In our increasingly connected world, digital video is beginning to make its mark on our society. Being from the generation that has seen the rise of the personal computer from the Commodore 64 of the 1980s to the powerful machines of today, it’s interesting to see how the Internet, and particularly online media, is changing the way we entertain ourselves.
It is estimated that close to fifty percent of people under the age of 33 watch videos online at least once a week. Many of them turn to the Internet more often for their viewing needs. This push towards online video is changing the way people watch movies, television, and the way they keep up with current events. It is also changing the way companies advertise and the media industry in general. It is estimated that online video advertising, a market of $121 million in 2004, could become a $2.9 billion industry by 2010.
With these changes have come issues with copyright, bandwidth, even the addition of the Internet has become an issue for some in today’s connected world. It’s all part of our changing society. With all change comes problems, but it’s looking to the future that it all starts to come together.
What is the future of online video?
I think in the next couple of decades we will see the media world drive all video media online. Cable TV will be a thing of the past and your video signal will come through your Internet connection. Most likely it’s the wireless flat screen on the wall in the living room. Much of the technology is already developed or under development.
Products like the Nintendo Wii, which, in addition to being a gaming device, allows users to connect to the Internet, are already beginning to move us forward. Instead of watching the evening news, you can now choose what news you want to watch on your TV using the Wii and similar devices. One of Apple’s new creations, Apple TV, allows users to wirelessly cast purchased movies or TV shows to their TV from their digital video collection on their PC. It is with technology like this that we begin to move into the future of media consumption.
Last year, some big players in the movie industry started a digital rental/purchase website. The Movielink site, a joint venture that includes some of the biggest names in the world of cinema, offers users the digital rental or purchase of a large selection of movies. It’s not the first site of its kind (and probably not even the best), but because of who owns it, it shows how the media industry is beginning to accept that traditional media delivery isn’t enough anymore.
With the explosion in popularity of online videos powered by websites like YouTube, it will be interesting to see what’s to come. In the next few years, I think we’re going to see even more changes than have taken place with online video so far.
