Web Video Steals Some VOD Thunder

Evolving yet steady VOD sector up 10%, but viewing buzz louder online
By Juliana J. Bolden

Although the video-on-demand consumer pool rose in 2006 to 60 percent of digital subscribers—up from 50 percent the prior year, web-based video eclipses VOD as television's hottest frontier.

Comcast, who alone posted 1.4 billion VOD sessions in 2005, logged nearly 2 billion last year.  Plus, nets are drawing ever-greater VOD advertising dollars.

This good news is somewhat muffled, however, by the noise web video keeps making online.

Popular Saturday Night Live viral video "Dick in a Box," for instance, has drawn so many views—more than 18 million on YouTube.com for this one clip—that Justin Timberlake performed the SNL spoof song to a roaring crowd during a Madison Square Garden concert, TV Week reported.

CBS Sportsline successfully streamed NCAA Men's Basketball online free to its expanding viewerbase again this year, delivering the 56 games via the ad-supported March Madness On Demand video player (MMOD).

The net, who had previously charged users to watch the NCAA games on the Sportsline site between 2003 and 2005, garnered an astounding 19 million streams and 5 million unique site vists during March Madness 2006. CBS doubled its bandwith for 2007 to accommodate more viewers as well as a bigger, crisper online viewing screen.

So while viewers email and share web video links with friends across bustling online communities—something you can't typically do in the on-demand space—VOD continues to grapple with long lead times for ad inserts into programs, audience measurement limitations and product issues. 

Top-rated offerings, other than CSI and Heroes, are quite scarce in the on-demand arena. On the other hand, as TV Week observes, most every major network offers top-shelf shows online at iTunes or the network web portal. VOD thus appears relegated to the backburners of network agendas and public perception.

Bruce Leichtman, president of Leichtman Research Group, explained that VOD is clearly established. "It's not as exciting as all the new video stuff," he said, "but it's actually being used."

"Comcast alone had 1.9 billion on-demand sessions in 2006, but Apple's 51.3 million (TV shows) and movies sold (on iTunes) in 2006 get much more hype and attention."

Read more about the state of VOD and what
top execs say will push the medium to its
next level at www.tvweek.com.