Online Video: Could a Market Take Longer?

I'm just catching up on all the TechTicker clips from when I was gallivanting around the Midwest. Aaron came out to Sunnyvale to cover the Yahoo shareholder meeting, and Henry played Aaron at the Nasdaq. Among other gems, great segment here between Henry and Michael Learmonth (also of SAI) on online video.

I don't know why people are jumping up and down about social networking's challenges to monetization, when online video has taken way longer and cost way more money. I don't just mean YouTube-- people have been trying to create a viable market around online video since the earliest days. (Ahem, she writes after a day in the Yahoo Finance Vision studios.) As a huge TV junky, I'm thrilled to see Hulu and ABC having some success. I totally agree with Michael: If you miss a show, you want to watch the whole thing online. Maybe it's not a giant flat screen, but it's better than trying to catch a rerun or reading an online synopsis. (Look, I said I was a junky...)

Still, there are three areas of online video to consider: repurposed content originally made for TV/movies, professional content made just for online and, of course, user generated content. The bright spots and proof points are only now emerging for the first category, which is the easiest of all of them to monetize, IMHO. As Michael says, advertisers would rather be on so-called "professional" content than a skateboarding dog, so that makes the YouTube sale harder. (Not to mention any kind of sustained ad interruption kills the three-minute-clip viewing experience.) And already-made professional content doesn't have the extra cost of, well, creating the content. So, ad sales are gravy. Yeah, there's concern about cannibalizing revenues from ads on TV, but that's nothing compared to having to recoup the costs of video solely with online ads. I've also long argued that better tools are needed. It's astounding to me how long it still takes to produce and upload a high-quality segment.

So bad news: The slog continues. Good news: At least it's getting better. The clip: