It’s always been a point on the map, but until now, most broadcasters haven’t had to worry too much about the business case dilemma for ‘Media Grade’ online video….

Online video players and platforms have enjoyed something of a novelty in the last few years. The reality is that for the majority of UK consumers, the ability to watch TV content on your PC has been a pleasant surprise – and as such, hasn’t had too heavy a burden of expectation placed upon it regards quality comparisons to trusty linear TV.

So what’s changed? For me its two things – and they both start with ‘i’. The first (being ‘player’) has genuinely raised the bar in terms of what quality means in online video – both in terms of playout quality (i.e. the smoothness of the playback), and the quality of the interface, choice and searchability. The second ‘i’ (of course being pad) – has really driven the surge of multi-screen demand that everyone expected to come with mobile phones – as it turned out, size (of screen) mattered.

So what’s this got to do with business cases and dilemmas? Well, the upshot is that for consumers of broadcaster content on-line, ‘good enough’ is no-longer good enough. Thanks in part to the two i’s, they expect quality and they expect it everywhere. And this, of course, is where we find our dilemma – quality counts, but it also costs. And it’s this dilemma – and everything else monetisation and advertising that comes with it – which is going to drive a next generation of online solutions, and just maybe, new ways of paying for them…

Steve Plunkett, Director, Technology and Innovation