UPDATED 08:15 EDT / JANUARY 05 2012

Online Video Ready for Prime Time: Personal Media Prevails

The accessibility of streaming devices like mobile phones, tablets and game consoles have pushed streaming demands to the hilt. Not to mention our innate love for anything unlimited, like data. The proliferation of web-enabled television has invaded living rooms and changed the way people watch their favorite films and TV series. And this industry is just getting bigger, as investors and entrepreneurs are lured into the booming market of online video streaming.

Most recently, TiVo bagged approximately $215 million for mutual licensing of three of their patents with AT&T. The deal is said to be just the beginning of a licensing bonanza, as the latter introduces the service to its wide customer base.

CEO and President of TiVo Tom Rogers was very pleased to announce that they have inked a deal with the telecommunications giant. He made mention of notable achievements of TiVo recently:

“We are extremely pleased to reach an agreement with AT&T, which acknowledges the value of our intellectual property. This settlement, on the heels of our recent operational success that has resulted in the growth of TiVo’s overall subscriber base, is another major accomplishment for TiVo and we believe a great outcome for our shareholders.”

He further noted on what customers should expect from the deal, saying “the combination of guaranteed payments and future additional fees paid to TiVo in the event that AT&T’s pay TV business continues to grow in-line with consensus analyst expectations, represents hard-earned compensation for our IP enforcement efforts. The settlement also provides us rights to innovate TiVo products and services under license from AT&T and allows us to avoid significant legal expenses that we expect would have been incurred by us during and after trial.”

Netflix has its ups and downs

Another online video streaming leader, Netflix experienced quite a roller coaster ride last year. The first three quarters of 2011 didn’t bring raving reviews for the movie rental service. But they were able to redeem themselves towards the end of the year with 2 billion hours of movie and television streaming from customers in over 45 countries. Their stocks also leaped 11% as a result.  You’ll recall that Netflix suffered a few setbacks as a result of a badly executed price hike, dropping their plans for a spin-off with Qwikster as well.

A promising industry for Apple and Google

Nevertheless, these industry figures are startling and are only the tip of the iceberg for a burgeoning industry. This could also explain why the biggies are jumping on the bandwagon. Google and Apple are reportedly bidding to have exclusive TV rights for the English Premier League—which is one of the most watched sporting events in the world. Apple has met with television executives as they try to penetrate this avenue.

It is quite interesting how mobility and social networking influenced the uphill climb for online video streaming services. In this infographic, mobile and tablet video streaming have toppled the usual desktop viewing patterns.  Movies are becoming mobile, too. The same illustration showed that Facebook has made video sharing more widespread than Twitter. It is eight times more popular in the US and seventeen times more popular in Italy.

 


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