So ends another incredible year in online video for 2010! Growth was amazing, the space further matured, and we are taking lots of momentum into 2011. Our own video sharing site grew very nicely as well, both in terms of new videos and audience.

It was fun doing online video predictions and outlooks for 2009 and 2010, so of course a 2011 version had to be done!

I follow online video very closely on a daily basis (proof: read my tweets), and take pride in my predictions. Below are my online video predictions for 2011.

1. Cord Cutting Is Undeniable – There has been lots of talk lately about whether or not cord cutting is for real. In 2011 the debate will finally end, and cable companies will be forced to adjust their channel package deals, and pricing. It doesn’t make sense to pay $100 for hundreds of channels when all you may watch is 10. I plan on being a cord cutter in 2011!

2. Online Video Via TV Screens - This kind of goes hand in hand with #1. Many people that are cancelling their digital cable TV services are moving towards the cloud by using devices such as Roku, Vudu, Boxee, Apple TV, Google TV, and Netflix is exploding by leverage gaming consoles such as PS3, Wii, xBox, and others.

3. Web Series Goes Mainstream – I’m not a big fan of the “web series” terminology, but regardless, I believe that online shows will really start to take off in 2011 thanks to further audience adoption, and Hollywood filmmakers launching new Web projects instead of pitching new TV series concepts.

4. AOL Makes an Acquisition – AOL partnered up with Next New Networks to offer prime homepage real estate to the online video producer, leading to over 1 billion video views for them in 2010. YouTube has been rumored to be acquisition talks with NNN, and assuming that deal goes through I predict that AOL (0r possibly Yahoo) will pick up their competitor Revision3.

5. New Video Ad Serving Leader – Hulu currently has the lead in video ads served per month, but will be surpassed by YouTube as they pick up more rights to professionally produced content, add new partners, and fund new content development, all which can be monetized.

6. Ad Standards – Buying and selling online video ads on a large scale is still very much in its infancy. In 2011, standards will be again heavily debated but won’t be officially put into place until 2012. Every online video ad company seems to have their own creative formats, which in turn is confusing buyers.

7. Mobile Video Blows Up – Until I got my iPhone 4 I didn’t really watch much mobile video. Now I watch a few videos on the device every morning in bed, and love the experience. 2011 will be big for filmmakers and companies to adopt the HTML 5 format to reach new viewers on their iPhone’s and iPad’s. Mobile video advertising will also start to take off, but not in a massive way.

8. IPO – I think that there will be at least one online video IPO in 2011, especially after the huge success that China-based Youku enjoyed on the NYSE.  Sounds like Hulu won’t file for one in 2011, but Demand Media wants an IPO, and I’m sure that other rapidly growing startups want to go public too. We don’t think of Facebook as being an online video company but they are now #2 behind YouTube in views served. For the record, I don’t see Facebook filing for an IPO in 2011, and likely won’t until at least 2013.

9. Social Sharing – Many people discover new online videos through social sharing tools, and this trend will only grow in 2011. Facebook and Twitter drive a ton of views, and good old fashioned email still plays an important role for people to pass video links along to their friends and contacts.

10. From Text to Video – Communication and content used to be all about text and pictures, but with video being the most desired type of content to consume, new video creation strategies will be on top of the list, especially as quality video gets easier and cheaper to produce. I believe that online video will be as ubiquitous as text one day, but then again I’m a very optimist evangelist.

11. Collaborative Video Production – Been hearing more and more stories about top YouTube creators collaborating with each other to leverage each other’s talents and channel subscribers. I truly believe that this global new media concept will be a breakout hit in 2011, and get more structured and organized via open and collaborative video production platforms.

Here are some other experts weighing in with their online video predictions for 2011: MediaPost, Brightcove, ReelSEO, TubeFilter, BizReport, Digital Media Update, VidCompare, and VideoBloom.

If you have a 12th prediction of your own (which I would love to hear!), please add it below with a comment. 

Cheers to 2011 which will be undeniably the biggest year for online video ever!

One of the best talks on how online video spurs innovation was given by Chris Anderson at the TED conference earlier this month. Want to learn more about “Crowd Accelerated Innovation?” Watch the 20 minute video below, and see what Chris means by that powerful term. If you have any comments, be sure to share them below.

370 days ago I wrote 9 Online Video Predictions for 2009 on my personal blog, but this year I felt this was a more appropriate place to unleash the list of online video predictions for 2010.

Based on my analysis all 9 predictions are quite accurate, especially my Hulu one, so I’m feeling confident about some more good calls this time around as well.

1. Advertisers ramp up their spending in the online video space thanks to an influx of quality content that’s “advertiser safe”, and access to deeper analytics which marketers have longed craved for. TubeMogul and VisibleMeasures will continue to do very well in the analytics game.

2. Collaboration services like Market7 get more valuable and useful to traditional video studios with scattered employees and contractors geographically, and really benefit individuals who connect with others to form global production teams through platforms like our partner Spidvid provides.

3. Broadband TV will further grow as more people connect their computers to their TV. Things could really explode if Apple does in fact offer a $30/month subscription for unlimited premium content via iTunes. I still don’t see an explosion for broadband TV until at least 50% of all manufactured TV’s have direct Internet connections, which should be by 2015.

