Friday, July 31, 2009

YouTube Proves it Can Make Money with a Wedding Video, "JK Wedding Entrance Dance" Boosts Sales of Chris Brown's "Forever"

By now, the latest viral video sensation JK Wedding Entrance Dance has amassed more than 13M views on YouTube since it was posted on July 19th and news of its success so been spread far and wide. YouTube blog hailed it as an overnight sensation which resulted in both the video and the song "Forever," by R&B artist Chris Brown going viral. While the married couple Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz did receive some fame and TV appearances it was the rights holders of the song "Forever" who were able to capitalize on the moment by adding Click-to-Buy links over the video. This created point of sale opportunities to purchase the music track on Amazon and iTunes and helped it rocket back up the charts.



The YouTube blog cited the Click-to-Buy CTR (click-through rate) increased by 2.5x in the last week and 2x the average of other Click-to-Buy overlays on the site. Technical account manager Chris LaRosa said searches of "Chris Brown Forever" also skyrocketed on YouTube making it one of the most popular queries on the site.














LaRosa argued that while many still question "the promotional and bottom-line business value sites like YouTube provide artists", this example clearly demonstrates their value proposition and their main goal "to help content creators effectively make money from the distribution of their content online."

Tim Street noted,
"It’s a shame that this couple from the JK Wedding Entrance Dance viral video in Saint Paul, Minnesota didn’t have a monetization plan in place before this video came out. They could have paid for their wedding already."
Ben Homer asked,
"So it’s great for YouTube, iTunes, Amazon, and the record label. But what about for the content creators? Is free distribution a fair value exchange, I’m not so sure. Your Thoughts?"
While it's a win-win for YouTube, Apple and the record label -- the only ones not making money are the newlyweds. The married couple took a different route than profiting from their fame and took the opportunity to draw attention to the serious issue of domestic violence knowing that Chris Brown, who had severely beat his then-girlfriend Rihanna, was receiving proceeds from the sale of the record. They launched their website, JKweddingdance, and are accepting soliciting donations to the Sheila Wellstone Institute.

On the site the couple said,
"Our experience since we posted the video has been incredible. We would never have expected this response to our wedding entrance in a million years. We hope to direct this positivity to a good cause. Due to the circumstances surrounding the song in our wedding video, we have chosen the Sheila Wellstone Institute. Sheila Wellstone was an advocate, organizer, and national champion in the effort to end domestic violence in our communities."
Congratulations Jill and Kevin!


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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Blip.tv Announces Major Distribution Partnerships with YouTube, Vimeo, Roku and Others; Launches New Show Creator Dashboard

For independent online video creators, the key to a successful business model is content distribution. Today, online media company blip.tv -- who's mission from day one has been to make independent Web shows sustainable -- today announced major distribution capabilities, new partnerships to monetize and track advertising and viewership across its distribution network, along with a completely redesigned show creator dashboard. Blip says their building a next-generation television network in order to accomplish their mission.

The major announcements include:
  • A completely new Show Creator Dashboard (this is being rolled out slowly, starting with about a hundred show creators)
  • An expanded distribution network that now includes YouTube, Vimeo and NBC Local Media in New York.
  • Expanded television distribution via Verizon, Roku, Sony Consumer Electronics and TiVo.
  • New technology partnerships with FreeWheel Media and TubeMogul to drive richer analytics and smooth advertising trafficking across the entire blip.tv network.

According to CEO Mike Hudak, blip launched four years ago with only two web television producers but today blip currently hosts 38,000 shows as part of its online television network. Blip is focused on featuring, promoting and monetizing the best original, serialized shows on the Web and offers free hosting, a variety of video formats and advertising with a 50/50 revenue share. The announcements today solidifies blip as the television network of the future. With YouTube on board content creators will be able to publish directly to YouTube for the first time.
"Before today we used to say that Blip reaches half of the video Internet," said Mike Hudack at the press conference. "Today I'm really happy to announce that we probably reach about 80 percent of the video Internet.
Blip shows reach 22 million viewers and total more than 72 million video views per month. According to Techcrunch, the average CPM that blip gets are between $10 and $20 and the YouTube deal should increase views while "putting downward pressure on CPMs. But if views go up faster than prices go down, Blip will end up better off."















