While traditional IPTV continues to stall in Australia due to the limitations of our broadband infrastructure, the casual use of content distribution services continues to explode.  Loosely referred to as internet TV.

Australians per capita are one of the highest users of peer to peer services like BitTorrent.  This peer to peer service is very efficient at managing downloads and works well with the capped plans that many Australian consumers are constrained by.

YouTube has take off as an alternative to programmed television and many new services are being planned to take advantage of our appetite for online video, such as Joost and Apple video podcasting.

The centrally controlled media model of IPTV may have missed the boat as consumers find ways to get to their content through these new aggregation services and illegal downloads.

Many of these new aggregation models are looking to advertising to fund the growth rather than subscription revenues. Monitising the audience is the catch phrase of the moment.

This is the age old challenge of the web, if you reach critical mass and hyper distribution, how do you fund the growth especially in Australia where data costs can rack up pretty quickly for both the publisher and the consumer.  Video attracts users to your site and demands a higher CPM rate than traditional banner advertising, so everyone is increasing the amount of video on their sites.

You need critical mass to get a share of the online advertising dollars, mostly controlled by traditional media outlets in Australia.  To get mass audience you need compelling and interesting content.  Many production companies are looking at ways to extend their audience reach via online distribution, and lets not forget the explosion in user generated content (UGC).   UGC may not have slick production values but it can hit the zeitgeist  nerve and spread like a bush fire, building brands and reputation over night.

The challenge for professionally produced content is how to use internet TV to build audience and not cannibalise your traditional broadcast licence fees.  It is next to impossible to produce professional content on a future revenue share model from potential advertising.  However selling back catalogue in a snacking or on demand service may make sense, if you have recouped production cost via other territories or rights windows.

The challenge is that many windows are narrowing and users have increased control of what they watch and when.  As a response to this we are already, seeing traditional networks, “live stream”  selected programming simultaneous with USA release windows of popular programs.  This stems the bitTorrent effect only marginally.

The best advise is get it out there and quickly, use hyper distribution to your advantage and build interest and audience.  Use extras and out takes as snaking without giving away the main IP.

Better you control the flow of bits before your audience does it for you!