FreeThink - Official FreeWheel Blog

The whole notion of whether online video or traditional television will ultimately win – and at what point the victor will be declared – reminds us of other classic unresolved debates. Nature vs. nurture. Keynes vs. Friedman.  Any psychology or economics major will likely tell you that after four years of study, they learned that neither side is entirely right, and the ultimate answer is almost always “both”.  Similarly, anyone in or around the video industry (who’s telling the truth), whether from the online world or the television world, will tell you what most of us know to be true: TV isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, and online – IP-delivered, on-demand – video is growing quickly but has a long way to go.  Where and when (or if) it all finds some kind of happy medium is anyone’s guess.

Earlier this week our friend and partner Tod Sacerdoti at BrightRoll wrote a piece for Mediapost that serves as a good example of how this debate often plays out.  He referenced a study described in Variety which showed that the median age for primetime network television viewers had for the first time moved out of the cherished 18-49 demographic.  That’s right, in case you missed it, the typical viewer of a typical big four network show on a typical Tuesday night is 50 years old!  Tod rightly recognized the significance here – a critical flaw in TV’s insistence that things will remain business-as-usual is the rapidly changing demographic landscape.  In other words, how can TV be the best destination for advertisers when its average viewer has aged out of the sweet spot of most brands?

As a side-note, Tod also claimed that content’s kingdom will be overthrown by technology.  While we agree that little if any content (i.e. TV shows) will remain powerful enough to draw tomorrow’s 18-49 year-olds into classic, one-size-fits-all cable programming packages and broadcast schedules, we just don’t see a world coming where good content bows completely to a technical king.  Maybe the metaphor needs to change.  We at FreeWheel talk a lot about the need for a more democratic value chain.  One that supports more personalization, portability, enhanced search and discovery, and a wider variety of content, while at the same time continuing to compensate producers of the world’s best video content.  The technology – devices, platforms, services, applications, data, etc. – will without question become much more important in the delivery and monetization of video in this new realm.  But whenever democracy replaces today’s content monarchy (and MVPD/network-owned oligarchy), then we – as a technology provider – would back Content for President.  Content may not rule as absolutely in the future, but we certainly believe it will continue to lead.

Back to the original point: we FreeWheelers believe that both online video and television will survive and thrive in the future.  Video is a medium, television is a viewing device.  Both will likely do quite well for a long time to come, no matter how much (TV-quality) video is viewed on other devices, no matter how much video is delivered to the television by the internet.  By drawing on the unique talents and deep expertise on both sides of the online-vs.-traditional debate, we and our many clients and partners are helping to quickly – and profitably – evolve the business of creating and distributing high quality video programming.

— Brent Horowitz - VP, Business Development