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ONLINE video is officially mainstream. Video sites like Youtube are pushing more traffic than any other form of online content, and bandwidth availability internationally has made it possible for even high definition video to be seamlessly pushed through an internet connection. But not in South Africa.
In the last year the amount of video content consumed online globally has grown by 40%. Even traditional television news stations are being overrun with blocky, low quality video being uploaded by viewers.
Cisco is one of the major technology vendors pushing the growth of video. The company recently acquired Flip - a developer of small, digital camcorders perfect for creating online video.
Cisco CEO John Chambers is outspoken about video and the promises it holds. At the company's recent partner summit in Boston, Chambers said: "We're moving into a reality where you no longer look for content online - it finds you. And that content is video."
You would be excused for missing this revolution in South Africa, however, where one hits "play" on Youtube and can then prepare an entire meal in the time it takes to load a five-minute video.
During a recent trip to the USA I caught up with television series Lost by simply going to the website of ABC, the network that produces the show, and playing episodes in high definition through my browser using the broadband connection in my room.
What struck me was that the video started playing almost immediately. And we're talking 720p HD content here, not a blocky little Youtube video.
SA left out in the cold
ABC only makes this service available in North America due to international release dates for its content surrounding licensing agreements - not that we could do much with it in South Africa even if it was officially available here.
And that's because while the rest of the world is gorging itself on online video, we are left in the dark ages in terms of connectivity. We are told the situation will improve as undersea cables meet land and next-generation local networks are installed. But I'm growing impatient because we've been waiting for so long, and we're so far behind. South Africans still use ox-wagons to traverse the internet.
In South Africa people still go to video shops to rent movies. In the States one can use Netflix on Xbox Live via the Xbox 360 gaming console to rent movies in high definition which are streamed to your lounge and cost the same as a rented DVD.
Apple offers a similar service via its iTunes store and Apple TV device. Services like Hulu have launched online which bring pay television, and free content channels, to your computer.
Blurring the lines
Sony can't even sell Bluray players in the American market, because digital distribution has for the most part already removed the need for physical media.
I have every faith in our regulators, telecommunications companies and the consortiums installing undersea cables to solve our bandwidth problems. The impact of the broadband revolution in South Africa and the effects online video will have on our market are things I don't think we all fully grasp.
For example, our pay television market is dominated by Multichoice. Competition in the market has been licensed, but I can't imagine much being achieved until IPTV and other online video services hit SA.
Koos Bekker, CEO of Naspers, the company that holds Multichoice, agrees that lines are blurring between the conventional pay-TV business and the world of online video in terms of competition.
"I would be very surprised if, in 10 years from now, there is a distinct pay-TV sector," he says.
"It's all going to move onto the internet. There will still be satellite feeds, but essentially we will be competing with internet companies. The whole electronic media world is becoming one big cloud and we'll have to compete with that."
I, for one, can't wait to see how the very concept of media changes in South Africa once that competition begins. Until then I'll stick to reading and listening to online content.
- Fin24.com
