The next very brief wave of the immediate future
The only thing television had in common with telephones for nearly 50 years was etymology. Now, both sectors have morphed into a data delivery industry that spawns new business models often as enduring and attainable as soap bubbles.
Remember broadcast.com? Exactly.
Eight years ago, it sold for the equivalent of $5.7 billion.
Now consider Grouper, the second largest user-generated video aggregator on the Web. It was started three years ago and rode the UGV wave to a $65 million sale to Sony last year. And now it is no more.
User-generated video as a trend went from the occasionally emailed bulky file to a multibillion dollar bonanza within a few short months after surfers discovered YouTube. Today, UGV is so early 2007. Who has time to sit around and sift through a few hundred-thousand video clips, anyway? Give me what I want, when I want it, as often as I'd like. Give me a desktop personal video recorder that sorts out the flotsam.
Software PVRs are happening now, and have the potential to make online IPTV content as manageable as traditionally delivered television. Behold the next trend.
If you have any comments, corrections or feel the need to vent, by all means email me at FierceIPTV. -D.Â