Crevan O'Grady, Partner (video)

I think it's very easy to put out the idea that in the future we'll all go online and select a product, I want to watch episode of whatever it is or I want to watch this movie, I'm not sure that's the reality of it, if that was the case, even looking back at a linear programming model, how would new shows ever have acquired audience, wouldn't people have continued to watch what they wanted to watch historically?  I think there is a production and a scheduling skill and whether that's in terms of the time you put stuff on, which you can get around online very easily and I think what we've seen with the BBC iPlayer and huge take up on that would suggest that worked.  But there is a creative skill in it, you know selecting what would people like to watch and making those judgements to some extent on people's behalf.  So just putting out an enormous plethora of everything the world has ever seen, I'm not sure people would navigate their way through it as easily and you can see that in other forms of media, in published media and in music.  You know what does Last FM do in music, it helps people navigate their way through that taste and discovering new things.  Why does Amazon manage to sell stuff and books where they say, people who bought this book also bought that book.  So I'm not a believer in this giant library philosophy where you simply turn up and you will select it, people will want some help, now whether that help is professionally provided or peer provided or whatever, we will see.  But there is a need to do that and if you don't believe there's a need to do that, then why do people produce content at all?

Jonathan Pfitzner, Co-founder and director Argent (audio)

My view on this is that – specifically with regard to Internet video, the consumer isn't necessarily controlling it, but the providers of content are going to have to accept that they are going to want the content to find the consumer.  So, if the consumer, again, is socially networking within a specific niche interest group, that is the point in time when, for example, I might be an avid eco green guy, and in my social network, I'm looking at some interesting short-form content about a water shortage in Panama.  If I'm on my social network and I've got that piece of content, I want somebody else to view it, I will send it to them there and then, I would expect them to watch it then.  So, it's totally outside of any linear schedules, traditional broadcast, TV-type model.

The consumers there, me and the guy I'm socially networking with, are, to an extent, driving the requirement to get the content to that distribution point.  So, there is an extent of consumer control, but I think there's going to be far greater flexibility in allowing that content to follow those consumers, that audience, and ensuring that, insofar as there is a method of monetising that video, that that follows with that content.  But, the days of the traditional schedule or content such as that, is really pretty much going to be past in a couple of years' time.

Jonathan (audio)

As an overarching issue for the industry, generally, for Internet TV, there isn't an enormous amount of money.  It's still relatively nascent, budgets haven't migrated significantly, but, on the production side, specifically, I think two trends are that, firstly, there is going to be an increasing amount of short-form but professionally produced content, so, whereas, at the moment, you have a lot of fairly tatty UGC short-form content, increasingly, going forward, there will be interesting, well-considered, narrative-driven, short-form content, that's professionally produced.  And, also, on the production side, there'll be closer involvement of brand, either through advertiser-funded programming or through product placement into the content, or potentially both.

So, I can see a migration of money into short-form, professionally produced content, coming from the brand.  On the consumption side, we should expect to see increasing fragmentation of distribution channels.  So, where, at the moment, a lot of people are consuming video on the Internet through the YouTube, Daily Motion, Metacafé, Bebo, MySpace, distribution points, going forward, people should be expected to consume video through thousands of different distribution points.  Social networks, I think, will start getting more specific, people will start – will be found, wheresoever they are, browsing at that point in time, and should be delivered video, wheresoever they are at that time.  So, the points of distribution are going to proliferate significantly and, generally, consumption is going to increase across the board.

Peter Smith, President NBC Universal(audio)

I think it is essential trial and testing ground.  I do think you can't make great quality content cheap.  It's hard to say to a top writer, or a top producer, "we'd really like you now to go and make a tiny little show, and we're not going to pay you to do it, and it's got to be a compelling script, a great cast, great content, do all that, cheap."  You know, they just don't aspire to be in that space.  So, you end up with pretty crap content available.

It'll just depend on money and being able to attract talent and pay them at the rate they're comfortable at, to produce for that format.

Harish Thawani, CEO Nimbus (audio)

I can't see hugely significant changes in consumption.  For me, there are two reasons for why I'm saying that.  I don't think any new technology is going to create a whole new set of dynamics.  There'll be more broadband in the world, so what?  There'll be more 3G in the world, so what?  Has 3G blown away the consumption patterns in the UK of television?  No, it hasn't.  Has the advent of broadband in the US driven down spend on television?  Peculiarly enough, not significantly, and that is the most broadbanded nation in the world outside of South Korea.  So, if there is going to be no major new technology push that is going to dramatically change your ability to consume content, the only other thing that can happen is that the kind of content that is being delivered to you converts you to consume differently.  And I don't see that happening.

If anything, we see people investing in more upgradation of conventional technology.  So, you have Blu-ray instead of standard definition DVD, and as soon as Blu-ray video player prices come down to sensible levels, that will get to an inflection point where everybody will say, "oh wow, you know, watching Blu-ray with high definition television, makes the consumption over the Internet look very, very primitive”.  It does, I mean, the Internet doesn't even give you standard definition delivery in most countries, because the lack of speed, but high def, I mean, it just blows you away.  So, with the launch of high definition television in a lot of Western nations, and the obvious growth of high definition DVD, I feel that, actually, television and DVD are re-inventing itself sufficiently to keep people motivated to watch it in the conventional format.

So, you know, you have SKY HD now, and you have HD being rolled out quite aggressively in the US, as well as in Japan.  Inevitably, it will follow in other countries.  And I think, therefore, television and DVD, you know, have successfully fought back to retain the consumers.  I'm a great believer that the consumption pattern for fiction entertainment will remain television, number one, home video, number two, Internet, number three.  For sports, it will remain television, number one, online, number two, mobile, number three.  And that's my forecast for 2013.

Waheed Alli, Chairman Chorion (audio)

I think people love watching programme.  It is a fantastic form of entertainment.  And they will find a way of consuming it in a way which pleases them, when they want it.  They will find a route through the range of options and something will emerge.  What it is, I can't tell you, but it will be convenient, it will be easy to use, and it will give them either a choice of their own or it'll be pre-programmed.  And I think, for us, the job is to make sure that in the intervening period, we are buying, developing and building content which will last not just for the next five years, but for the next fifty.