It’s hard too walk around silicon valley startup’s these days without bumping into someone working on the next generation of video or new media technology.
The race to get to the TV has been a long one and has left many rotting firms by the roadside ( Akimbo, Moviebeam etc) . It leaves the question is there really a business here?

Credit Suisse recently published an article on the sizeable investment that Google is making for the delivery of its YouTube Media Platform and its fairly bullish outlook, after all what’s $300M a year investment between friends.

Everyone is searching for “new models” however do we as consumers really care which “pipe” they come from or which device we watch them on.

The debate continues as to the profitability of advertising based models for delivery of content on the internet, with startups in no short supply from YouTube, Netflix, Vudu, Hulu, Apple TV, Roku, Sezmi, and Boxee everyone is searching for their share of that digital dollar.

With online delivery of video being seen as the “Holy Grail” of bandwidth growth and use for the Internet. A new spreadsheet model is created everyday for reaching out to eyeballs and monetizing them.

Each of these startups tends to focus on particular areas whether it is the viewing screen: PC, TV or mobile or how the content is paid for: Advertising supported (AVOD), Subscription or PPV.

We are used to our TV Channels, we are starting to get used to our DVR’s. Do we need or want yet another box next to our TV that only does one thing and, lets face it, we might not be able to figure out how to plug it anyhow!

But are these investment dollars really warranted in this space? Whilst I am first to admit that I have some bias from having worked in the space its hard not to take a comparison of IPTV to the DVR, which after 10 years still only has 35% adoption in the marketplace.

YouTube and Hulu have made some great strides in their online platforms however neither are making money and the path to profits appears to be a long one, it would seem that all these startups are trying to invest in the digital dollar only to come quickly to the realization it might actually be a nickel.

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