I think one of the key words for 2009 is momentum. And it applies to everything doesn’t it. Barack Obama’s election win is a good example but it applies right across the board. In fact two English Premiership football managers lost their jobs yesterday because their sides lack momentum. Big or small, if you haven’t got it you’re in trouble.

And television has it in droves right now. I was looking at an incredible set of figures that just seem to break record after record. It appears that this year’s Super Bowl had 100 million viewers making it the most watched sporting event in US TV history. And the figures for on-line video are even more staggering. By my calculation there have been some 500 million requests to view from the websites of British broadcasters over the last year or so. With the BBC’s iPlayer alone accounting for some 300 million of those.

So it seems that we’re watching more television than ever across an almost bewildering array of formats. Our own work with the EdgePlayer, which allows companies and other organisations to host video on their sites without any of the traditional technical issues has thrown up some interesting results with literally hundreds of thousands of people watching content in this way.

So the revolution is well and truly with us across all platforms. But if the revolution is with us we still haven’t figured out how to pay for it. The same terrestrial broadcasters with record numbers of viewers are making cuts in programme budgets and even the greatest on-line video phenomena of them all – YouTube – is a long way off covering its costs, let alone making money.

So where’s this all going to end? I’m afraid we’ve already started to see broadcasting casualties in this recession and we will see many more. Because we live in the real world and revolutions in the 21st century have to be backed by a good business plan.

You’ll be pleased to know that family meltdown was narrowly avoided in our house this weekend. It was the much-awaited launch of the new Doctor Who series. And despite the best of plans we managed to miss the start of the programme. But thanks to the BBC’s iplayer all was not lost and our children won’t have missed any of the gory details.

And they’re not alone. According to the statistics around 500, 000 people are accessing content in this way. There’s other research too. A recent report from the Convergence Consulting Group states that one in ten traditional TV viewers look to the web for video content - and that in a few years one in four will be watching programmes on the web.

But it isn’t all plain sailing is it? At the same time some of the sparkle seems to have gone out of the on-line video business model. Millions of venture capital dollars have gone in but profits are thin on the ground. Recent rumours have it that even market leader Joost is starting to struggle.

So what’s going on? It’s clear that there is a very strong consumer driven demand for on-line video. And people want to watch high quality programming too. But the catch is that they might not be willing to pay for it. So where’s the business model to support on-line video?

Most pundits say it will come through advertising and we just need to wait while this catches up. But I don’t think so. We’re seeing a totally new medium here and it won’t be supported in this way. So we need a new plan.

And I think we’re starting to see it. People will pay for content that actually adds value – take for example the success of programming on the new iphone. And organisations will pay to do the same.

Look at our work with the AAC&U (the Association of American Colleges and Universities), which provides a variety of videos on US higher education.  This type of content would, once upon a time, be reserved for news programmes, or to be shown during conventions and meetings.  But the professionally produced content as online video allows it to be watched by anyone at anytime.  I’m proud to say that the production quality is good enough to be on traditional television, or hosted on a website.  Check it out for yourself here.