Red Herring: `User-Generated Video v. Hollywood'

I don't regularly read the Red Herring, but there's an interesting story in the 11.06 print issue headlined `Blockbuster or Bust?' It's not online yet, but the key stat, from PricewaterhouseCoopers, is that the firm expects just $1 million in movie downloads to be sold in 2006. The number will grow to $400 million by 2010.

Last week's Herring had another story, `User-Generated Video v. Hollywood.' A snippet:

Hollywood might claim it wasn’t caught off guard by the Internet video revolution, but Google’s acquisition of YouTube has certainly given it a new sense of urgency. “It lights a fire under everybody’s butts,” says Dmitry Shapiro, CEO of Veoh, a video-sharing and broadcasting web site. “If [Hollywood] doesn’t get into this game in a big way, they will have a giant monster competitor that is Google—now the largest video broadcasting company with the deepest pockets.”



Talent companies, production houses, and major studios are all scrambling to survey the landscape of the changing $588-billion U.S. entertainment industry. The Internet video revolution represents a cultural shift in which viewers are gravitating toward offbeat and underground short videos made by individuals seeking new ways to express themselves. Hollywood is no longer the ultimate arbiter of taste.



Advertisers are coming to understand the potential of Internet video as well. The television advertising market remains huge at $40 billion in 2006, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, but sponsors are keenly aware that young people now spend more time online than they do watching TV. Research group eMarketer says video advertising grew sevenfold from $30 million in 2000 to $225 million in 2005. The market is expected to surge to $2.35 billion in 2010.