Video Goes to Wall Street

 If anyone is still wondering whether video is the way to go – the answer came Tuesday, when Thomson Reuters leaked the news of its new searchable video-on-demand service for Wall Street.

The financial news company expects to get out ahead of Bloomberg and Dow Jones with fast access to specific pieces of video, available only to subscribers. This isn’t the fancy stuff – often, it will be stand-up presentations recorded at conferences and hearings. The target:  The 500,000 financial professionals who already have a screen on their desk.

In this new integrated world, which rolls out in June, each video will share the screen with search tools, and a searchable transcript. It’s almost as if the search is more important than the video; it’s extremely fast, and can also compile a video montage linked by key words.

Bare-bones studios in NY, Tokyo and Hong Kong will speed production. No surprise that Thomson Reuters is inviting/expecting its clients to supply video and even create their own channels.

For the rest of us, video is still a little too linear to be really useful for most of us searching for quick data hits. But clearly, producing video – fancy or not – is the way to go. Having rapid, flexible search tools will make it more relevant for anyone searching – and companies producing their own video libraries.

As for why Thomson Reuters invested so much in video right now? Wall Street will be smaller when this is all over, said the CEO of the company’s markets division. The survivors will be younger, and accustomed to instant searches and on-demand information.

Get ready for the new customer.

  - Posted by Amy Bermar