This chapter moves from infrastructure to content platforms. These organizations aggregate content, deal with subscribers and advertisers, manage access, structure the user experience, distribute revenues to other participants in the system, and bridge across multiple regulatory systems and user devices. There are basically two types of content platforms: those that are “stand-alone” and not integrated with infrastructure platforms. And those that are vertically integrated with their own infrastructure. These organizations are the “video clouds”, which we identify as the key players in the emerging media system. The cliché on the key drivers of media is that “content is king.” Maybe that was the case for the first two stages of TV. But for online TV, content is not the source of dominance. Instead, it is the vertical combination of several stages in the value chain that creates market clout. The chapter identifies the major players around the world and describes them, as well as the submarkets they contest.
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your Elgar Online account
