The Rise of Live Online Content

In the U.S., 22 billion streaming videos are watched online each month. Netflix has almost 22 million subscribers to their streaming content and Hulu has more than 40 million. We love our online entertainment, but streaming is still only reaching one-third of TV’s audience.

There are a few reasons that online TV has not taken more of an audience segment. Not everyone is tech savvy, smart TVs have cumbersome interfaces (53 percent of smart TVs are never connected to the internet), and online viewing is a targeted search experience rather than one that lets the user browse and discover. Finally, there’s the unfulfilled demand for live TV.

TV isn’t just about entertainment; it’s about community. We want to watch the game or news or whatever when it’s happening. Most people still turn away from the internet and back to traditional television services when they want to watch something live because there is a limited amount of live content currently available. This will change, and early adopting content providers (who can deliver in a user friendly way) will be the winners.

Companies like NeuLion are tapping into this market by offering live and on-demand content that can be accessed on any internet-enabled device. They’re making deals with universities to deliver games over the internet for nearly 175 college athletic programs. They only have niche content, but they’re getting the right idea.

Unfortunately, live content is still rare enough that it makes news. Content providers will advertise that this game or that political event is going to be streamed live on the internet. And we still don’t have proper broadcast TV on the internet in the U.S. because of legal snares.

Our desire for live content will be the driving force for someone to deliver it over the internet in a user friendly way rather than the app piecemeal we have today. That future could be through a broadcast system or it could be a third party content aggregator, but it’s coming. Stay tuned.