Earlier this week, I read an interesting piece by Jeremy Toeman on TechCrunch. In this article, Toeman goes over some of the most hyped buzzwords of 2012. Clearly, “social TV” is there along with “voice gestures”, “TV apps” and “cord cutters”. While I have found some of his ideas debatable, I definitely agree that the future of TV does NOT mean the death of the TV industry as we know it. The industry will evolve but it is hard to see how a $500 billion business will just drop dead in the face of gaming consoles and cheap broadband. As Toeman mentions, traditional TV players were quick to adjust to disruptive technologies like VCRs, DVDs and even long form streaming so we should not expect them to go bankrupt so quickly.

Judging by what we heard from some of the speakers at our recent Kaltura Connect conference, we are more likely to see a new ecosystem that combines TVs, PCs, smartphones, tablets and gaming consoles. Click below to see why Brian Lisi from Qello, believes we will see  major changes in 2 years.

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Lisi’s vision is one step closer to a new TV ecosystem in which all of our screens (at home, in the car, in a random hotel room, etc.) will be synced to offer a personalized experience of TV shows, movies, games and apps regardless of one’s location. In this new world, the TV industry will include players like ABC, NBC, FOX along with Netflix, hulu, Microsoft and others. For some consumers, this world is very close. If you stream TV via your gaming console, or purchase TV shows online, or if you have ever used UltraViolet – you are almost there. One way to significantly accelerate this process is getting advertisers to spend more of their big $$$ online. CNET is one example of a company that has been trying to offer new ways to advertise on the web. Justin Eckhouse, Video Product Manager at CBSi/Cnet, said in Connect that it is all about educating Madison Avenue.

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Some might read/watch this and feel they have heard much of it before (and they probably have, if they have been following any tech blog for more than a week). But this doesn’t mean the times aren’t changing. They are. Today, for example, hulu, AOL, Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and others will kickoff the first Digitas NewFronts. Over two weeks, these emerging TV players will gather leading brands and offer them to buy ad time/words/banners around their new original shows. Following these presentations, the major TV broadcasters will have the traditional upfronts, which is basically the same process. However, the $ figures in discussion are quite different.

While online video ad spend is projected to reach $3 billion this year, TV advertising still accounts for about 20 times that number –  $60.7 billion.

Don’t let the numbers confuse you – the shift is real – and the new upfronts is a sign of that. Eventually, as original digital content and distributive technologies become ubiquitous – the advertising budgets will change. As a result, the ecosystem will support a vast array of companies; buzzwords like “digital”, “cord cutters” and “disruptive” will mean very little and words like “TV providers” and “content providers” will dominate our professional discourse.

The original post was published on Kaltura’s Community Blog. 

Take a look at this graph and try to guess what it represents:

It could be Apple’s stock price (which has been steadily growing for the past eight years). But no, these are actually search inquiries for “html5” on Google. It is clear that HTML5 is one of the hottest buzz words in the business.

Now take a look at this graph:

This is again a Google Trends report of search queries. The blue is still “html5” and the red is “Adobe Flash”. This helps to put things in perspective: even with all the buzz around it, most of us still use flash websites about 99% of the time. However, this is about to change and it will have major effects on anyone in the digital video space.

There has been a lot of talk about HTML5 in the last two years. First, Steve Jobs decided not use Flash in Apple’s mobile devices, then Adobe had tried to hold its ground until it recently gave up. In all this chatter, I kept asking myself if I should start learning HTML5. So eventually I decided to ask Andrew Davis, one of our HTML5 experts here at Kaltura and he helped me to answer this question once and for all:

“You shouldn’t learn anything but HTML5.”

