The History of Video Marketing Part 1: Revolution [2014 ReelSummit] #reelsummit

The 2014 Reel Summit taking place today and tomorrow at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco. This two-day conference is the only industry event devoted entirely to online video marketing for marketers and content creators who are serious about the (r)evolution of digital video marketing. The event is sponsored by ReelSEO and brings together inspiring brands, marketers and industry thought-leaders to share cutting-edge knowledge and advanced training and best practices on video production, online video advertising, brand management, e-Commerce and much more. ReelSEO welcomes video industry leaders YouTube, Vice, Vimeo, Cisco, Buzzfeed, Pixability, Brightcove, JW Player, Tubular, CinemaSins, and many others to learn from each other and celebrate the world of online video marketing.

 

As YouTube marketing expert Greg Jarboe says, this video, "An Illustrated History of Video Marketing Meet the Screens", produced by Bonfire Labs, illustrates that online video has grown, matured, and become mainstream.

"So has its audience", says Jarboe. "What was once the domain of the cutting-edge few has now become so common that it’s transformed how the world interacts with the web. Companies that never thought of using video now realize it’s the best way to communicate with their customers, build their brands, and educate and inform stakeholders both inside and outside of their organizations. With this new audience comes new challenges and new possibilities."

This year's keynotes include:

• Jonathan Perelman, GM of Video & VP Agency Strategy at BuzzFeed
• Jeroen “JW” Wijering, creator of the world-renowned JW Media Players;
• Jon Klaff, Head of Media Solutions, Brand Activation Team at Google/YouTube
• Jim Louderback, General Manager of Discovery Digital Networks 
• Rob Davis, Executive Director/Founder of the Content Marketing & Advanced Video Practices at Ogilvy
•  Allison Stern, Co-Founder of Tubular Labs

This Tubefilter article, 2014 Reel Video Summit Has A Stellar Lineup, Grilled Gurus, captures a great synopsis of the event and discusses a new and different format where attendees can "Grill the Gurus." Also, this Onlinevideo.net article written by YouTube marketing expert 

Several of the sessions will be streamed live on ReelSEO's YouTube, so stay tuned for updates.

More information - http://reelsummit.com

Online Video Conversations: AJ McGowan, Unicorn Media (now Brightcove)

The online video platform leader Brightcove acquired Unicorn Media on January 6, 2014 for $49 million, consisting of approximately 2.9 million shares of Brightcove stock and approximately $9 million in cash. Unicorn Media is a leading video technology platform company specializing in dynamic ad insertion in the cloud. Unicorn Media's key technology is a product called Unicorn Once, that enables dynamic optimization of video content, either live or VOD, across any Internet-connected device through a single URL, and monetize video content by dynamically inserting and analyzing targeted ads through its patented video cloud technology. Unicorn Media was founded in 2007 and made a name for itself within the online video platform space with more than 50 customers in the broadcast TV sector and $5 million in revenue in 2013. Boston-based Brightcove established itself as the first online video platform (OVP), founded by Jeremy Allaire in June 2005, and went public (NASDAQ: BCOV) in February 2012.

I spoke with AJ McGowan, Chief Technical Officer of Unicorn Media at OTTCON 2013, where he discussed Unicorn's product roadmap and customer experience, its perspective on the state of the online video industry, the challenges within the fragmented market, and where Unicorn would be in 2014. With the acquisition,  McGowan will assume of the role of CTO at Brightcove, and Unicorn's video team and its Once technology joins Brightcove's Video Cloud and App Cloud platforms, and Zencoder, a cloud-based encoding platform and open-source HTML5 video player Video.js, acquired by Brightcove on July 26, 2012 for $30 million.



According to McGowan, the online video industry is at a tipping point. "If you were to compare this, for instance, to the conversion from terrestrial broadcast to cable broadcast, we're probably roughly 1978 or maybe the early 80's, so we're definitely in the early days," says McGowan. "There's massive opportunity that's still in front of us and people are experimenting. There's a lot of fragmentation in the marketplace. There's a lot of complex problems, and we solve a lot of those problems."

McGowan admits that all the complexity is actually great for business, and that throughout 2013 we'll continue to see growth. "Particularly now that we're allowing our customers to monetize their content effectively on all platforms," says McGowan. "That spurs those folks forward to actually putting that content on more platforms. I think we'll continue to see lots and lots of organic growth, and I think we're going to see a lot of different models being applied and we're really excited as a back-end technology vendor, because we make it a lot easier for people to experiment and try different things as they build those audiences."

