The new hot content that will drive more online video usage will be from the big game instead of from rapper “The Game.”
Music videos figure prominently in the ascension of sites like Yahoo, MSN, and AOL, the latter particularly for its widely lauded coverage of the Live 8 concerts in July. MediaPost discussed the phenomenon in an excellent article by writer Wendy Davis today.
There’s an appeal to music videos because they don’t make many demands of their viewers. There’s no huge time investment, and no deeper understanding of the world to be gained from music videos. At least not since “Sunday Bloody Sunday” was in heavy rotation, and that was a long time ago.
In a week, Apple may make music videos interesting again, should they finally unveil a video capable iPod that can take advantage of videos delivered via iTunes. While we learned from the Sun-Google press conference that sometimes a collaboration is just a collaboration, Steve Jobs tends to deliver the goods.
But music videos have a limited appeal and a narrow demographic, albeit a highly desirable one for advertisers. To reach true critical mass, another type of content has to be available. Sports content, to be exact.
Ms. Davis mentions the little-noticed purchase of sports sim site WhatIfSports.com by News Corp last month, as well as a Comcast deal to stream NHL games online for free to its broadband customers. The latter deal gives the NHL, and its advertisers, a little more exposure.
Comcast is basically doing the league and its advertisers a favor, as the curious may tune in long enough for a few ad exposures, and maybe even convince a few people in NHL cities to go to a game. The big draws, the NFL, NASCAR, and college football, those are the properties that could really spur more broadband video use.
The devices that could get the biggest boost from broadband sports video may not be computers, but mobile phones. They’re even more portable than laptops, and with wireless carriers seeking more ways to increase revenue, imagine an IPTV offering that carries Notre Dame football or University of Kentucky men’s basketball to fans stuck in places like work, traffic jams, or family reunions during a game.
Now that’s a place where online video could really explode, if all the rights issues could be worked out between the sports teams and the carriers. Maybe it could save cellular companies from the threat of massive Wi-Fi networks and wireless VoIP phones with dirt-cheap phone plans, too.
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
