The second session of the day for me focused on the current revolution of internet influenced video. Web videos, set-top content, podcasts, etc.

According to the panel…

Authenticity is absolutely critical when doing any video content on the web.

If you are a content creator you need to build an audience and a following that grows episode after episode. A key to this is releasing content on a regular and predictable schedule. You want your users to tune into your content and be able to anticipate when new content will arrive.

Traditional agencies cannot afford to do one off commercials and ads for every single niche audience and as a result they are currently willing to try new experiments.

Many independent content creators who have already generated niche audiences need to become their own mini agencies in order to allow their sponsors to really target their audience in an authentic way.

The quality of user generated content seems to go up as content creators have the option of getting paid. As soon as someone has the opportunity to make money on their content they tend to take alot more ownership which is great for the overall content pool.

Web ads need to be more creative and fit the demographic much better than traditional television. The future may be in rewarding viewers to interact with ads and give them a good reason to not skip. Exclusive content may be an interesting option as a reward.

As people begin to get paid, they do tend to become alot more interested in their rights and protecting those rights.

The biggest challenge is still dealing with the clutter. Those that can sort through the clutter and present the best content should have an advantage. That may be through community or other means, but getting down to the good stuff is critical.

All set-top box manufacturers are embracing the internet but many are having major challenges with defining the UI and making them easy to use when it comes to finding and dealing with internet content. RSS is the background with a nice and simple UI, you really may have the killer app for set-top box scheduled viewing.