Leader: SeeSaw launch is a key step closer to mainstream web TV

28 January 2010 | By Justin Pearse

This week’s launch of SeeSaw should be a critical step in internet TV’s slow move into the mainstream. If you’re in doubt that it still has some way to go, see our profile of Sarah Beeny. One of Channel 4’s most high-profile and popular presenters, she’s scathing of the internet TV experience today.

Interestingly, Channel 4 has been an innovator in the early days of internet TV. It was one of the first to negotiate responsibility for its own ad sales around content on YouTube. This model, by giving a solid financial return on aggregation services, is encouraging broadcasters to come onboard services like SeeSaw and is being adopted across the industry.

As new media age has said many times, one-stop-shop aggregators of TV content online will be crucial in encouraging people to see the internet in the same light as their living room TV. But the success of such services will depend on advertisers coming onboard. Luckily, online video is already one of the most successful formats online. Our Analyst Speak column highlights this, finding brand recall following pre-roll video ads far higher than following display.

The reasons are obvious: video is a far more creatively powerful and engaging format. Engagement, of course, is the most hotly debated topic in online advertising at the moment. It was fascinating to see at the nma Live event on the subject last week the hunger to understand this new metric and the difficulty there was in defining it. Video, in fact, was the clearest example presented on how to tackle this thorny subject.

Rising from the ashes of Project Kangaroo, SeeSaw’s launch with a £5m marketing campaign could be one of the most significant moves this year. It has already secured great content deals. The next step must be to deliver solid results and reporting, giving advertisers the holy grail of truly engaged users.

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