If your Mom can figure out Facebook, she will figure out how to stream video to the family TV

I’ve seen a flush of articles and blog posts from media companies and analysts that downplay over-the-top and online viewing of video on the TV.

The baseline stats that are thrown about in various forms:

• The number of people per month viewing online video is increasing less than 7% per year.
• Video streaming still only accounts for less than 2.5% of total video consumption.
• Heavy users are in the 12-34 demographic.

I don’t dispute that watching video “outside the set-top box” is limited to a younger and more technical demographic; and in fact it may represent less than 5% of all video viewing as measured in minutes.  However, those that downplay the potential impact in the next two years are missing the reason why.  And I think it has little to do with what content is readily available.

Simply stated, for most users making the transition requires too many steps.   Younger and more technical users can figure out how to purchase that additional cord, change the input or setup wifi to stream from their broadband connection but to ask the early majority to take on more than “plug it in, push this button and now view” is too much.  And frankly it isn’t that hard to provide a solution that can do just that.

Just like the DVR, facebook and downloading apps on a mobile device, a landslide is coming from the early majority  Streaming services like Netflix, Amazon and even Boxee have created awareness and the tipping point will come via applications like Youtube’s Leanback or social applications like Zoofs that aggregate the most popular youtube videos talked about on twitter.