There’s a lot going on in the world of TV/internet convergence. The AOP has this:
A report by Informa Telecoms and Media predicts that global revenue for online TV and video services will increase ten-fold to £3.2 billion in 2012.
Second only to the US, the UK recorded revenues of almost £22 million last year which are set to soar to £708 million by 2012. According to the report the US will be the global leader in online TV and video, expecting revenues of up to $3.94 billion by 2012.
The Informa research points to the increasing popularity of watching online TV and video and states that is wider cultural changes that are creating a new breed of consumer who “find it difficult to align themselves with the passive model of traditional linear TV”.
We’ve already seen the deals done between the studios and YouTube, and this week’s bust up with Viacom.
And there are rumours that the studios are considering building their own site to rival YouTube
But things are heating up. Wired this month has a feature about Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström the geeks behind the P2P network Kazaa who went on to build Skype before selling it to eBay for $2.6bn. It seems they are building their own internet TV model which combines P2P technology, industrial strength DRM and a solid ad model.
Does this point to TV 2.0? Maybe. But there will be a lot more fall out before the dust settles…