• by P.J. Bednarski , Staff Writer @pjbtweet, December 1, 2014

It will be interesting some day when all things related to online video do not go up by double or triple digits each quarter because then the panic will be hilarious. Already, there are worried voices about Netflix now that its subscriber levels in the U.S. have slowed. 

Slow is OK in my book. Capitalism makes businesses work so tirelessly at increasing value that the process can obliterate the product itself. The real problem for online video is to not get so brain-dead so quickly by delivering bigger and bigger audiences so that no one in their right mind wants to watch it.

This is something along the line of Yogi Berra’s warning about dining at famous restaurants: “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”

This does not appear to be the case so far, though there are telltale hints of Netflix ennui. An article on the Verge.com a few days ago half-lamented: “Netflix no longer has every movie you can dream of: instead, it offers a curated selection, with new movies usually being added by the month.”

Yet Motley Fool today has its customary panic story out, “Billionaires Are Dropping These 3 Stocks,”  one of which is Netflix, though Motley Fool does cover all of its bases. “It’s Time To Buy Netflix--Here’s Why” was the surefire motley truth on Oct. 22. 

Not to worry.

Ooyala’s blog reports that Infornetics research predicts over the top revenues will exceed $10 billion worldwide in 2018, which is up from $5.8 billion now. That report says Hulu, Amazon Plus and Netflix will have compounded annual growth of 14% during that time.

Also last week, Ooyala released analysis it conducted with Vindici and the UK”s MTM showing that OTT premium offerings are expected to increase a ridiculous 80% in the UK, Netherlands and Germany by 2017. This report says the push-push of Netflix over there is propelling others to get going, too. 

Part of the challenge, this report says, is to get people excited about the idea of receiving OTT content in profusion and paying for it. So far in the UK, they’re excited; in Germany, not so much. 

And everybody, it seems, knows that the early bird gets the OTT subscriber. And that rights fees can cool all this down in a hurry.

Otherwise, this report has some familiar concerns. “The majority of consumers are not able to access premium OTT services easily, through an intuitive user interfaces, on their main household TV." USB dongles and smart TV roll-out will change significantly over the next three years, this report states, adding: “The current user interface of Smart TVs is dreadful…”

It's a small world, after all. Access to OTT, whether in this country or over there, sometimes shrieks the same language.