TubeMogul will be powering the analytics in the new dashboard and will give content creators a second-by-second graph that shows drop off rate and rewind. "We're excited that TubeMogul InPlay audience and engagement data will be available to blip.tv show creators within the blip.tv dashboard," said Brett Wilson, TubeMogul CEO. "This is an important step towards bringing objective measurability to the creative process while maintaining the art of Web show creation."

Watch the replay of the press release powered by Livestream below

The blip.tv vision is that content creators should focus all of their efforts on creating great shows, and blip.tv can help with the rest: technology, distribution, marketing and publicity, and monetization. Shows on blip.tv range from scripted sitcoms and dramas to newsmagazines, and top titles include WallStrip, Alive in Baghdad, Epic Fu, Break a Leg, Channel Awesome, Unleashed, and The Show with Ze Frank.

Robert Miller, producer of blip shows Political Lunch and That Sports Show said, "The days before blip were like being flogged in a medieval torture chamber when we treid to distribute. It was very painful."

Web producers Zadi Diaz and Steve Woolfe, creators of the former Next New Networks and Revision 3 web show Epic Fu, relies on the ad sales from blip and YouTube to support their staff of three, says Michael Learmonth and that the show is their sole source of income. "It's tough to make a living off these shows at the moment," said Steve Woolfe. "We've been lucky to be able to hang on."

While online video has a long way to go to be able to bring the kind of revenue that network television brings in Mike Hudak said on the blip.tv blog,
"We’re on our way. We envision a future — a not too distant future — in which the majority of video consumed by Americans is created by talented and hardworking independents. A world in which anyone with a voice and talent can create a self-sustaining masterwork of a show. A world of infinite channels where any show, created by anyone, can be viewed by anyone on any device and any relevant Web site. A world in which individual network executives no longer determine which artists are graced by the good fortune to be put in front of the public."
While blip has not provided a a roadmap regarding revenues and profitability the company says with these new partnerships it will be profitable by the end of the year. Read the full press release.

See the following news sites for in depth coverage:

About blip.tv
Blip.tv is an online media company with over 38,000 original Web shows and 72 million video views a month. Shows on blip.tv range from scripted sitcoms and dramas to news and how-to programs. Blip.tv hosts and syndicates shows to iTunes, YouTube, Vimeo, AOL Video, Verizon FiOS, TiVO, Sony Bravia, The Roku Digital Video Play and Facebook. Blip.tv splits all advertising revenues with show creators 50/50. For more information about blip.tv please visit http://blip.tv/.

Updated: 7/29/09

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Sunday, July 26, 2009

This Week in Online Video: 7/20-7/25/09

It's been sometime since I've done a weekly review and I decided to focus on news related to the online video industry. There were several announcements from online video platforms as well as news items that I've collected here. While it's not a comprehensive list, I included excerpts from press releases that I received as well as links from other news sites for more reading. I'll be highlighting interviews I've conducted with executives from several of the companies on the blog very soon, including Matt DeLoca of The Feedroom, Ron Yekutiel of Kaltura and Peter Csathy of Sorenson Media. Stay tuned!

The FeedRoom Introduces Comprehensive Online Video Solution for Media Relations and Public Affairs Professionals
SaaS Offering Enables Fortune 1000 Enterprises and Government Agencies to Add Streaming Video and Broadcast-Quality Downloads to Online Press Rooms in Minutes -- at Half the Cost of Branded News Sites
NEW YORK, NY -- 07/22/09 -- The FeedRoom, a pioneer in online video communications, and a market leader in live streaming video and digital asset management, today announced a new subscription-based, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering designed to address the needs of media relations and public affairs professionals looking to add high-quality video to their Web sites and online press rooms. The value-priced offering combines the unique publishing, distribution and measurement capabilities that Fortune 1000 and government communicators require to ensure greater transparency, control and global reach within the changing news distribution landscape, including social networking sites, bloggers, mobile applications and other new media...

