Reel Pop

1. For the foreseeable future, online video's greatest successes will concern events (Live8, NCAA tournaments), redistribution of popular TV shows (ABC's media player, Hulu), and the debut episodes of well-financed, well-pimped original series, e.g. Prom Queen on MySpace. By "success" I mean "monetary success."
2. Episodic content that is not attached to TV content and/or well-advertised on TV will not perform spectacularly well over multiple shows. Peeps lose interest. If they're not hit over the head with advertisements -- or randomly run across the show while bored, as happens with TV -- they'll forget to return, or find better/newer/shinier things to look at. You can try to solve this by attaching your show to a popular social networking platform -- IMHO, Facebook/MySpace/Hi5Bebester are just huge focus groups -- or getting somebody famous to star/produce/sign the check. Which leads to #3:
3. Online success is mostly coming from established talent. Biggest new site news in last few years = Funnyordie (Will Ferrell) and Hulu (NBC + News Co's stable of talent). With sporadic exceptions, this trend will continue. Fame is a rich substrate.
4. Accessibility > Content (hi Bud.tv).
5. Everybody bites Ze Frank's style.
6. UGC-wise, online video acts as both a window into our cultural id, and as a cultural force multiplier. Kinda like a magnifying glass, or one of those Necromonger scanning devices used to find humans in The Chronicles of Riddick. It's a high-frequency feedback mechanism that can capture and react to events quickly and viciously. It's a user-participatory panopticon (hi, George Allen) and bullhorn (hi, Shaq, Soulja Boy/Ice-T, etc.).
7. Boobs evolved for thumbnails.*
8. Famous peeps get views/attention via their YouTube channels (hi, Miley Cyrus). This keeps fans involved. Hollywood studios should do the same thing with their movies and TV series. Keep fans involved in the interregnums between eps and seasons. Don't overproduce it. This is condescending.
9. Editing > talking.

That's off the top of my head. It's been fun. If you need to reach me: sabryant [*at*] gmail. I respect you all,
-s.

* If I were Hot for Words' publicist, I would suggest she publish a book about grammar called Teets, Shoots, and Leaves. I would then suggest that I was kidding, b/c who reads books? But isn't this whole sexy grammar thing cute? I mean, right?