Some of the challenges facing the industry as a whole, as McGowan points out, is in the friction of the monetization process on the business side. A lot of the hard technical problems have been solved, but one of the biggest problems yet to be solved is how to make an optimal experience, from the brands buying the ad all the way out to the consumer and all constituencies in that value chain. But a lot of smart people are working on solutions now that there's real money flowing into the space.

"I think that a big theme that you're going to see in the next 12-18 months, is as more dollars are being added to this business, as it starts to scale up, how do you make it dial tone? There's this expectation from users whether they're paying for content or whether they're consuming it in an ad-supported way, in either case when we're talking about premium content delivered out to massive audiences, it's go to just work," says McGowan.

So looking into the future, it's going to be all about scale. "Scale, scale, scale," McGowan emphasizes. "How do I get to more users in more places in a consistent high-quality broadcast experience."

This interview was recorded at OTTCON March 19-20, 2013.

Klessblog's Top 10 of 2013 (Part 2)

Well, the hangover has finally worn off and with the new year in full swing, I can continue this top 10 Klessblog countdown. I picked this top 10 list based on my best experiences of 2013. The last four covered the first part of the year and these top six will bring things up to date. It was a busy year for everyone, with some upheaval,  lots of change and a lot of things stayed the same.

Online video growth continues to skyrocket, as we've seen more brands shift their advertising dollars into online video, a new wave of short-form video creators arose from people are uploading their Vines and Instagram videos, the majority of marketers are jumping into the waters of online video en masse to tell their stories and sell their brands. According to comScore's most recent data of online video rankings, 188.2 million Americans, watched 52.4 billion online videos in December 2013, and video ad views totaled 35.2 billion. That's means 86.9% of Americans who accessed the Internet last month watched online videos, and the average video duration was 4.2 minutes. The average video ads viewed were 15 seconds and they accounted for 40.2% of all the videos viewed and about 5.7% of all the minutes spent viewing online video.

In addition, according to Pew Research, the percent of online American adult who have either created their own original content for viewing or download has doubled from 14% in 2009 to 31% in 2013, with many hoping their videos will go viral. Additionally, the number of adults who watch or download videos has grown almost 10% since in 2009, from 69% to 78% today, with the growth fueled mainly by rapid increase in the use of mobile devices and the growing popularity of social media sites.

But this isn't news to those of us who've been following these trends over the years. We all knew online video would grow and prosper. I could go on and cite countless sources that covered the trends, but again, I refer you to all the great sources I listed in my last post, on the side bar of this blog, including ReelSEO, Beet.TV, Fierce Online Video, OnlineVideo.net, Dan Rayburn's The Business Of Online Video, StreamingMedia.com, VideoNuze, and many more.

I started this blog in November 2007, to join the voices of the streaming media community as a way to share my knowledge, ideas and analysis of the online video industry. As I said in my 100th blog post and my 600th blog post,  I'm grateful for the support of my family, friends, followers, readers, supporters, community members, colleagues, and to the many of you who have contributed to this blog by sharing your time with me to meet and be interviewed by me, sent me press releases and kept me up to date on the latest news and information. I look forward to an even bigger year in 2014 and look back one more time to wrap up Klessblog's Top 10 of 2013.


6. My Google+ Hangout with Neil Davidson on, "The Core of a Successful Corporate Video"

As I said in my from July 1st,  had the pleasure of joining Neil Davidson, Founder and CEO at MyWebPresenters, in a Google+ Hangout to discuss, "The Core of a Successful Corporate Video". I had a great conversation with Neil and you can see the topics we discussed were focused on what are the commonalities that all of the good corporate videos share (hint: tell a story!), how should a business go about fitting a video production into their marketing strategy (hint: start with a good story and shoot video with what you have, either a prosumer camcorder or mobile phone, and try to get good video and audio quality), which businesses are leading the way in using video as a marketing tool (Zappos), what was the biggest video failure and what did I learn from the experience (always have a back up plan), and what are other opportunities for corporate video in 2013 (shoot live action video and don't rely motion graphics with a witty voice over to tell your story). My thanks again, to Neil Davidson for the great conversation. Watch our Google+ Hangout video here.


