Category Archives: book

book, Video Advertising, Video Business, Video Sites

Will We Pay Small Fee (99 cents) to Download Short Videos?

2 Comments

bright.jpgCourtesy of Project Working Stiff, here is an interesting quote from Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire (who sold his Allaire Corp. to Macromedia in 2001 for $360 million). 

"We think that casual broadband consumers will want to consume a lot of content daily in 2-7 minute bursts of high-quality, streamed viewing. But once they develop either a specialized interest in a content or topic, or a deeper loyalty to an entertainment product, they’d be willing to pay a small fee (.99 cents) to download a DVD quality version of the feature-length show, and be able to use it easily on a TV or portable device." 

book, Future of Online Video, Video Business, Video Sites, Web 2.0

Looking Into Crystal Ball of Online-Video’s Future

Last night, Stephen King (of the Institute for the Future) was graceful enough to give me some video soundbytes about the future of online video. As you might expect, these get weirder each clip.
1) Stephen speaks about the eventual merger of online video devices (20 seconds)

2) How far out can the Institute predict? (1 minute)

3) Nalts thinks he's cool dining next to King (after a few Yeunglings) (13 seconds)

book, Uncategorized, Video Advertising, Video Business, Video Sites, YouTube

Video Viewing: Leaning Back vs. Leaning Forward

couch.jpgStephen King (not THAT Stephen King, but the one from the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto) spoke yesterday at my day job. He discussed the difference between legacy television viewing ("leaning back") and online video viewing ("leaning forward"). Obviously our attention span is different for each task- 30 minutes to hours for "leaning back" and minutes when we "lean forward," because we want to drive not passively consume.

Stephen asserts that the lines will continue to blur, and certainly the TiVo announcement is a good example. What we should watch for is a network acquiring an online video "station." YouTube has apparently been courted by many frightened networks and has (according to some blogs) has turned down offers of as high as $1 billion. If I owned YouTube it would take me 13.4 seconds to accept an offer for half that. Remember- popularity isn't profit. There's a lot of work ahead to prove that eyeballs can equal income on YouTube.

More from Stephen coming- he told me he'd give me a soundbyte on video.

book, Video Advertising, Video Business, Video Sites, Web 2.0

What Can We Learn from TiVo Offering Web Programming?

1 Comment

tivo.jpgTiVo is diversifying by adding web video from such providers as the NBA, New York Times, CNet and iVillage. Interestingly, the deal is TiVo's way to provide more value not more revenue. The content providers (at least iVillage) will maintain 100$ of the ad revenue generated by short ads associated with the content. TiVo, which has 4.4 subscribers, has had "lackluster" growth — 1.2% increase in the three months ending in April. Stock over the last 12 months have declined 13% (USAToday).

This is an interesting deal, but not a game changer. It does not impact subscribe via DirecTV and really only impacts the 400,000 that have connected their TiVos to broadband (obviously we would expect that number to grow dramatically as a result of this new incentive to toss a $100 receiver into the back of the unit).

What's more interesting is it's further evidence of the breakdown between "lean back" (TV viewing) and "lean forward" (viewing video on web). More on that in another post.

book, Killer Video, Video Advertising, Video Business, YouTube

Just When I thought Ad Agencies “Don’t Get” Online Video

1 Comment

mesk.jpgI was getting demoralized lately as I've been making my way through loads of crappy online video advertisements. The kind that feel like you're listening to a timeshare pitch because you want the resort discount. Suddenly, I received an e-mail from Jim Meskimen that showcases his new ad series for VW.

You may not recognize the name Jim Meskimen but you've heard his voice and probably seen him. He pretty much does every character on the world-famous JibJab clips. He's a comedian and impressionist like you've never heard before. He's also a really nice guy from what I can tell from our e-mail exchange since I won "runner's up" in his "caption the cartoon" contest (my co-worker won… grrrrr).

Now he's playing a German spokesperson for VW. And if you watched these without me telling you that, you'd never know it. The most exciting part? Most of this was improv!

#2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDN0wyw_d4A&search=vw%20fast

#3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd6P36gPkRg&search=vw%20fast

#4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ykeGaZCnNw&search=vw%20fast

#5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEOh8oynr4Y&search=vw%20fast

book, Killer Video, Revver, Video Advertising, Video Business, Video Sites, YouTube

Awaiting the Merger of Popular and Profitable Sites

3 Comments

A week ago today I made one of my most annoying videos yet- GoogleHeads. Here's Googlehead on Revver.com. Here's Googlehead on YouTube.com.

I point this out for three reasons:

  1. Blatent self promotion
  2. So you can see the difference between Flash and Quicktime- quality and speed. For best results click the ad after the Revver version. 🙂
  3. Most importantly, note the difference in views. By recent count, more than 13,000 people had viewed it on YouTube. On Revver only 350 (which is actually a pretty good number for Revver considering the low traffic).

Right now it's hard to say what 350 views is worth to me on Revver is but let's say conservatively it's about $4. If YouTube's model had a similar content creators I'd be enjoying a few hundred bucks. However YouTube neither optimizes advertising nor shares it with content contributors.

YouTube apparently fears that inserting ads might upset their "community," so they're mostly running very low-profit syndicated ads from Google Adsense and other sources. Google Adsense is decent way for bloggers and small site owners to make marginal cash (I've made a whooping $50 on Revverberation and CubeBreak since I started). CubeBreak is far more profitable from affiliate income from Revver.

But Adsense is crazy for a site that has been drawing 14.5 million a month. If I were their venture capitalist I'd be pushing for more profitable video ads (maybe 15 second ads every third video), or at least I'd be partnering with a player like Advertising.com or Doubleclick for rich media ads until I built my own salesforce. The YouTube "community" represents 45 percent of the online video viewing so I doubt people would flock away to another site. It's still desirable content for free.

One day the profit-sharing sites and popular sites will merge. And that's when this space will get fun for amateur creators (who can make decent money) and viewers (who can start seeing something more interesting than people rambling about their day on the webcam). Eventually people will lose their appetite for low-budget cheesy stuff like Googlehead, but hopefully not before I've made a lil' cash.

book, Video Advertising, Video Business, Video Sites

Million Dollar Video Jukebox

Here's an interesting concept. The Million Dollar Video Jukebox (accessed at www.milliondollarvideojukebox.com or www.jeukersz.com. The Homepage is made up of squares (each measuring 2500 pixels). You can upload your video to the square you choose- since the site just launched there are now 400 spaces (expandable to 10,000). You need to be a member to upload and view, and when you join you select 5 product categories (which will help target ads). There are some detailed (albiet somewhat confusing) rules about how you'll earn money on the ads- something about a guaranteed $50 a month when an advertiser pays $100.

In a space of me-too video offerings this one gets credit for turning the model slightly on its side.

book, Video Advertising, Video Business, Video Contests, Video Sites, YouTube

Online Videofest from Panasonic

prize.gifPanasonic is running a contest via YouTube for videos under 5 minutes. Panasonic is the first non-entertainment company to run a promotion with YouTube. Panasonic will award prizes to makers of the four weekly finalist videos, including a first prize of a plasma high-definition TV and digital camera, worth about $5,000. The electronics company is also giving out prizes for users who rate the videos by joining the contest's group on YouTube, choosing the most creative review each week. Source- Adweek.