The irony of ads pushing video online

More than 1 in 4 U.S. households now have a DVR device allowing consumers to skip over ads, and marketers are scared silly. Ad Age just reported that NBC and CBS may not exist in their current form in a few years. The darkest worry for advertisers and content publishers is that broadcast dollars may turn into online pennies, if consumers ignore interruptions online and drive down the value of ad inventory.

So it's ironic that we find this online FilmFellas discussion by Steve Weiss of Zacuto, a filmmaking product shop, explaining that advertising is one of three powerful forces pushing video online.

Force 1: Good tools. Online video took off in 2005 with YouTube but the initial quality was fuzzy. Recent improvements in high-definition cameras, falling costs, and sites such as Vimeo that stream video in HD are changing the game.

Force 2: Your ego. Any design shop or marketer or artist who ever filmed anything is familiar with the soul-crushing pain of having a committee screw with your vision. With online video, creators can control their own output, and that's a powerful draw.

Force 3: Advertising dollars. Weiss points out that advertisers will gradually shift funding away from traditional broadcast -- where consumers can skip over ads and call up television only at the times they want -- to online video, where ads can be inserted with more control and (theoretically) 1to1 personalization.

Ah, but don't listen to us. Watch these guys chat about it over wine.