What Questions Would You Ask ABC, FOX, Yahoo! and AOL About Video?

This Thursday, I am moderating a panel at the OMMA Video show in NYC entitled "TV Content Comes Online: Prime Time on the Web" with panelists from ABC, FOX, Yahoo! and AOL. I plan on focusing the discussion around the "business models" that are trying to be established around professionally produced content. My questions will include:

• do the major broadcasters really see Internet video as "TV on the Web"?
• how many people are really watching this content on the Web?
• what does it costs to sponsor/buy ads around video content?
• how many eyeballs do content creators need to get before advertising can support and cover their costs of producing and distributing video online?
• has anything been successful from a sponsorship or advertising side of monetization of video?
• who has real numbers on how many more eyeballs the networks are getting to the TV, where they make their real money, because of their use of video on the Web?

What other points of discussion do you think should be discussed?

Readers of the blog can get a discounted pass to the show ($395) by registering here and using discount code VEDISCSTRM.

Comments

[Kfir Pravda]

This question is very interesting in my opinion:
Indie content creators are mastering the art of self sufficient production, which is basically, creating good content in fraction of the cost of TV productions. Though the level still is not the same, we see a tide of young producers who can challenge the current price structure of big media productions. How do the networks see this angle, and do they believe that they can disrupt their industry with cheap, mid quality shows?

[Ben Homer]

Do you see web content as a brand extender, promoting and driving people back to primary content on your air (or other parts of the portal for Yahoo! and AOL)? Or is your web content designed to be self-sustaining and economically viable in and of itself?

[jhm212]

All in your panel serve high quality video. Where is the quality of internet video going over the next 6 months?
Some of the answers may be already known....Fox and ABC already serve HQ through Move Networks. ABC plans HD video sometime this summer. The new Flash 9 player update will also support HD video. This question should provide very interesting responses.

Second, Kulabyte and its 'Time Slice' technology now provide the worlds fastest and most efficient encoding solutions. They also have a HD Flash 8 video product that encodes faster than real-time. Is this a product that will find acceptance in the market place? Is fast encoding important to the panel?

Thanks Dan, I enjoy your work here!

[Tim Reha]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the post. Here are a few questions.

-How are content producers leveraging traffic on YouTube, Yahoo Video, etc. ?

-What methods are used to streamline distribution across the current video networks via their API's. It seems not efficient to have to manually upload videos across all of the different networks. Does anyone have any success automating metadata and video uploads to the major video portals?

-For smaller video content producers, what are the best type of video distribution: Flash, Windows, Apple .264 now that Google is adopting .264, other, a mix of the above?

Best, Tim