Web video has never been more popular, as evidenced by the fact that over 11.2 billion online videos were viewed in the United States in March of 2008, according to ComScore Video Metrix. Yet, you have to wonder if the current video platforms have kept up with demand—both on the publisher side and user side of the web video viewing equation.

Consumption has grown at a geometric rate over the past few years and it’s imperative that the technology for distributing and viewing that video—along with monetization through advertising—keeps pace with user demand for rich media content.

So, what are the top ten things that content companies should look for in a video platform?

1. A reliable hosting solution that scales with their business.
2. A fully featured video player— with normal play controls, plus sharing and posting functions.
3. An advertising solution that allows the publisher to monetize their video assets, either by placing their own ads or integrating with third party ad services (or both).
4. Metrics— enabling the publisher to rapidly measure the consumption of their video and learn more about their web-based audience.
5. An easy way to upload and manage video files to the video platform. This should be a secure, web-based interface that does not require advanced technical skill.
6. A consumer-facing solution that preserves and enhances the content publisher’s brand. This can be done by “skinning” the player to match the publisher’s web site and corporate “look and feel.”
7. The ability to easily organize videos into channels or playlists.
8. A video format that supports Hi Definition output.
9. A platform that is flexible enough to support company needs, but not so complicated that it requires special training or an inordinate investment of time to get going.
10. Great customer service. A publisher deserves to expect prompt access to the video platform team when any issues arise.

At Delve, we just made an exciting announcement about our new Video Platform. Obviously, we hope that we are raising the bar in our industry, helping publishers get more content into the ecosystem and giving users a radically new way to experience video content—giving them a chance to navigate within a file, before hitting “play.”

The innovations continue . . .