5. The Strategic Video Awards and Content Marketing Awards

Over the past four years, I've had both the privilege and honor of being as a judge for the Strategic Video Awards, a video competition "created for everyone who uses video to communicate for corporations, associations, non-profits, public institutions, colleges and universities, PR firms and ad agencies, and custom publishers. The Strategic Video Awards differ from other programs in that we judge the effectiveness of the message versus the technical aspects of the video." The Strategic Video Awards entries range from Flip-cam videos to highly-produced corporate documentaries, lighthearted executive vlogs and serious video news programs. Each year the entires get better and better and the 2013 winners will be announced this month. You can view entries from 2010-2012 on the Strategic Video Awards YouTube Channel and watch my favorite entry from 2010, Nationwide - The Musical, which was also the Grand Prize Winner.

Prior to judging this year's Strategic Video Awards, I was asked to be a judge for the Content Marketing Marketing Awards, presented by the Content Marketing Institute and sponsored by McMurry/TMG. According to Content Marketing founder Joe Pulizzi, "content marketing has gone from hot buzzword to a needed universal strategy for enterprise marketers. The Content Marketing Awards are a combination of two esteemed awards programs, the Magnum Opus Awards, honoring the very best in content projects, and CMI’s Orange Awards, honoring the best people and agencies in the business." Open to all companies, organizations, and institutions, this year's Content Marketing Awards had over 800 entries from all the best content marketers in the business in print, digital, publications, strategy, social media, mobile and of course, video.

My category was "Best Topic Specific Video" which had over 40 entries with a variety of styles and techniques. After viewing all the entries the ones that really stood out for me were real stories with real people shot as live action video productions. Many marketers rely just on animated, motion graphics and voice-overs which end up looking like boring animated Infographics that just leave viewers uninspired. So my advise is to actually shoot video to tell your story. See the winners of the 2013 Content Marketing Awards here. Thanks to Program Chairman David Murray and also Benjamine Knight from McMurry/TMG who did an incredible job organizing the competitions.


4. Streaming Media Magazine articles Part 1 and Part 2, "Best Practices for Live Events"

Thanks to the encouragement of my friend and Streaming Media Magazine, StreamingMedia.com, and OnlineVideo.net editor Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen, I wrote a two-part article for Streaming Media Magazine titled, "No Second Chances: Get Live Events Right the First Time".  Earlier in the year, Eric asked me to write a 2500 to 3000-word overview of production, lighting, audio, stage, talent, capture, and delivery, and by the time I completed my first draft I was well over 5000 words. So Eric suggested I turn it into a two part article for the June/July and August/September 2013 issues. The first part looked at the five core elements of a successful live event in the enterprise setting. It's a culmination of key learnings from years of producing live events and offers battle-tested advice to ensure live enterprise events come off without a hitch. The second installment looked at different ways to make the overall webcast experience engaging for your online audience using a variety of different video production techniques interactive tools.

Thanks again to Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen for the opportunity to write for Streaming Media Magazine, and contributions from Nick Balletta, Harvey Louie, Donn Kanagaki, Casey Wilms, Harvey Woo, Steve Dung and to the many people who I have worked with over the years to help me learn what works best for live events, and what doesn't work so well.


3. The 2013 ReelSEO/Liveclicker Video Summit

In July 2013, my good friend and online video superstar Mark Robertson, founder of  ReelSEO, joined forces with Liveclicker to co-host the first ever video marketing summit, held in tandem with Liveclicker's annual Video Commerce Summit. The sold-out event was Liveclicker's 5th annual and an inaugural event for ReelSEO and drew a cross section of over 300 retailers, brands, and agencies attending either summit. Over the last few years, I've interviewed attendees and speakers at the Liveclicker Video Commerce Summit, and I was there again this catching interviews but this year the tables were turned, when Tim Schmoyer asked me to share a video marketing tip for his weekly ReelSEO Creator's tips. The event was largest and only annual event devoted to all things video marketing and video commerce and it was a huge success and according to @JuliePerry, it's game on for #vsummit in 2014, so stay tuned for more awesomeness! A big thanks to Mark Robertson, Jen Fahey, Justin Foster and Dave Holland for putting on a great show and to Kevin Edwards for the video production support!


