Industry veteran Lisa Opie has revealed her belief that consumers will pay for quality video on demand and online content, if it is presented correctly on the right platforms.

It was announced last week that Opie, formerly managing director of content at Five, has now agreed to become a consultant on Twofour's MediaFreedom online broadcasting platform.

In an interview with Digital Spy, Opie said that online TV and video content will "play a really important role" in the industry going forward, leading to a point when "what you see on air and what you see online" will ultimately converge.

"So we need to learn over the next few years how people adapt and behave in an online world and what is important to them in terms of how they navigate it, how they use content, how best to sit commercial messages around that content and how to build a community around that content.

"I think those are all the things that we need to learn over the next few years. There are some great examples at the moment of how people use video content very effectively online and there are some not so exciting examples out there, all because it's very early days."

In terms of commercialising access to online content, Opie said that the easiest way forward would be "through an advertising model".

"We are all now challenged to find better and more effective ways of using advertising for our customers on any platform and that is one of the creative challenges that we all face going forward," she explained.

"But there is no doubt that from an ease perspective that the advertising model will continue to make sense going forward. As people build more compelling online environments for content, so advertisers will want to advertise to their customers on there. There is an evolution in the process that we are going through."

However, Opie also stated her belief that "people will pay for content" and "programming that they really like" on the internet, if it is presented and priced appropriately.

"They will pay to have a great choice of good quality content. I think that there is just a lot of experimenting that we need to do along the way to work out how it is best to break down that content, whether that is by subscription or micropayments or whatever else," she explained.

"But for me the iTunes model works perfectly well. I put money in and then spend it over the course of time and that functions perfectly well and I can't see why that wouldn't work from a TV and video content perspective."

Meanwhile, a row has recently emerged between the BBC and BT in regards to who should pay for the upsurge of bandwidth usage that is associated with VOD consumption.

Channel 4's head of online products Richard Davidson-Houston recently told Digital Spy that a metered broadband approach could be the best way forward, in which the cost of usage is passed on to consumers.

Opie accepts that this is an important issue which is not only affecting fixed online platforms, but also wireless networks, particularly with the growth of mobile broadband subscriptions.

"We can do all these wonderful and exciting things going forward on all sorts of different devices but where the cost lies... that is an ongoing debate and battle," she said.

"It will be really interesting to see how that pans out. But as the TV networks and broadcasters continue to be competitive online, clearly someone has to bear the cost of that."

Opie also discussed the issue of piracy of online content. While acknowledging the potential severity of this threat for TV and video content, she also urged that any efforts to combat piracy should not paralyze future initiatives to develop new and more innovative services.

"It's a big issue for the industry in general but I don't think that it should stop us from developing and moving on and forward. There is a balancing act between saying don't dare put it up there in case somebody steals it and on the other hand seizing the opportunity and not being overly cautious, "she added.

"If you invest in the right platforms and right systems, then you can protect yourself from piracy going forward, but it is something that we all need to be incredibly vigilant about, but not use it to hold back time."