A theme at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week is the announcement of products that will allow consumers to view video on demand on any kind of screen. Of particular interest are a series of product announcements that bring Web-based video off the computer to the big screen of household television. This will expand the audience for video content, making it more valuable. This will increase the need for search marketers to make sure their video assets can be found through the search capabilities of video portals such as YouTube and Yahoo! Video.
Akimbo, a subscription-based Internet video on demand service, is working with Yahoo! Video to bring video from Yahoo! to its subscribers. With Akimbo subscribers will be able to browse a selection of popular and high-quality video from the Yahoo! Video service. The selections will be updated regularly and viewers can access titles for free and watch them on TV whenever they want.
At CES CBS television announced that it is working with Sling Media, the creators of the SlingBox™, on a new technology called Clip+Sling™. This is designed to help SlingBox customers share short segments of programming. It is anticipated that this will include clips from network shows as well as original content and mash-ups. Content created with the Clip+Sling™ can also be shared across the Web on portals such as YouTube.
In fact YouTube and CBS have announced a contest where every two weeks CBS will select five videos and post them on cbs.com . These videos will qualify to run on national television.
Apple also announced its new Apple TV™, which lets users wirelessly play iTunes® content from a Mac® or PC on their television. This includes movies, TV shows, music, photos and podcasts. With the Apple Remote users view their entire collection of digital media on their television screen from their easy chair.