2. Online Video Conversations

I've been producing and posting short video interviews with online video publishers, producers, entrepreneurs, industry executives and innovators on this blog over the last number of years. But in November of 2013, I launched Onlinevideoconversations.com, as a new home to my many online video conversations. Over the years, I've shot my videos using the Flip Camera, Kodak Zi8, Canon Vixia FH30, with variety of microphones and edited them with Windows Movie Maker, iMovie and Final Cut 7. But just last month, I took the plunge and bought a new MacBook Pro and Final Cut Pro X (which takes some getting used to after years of editing in Final Cut 7) and I'm settling into a workflow. I already have a handful of new videos there, including Mike Folgner, SnappyTV, Tom Morgan of Net2TV and AJ McGowan, Unicorn Media (now Brightcove), and I'll be be cross-posting the videos there and here on this blog with more in-depth coverage. Look for more online video conversations soon and throughout the year.


1. Don't be Afraid to Let Them See You Dance!

I sometimes joke that when I write my memoirs, it will be titled, "Don't Be Afraid to Let Them See You Dance", which is my metaphor for believing in yourself without worrying about being embarrassed. I work with so many people at so many levels on a daily basis and it's always come easy for me, because I'm such a people person and I have honed my communication and customer services skills for the last 20 years. My daughter once asked me, how do I meet new people all the time and not be awkward. I told her that even if you're nervous, you can't worry about it and you have to work right through it and be yourself. Even though you may dance like Elaine from Senfield, don't be afraid to let them see you dance. So, thanks to my good friend and ever-faithful video director Dominic "Baby Dom" Bonavolonta, I'm now the star of my own Gangnam Style JibJab music video and you can see me in my natural habitat, working and having fun and of course, dancing... (or not!)



Thanks again to all my loyal readers, followers and supporters. Many thanks as well to Kris Drey at Vidcompare for the years of advertising and all the best to him in this ever-changing industry. As we move into a new year, we'll see continued growth and experimentation as standards and distribution models mature. I know I'll be busy as ever and even more so at both my day job and my own business venture with new clients, new challenges and always new adventures.

My best to everyone all in the new year!


(Editor's note: Sorry for the delay, but the year got away from me. Stay tuned for much more to come)

The Evolution of Enterprise Video Platforms (Infographic) and The Rise of Virtual Event Delivery

This infographic by Mediaplatform, an enterprise video platform, looks at the explosive growth in the use of video in the enterprise over the last decade. It started with voice-only teleconferencing, which naturally evolved into videoconferencing. Then, the need to extend to desktops  evolved into web conferencing, webcasts, online collaboration, virtual event delivery and telepresense. It grew out of necessity to expand beyond videoconferencing rooms and conference centers to reach all desktops and mobile devices, as well providing richer metrics on audience engagement.

The need to be connected everywhere, all the time, with access to information and your online contacts is still a new phenomenon within the backdrop of the analog age. We used to use a variety of physical media, such as, audio cassettes, VHS tapes, 35mm slides, and conduct all training and in-person. Production costs were high, satellite transmissions were expensive and editing was all done on film or tape. CD-ROMs and DVDs made things easier for a short time, with the ability to better organize our content into chapters. But as the Mediaplatform infographic shows, the Internet changed everything and gave us the ability to use video for live and archived productions and events at a fraction of the cost of analog video, powered by an industry of enterprise video platforms.

"By contrast, tools such as on-demand webcasting and online video portals now allow trainees to view video content from their own laptop, desktop, or even mobile devices. Employees can now collaborate on projects from remote locations with much greater ease and efficiency through the use of video conferencing and webcasting tools. With this all in mind, we thought it would be a fun exercise to develop an infographic highlighting the evolution of business video in the enterprise."


© 2013 MediaPlatform

What's Next?

Today, the integration real-time of business communication services with non-real-time messaging services make up the unified communications suite. But what's next for the enterprise? This article on the, One Market Media Blog - Google Glass, Lifecasting and the Future of Business Video, explores how augmented reality and wearable devices like Google Glass and Apple's iWatch will have a dramatic effect on business video and customer experiences.

