If you haven't noticed it, the tide has turned online as far as video goes. Even though there will continue to be user-generated video, the game in town, as far as making money on Web video, is with professional content.
And with Apple (AAPL) and Steve Jobs resisting the call be studios to ramp up prices for what they consider premium content, NBC Universal (GE) decided to pull its content from the site and simply put it up on other places on the web for free.
As a CNET report says, Apple needs NBC Universal and quality content far more than the media companies need Apple. The tiny bit the media companies were making simply wasn't worth working with Apple on. They're right!
James McQuivey, a Forrester analyst said recently, "Don't let the Macgeeks posting angry blogs against NBC fool you. The loser here is Apple, which relies on NBC Universal to deliver 30 (percent) of video download sales. Any supposed backlash against NBC will not materialize because NBC has made its content available, for free, on NBC.com and six other major portals sites."
How are users going to feel about their iPods now when the content they expected to use with it is no longer there?
A spokeswoman for NBC Universal says there's no discussions going on at this time between the two companies to bring things together again. It seems the incentive simply isn't there, now that advertising models are in place and content can be viewed for free.
The position of Apple as it relates to the music industry isn't the same position in the video content industry. Apple no longer has leverage there, and incentive to work with them for professional video is minimal at best.
It also shows the tide has definitely turned with online video. High quality video is winning, and will expand in its online market share exponentially. It's where the financial action will be; now and in the future as far as online video goes.
What this means for Google's YouTube remains to be seen, although they are already trying to entice some media companies to offer content through them. But the reason to do it no longer exists. It can be offered and monetized anywhere online now.
Of course there's all types of video like learning, training etc. The context of this post is entertainment video for the most part.
Comment Preview