Kaltura Shakes Up Online Video Industry with Launch of the World's First Free and Open Source Online Video Platform

Release of Kaltura's Community Edition Disrupts Commoditized Market and Increases Distance Between Kaltura and Proprietary Vendors

OSCON 2009, SAN JOSE, CA, July 22, 2009 – Kaltura (www.kaltura.com) today announced the public launch of Kaltura Community Edition, the world’s first and only open source self-hosted online video platform. The new product, available for free download on Kaltura’s community website www.kaltura.org, allows any site owner or web developer to easily and quickly integrate highly customizable video and interactive rich-media functionalities, including video management, publishing, uploading, importing, syndicating, editing, annotating, remixing, sharing, and advertising. The move puts Kaltura in a position to replicate in the online video space the impact and success of other open source companies such as Red Hat, MySQL, and Mozilla....See Kaltura Community Edition (CE) | Kaltura.org



Sorenson 360 Video Publishing Platform Now Delivers Customizable Player, Security Options and Enhanced Workflow
- Sorenson Media’s Sorenson 360 Now Enables Customers to More Fully Control Branding, Functionality of Video Player
- Video Professionals Benefit from Enhanced Workflow through Video Password Protection, Streamlined Browser-Based Encoding via Industry-Leading Sorenson Squeeze Engine
- Enhancements Further Sorenson 360’s Capability and Reputation for Delivering Unparalleled Quality, Control, Ease-of-Use and Affordability to Video Professionals

SAN DIEGO (July 22, 2009)—Sorenson Media (www.sorensonmedia.com) today announced several significant video management enhancements to its Sorenson 360 Video Delivery Network (VDN), providing video professionals with the ability to more fully control the functionality and branding of the Sorenson 360 video player. Users can now incorporate their own identities, including company logos, into Sorenson 360. Video professionals can also create unlimited players, and customize a variety of key settings for each player — from screen modes to content sharing and specifying a particular branded player for each video. View a demo of Sorenson 360’s new customizable video player at: www.sorensonmedia.com/video-management

Other news:
Updated links: 7/27/09
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Thursday, July 23, 2009

Amazon Buys Zappos for $928M and Produces Video Explaining the Deal for $1.98

If you track tech news then you couldn't miss the big news yesterday that Amazon.com bought online footwear retailer Zappos for an estimated $928M. News stories about the deal filled the echo chamber and only a few focused on the unique way Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos used online video to communicate the news. His delivery is direct and honest and he offers a compelling "rags to riches" story that looks like it was shot for $1.98.



Dan Rayburn said,
"You gotta love it when a company like Amazon users the power of video to get their message out. Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos has an eight minute video uploaded to YouTube to explain the company's acquisition of Zappos. Now that's how video should be used. As good as the content of the video is, the quality is terrible for me. Wish Amazon had used a service other than YouTube."
Dan's right too, the video quality is so poor that I found myself getting distracted by the video compression. There isn't even a high quality version you can switch to so you're stuck viewing the low quality version. While some editing is done with the shots varied between medium and close ups it looks like a single camera shoot done on a Flip Video camera.

The only other blog that I found that commented on the video quality was by Sorenson Media CEO Peter Csathy who said,
"Folksy" is good, especially for Amazon -- which has always prided itself in being the "regular guy" on the Internet giant block. But, terrible video quality is not. And, take a look at the video quality of Bezos's YouTube video -- it is downright horrible! As my head of marketing, Eric Quanstrom, wrote to me yesterday, "what were Amazon's marketing people thinking????" Quality, quality, quality -- that is job 1 for Internet video. To maximize impact -- including viral distribution (i.e., getting your videos seen by the most people) -- the experience of the viewer is paramount."
Peter gave Amazon an "A" for effort and marketing ingenuity but "F" which he upgraded to a "D" for execution. From a quality standpoint, I think though what helps save it is that Jeff Bezos is wearing a lavalier microphone which helps keep you engaged because the audio is clear. The backyard setting offers an authenticity akin to the UGC (user-generated content) approach that a studio setting or green screen approach can't touch. But come on Amazon, you just spent $928M on Zappos. Can't you spend more on video quality?
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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Twitcam Goes Live on Twitter, Trumps the Competition

