A jumpstart Internet channel using low-cost but powerful technology
LX.TV, formerly Code.TV, is one of the jumpstarts in programming boom emerged over the last year. It is interesting to note that LX.TV has capitalized on several shifts taking place in the industry to quickly build and launch a relevant broadband channel.
For shooting, they are using DV cameras that made it inexpensive to shoot high quality video. Also, they are using low-cost but powerful non-linear editing systems such as Final Cut and Premiere. And for distribution, a broadband channel that removes the traditional barriers of the industry.
LX.TV produces original content exploring everything from the hottest nightlife and spas to swank stores in New York and Los Angeles. They have raised nearly $1 million in start up money, and expect to be profitable in 2008. They have gone from three full-time employees to 15, along with a passel of freelancers.
Brightcove releases new offerings to insert ads into the Internet videos
Brightcove, a well funded Internet video company, has unveiled a new suite of services, aimed at lowering the entry point for creating Internet channels. The company is now offering ad placement and video syndication to anyone who is willing to enter into a 50/50 ad revenue sharing agreement, and a 70/30 product sales revenue split.
According to Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen, manager of Streaming Media.com, "Brightcove has been growing quietly, working behind the scenes with right holders, in contrast to user-generated sites that exploded in popularity over the last year, and the company now seems well-positioned to take advantage of the content they've secured from the likes of AMC, IFC, and Sony BMG."
The potential vulnerabilities of YouTube, facing the threat of copyright suits, give hope to companies like Brightcove, Revver, DaveTV, and Metacafe. Those companies are giving people a cut of the ad revenue (if you put a video on YouTube, they keep all the ad revenue the video might generate).
The anti-YouTube exec predicts that people will get video from producers
"In the future, consumers will turn away from portals and begin to get their videos straight from the producers", said Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire.
"People don't go to Google to get content. They go there to find Web sites," he added. "The vast majority of content is not consumed in the portals. It is consumed on the Web."
In some ways, Brightcove is viewed as the anti-YouTube. YouTube came to prominence by giving individuals a centralized place to publish their videos. While pirated material and professionally made content gets onto the network, most of YouTube's programming comes from average people armed with a video camera. YouTube makes money through selling ads.
Private label video portals
"By contrast, Brightcove started by selling software tools to the likes of companies like Sony, Dow Jones, the Independent Film Channel and Newsweek. The videos and music delivered through its software are housed mostly on sites owned by the content providers themselves, not centralized portals," according to ZDNet's columnist Michael Kanellos.
Vidiac.com has been offering free private label video portals since 2005, and have signed up over 700 sites. They also allow site owner to syndicate content from their library of 100,000 videos and place their own ads on their site next to theirs. They are also beta testing 50/50 revenue share on video ads with a select lists of sites.
User-generated video clips can be monetized?
Can the user-generated video content model be monetized? This was one of the main issues addressed during the Streaming Media West Conference & Exhibition, celebrated this month in San Jose, California. YouTube's purchase by Google is making that doubt more intense.
Archived video from many of the sessions can now be viewed for free online
here.
Metacafe pays $5 for every thousand views of user-generated video
Metacafe.com, one of the main rivals of YouTube.com, is taking a big step by paying video content creators $5 for every thousand views (with payments starting at $100 for twenty thousand views). Revver, Eefoof.com, and Panjea are also in the game of paying users, but they avoid cash offerings and promote a 50?50 split base on the revenue generated form post-roll ads.
Metacafe's Producer Rewards program is really significant. "If your video has what is takes to entertain people, we want to license it and pay you for every view", says Metacafe. In the ranking of top earners, we find a guy with $24,604 just promoting their acrobatic jumps, or a back massage tutorial, $16.370.
Is it time to pay for all the user-generated-content?
