• by Andrew Ettinger , May 20, 2008

The most important name in online video is Guttenberg. I refer not to Johannes Gutenberg (one t), the inventor of the movable type printing press. Rather, I mean Steve Guttenberg (two ts), star of the classics Police Academy, Short Circuit and Three Men and a Baby. Yes, without Johannes, there would have been no Renaissance, but without Steve, there would be no online video.

Throughout the 1980s, Steve made a series of commercially successful, critically panned movies. After finding first-run box office success, they all wound up on cable and in syndication. He was ubiquitous. Consumers did not care whether they saw these films at the movies, on TV or on tape. The public's appetite for all things Guttenberg could not be satiated.

Today, consumers watch Law & Order (Steve's appeared here, too) on broadcast, syndication and cable. The show is so popular that sometimes all three platforms run the show simultaneously. Increasingly, people care less about where they watch and more about what they watch. Quality grows ever more important. DVR usage suggests that the "what" is replacing the "when" and "where" in the TV equation.

The Internet is DVR on steroids. On the Web, consumers control when they watch videos. We are also seeing a change in where they watch them online. Typically, we define the "where" as the computer's physical location: home or office. However, on the Web, location also means which Web site. We must consider this when we discuss content loyalty. Gradually, consumers care less about the site and more about the end product.

Network sites are not the first place people go when they look for online entertainment. Instead, they are migrating to the far reaches of the Internet universe. This is exactly like TV syndication. After all, a funny clip from Police Academy is just as hysterical on YouTube as it is on comedycentral.com. Content is now the destination in and of itself.

Online news, the most popular genre of online video, reflects this trend. If the destination were as important as the substance, we would see massive traffic to broadcasters' news Web sites. Instead, consumers regard them as an afterthought. The real news traffic comes from the portals. ABC news via AOL is just as timely as it is on ABC.com, except the latter generates much less traffic. Americans still watch the evening news, but they don't automatically associate online news with the networks' corresponding Web sites. The information is too omnipresent.

Video seems to be moving in the same direction as digital music. Big companies have less control over distribution, and this control was previously one of their major advantages. Their last real advantage is production quality. But production tools are becoming cheaper and more widely available. If Hollywood can produce high-quality shows for the Web, consumers will seek them out. After all, surfing the Web has supplanted baseball as the new national pastime.

Initially, TV stations chose the single source, portal model. Recently, they began migrating to a syndication model. NBC and Fox created Hulu as a destination, but they also syndicate to portals like MSN. ABC syndicates its content across a variety of destinations. Soon Guttenberg's classic Cocoon will be available everywhere on the Web.

Newspaper publishers will be the next to grapple with this dilemma. The New York Times opened up its walled garden, and now anyone can read their famous Op-Ed columnists. On the other hand, more than 1 million people are paying $120 per year for premium WSJ content. The walled-garden approach is tricky but potentially lucrative.

Media companies must make a central decision. Their content must be either nowhere or everywhere. Interestingly, both the Journal and the Times offer free custom video. If their video content is scarcely found, they can create a truly valuable Web destination. But the video must be so good and the story so interesting that people will seek it out. If their lesser quality content is infinitely available, producers can monetize syndicated dollars. The Web is ready for both extremes.

Some people might argue that I have forgotten about Tom Selleck's contribution to video: After all, he did co-star in Three Men and a Baby (and the sequel). While I agree that Magnum PI was a huge hit, unfortunately Tom never had a successful movie career. But Guttenberg was a star of stage, screen and now the Internet as well.

Andrew Ettinger is the director of interactive media at RJ Palmer Media Services. (aettinger@rjpalmer.com)