Continued - FOV Leaders interview with Mike Gordon, Chief Strategy Officer, Limelight Networks

FierceOV: What are some of the biggest potential roadblocks to success for online video companies that you see? 

Gordon: Bringing the economics of media businesses online has obviously proved to be a challenge. If you take the cable business model for instance, you have two primary sources of revenue: advertising, and subscriber fees. Subscriptions have been very difficult to achieve for online video, and may never fully get worked out. So you have to figure out how to preserve the quality of storytelling and general quality of the media using advertising revenue alone, which is difficult, and I don't think anyone's fully cracked it yet. 

FierceOV: What is Limelight's position on the potential of connected devices? 

Gordon: We've always been strong in this market. We are the CDN for [Microsoft] Xbox, we were the first to do downloads to gaming systems, when Xbox Live rolled out new maps for Halo. Then we moved into streaming video to the systems, and now work with [Sony] PS3 and [Nintendo] Wii, in addition to work with Echostar, DirectTV, and TiVo.

We have a big footprint in this market already and are very focused on where it is going longer term. We have some very interesting ideas on how to improve the ways connected devices are used and ways our clients reach their customers through these devices.

You also have the proliferation of smart phones and netbooks, which present challenges and opportunities.

The biggest thing to keep in mind is that the way a consumer uses their Xbox is different from the way they use their connected TV, which is different from how they use their iPhone. We want to stay on top of how users use all the devices and see how their consumption behaviors change. 

FierceOV: Where would you like to see Limelight one year from now? 

Gordon: Well, I think you want to look a little farther out, say three years, five years, because it's less clear and we also have more time to get there. It's like Bill Gates said, ‘In the short term, things seem to change very quickly, and in the long term they've changed more than you could imagine.'

I say this because we are on the precipice of great change. And we want to look out and ask ‘In five years, who will our customers be, and what will they be like?' I think they won't distinguish between networks and cable, they won't distinguish between online video and television.

The group coming of age now, I mean the 18-25 year olds, will be that most sought after demographic. They are focused on interactivity, and living their lives based on connectivity. And people have seen that trend with MySpace, then YouTube, and now with Twitter and the popularity that all have found.

These phenomena drive media customers, and those who are communicating on a "one to many" basis, need to see the changes in the way consumers think about audio, about video. We want to be the acknowledged leader in adapting to that change, that is our goal. We have many interesting ideas on how to do that, and now it's up to us to execute.