ZenithOptimedia

....is the internet.

Exciting times are ahead. In a few months from now people will literally be walking around our cities and suburbs with a Star-Trek-esque iPad tucked under an arm navigating via Google Maps to their closest MacDonald's restaurant in order to leech their Wi-Fi and grab some downloads.

Once they've set their downloads to run, they might then decide to log onto one of the new IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) offerings that has emerged. That's right you can now watch TV on the internet.  True you have been able to do a version of this for a little while, in fact the ABC and SBS have both had good players out for a while, and FOXTEL has its on demand service, but these new plays by Seven, Ten and coming soon from Ninemsn are just a little bit different.

Yes they offer a selection of hi-res video content - generally this is catch up TV, and archive episode content,  but coming soon will be new programming making the most of the interactivity this technology offers.  Second is they are also built to not only look pretty on a PC browser, but are also formatted for the in-built browsers of actual TV's, the ones that adorn the walls of our lounge rooms. TV's these days offer an array of features one of which is the ability to plug directly into your broadband connection.  Cool, and I'm sure you can see where this is heading, and yes you can buy a TV like this from Harvey Norman right now. The predictions for IPTV enabled TV sets in this market are for 5% penetration by 2013.
 
When considering IPTV implications for this trend are massive;

For TV planning old questions of accountability and old measurement metrics like TARPS become redundant. We'll buy in interactions, views and durations.
For the consumer there is now as broad a content menu on offer to pick and choose from that is as big and global as their Internet cap and ability to usurp proxy settings enables.
For content providers & broadcasters, well they need more of it (content that is) to satisfy a growing demand, and an ever more discerning consumer.
For brands, well right off the bat it means its going to be harder to their target markets en masse, second it presents a unique opportunity to fill this content void.
 
Check the Seven and Ten IPTV sites out here;
http://au.tv.yahoo.com/plus7/
http://ten.com.au/watch-tv-episodes-online.htm

Knowing this emerging market and studying the ways people consume content like video and longer form screen based content are the keys to understanding the right investment approaches to this channel ongoing. There are most certainly exciting times ahead.