Q&A: In-Stat's Michelle Abraham

As content floods the Internet, consumers are demanding more choice and control, according to a recent survey by In-Stat. Michelle Abraham, analyst for In-Stat, talks with Associate Editor Sarah Reedy about a key trend in Internet TV and what telco service providers are doing about it.

On the most prevalent trend in Internet TV: One of the most interesting things is how much content is available. If you look back at some of the movie download services originally, it was all kind of niche programming. … The programming you would be able to get off the TV didn't used to be available on the Internet. Now that's changed, and the broadcasters are putting up the content on their or affiliates' Web sites within hours after the content is being broadcast

On service providers' strategies: At this point, from a telco TV service perspective, they aren't really doing anything with it yet. From the broadband or mobile point of view, they need to focus on making the content accessible through broadband portals — either that, or making it accessible on your mobile phone.

That is one thing we saw in the first announcement from Verizon. They have a deal with Revver to bring content not only to the mobile phone and portal, but also to make it available to FiOS subscribers. Taking advantage of the user-generated content side to let people stream their own content themselves, to be able to post it to a particular community, is important. It is available now through YouTube, but it has not happened from a telco or IPTV provider here in the U.S.

On potential threats to telco service providers: It's no longer okay to watch [Internet video] in a corner of your PC monitor; it has to look good as you bring it to the full screen on your PC and eventually even to an HDTV set. There is also the chance consumers will ask why, if there is all this content available on the Internet, they should pay for a TV subscription on top of a broadband subscription that brings the content already. In a lot of cases, it will come down to the service that is offered and offering good-quality video — the total customer experience of finding content and being able to personalize it. I think those things will help keep customers and get the customer support systems.