I Like Your Video: the rise of digital content

“The money’s still in TV” says Kai Hsing from the internet entertainment brand College Humor. Hungry Beast’s Dan Ilic embedded himself with three American online entertainment companies to discover the digital realm sure are giving old media a run for its depleted money.

For those who have invested in creating inane video blogs, the news is good – people are starting to take you seriously. 2011 is the year the web video entertainment industry has hit its straps, both Netflix and YouTube announced one hundred million dollars of investment into original online content. Australia’s number one video blogger – Natalie Tran – has replaced SBS as the national multicultural broadcaster and is edging close to a million subscribers. And although The “Beached As” crew, moved their whale to the wading pool of TV in 2008, they’re now heading back to the ocean of the Internet to foster new creations. All the while small groups of web entertainers are banding together to focus on a myriad of financial models to make web video entertainment sustainable. Last year I spent some time lurking around the offices of a few of the bigger names in web entertainment to find that their success is dependent on not really knowing what they’re doing.