Broadcasting

August 7, 2006
AOL, Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Apple to Move TV to the Net

USA -- Although Online Content Aggregators are in the early experimentation stages of rolling out video services, they will have some dramatic revenue-generating opportunities in the next five years, reports In-Stat. The worldwide market for online content services is expected to expand by a factor of 10, growing from about 13 million households during 2005 to more than 131 million households by 2010, the high-tech market research firm says.

"AOL, Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Apple, major Broadcast TV networks, Pay-TV services and local TV stations are all working on ways to blend their video assets with personalised TV services," says Gerry Kaufhold, In-Stat analyst.

"The future of television is slowly being defined online, where the big Internet portals are finding ways to blend professional video with their high-touch services that follow consumers from screen to screen during the course of a typical day." He said.

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

- Worldwide broadband households will more than double between 2005 and 2010, growing from about 194 million in 2005 to more than 413 million by 2010.
- Of all broadband households today, 12.8 percent are already regularly viewing professional content via Online Content Aggregators.
- Traditional broadcast TV networks are finally figuring out that they need to capitalise on "all this personalisation stuff" or they will have deep trouble ahead.
- The Pay-TV services have realised that personalisation is the trend for the future, and they won't be left behind while TV keeps expanding onto the Internet.

It examines the growing number of consumer households connected to high-speed, broadband Internet connections. It also provides a market penetration estimate, showing the percent of broadband households that are likely to regularly be viewing professional content delivered via Online Content Aggregators. The report compares the number of Digital Pay-TV households in each region against the number getting their video online.  It also includes in-depth discussion of the positioning of the major Online Content Aggregators, broadcast networks, and Pay-TV services putting their video online.

This research is part of In-Stat's Consumer Media and Content service, which focuses first on the changing digital content models, and then how this will influence the evolution of equipment, standards, technologies, services and consumer usage models. The service addresses the acquisition, distribution, and use of digital content (audio, imaging, video, and voice) and how it fits into the consumer's digital entertainment lifestyle. The service explains the opportunities for equipment makers and service providers within the emerging digital home.