Om Malik’s New Tee Vee is running a piece on the growing professionalization of Internet TV, a.k.a video.
Next New Networks, ON Networks, Revision3, 60 Frames, Vuguru, Telegraph Ave Productions, WatchMojo — what do these companies have in common? They all use Moore’s Law and low-cost distribution over the Internet to disrupt the studio model, in the process building audiences that can rival a small cable channel. They are professionalizing internet TV.
And this business is going to get bigger. iSuppli, a market research firm, projects that professionally produced video will will bring in nearly $5.9 billion in revenues in 2011, up from $423 million in 2006.
The online video boom is already igniting investment in the back-end and infrastructure companies, especially ones that lower the cost of distribution. Expect many more startups to emerge in the coming year, both on the production and distribution sides.
It’s great that there’s so much activity to build out the infrastructure of this booming industry, but I’ll add that there’s a mountain of opportunity for media professionals inside and outside of “advertising” to actually make the stuff people want to view in short segments on the small screen.