WTFH: iTunes to give up on video?

Posted May 15, 2007 at 02:48 AM by JG Mason

Section: News, Audio, Web, Websites, Online Music/Video, Features, Content, WTFH

Is the end near for iTunes movie offerings?  According to a recent study, the answer is yes.  For-pay services will wither and die once a better distribution system is in place; oh and this system will be free.

The new paradigm will be the Google method of offering services that are advertisement supported.  From Reuters:

“In the video space, iTunes is just a temporary flash while consumers wait for better ways to get video. They’re already coming,” said Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey, the author of the study, who also called the paid download video market a “dead end.”

The study goes on to say that video purchases will peak next year after tripling to $279 million this year.  That is a big chunk of change to just disappear, but the proof is already around us.

Currently many of the major networks offer their hit shows for free today online.  As network executives scramble to get advertisers, the result is radical changes.  For the past year networks have scrambled to build their own YouTube, their own spot to show off content, but are the viewers coming?  According to the Wall Street Journal, the year old InnerTube site created by CBS as its in-house player will be abandoned.  Starting this week, you’ll find CBS content on as many as 10 other video portals such as Joost and AOL.

Can advertising supported content really survive?  Will networks, studios and other content creators be able to cluck in the same hen house?  So far they’ve not played too nicely together.

Read Study [techXtreme] Read Innertube [Wall Street Journal]