Ahead of the Curve: Web TV 2.0

As broadband inception continues to grow and bandwidth continues to widen, a new category of cross-platform competition is emerging.  Web TV, which has traditionally been an individual viewing experience, is rapidly moving toward the traditional community experience that television provides.   Tivo has been a first mover in the space, successfully integrating online portals such as YouTube, Amazon Unbox, and CNET TV with their DVR.  Vice President of Content Services, Tara Maitra, said usage has exceeded Tivo’s expectations, with over 60% of broadband-connected viewers using one or more of these services.  To date, the Company has experienced over 30 million YouTube downloads.

Internet giant Google aims to reinvent television advertising in the same way they revolutionized search advertising.  The company has placed former NBC Universal employee, Michael Steib, as Director of Google TV Ads.  Google’s new television platform allows marketers to make on the spot decisions and change them day to day, as opposed to locking in commitments months in advance.  Providing companies this degree of flexibility should translate in to rapid traction for the new platform.  In poor economic climates, it is often the marketing budget that is the first to get slashed.   Though cutting your marketing budget  is a not a very wise long-term decision, (recessions allow best of bread companies to eat up market share) Google is positioned to capitalize off this short-term thinking by providing television advertisers a flexible solution.

Internet research company, ComScore, is also adapting to the new media landscape, telling Fast Company in a recent interview that ”Total audience measurement is the name of the game.”  ComScore now aggregates data from multiple platforms, providing marketers the number of total viewers they are reaching across each platform.  This information allows companies to target the specific platforms and demographics that are generating the most growth, thereby increasing return on investment.

Although it is difficult to define the exact point at which new media and traditional media meet, it is increasingly evident that they will do so in the short-term.  Ultimately, it is the consumer who will make the decision – which is why this landscape is difficult to predict.  We are early in the product cycle of emerging technologies and cross-platform devices which will determine the correct route to take.  One thing that is certain, as this inception grows companies need to stay ahead of the curve.