The report, titled "Online Content Aggregators--AOL, Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Apple--Slowly Defining the Future of Television," asserts that consumers will very soon be able to access on demand a vast store of video programs. In-Stat predicts that this consumer-controlled delivery will be dominated by major content aggregators like AOL, Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Apple.

According to In-Stat, 12.8 percent of broadband-equipped households around the world already view content via an online aggregator. And the raw numbers can only grow as broadband penetration continues to surge. In-Stat estimates that 194 million households worldwide had broadband connections last year, and that 413 million will connect via high-speed line by 2010.

In this context, In-Stat foresees a "natural alliance" forming between major TV broadcasters, which control much of the most popular content, and online aggregators, which deliver the suite of services and personalization that Internet users crave. Here In-Stat notes that "Time-Warner's legacy TV programs are finding a new life on AOL's In2TV service," and NBC programs are available for replay on NBC.com--and the next step, they suggest, is engagement with content aggregators for wide distribution.

However, report author Gerry Kaufhold also predicts that pay-TV services will counter the growing efficiency of alliances between online content aggregators and video content creators with their own suite of services in an evolving "yin and yang" competition. "The traditional broadcast networks and pay-TV services will counterattack, so this market will evolve more slowly than many people think."

According to the In-Stat report, the pay-TV industry in North America is already "quite mature," meaning that new entrants are already driving constant innovation. Thus, the industry is primed to respond to new threats, especially as they're "well aware of the threats coming their way from the Internet." One strategy forecast by In-Stat is cooperation between pay-TV and online aggregators, who could well reach some mutually beneficial modus vivendi.

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