At the start of any new year we all take out our crystal balls in hopes of looking into the future and predicting the outlook for the year.  And this year is no different.  NewTeeVee came out with their list of online video predictions for 2008 and GigaOm has their list of 5 trends for the year.  And of course there is all of the product news around mobile and IPTV as well as content deals coming out of the CES show in Las Vegas, leaving us to ponder and wonder what’s in store for 2008?

Here at RipCode, we think this will be the year that video takes a large leap toward realizing the vision of video ubiquity, gaining traction in becoming a viable choice for consumers on all “3 screens”.  In particular we think this will be the year of the low resolution revolution.  As handsets and networks improve, we’ll see more and more content creators, syndicators and UGC sites implementing mobile initiatives to move beyond the PC and package their video for the portable, personal mobile market.  This gives them an opportunity to extend the reach of content that they currently have and opens up other revenue streams for monetizing that content.

Also, I personally believe that this is the year that you will hear transcoding and pre/post roll advertising in the same sentence.  Operators are pushing the boundaries to monetize more and more online videos and pre/post roll advertising, although hated, is still the overall leader in revenue generation.  This year you will see many announcements, some from RipCode, on unique applications in transcoding technologies and advertising strategies.

And finally, here are kudos to some new innovations like SlingMedia’s announcement to release SlingPlayer for the popular BlackBerry devices, the anticipated 3G version of the iPhone and the prospect of carriers like Verizon opening their networks to any device give us early hope that 2008 will indeed be a pivotal year for Internet and mobile video.