Online And On-demand Video Expand While Traditional Media Raises Concerns

Feb. 25, 2010 - PRLog -- While traditional media is clearly losing ground to digital services, new media is attracting huge audiences, but failing to capitalize and monetize its popularity.

In the battle between these two medias, the comprise seems to lie in the adoption of digital media by its historic predecessor..

If we look at US cable industry, leading operator Comcast has enjoyed an increasing demand for its VoD content during the last years. In 2009, subscribers viewed  around 4.2 billion on demand titles in 2009, up from 3.8 billion videos in 2008. With a library of around 17.000 titles, Comcast On Demand service  generated nearly one billion US$ in 2009. This trend encouraged Comcast to expand its VOD offering last summer by introducing on-demand content over the Internet.

Another well performing on-demand digital service is Netflix’s video streaming offering. DVD-by mail and online streaming company Netflix has one of the fastest rising websites in the US, according to Comscore’s recent ranking of online video platforms. With over 127 million views last month, the DVD by mail rental giant entered the the top 20 video sites for the first time in December. In 2009, Netflix’s profit rose 36% and its subscriber base grew 31%.

Online video has also attracted the world’s largest retailer Wal-Mart, who announced last Monday that it will buy online video streaming company Vudu. Following this move, Wal-Mart will start selling movies and TV shows through web-enabled TVs and connected Blu-ray players. On the other hand, ZillionTV, the provider of a Web-based video-on-demand service, has recently received a $10 million investment from cable operator Qwest Communications.

On the traditional media side, yesterday’s results from Blockbuster may question, even more, the future of the “physical” video market. After closing many stores and again posting a wider-than-expected quarterly loss, the world’s largest DVD rental chain is now raising concerns about its viability…

Worldwide Cinema, DVD and VoD revenues for 2009 will soon be available as part of Dataxis Intelligence’s ‘Entertainment’ market research service.

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DATAXIS, is an international market research company that covers 4 play markets worldwide. Our online database contains detailed and up to date data on subscribers, revenues & ARPUs as well as annual forecasts on major operators and technology suppliers.