Marketers and agencies from around the country have recently been exposed to some new findings in the world of video, thanks largely to Nielsen. While much of the news here is somewhat intuitive, the scope of these trends weaves an intriguing story, especially for those of us in the business of video.

Last week Matt Farber published an interesting piece urging TV companies to get into online video, no matter how small it is today. He asked: "So what will it take for the big television players -- the programmers and producers -- to be the big players in IP-based video? What do the Viacoms, Scripps and Fremantles need to be doing to sit at the head of the table?" I wondered: Why would they want to? Don't get me wrong, what Farber suggests makes a lot of sense when you consider everything that happened to print and music companies, but there's …

There's nothing quite like that special moment when a video goes viral. Millions see it; millions are entertained, and the media landscape is enthralled for a while with its newest pop-culture darling. When a brand is involved in this phenomenon, it's an unqualified, grand-slam home run -- and every marketer's dream. The natural corollary to this line of thought is that only superb content will work in social media. Most advertisers we speak with are under this impression. Fortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.

The term "content everywhere" means different things to different people, but regardless of your own definition, one thing is certain: digital viewing through "over the top" services and STBs has arrived, like gangbusters. In fact recent numbers show that digital views beat physical videos by over a billion views, With the huge numbers in online views, the question then shifts to the opportunity to increase and engage those viewers.

Year after year advertisers have been willing to lay down ever-increasing amounts of money at ever-increasing CPM pricing during cable and broadcast television's upfront buying season. Bottom line, the laws of supply and demand create this rush to buy every spring. But wait a minute. Aren't the number of total "T/V" hours watched by viewers (let's expand the term "television" here to multiplatform "T/V" or "television/video") increasing? Doesn't TV Everywhere (which allows cable system operators to justify their paid subscriptions and pre-empt Netflix, Hulu, Roku et al by offering programming on other platforms than the home TV set) produce more …

Last week Internet content pioneer TheStreet.com announced layoffs. TheStreet.com competitor Business Insider was quoted as saying that it would "go over the names of people who were laid off, but it's easier to say who is staying." While we hope those affected will bounce back sooner than later, the company's recent past is a worthwhile case study.