Margin Note: Devices in place: Waiting for vodcasts

by Ralph Risch

The highly anticipated release of Apple's video iPod and the updated iTunes and iTunes store has left many of us feeling tantalized but rather unsatisfied. Apple has given us movie trailers and music videos galore, and a taste of downloadable TV shows as well. But if you were planning to fire up iTunes 6.0 today and download a feature film or CNN Headline News, you will be disappointed.

This is in contrast to the iTunes Music Store, which made a big splash in part because it had a huge selection of music content from day one. Apple seems to be taking more of an "if you build it, they will come" approach to video. The common wisdom is that the licensing deals are being cut as we speak and an expanded "iMovie" store will be built over time. But there is another video distribution channel that is already in place, and could gather momentum quickly following Apple's latest moves. That channel is video podcasts, or vodcasts.

Vodcasts are a poorly publicized medium compared to other internet video sources like Google Video and the BitTorrent directory. Vodcasts are rarely even mentioned in all of the hype surrounding podcasts. If you search for "video" in the iTunes Podcast directory you will find a few examples of video content, but all are decidedly low budget. Until this week nobody even asked whether content providers like ESPN, CBS, and Disney (all of whom are represented in the audio podcast directory) would bring out their content in vodcast form.

It's time to start asking. [Continued...]

With the addition of video to the iPod and iTunes, Steve Jobs has stopped saying that mobile video is of limited use. (Anyone who commutes or travels always knew that was a ploy.) More importantly, given that most of our video watching happens from the couch, millions of PCs with iTunes are now vodcast-enabled. If you bought one of the new iMacs with Front Row and an Apple Remote, you may be sitting on your sofa right now just waiting for some content to stream. (This assumes that your computer and sofa are in the same room, but statistics show a majority of internet users multitask between the TV and the Internet, so that may not be so far-fetched as it once seemed.)

Major content providers are of course going to be skeptical about an unproven channel like vodcasting, which does not yet have sophisticated rights management or usage reporting technologies. But when independent producers start to generate the first big vodcast hits, the larger players will not be able to ignore the medium. Right now there is a big opportunity for the first high quality indie vodcast company.

Clearly Apple has not embraced this yet. When they do there will be a separate vodcast directory, which Apple will roll out with fanfare, if not major media partners. For now Apple seems more focused on the video store, where they can participate directly in video sales. But Apple shouldn't wait. In addition to Google and BitTorrent, some of the biggest media companies in the world are trying to work out the rules for video distribution via the web. Yahoo's Podcast directory is a clear declaration that they intend to participate wherever the medium goes. Apple may not be able to charge directly for vodcasts, but there is great power in being the first to embrace the channel. For starters it should ensure continued growth in iPod sales, which may otherwise reach saturation point in the music market within the next 12 months.

Not long ago, many of us were asking whether we would be able to attach Mac Minis to our TVs to replace our Tivos. Perhaps that connection will still be required for vodcasting to be a source of TV content for a significant audience. However, in my household our Tivo will start gathering dust as soon as we can get the Daily Show via vodcast. It will join our radio, which has been replaced by iTunes and podcasting, and probably our DVD player when the iMovie store expands their inventory. My big question now is: will I need a TV at all?

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