Infographics Sources

• The Evolution of Enterprise Video Platforms| Mediaplatform
• The Past, Present, and Future of Enterprise Video | ReelSEO
• What does a corporate web video cost? 25 Factors (with prices) that affect corporate video production costs. - Marketing with Video and Rich Media Blog | One Market Media

This Day in Online Video History | First Video Uploaded to YouTube on April 23, 2005

It was eight years ago today that YouTube's first video, Me at the Zoo, was uploaded by Jawed Karim on April 23, 2005. Karim had co-founded YouTube with Chad Hurley and Steve Chen just a few months earlier as a way to share videos with friends and family far away. The video is only 20 seconds long and was shot by Yakov Lapitsky at the San Diego Zoo, and little did the video creators know that it marked the dawn of the UGC (User-Generated Content) online video age. YouTube wasn't the first video sharing site, but since Google purchased it in November 2006 for $1.65 billion, it has revolutionized video sharing across the Internet and has become the top online video content property, with more than 1 billion unique users visiting the site each month.

Just last week, YouTube won its second legal battle against Viacom in federal court with the dismissal of Viacom's $1 billion copyright lawsuit. The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Louis Stanton in New York stated that Viacom had never proved that YouTube was aware of copyright infringement by its users, and upheld his original ruling from June 2010 which leaves in place the current understanding of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. Stanton also ruled that YouTube didn't act with "willful blindness" and had previously responded to Viacom's requests back in 2007 by removing 100,000 copyrighted videos a day after Viacom notified YouTube of the infringement.

Google Senior Vice President & General Counsel Kent Walker said that the ruling marked an important day for the Internet.

"This is a win not just for YouTube, but for the billions of people worldwide who depend on the web to freely exchange ideas and information."

Read more about the case and the verdict in this article on ReelSEO: Viacom Comes Up Short Against Google/YouTube In Court Once More.

Happy birthday to the first video uploaded to YouTube! While you're not too exciting, you started an online video revolution.

Also to those born on April 23rd, I want to wish a special happy birthday to my daughter Marley Rose, my niece Rebecca and my good friend Steve Dung, owner of Visions Plus video production service in San Francisco!

I'll be back soon with more online video analysis and video conversations.

Ooyala's 2012 Global Video Index is Great News for Online Video Publishers

According to Ooyala's Global Video Index, "2012 was another historic year in online television," and by 2016, 1.5 billion people will watch online video. Ooyala released its 2012 Q4 video index report last week, which measures the monthly viewing habits of nearly 200 million unique viewers in 130 countries. The report found several key trends of its video publishers reflects the overall state of online video, such as live video matters, premium content matters on all screens, larger the screen = higher engagement, branded video viewing and conversion rates surged during the holiday season, mobile and tablet share doubles, and iPhone users watch twice as much video than Android users.


via Ooyala

Ooyala CEO Jay Fulcher says that three key themes stood out in the report.

 "First, live streaming is the new norm. Online viewers tuned in to the Tour de France, Wimbledon and the U.S. Presidential debates right as they happened, and the data shows viewers watch live video longer on all devices. Second, Tablet TV is surging. The share of tablet video viewing more than doubled last year, as mobile, social and video converged on a single device. And Smart TVs and Gaming Consoles continue to change the way people watch TV. New findings in this Video Index show how viewing patterns change seasonally."

The Lines are Officially Blurred

"One of the most important takeaway of 2012, is that the lines between traditional media and streaming media are really starting to blur," says Ooyala Co-Founder and President of Products Bismarck Lepe. 

It's not just about media being consumed across all devices, Lepe emphasizes, business models are also starting to blur. For example, Netflix is now going direct to consumers with original streaming content, and also going the traditional route by licensing its content to television companies in markets where it doesn't have a streaming business.

"We're probably going to see that 2013 and 2014 are going to be the tipping point period for this industry," says Lepe. "As technology improves and business models catch up to where consumers are obviously headed."

Video Consumption Trends Shift

Lepe says that for online video, we're in the middle of phase one and phase two. Distribution platforms like iTunes, Amazon and Hulu Plus have expanded their selection and made it easier to find and view premium content, replacing Torrent sites and the need for DVDs and physical media. The majority of streaming content is still consumed on smaller screens, but as more connected TVs make it into the home, people will move into the third phase of wanting to see streaming content on bigger screens, which is more of the traditional living room lean-back experience. 

Ooyala sees a spike in mobile video in places where public transportation is more prevalent, for instance, in Japan video consumption on mobile and tablets is more than double of that of the U.S. Viewers are watching video on the screens that are most convenient to them based on the availability of content and quality of service. 

