Internet video services

Media moguls gathered at the annual Allen & Co. conference have spent recent years contemplating how to cope with technology drawing audiences away from TV and movies. This time, film and TV executives know just where their businesses are headed. Once threatened by internet players such as Netflix, traditional entertainment companies now view online outlets as a rich new vein.

Beginning Thursday, many of the top digital outlets will for the first time band together to try an old TV tradition: the upfront. Over the next two weeks, YouTube, Yahoo, AOL, Hulu and others will hold their version of the annual pitch to advertisers to promote their programming.

We’re in the middle of a huge platform war for future of internet video and TV. There are four players with different and often opposing viewpoints, each with a shot at success. The story over the next three years will be which one will provide a winning service to enable viewing across every glowing rectangle in our lives — from the smallest smartphones to the biggest smart TV. Here are the four platforms, ranked by their current likelihood of success — along with some of the interesting quirks and challenges that remain.

So-called “Over The Top” Internet-driven video services are causing bandwidth problems for telcos and IPTV services. The growing OTT service will total $32 billion in revs over the next five years.

To win government approval to take over NBC Universal last month, cable giant Comcast  agreed to let online rivals license NBC programming, including hit shows. Comcast also agreed not to block its 17 million broadband subscribers from watching video online through Netflix, Apple’s iTunes and other rivals yet to come. Although they apply only to Comcast and NBC, these conditions could serve as a model for other big entertainment companies in dealing with new online competitors.