SeeSaw Fails To Reach Tipping Point

Arqiva's brave attempt to enter the consumer TV distribution market seems to have ended in failure. SeeSaw, it is reported, is to be shut down.

It's a real shame that the only real UK competitor to Hulu has failed to make an impact. The advertising and promotion was poor and all wrong, and in a distributed world a portal is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

With looming competition from YouTube and increased rights payments in the face of the rise of Connected TVs, this is a disappointment, and again highlights the difficulties of ad funded delivery models online (although it has to be said that we're seeing the opposite across TVE businesses with rising inventory, engagement and CPMs).

I think the real problem is that a business generating cents is trying to take on a business that is only interested in dollars. Online still provides a paltry revenue for rights holders.

But more than anything SeeSaw needed the massive leverage and synergy that only traditional consumer media businesses can deliver in taking a traditional audience into a new territory.

There are a number of traditional media businesses that could do well to pick up the business at a discount....