Lepe also predicts that the smartphones war, between iOS and Android will shift over the next year to favor Android platform by 50%.

There's Still Work to Do

"There’s still a lot of work to do," Lepe says. "The industry has yet to agree on standards for online video ad measurement, making it difficult to demonstrate the efficacy of paid streaming content. Network speeds and data-caps also create institutional barriers between viewers and videos. In order for “online video” to fully transition to “online television,” media and technology companies must work together to find common ground in this new media landscape." 

Lepe's view of the online video industry, and specifically, the online video platform market, is that we'll continue to see the cookie-cutter, templated video platforms trying to compete with YouTube for free.

"We're very focused on the top end of the market," says Lepe, "where half a trillion dollars changes hands every year, either with episodic television content or theatrical content – and these companies have historically worked with large systems integrators and consultants to build the spoke systems. But the problem with the spoke systems is that they solve the immediate problem, because there isn't a roadmap that supports the long-term trajectory of a particular industry."

Lepe says Ooyala remains committed to its primary mission, to provide value to its customers with video analytics and monetization tools to help them personalize the video viewing experience across all screens, maximize audience engagement and increase revenue.

Key findings from Ooyala’s 2012 Global Video Index

Live Matters

• In Q4 2012, viewers watched live video 18X longer than VOD on desktops, 5X longer on tablets and 4X longer on mobile. 

Premium Matters on All Screens

• About one third of the total time spent watching tablet video last quarter was with premium, long form content running more than 60 minutes. 
• The percentage of time spent watching long-form video (over 10 minutes) on tablets increased 37% from Q1 to Q4 in 2012. 
• Publishers are fueling the growth trend by making more premium long form content available to consumers

Branded Video Consumption Surges Between Black Friday and Christmas Day

• Conversion rates for branded videos jumped 91% from the start of the quarter to their peak in mid-December. 
• There’s a huge opportunity for retailers, e-tailers and consumer brands to connect with online audiences between Black Friday and Christmas Day. 

Mobile and Tablet Share Doubles

• Measured together, the share of all hours spent watching streaming video on tablets and mobile hones increased 100% in 2012. 

 Home (and Online) For the Holidays

• Short-form video* viewing spikes on Black Friday and Christmas, presumably because people are unpacking and tinkering with new connected devices.
•  The amount of time people spent watching short-form video on Connected TVs & Gaming Consoles increased 500% in the two days following Christmas. 
• The share of time spent watching online video on tablets jumped 73% on Christmas

Phone Wars: iOS vs. Android

• Although Android phones are outselling iPhones globally, last year Apple users watched twice as much online video on their mobile phones.

Download the Global Video Index: 2012 Year in Review here.

2013 Online Video Predictions, Trends and the Shape of Things to Come

As we reach the end of the first month of the year, and look back on 2012, the future becomes more clear. In 2012, we saw much of the same activity in the online space as previous years, with more churn and consolidation, more funding and innovation, coupled with the exploding growth of online video consumption. The industry grew another year and took bigger steps to the future.

It's become tradition on this blog to present the annual collection of online video predictions from around the web. This time last year, I offered advice on Why Online Video Platforms (OVPs) Should Give a Puck, and pay attention to the three I’s: immersion, integration and implementation. Several reports in 2012 looked at the top OVPs and Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) in the market and ranked them according to their implementation skills, innovation and market share. In a November 2012 report by ABI Research, Brightcove led Ooyala in implementation and Ooyala narrowly beat Brightcove on innovation, with Kaltura in third. In Frost & Sullivan’s independent analysis on the global OVP market, Brightcove was recognized as the market leader with the 2012 Market Share Leadership Award. Earlier this month, Frost & Sullivan also recognized Limelight as 2012 Global Product Line Strategy Award recipient in the OVP market.

The money flowed in 2012, with Cisco's whopping $5 billion acquisition of software firm NDS, Brightcove's $30 million acquisition of Zencoder along with a 41% increase in earnings, Ooyala's $35 million in Series E funding, LiveU's $27 million round, Kaltura's $25 million round, Visible Measure's $21.5 million, Tubemogul's $20 million in Series C, WeVideo's $19.1 million round, Chill's $8 million in Series A, Conviva's $15 million investment from Time Warner, Spreecast's $7 million in Series A, Keek's $7 million round, DramaFever's $6 million round, Longtail Video's $5 million in Series B, ShareThrough's $5 million in Series B, TVinci's $4.5 million round, and many more. ABI Research estimates that the combined global market revenue of video delivery and management would reach $2.1 billion by the end of 2012, and will grow to over $4 billion by 2017.

