iptv

Hall Of Shame

We live in an age where the ability to use video effectively on the web has long been proven.

So,I hope other readers of this blog will join in to add those sites who should know better. That is, websites that could easily make an effort and add a decent video service rather than stick up any old rubbish.

Let me start with the twitters at the RSPB for their truly dreadful offering.

Buying Patterns

I had an interesting discussion today about the various online purchasing matrices:

Research online, buy online

Research online, buy offline

Research offline, buy online

Research offline, buy offline

I had always predicted that research offline, buy online would be the model for the future - people like to kick the tires, but hate dealing with salespeople, or to have to carry heavy goods home (online also usually gives a lower price), but it seems by some distance that research online, buy offline is the model that works best, i.e. find the best buy and go to the store.

This is a direct problem for internet TV advertising, where proving that your ads are building a brand is a much more difficult argument than measuring actually off ad sales. For all its power, have you ever heard anyone say 'I bought this 'cause I liked the TV ad..'

New KIT

Credit where credit is due. I don't think KIT Media is out of the woods, but this is a company that has been actively managed out of its dodgy Roo TV past and has become the rollup in the Internet TV industry.

The emphasis is on performance and the former management's confused and sprawling empire seems to have been taken under control and focused into a video marketing company.

Smart move. Video marketing companies will develop just like web deevlopment companies appeared in the 90/00s.

A $40m revenue stream that, it claims, is EBITDA positive would create the first Internet TV company that has made a mark on the public markets.

There's little doubt that KIT is doing better than its CEO's previous employer at Jump TV.

Business Mash Ups

The latest trend in the Internet TV business seems to be corporate mash-ups where companies are subtly, or radically - changing their business direction by merging with other companies in the same field.

OnStream's acquisition of Narrowstep took the former into the VMS business, which it could theoretically leverage against its broad corporate business base. However, the market has caned OnStream since the deal was announced a few months ago and shares are down 70%.

Meanwhile, Anystream has acquired Voxant, with the stated intention of getting into the long tail video syndication business.

Expect more mash-ups in the near future as companies try to adjust their business plans to an ever changing, highly competitive marketplace.