The “new” medium, Internet, have changed our life’s in so many ways, I think its to great to comprehend. As a Millennials (Serious! now we have our own conference), I welcome many of the new possibilities and wonders the web have created. Many old business models have been demolish, and changed who we interact, consume digital media and view the world.
One of the more interesting changes is the explosion of video content online. Especially with the success of Youtube and other sites which offers free storage and conversions of movie files. If you compare the amount of videos online with the years before this phenomenon, we’re really spoiled today 
. Videos online existed, but what made the big break was according to me when people got access to a ready-to-use tool to convert different file formats and stored them on special servers. Accessibility, user-friendly tools and the word-of-mouth ability to spread the videos and find other great videos played there parts.
Now a day, its a natural part of the internet to view videos. I use them constantly in post on this blog, and almost every other site use them as well. It’s great if you missed something funny from a tv-show or so. With a simple search it doesn’t take many seconds to find that specific clip and view it. And how many business presentations haven’t I found which would be completely lost for me?
I got thinking of how this have impacted the measurement of video/tv success. The old classic way was/is simply to measure number of viewers. And people had no other choices than: a) watch the damn show, b) switch channel, or c) simply turn of the tv. Today however, our consumption and media habits have evolved, and people have more control than before, and like the feeling of control. When we have the luxury of control and choice today, we don’t always want to watch tv-shows when they air. Or for that matter in front of a tv. Today people use computers and handheld devices like mobiles and mediaplayers like the iPod to view video content. One thing I personally love is the ability on Google Video to download some videos and then transfer them to my Playstation 3 in the living room and watch them whenever I chose. Sometime (often!) I just want to view one part or clip of a show, not the whole episode. Once again, we get spoiled by the power of the digital age! The beauty of the tools to transfer video to the digital medium and power of the users ability to create and share, are two of the most important factors which have made this successful. Really great video clips you often find in different veracities and uploaded by many users. How do you measure a successful show or clip?
Now, here’s a more concrete example: a classic tv-channel air an episode of a tv-show. The numbers of viewers is pretty low, and is therefore considered a failure. But… if you make your way out on the internet and search for that episode of clips from it online, it may be another story. The show has been taped, digitalised and cut in smaller chips, removing the commercial breaks and boring parts. If you now add together the statistic of how many have viewed the clips together, it indicate something other than the tv-channels statistics. Say that together they have been clicked and viewed about 2 million times all together, which can be considered really good! What does this indicate? It air in the wrong channel, at the wrong time or people didn’t like the beginning (before the good parts)? Maybe it appealed to a core audience, but not the big masses? I would say that it depends, but the point I want to make is, how do you measure success today? I would state that the online (user created) statistic is a big indicator on what people actually feel. To view classic tv-channel ratings only doesn’t complete the picture. People can have the tv on in the background, or just forgot in on. Statistic of people how actively choose to watch, when and how they prefer, are according to me better and more true than passive viewers.
One of the biggest questions on this growing part of the web is… how da heck can companies make money on it? Google bought Youtube for many millions, still… how do you generate revenue on this? Today it’s free, and we all know that free always prevail over non-free service. If Youtube would start charging for their service, the user most certainly leave and go to a similar service which would be free. Recently on the Future of Television conference the subject of future business model for television will develop. How will the classical ads-model evolve to work with the digital medium. I don’t have a solution to the situation, but I’m still sceptical towards the old ads-model. People don’t like them, and if they can chose they probably will chose the ad-free alternative. And to work so hard to get ads in there somehow I don’t get.
I wonder if the marketers and advertising people how create the ads watch all the commercials on tv at home? I doubt it really. Why would they, just cause they work with it? Maybe to see if their ad air according to contract, or to scan the competitors ads, but other than that, hmmm… NO. They are consumers like us other, and their time is also limited.
Internet is a unstoppable force, and the services and application created online have changed us, in ways we didn’t expect. Choice and “Free”, a luxury many of us enjoy with the medium. And if companies or states try to interfere, we have the means to just switch and find a similar service which serves us!