Without getting too deep into the professional jargon, here are some good reasons (along with some beautiful examples) that demonstrate why HTML5 is the future of the web:

– No 3rd party API – this is a crucial issue. In order to explain this, try to think about the web as an ocean in which we, the users, surf. In the current HTML waters we keep changing surfboards. If we want to view a movie on Netflix we need Silverlight, for YouTube we require Flash, other sites may use QuickTime. These surfboards only allow specific types of surfing (is surfing on a tablet really that different?) and they also occasionally break. In the HTML5 world  surfboards are obsolete. Here, the browser is the only surfboard one needs and it offers all the surfing maneuvers imaginable

– Better Browsers – now that the browser makers are freed from 3rd part constraints, they can create what Steve Jobs would call “insanely great” products. At the end of the day, the growing competition between browser vendors creates innovation that benefits users.

– Better Video Streaming – as more and more people watch television online, we want our web browsers to be able to stream it as quickly and smoothly as possible. With HTML5 we will get a seamless video experience across all devices. Another plus is the ability to create rich video experiences like in Arcade Fire’s fantastic clip.

– Better Mobile Support – with HTML5 you are able to stream any video on all mobile devices and it also allows multiple streams. Apple is currently limiting its devices to stream one video at a time, but with stronger processors and HTML5, tablets will be able to stream two videos side-by-side. HTML5 also makes it easier to view websites on mobile devices and use all their functionalities.

– Better Interactivity and Graphics – HTML5 allows users to modify web changes very easily. This creates endless possibilities for games and web design. Here is a good example.

– Geolocation – HTML5 can pinpoint your location without relying on GPS. In other words, locating the nearest post office or cinema is going to become much easier but that is just beginning.  Wouldn’t it be nice to get real-time offers from businesses based on your location?

However, there are some (minor) challenges for HTML5. Most importantly, the industry is trying to agree on a DRM standard that will enable big companies to upgrade their video experience knowing that the content is protected. Microsoft, Google and Netflix have recently suggested a way to add encrypted media extensions to the spec. Other challenges include mobile device support and browser support, but overall there has been much improvement in these two areas.

If  want to know more, the best thing would be to speak with a HTML5 professional. Come to our monthly HTML5 meet up and you will meet many interesting folks. The next event is this evening (Monday, March 5th). More details – here.

You might also want to take a look at these sites:

HTML5 Resources: http://html5doctor.com/

HTML5 Video: http://html5video.org/

HTML5 Browser Readiness: http://html5readiness.com/

Try it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/html5

A nice HTML5 player: http://sublimevideo.net/demo

The original post was published on Kaltura’s Community Blog. 

16 years ago Microsoft CEO Bill Gates wrote a long article about the future on the Internet. He titled it: Content is King. This was 1996 and the digital world was in its infancy: only 20 million Americans went online regularly (compared to 245 million today) and the most popular websites were AOL (41%), Webcrawler.com (33%) and Netscape (31%). And so said Gates:

“The television revolution that began half a century ago spawned a number of industries, including the manufacturing of TV sets, but the long-term winners were those who used the medium to deliver information and entertainment.

When it comes to an interactive network such as the Internet, the definition of “content” becomes very wide. For example, computer software is a form of content-an extremely important one, and the one that for Microsoft will remain by far the most important.

But the broad opportunities for most companies involve supplying information or entertainment. No company is too small to participate.”

Fast forward to 2012. Starting this month, YouTube, Netflix, Hulu and Amazon will be rolling out a steady stream of original programming. Netflix will have five original shows by mid-2013, including the highly anticipated “House of Cards” (Producer: David Fincher, Starring: Kevin Spacey) and the new season of “Arrested Development”; Hulu has launched one series and has at least one more in the works; Amazon will follow closely in its steps with content from the Amazon Studios project; By then, YouTube will invest $100 million in launching tens of exclusive channels.

What should we make of this? That Gates was only partially right. Yes, content is important but user-generated-content and TV reruns can only get you so far. The real king is originalcontent. This is true across the board: media companies, educational institutes and enterprises.

Gates was completely right about another statement: “no company is too small to participate.” Take Netflix for example. With exclusive hits like “House of Cards” and “Arrested Development”, the streaming service can expect to grow its customer base beyond the current 23 million subscribers and may even edge out HBO, which has about 28 million subscribers. Who would have thought that was possible only a few years ago?

(Originally publish on Kaltura’s community blog. Photo by: World Economic Forum)