4. Video creators will start learning about how to integrate products into their videos to generate commission revenues, but the big breakout for interactive video e-commerce won’t truly happen until 2011 as the ecosystem further builds itself out. Overlay.tv is heading in the right direction in this regard.

5. Live video really takes off as platforms like Ustream.tv and Justin.tv get attention from the likes of Ashton Kutcher who do cool new live interactive shows that rival and even exceed TV show’s quality and popularity.

6. Live mobile broadcasting from the average person will take off as apps from Qik and their competitors are now getting approved for the iPhone apps store. It’s nice to see this space get more legit as gaining access to these services no longer require sketchy hacks and jail breaks.

7. At least one of the major online video platforms will bounce out of the market, and at least one will have to change directions like how Joost went from video sharing to more of a white label strategy. Heck maybe Joost will be the company that shuts its doors.

8. Online video creators, actors, directors, and producers start getting movie deals with budgets in the tens of millions.

9. Like it or not pre-roll ads are here to stay as the top online video format for at least the next few years. What we normally see now are TV commercials that are directly transfered online, but I think we will start to see new creatives done such as interactive pre-roll ads which engage viewers right in the video player rather than redirect them to product or promo pages.

10. Small business really jump on board with online video advertising, and look to companies like TurnHere and PopTent to help them with their production efforts.

Can you add #11? In your opinion what is ahead for online video in 2010?

I’m an advocate of Web shows because they offer benefits and other good stuff that TV shows can’t.

While I do have many favorite TV shows that include Entourage, The Apprentice, Dragon’s Den, Family Guy, The Simpsons, and a few others, I’m getting more and more into Web shows because:

- There is no FCC online so the videos and shows while are moderated by viewing communities, the content can be so much more obscene, hardcore, and extreme versus what cable networks can feature.

- Web show episodes tend to be short, and are usually in the 3-10 minute range. By using less filler within the content it allows viewers to not have to invest as much of their valuable time as they would to watch a show like Lost. On a Sunday afternoon I can watch an entire Web show season or multiple season series which is nice.

- A TV show can be sometimes hard to track down if you don’t watch an episode either live, or catch it via time shifting if you have digital cable. A Web show episode is always up ready to be watched, and usually available on multiple video sharing sites.

- Most episodes online can be downloaded for later to watch offline or on portable devices like the iPod. If you want to download a TV show it can be hard to find on a pirated P2P network, and you risk contracting computer viruses that can wipe you out for days.

- If you have a PVR you can rewind TV shows in case you missed something, but otherwise the average cable viewer can’t do the same. With Web shows you can rewind them, fast forward them, pause them, and in some cases even select your favorite clips and share them with others, and even embed them into your own site.

- The TV experience has long been called a lean back approach where you sit back and only consume what you’re watching. The online experience is a lean forward approach where you can engage with your content by commenting and rating, and even add annotations on top of the video player for others to see what you think of the content.

- The video production team and actors can usually be contacted and interacted with directly online, and while some TV stars can be as well through social media sites like Twitter, it’s unlikely you will hear back from them unless you really catch their attention and motivate them to connect with you.

- We trade watching numerous 30 second commercials for the privilege of watching TV shows.  The average show has 22 minutes of content, and 8 minutes of ads, which means that 27% of the time we are watching ads not our show. While some Web shows have an initial 7, 15, or 30 second pre-roll, and an occasional mid-roll ad,  the majority of the time we get to see the show we signed up for straight through. Overlay ads show up in the lower portion of online video players at times, but those can be easily closed by hitting the ‘x’ button on the ad directly. It’s safe to say the content/ad viewing experience is much better online.

- If your remote control breaks down, or you run out of batteries for it, you are stuck changing channels on your cable box or VCR depending on your home entertainment setup. I can’t remember the last time my mouse let me down.

- If you want to watch HD on your TV then you need to buy a HD box that also costs extra each month on your bill. If you have a HD computer screen then you are free to view the ever increasing amount of HD video content online.

I know I’m leaving important differences off this list, so if you have more to add then place a comment below or send me a tweet.

When UnleashVideo was launched last summer (of 2008) the idea was to provide a quality only video sharing network which would compete with the likes of YouTube, Metacafe, Revver, and others. With the video sharing space so competitive now in the form of thousands of sites there is no reason to compete directly against these players anymore.

Our strategy has shifted from allowing only pre-approved creators to upload video content, to only accepting uploads from collaborative production teams on Spidvid. So if you want to unleash videos on our site visit Spidvid and join their video production community.

Future video pages will feature content from Spidvid, have Facebook connect integration for comments, increased social features, and have Google Maps showing where each of the team members is based out of. These maps will show the global structure of the collaborative production teams, and outline that videos really can be created with members located all over the world.

The whole site is having a makeover to make each page more simple to navigate and use, and with less unnecessary features and images to display it will allow pages to load quicker, and videos to play faster which has been a past concern among viewers.

We expect this roll out to happen later next month just in time for Christmas. Thanks to everyone who has supported UnleashVideo 1.0 over the last year and a half, and we look forward to your engagement on our new and improved UnleashVideo 2.0 very soon.

If you’ve been following our Twitter account over the last few weeks, you know that we’ve had issues with our unleashing functionality.

We are happy to announce that we have fully restored all functionality, so all systems are a go again.

We have also taken additional precautions to ensure that our servers are more protected from unwanted future attacks.

So if you have some great quality entertaining videos, we would love to review them and feature them on our site.