Now in 2013, we've gone beyond the Fear and Loathing in Online Video and codec browser wars from a few years ago, and as Jan Ozer recently noted,  WebM: It's Forgotten but Not Quite Gone. As we move forward, the industry looks to a new online video standard in H.265 High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), which was just approved as an ITU standard this past week, although according to Dan Rayburn, HEVC (H.265) Adoption Is At Least Five Years Away For Consumer Content Services. As we move beyond the PC era, with mobile devices and tablets poised to surpass Notebook PC shipments in 2013, voices of reason within the online video industry, like Brightcove's Jeremy Allaire says, the industry needs Bipartisan Solutions to Ending the Religious Wars over Mobile Platforms. Allaire says the future is, "hybrid apps. It's not HTML5 vs. native, it’s actually both HTML5 and native."

Viewing trends are shifting as distribution models change, with YouTube and Facebook dominating the media and entertainment space. According to comScore, "82 million U.S. Internet users watched 38.7 billion online content videos in December, while video ad views totaled 11.3 billion." While the average duration of online content video was 5.4 minutes, long-form content viewing also is growing with Netflix dominating the competition having record earnings 33 million subscribers worldwide (27 million in the U.S.) That's great news for the online video and OTT-video industry, because based on forecasts by Informa Telecoms & Media the global online video market will be worth $37 billion in 2017.

Roku's Anthony Wood says, the future of television is coming faster than you think and that not as futuristic as you'd think, where we'll be able to watch every movie ever made, in any language, day or night. Over the last year, Intel has been working on its own virtual MSO/cable TV service and will soon roll out its set-top and service box city by city. As OTT delivery and subscription models mature we'll start to see more content owners unbundle their offerings. Even HBO is pondering the possibility of a standalone offering which would challenge the status quo. But cord-cutters will have to keep dreaming for now, since cable and satellite operators will block the channel from going direct to consumers since it would cut into their subscription base. Also, stay tuned to what Netflix and Amazon are doing around original programming, which will cause further disruption to content subscription and distribution models.

While online video still remains a fraction of total TV and video revenue, it's growing, and online video advertising will continue to mature as marketers and publishers come to better understand video metrics. According to Frost & Sullivan, online video viewers are watching more video ads, but Ooyala's Bismarck Lepe maintains that the focus has to be about personalizing the viewing experience. he says, Advertising in Videos Could Be Better Targeted and It’s High Time We F**ked With the Magic. Lepe states that, "metrics that provide a more granular understanding of viewer preferences, behavior, device, location and other metrics can dramatically optimize online video advertising efficacy and reach."

As video gets more social, there's also been a lot of talk and jockeying about who will become the next “Instagram for video”, which Sorenson Media's Peter Csathy says, most mobile video “contenders” miss the mark, "because they fail to focus on the fundamental differences between video and still-image content." The real contenders can be identified "by three engaging content types", says Csathy. "Think of them as the three “M’s” that have a real chance to succeed massively at scale: music (a community of interest), meaning (social causes), and moments (private sharing)." With Twitter's release of Vine last week, iPhone users may have just met a new contender to apps like VMIX's video editing app Givit, but Csathy's verdict is that it's not "Instagram for Video" Holy Grail. If 2013 follows the funding trends of 2012, I'm sure we'll see a lot more competition in this space over the next year.

Back in 2009, Cisco predicted that video would be 90% of all consumer Internet traffic and 64% of mobile. Now, a few years later Cisco says online video is going mainstream driven by 70% of U.S. broadband consumers who are watching 100 minutes of professionally produced Internet video every week.

So as we look forward into 2013, at the shape of things to come for online video, one thing is for certain – "content is king" and it always will be.

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Online Video Predictions

6 Online Video Trends to Watch in 2013 from Patrick Hurley

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Online Video Advertising and Marketing

Video Predictions 2013 | Tremor Video

2013 Video Predictions by Tremor Video from Tremor Video on Vimeo.

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Digital Predictions 2013 from Soap Creative

Tech

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