ome of the OTT "over the top" providers politicize their mission by directly attacking the cable and broadcast industries, supposedly on behalf of abused consumers. Searching to find truth in these statements I took it upon myself this past year to install several OTT boxes. I wanted to figure out for myself how real this OTT threat is to the TV industry.

While the Oscars were on, 37 million watched the annual extravaganza. The Super Bowl was also well attended this year, but these truly broadcast moments that capture a nation's and a world's attention are fewer and farther between. Things have changed in the new world of viewership and there are opportunities in this shift of screens for marketing.

I was going to give my view of online video from 10,000 feet up -- but decided that was still too close. So let's back it up even further and take a look from Mars. Every day, I read stories declaring that online video is either the wave of the future, is already dominating the online marketing industry, is failing to live up to the hype, or that online video has stolen your wife or husband, run away to Barbados with half your money and is staying in your timeshare, drinking that bottle of Merlot you were saving for your …

Contrary to popular belief, it is good for your competitors to succeed. Unless their success comes at your peril, high valuations benefit all category leader; the online video advertising business is no exception to this rule.

During the past month alone, I have received eight client requests to produce "viral videos." While it can be tempting to just say yes, it is important for anyone contemplating a viral video to honestly assess five questions to determine if they really want to proceed with the chase:

The number of ad networks has mushroomed in recent years. Some of them were born from technologists building a better mousetrap; others resulted from the Rolodex of sales executives who caught the entrepreneurial bug. The result was the same: the ability to sign large, high-volume, low-margin deals to place ads on countless of sites.

Recently, Jason Burke wrote a piece entitled "The Limitations of Video Ad Exchanges," where he discussed the benefits and challenges inherent to buying and selling in a bidded marketplace. A knotty topic, indeed; a commenter responding to Jason's piece asked, "How is buying from video exchange... [different] than display exchange buying? Challenges in one that [don't] exist in the other?" Great questions!

The terms online video advertising and online video marketing, like the broader terms advertising and marketing themselves, are often used interchangeably. But there are differences between the two.

In a previous VideoInsider, I wrote that there is no money in online video unless you have the scale marketers need. In that article, one of the vehicles I encouraged publishers to participate in is video syndication.

While much has been written about the evolution of branded video content and "viral video" ads, less attention has been given to the integrated video ad experiences that are helping blur the line between content and advertising. Advertisers are now regularly looking for well-integrated video ad experiences that will help their branded video content fit more naturally within the content experience of a site to drive higher levels of engagement and sharing.