VOD Services and how it all started

The online video industry has been a booming market for a few years now, and its value is still rising. The number of people consuming video content is even higher now if we take into consideration the ongoing global pandemic due to COVID-19. All of this makes the point that the video industry will continue to rise and many consider it to be the future of content. But how did it all start?

Well, as many sources tell, it all started in the 1970s with the first video recorder. This of course is not the VOD service we talk about, but still, people had some control over what they watch.
And this is the first and most important step in the video on demand growing popularity, which is very important, especially the aspect of allowing people to watch a program at their own convenience and pace, not only what is broadcasted on TV every night, for example.

Fast forward a few decades, we can all for sure agree that everything started with the first uploaded video on Youtube on 23 April 2015. And after that, with only an internet connection, we were all able to browse, find, and watch videos that were of our interest, not something that was simply served to us. We are now able to choose.

Video services like Netflix and Amazon Prime, for example, made the move from being an extremely accessible blockbuster content library of the sort to creating their own TV Shows and movies making them even more popular amongst users, especially Netflix with its releases of an entire season of their popular TV shows, which led users to the binge-watch wagon, instead of waiting for another episode to air every week.

With the rise of Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO, Disney Plus, Sling TV, W4FREE, and many more, even the broadcasters are now starting to provide their own video-on-demand service. It is reported that video on demand will dominate the online world, and I for one can totally agree. Having multiple options, and hundreds of new releases each year, makes this point even clearer. The future is video-on-demand!