The Future of Online Content Distribution

The biggest challenge: Discovery

Long form content is content that is over 5 minute, which means, not advertising, sketches, e-learning, or YouTube® instructional video - mostly which are not content distributed for direct profit.

Three major challenges currently (Sept. 2012) face the online distribution of movies and TV shows.

• Discovery of relevant content (I can't find the movie)
• Enabling technology (smart devices are outnumbering boxes)
• Bandwidth

The online market for content is in constant evolution. Ooyala, a CDN and online video distributor, announced that the use of tablets for watching long-form video jumped 45% in their most recent quarter. There is a very large difference in which devices are used to watch online media between the younger demographic, which is more inclined to use newer technology without a remote, and the generation just 10 to 20 years older.

CDN: A Content Delivery Network. CDNs may or may not have their own content distribution platform. Most often they are simply giant Internet networks with bandwidth in the terabyte range, that sell bandwidth to others, and may offer distribution architecture to clients who subscribe. CDNs commonly have "edge servers," which are Internet servers that are distributed around the world at strategic points of delivery, so that the network "pipes" don't get unnecessarily clogged with traffic. For example a video that originates in New York and is seen in San Diego, will have fewer "hops" and clog up the network less if it is distributed from a server in San Diego.

The biggest challenge facing both content distributors and viewers is that content can't be found. Both NETFLIX® and HULU® have some advantages in this area. One key to Netflix's success is they have a recommendation engine that constantly places relevant content selections before the viewer. One key to Hulu's success is that they also have a recommendation engine that will link you to relevant content anywhere it is available, not just the Hulu site. The Hulu model, in my opinion, is probably closer to the model that will win because it gives their customers what they want.

Having worked in artificial intelligence, I can say that recommendation engines can work very well to provide relevant content links. They can let you tailor your queries by many criteria that screens out most of what you don't want to see, while showing you exactly what they want.

Currently recommendation engines should show you recommendations, or let you search by:

• Most popular
• New
• Past favorites
• Independent producers
• Genre
• Niche genres
• Search by title, actor, subject
• Length or media type
• Viewer rating
• Emotional depth
• Time period of production (recent, last 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 90 years)

Update 10/29/12: Roku has added universal searth to their device, which indicates "Roku’s new search facility allows its customers to search movies, TV shows, actors and directors across Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu Plus, Crackle, Vudu and HBO Go." ""...will take you straight to your desired movie or show,”" Roku search cuts across OTT universe

From having written technical documentation, managed and written marketing and sales communication, and investigated search and classification schemes at length, I can tell you several things:

• Viewers want to watch, not search. They want to get to what they want to see in just a few clicks.
• Viewers do not want to look through long lists of items.
• Limited selection works much better for viewer choice and satisfaction than long lists. Too many selections leads to frustration.
• Categorizing items more than one or two deep stops people from searching. At four deep, the searched for item simply does not exist in the mind of the viewer.
• Pictures are potent. They have an emotional draw. So do titles. Descriptions are the closing argument. Both a bad picture or bad description chase viewers away. Don't leave writing to someone technical who can simply put one word in front of another. Descriptions are marketing.
• Advertising where people are looking will likely be the best way to get an audience's attention.
• People love the simplicity of search, but are often disappointed by the results. If you want satisfaction, allow search, but provide a better user interface experience. Using "More Like" and "Less Like" can be very beneficial.

Also see: Roku, TiVo, Epix Ask if Internet Television Is Already Broken

Next page: Online market of the future.

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