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How big is the streaming pie?

With the WGA strike seeming like a distant memory (two weeks old), it's a good time to examine what the fight was over online streaming. The resulting agreement grants residuals to the writers for content streamed more than 17-days after the on-air showing, and first year shows get treated to a 24-day window. Those are some pretty favorable terms for the studios, if you ask us. Real-life analysts seem to agree, estimating that online video ad spending will swell from $1.3 billion in 2006 to $7 billion by 2012. Those online ads are prime real estate, too -- "brand recall" from them is way above that seen for broadcast TV. If "brand recall" figures like 60-percent for online video ads versus single-digits for conventional TV hold up, expect to see another WGA uprising in the future. Until then, keep these figures in mind when TV studios decry internet video as a deathknell.

[Image courtesy Today's Real Estate]