I had a chance to test Twitcam this past evening, the new live video streaming Twitter mash-up from Livestream (formerly Mogulus), and see firsthand what happens when live video meets Twitter. According to Livestream, Twitcam is the first application that lets Twitter users add live streaming video to their Twitter feeds with a webcam and a click of the button. Twitcam.com was taken from concept to product in a week thanks to a soon-to-be-announced player API (application programming interface) from Livestream and trumps CamTweet, the offering by live video streaming competitor Justin.tv that debuted just ten days earlier at TechCrunch's Real Time Stream CrunchUp and entered in a private beta today.

Erick Schonfeld noted that,"It is a really simple, but powerful idea. So simple, in fact, that one of Justin.TV’s competitors, Livestream CEO Max Haot (who was watching the demo from New York via UStream, another live Web video competitor) decided to create the exact same product using Livestream’s new, yet-to-be released APIs."

Joseph Tartakoff pointed out that Justin.tv learned a painful lesson about being discrete with a business idea until it goes live and confirmed through a Livestream spokeswoman that Max Haot did in fact see the live demo and quickly created his own app saying, "it shows how rapidly Livestream, and technology in general, is moving."

[twitcam_klessblog.jpg]

From a user standpoint it's really easy to use and I was able to start "video Tweetcasting" within just a few minutes after a few simple steps. Twitter users need only to log in to Twitcam.com with their existing Twitter account and a webcam and press the ‘Broadcast Live’ button. Twitcam automatically detects the camera, creates a page and live video player for the broadcast, and posts the link in the user’s Twitter feed so followers can join in live. A Livestream account is not needed and a unique Twitcam live broadcast page is created from your Twitter profile. Recent broadcasts are stored on your profile page.

Within minutes of starting my broadcast and sending my first Tweet I was joined by several friends who were able to watch my live video feed and chat with me. Thanks to @Schuras @SafetyGeeksSVI @Gennefer @spotcher and anyone else I may have missed for helping me with the test by joining the live broadcast.

From my page I could see all the Tweets centralized within a real-time chat interface. Each Tweet is created when you enter something in the live chat and the Tweets include the broadcast page URL along with a mention of your Twitter name. @Gennefer said, "It was fun! I've been wanting to check it out and assess potential use cases. Would've been perfect for #dewlabs interaction." She also thought that "Could be interesting for cooperative entertainment experiences, but I couldn't see the other viewers' posts."

There are a few issues that need work and with the open API there may be possible improvements. Not seeing each others posts is a real drawback and it would be ideal for the Tweets to be aggregated into an interface for all viewers to see. The video size of the archive recording at 320 x 240 is a little small for most applications. I also didn't embed the video in this post because the default for the video is autoplay which most people find extremely annoying. You can though see my broadcast test here.

Amit Desai listed a number or ways that both that Twitcam and CamTweet can strengthen relationships going beyond simple chat to deeper video communications for marketers, businesses, researchers, academia and families. 

Adding live video to Twitter really turns the worldwide talk show into a real live talk show. It makes the makes the conversation a real conversation with a live video stream driving the Twitter stream.

Twitcam is free and available today at http://www.twitcam.com.

Follow Livestream (livestreamcom) on Twitter


About Livestream
Livestream (www.livestream.com - formerly Mogulus) provides everything needed to easily webcast live, build an engaged audience and monetize these efforts. Founded in 2007, the company is based in New York and includes Gannett Co. as a minority shareholder and investor. Producers can use Livestream to create live, linear and on-demand Internet television to broadcast anywhere on the Web through a single embeddable player widget. The service comes in two flavors: Free (ad-supported) and Premium (ad-free, white-label, higher-quality). Unique features include the ability to mix multiple live cameras, overlay graphics, and desktop streaming with 3D effects.

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