Can Online Streaming Services become profitable?

The online video streaming market is well cluttered, but is it there a monetary value in the market?
The amount of consumers that use the different streaming services as their main media channel to is booming, so the market is there. The biggest players in this field are YouTube, Hulu, 4 on demand and iPlayer.

Seesaw is the latest start-up that are targeting this market, the new service is backed by Media Initiatives Group and are aiming to have a content with high profile programs, and generate income through on screen advertisement. There is a dispute regarding the free-view business model, and if its can become profitable. Latest blow for this model came on the 3rd of March, when Comedy central decided to take The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” of Hulu, because of a dispute in ad revenue.
The advertisement industry is keen on the medium, because is a chance to broadcast adverts without the chance for people to use the fast-forward button. The problem is that the industry isn’t willing to pay premium for these slots, and  the streaming services are depending on revenue from Adland, so this media might fail if Adland aren’t willing to splash the cash .

From a commercial perspective the problem is, as in many broadcasting mediums in the UK that the BBC has the best and most popular player on the market. The iPlayer received 120 million requests in January 2010.
The BBC also have a Featured New Media department that works directly with developing new ways of distributing media, this is of course positive from a consumer perspective, but from commercial assess it just builds on the norm that the BBC is too big.
Google have been losing money on Youtube since they acquired the streaming service, and it was first estimated that they would make a loss of $470 million, but this has been written down to $174 million. So in Google terms its not that much, and it will be interesting to see when they start to stream the Indian Premier League later this year, and if  it will be the boost the need to make it profitable

One of the things I was told at the App School was that the key point is creating a unique content that is to design for online activity  and is interactive. This is a good point, and could be one of the key elements for the live streaming services, and a factor that might determine which services that will survive, if they are able to keep the free-view model and if the commercial services are able to beat the BBC.