The potential for video on demand isn’t an issue; instead, money will remain a sticking point despite efforts at finding common ground at a recent conference.
While firms like Brightcove and GoFish have been making deals that should make VOD easier to find and see for Internet users, obstacles still block the way for actually delivering video to users on a broad scale.
A number of groups in both the media and telecoms industries met in France, Reuters reported, to try and get Europeans connected to video online. The results of that conference didn’t make any strides toward resolving the issue of dividing the money that could be made from VOD.
“We want to launch video on demand (in France) before the spring but it is difficult to agree on the business model,” said Carlo D’Asaro Biondo, head of AOL France, which has about a 9 percent share of the French broadband market and is part of the Time Warner Inc. media group.
“It is clear that there is a field in which telecoms operators and media companies are in competition and that is video on demand,” Jean-Bernard Levy, chief executive of French telecoms and media group Vivendi Universal.
Money isn’t the only concern, though it is the biggest concern. The potential for piracy worries the groups, as no method of copy protection has proven itself invulnerable to determined crackers.
If they can find a business model that suits everyone, or at least extracts the fewest complaints, control could stay in the hands of the studios instead of the distributors. On the music side of the entertainment industry, iTunes gained dominance and revitalized the major music labels.
Now those labels want a bigger cut of the profits available, and are battling with Apple CEO Steve Jobs over tiered pricing schemes for iTunes. Video media concerns don’t want to make a deal that doesn’t maximize their profits, but right now the telecoms aren’t eager to give up a huge portion of the VOD pie.
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
