Endemol Shine Beyond USA recently partnered with Sports Illustrated on “Capturing Everest,” the first complete ascent of Everest in VR, which will premiere in 2017. (Credit: Endemol Shine Beyond USA)

Tonight, the world will be counting down the seconds to 2017. I think it’s fair to say the general sentiment in the air is that the new year can’t come soon enough, and the last twelve months have been ones we’d all like to forget for one reason or another.

Personally, though, I’m excited to see what the world of online video will look like next year.

Call me obsessed with my industry, or just an avid video consumer, but with the proliferation of live streaming, ad blockers and VR over these last twelve months, I think there’s a lot of change in store for this new media landscape in the coming year.

In particular, I believe we’ll start to notice these three developments in online video in 2017:

All Things VR Will Grow

If there was one part of the online video and digital media industries everyone seemed to flip their lids over this past year, it was the rise of the virtual reality format. Sure, this existed in 2015, but it wasn’t widely available to the public or promoted as heavily as it was this past year.

The novelty of VR won’t wear off anytime soon. In fact, I predict it’s only going to keep getting bigger and become a more important part of digital marketing strategies. Patrick Milling Smith, Partner and President of virtual reality production studio HERE BE DRAGONS, agrees with me about VR’s appeal: “Brands have the ability to tell a compelling story and have the audience totally engaged and feeling truly present. It is the holy grail for anyone seeking a captive, enthusiastic and fully engaged participant.”