PSound
09-15-09, 01:48 PM
Meanwhile, users are tuning in more and more to video on the Web. A survey conducted in July by the Pew Research Center says that 62% of Americans have watched video this year on a major video site like YouTube or Hulu. And while online CPMs are comparable to TV CPMs, online outlets struggle to bring in what traditional outlets can, with the number of viewers for any particular episode being more often counted in the thousands than millions.
So content creators, looking for the best way to pump traditional profits through the gateway of new online material, have turned more and more to reversing the flow of content. In an industry still looking for a workable Web business formula, a new windowing strategy—taking material online and eventually sending it to television or DVD—has shown signs of offering a bright outlook.
Windowing helps combat that limit. Jordan Hoffner, director of content partnerships for YouTube, cites Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy shorts, which premiered on the site. Media Rights Capital, which produced the shorts, locked up Burger King and Priceline.com as sponsors for the series before it went into production, giving them integrated placement. An executive familiar with the deal said that Cavalcade was the largest they had seen in the online space, placing the value in the low to mid-seven figures. Following its initial run online, MRC and MacFarlane released a DVD box set of the 50 shorts.
“There is a lot of stuff out there from a lot of creators who normally work directly within the Hollywood cycle and want to go direct to the consumer,” Hoffner says. “It's great that [MacFarlane's Cavalcade] launched on YouTube, but it was packaged up and monetized in another way. That is where a lot of opportunity lies.”
Fox Television Studios has launched a digital brand, 15 Gigs, to develop talent and franchises that can eventually make the jump to a network, or at least turn a profit through DVD, online sponsorships or some combination (see “FTvS Launches Digital Brand,” Aug. 3).
“We said, why don't we start allocating smaller amounts of money to development of creative material we could launch on the Internet just to get a feel for whether things find an audience?” says Emiliano Calemzuk, president of FTvS. “As those things grow, we can decide whether they can be developed for television or continue to live on the Web, while being financially self-sustaining.”
The challenge facing window-ready content creators, at least until—or if—the Web video advertising marketplace matures, is to show that Dr. Horrible wasn't a fluke and that Web programs can make the jump to DVD or television.
The path between the two has seen its share of failures (remember NBC's Quarterlife?) But with efforts from Sony, Warner Bros., Fox Television Studios and others, the window is beginning to creak open.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/346321-Hoping_to_Reverse_the_Online_Video_Cash_Flow.php
So content creators, looking for the best way to pump traditional profits through the gateway of new online material, have turned more and more to reversing the flow of content. In an industry still looking for a workable Web business formula, a new windowing strategy—taking material online and eventually sending it to television or DVD—has shown signs of offering a bright outlook.
Windowing helps combat that limit. Jordan Hoffner, director of content partnerships for YouTube, cites Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy shorts, which premiered on the site. Media Rights Capital, which produced the shorts, locked up Burger King and Priceline.com as sponsors for the series before it went into production, giving them integrated placement. An executive familiar with the deal said that Cavalcade was the largest they had seen in the online space, placing the value in the low to mid-seven figures. Following its initial run online, MRC and MacFarlane released a DVD box set of the 50 shorts.
“There is a lot of stuff out there from a lot of creators who normally work directly within the Hollywood cycle and want to go direct to the consumer,” Hoffner says. “It's great that [MacFarlane's Cavalcade] launched on YouTube, but it was packaged up and monetized in another way. That is where a lot of opportunity lies.”
Fox Television Studios has launched a digital brand, 15 Gigs, to develop talent and franchises that can eventually make the jump to a network, or at least turn a profit through DVD, online sponsorships or some combination (see “FTvS Launches Digital Brand,” Aug. 3).
“We said, why don't we start allocating smaller amounts of money to development of creative material we could launch on the Internet just to get a feel for whether things find an audience?” says Emiliano Calemzuk, president of FTvS. “As those things grow, we can decide whether they can be developed for television or continue to live on the Web, while being financially self-sustaining.”
The challenge facing window-ready content creators, at least until—or if—the Web video advertising marketplace matures, is to show that Dr. Horrible wasn't a fluke and that Web programs can make the jump to DVD or television.
The path between the two has seen its share of failures (remember NBC's Quarterlife?) But with efforts from Sony, Warner Bros., Fox Television Studios and others, the window is beginning to creak open.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/346321-Hoping_to_Reverse_the_Online_Video_Cash_Flow.php