audience through television, theater releases, DVD/VHS purchases and rentals. The Internet has presented itself as a new medium to distribute and view content.


This content revolution will shift content distribution from mass to niche markets as media companies change their business models, new technologies shift viewing to a more on-demand, al a carte format, and new search engines are developed to track digital media in order to find it and better monetize it. There are now Internet TV service companies who specialize in this new distribution and work with advertisers to align their content to appropriate content. Brightcove, theplatform.com and Entriq’s MediaSphere, three such services, partner with video content owners-from major studios and broadcasters to cable networks to web publishers to small independent producers-to build Internet TV businesses by publishing and distributing video and rich media directly to consumers. For example, Brightcove syndicates content to Moqvo, an Internet RSS video aggregator who is looking to build a community around this syndicated content and make money off advertising dollars. Coincidentally, Moqvo is 1/3 owned by an advertising agency. Companies like Brightcove and theplatform will provide marketers an innovative way to communicate and engage with their potential consumers. Cutcaster will utilize their services to manage, distribute and ultimately build a global marketplace platform complete with all the services needed to conduct successful business for everyone.

Where do you see the largest changes in content and the way it is distributed?