Online Video's Long, Fat Tail?

How fat will online video's "tail" be? (That is, the virtually infinite period of time following the burst of views a video gets upon its initial appearance.)

Chris Anderson's notion of the long tail is that it's typically quite thin or flat, and that it is primarily the extended length of availability (vs. the comparatively short life of products sold in typical brick-and-mortar stores) that enables online offerings to remain profitable as many small sales accumulate over time.

The ideal, of course, would be a long "fat" tail -- lots of sales, continuing for a long, long time.

The length of online video's tail is still mere speculation. On the one hand, the sheer volume of new postings leans not only toward a thin tail but also a compact, ephemeral head (bad for making a lot of money). On the other hand, the most popular videos earn prominence via YouTube's "All time" nav lists and presumably this should keep plenty of views pumping for a long, long time (the most popular video on YouTube today was posted in April 2006).

As online video matures, the nature of the tail will have many implications, and most crucially will affect  how profits are divvied up.