Charles has joined the Filmaka.com team
By Charles | December 23, 2008
As a result, I will not be writing any entries on this blog for awhile..
At Filmaka, I am working on:
Community Development, Content Distribution, Business Development, Ad Sales, and many other projects..
Topics: community engagement, content programming, distribution, monetization, online video, p2p | No Comments »
Youtube “Hot Spots” is launched
By Charles | September 30, 2008
Google has released a new Youtube analytics tool, called Hot Spots, that allows video publishers to track when users “jump ship.” It effectively allows a content producer to understand when a user’s interest waxes and wanes. This is an interesting development, it has broad implications for the creation of content. Filmmakers and advertisers will be able to use the data to design content so that it can keep the audience engaged. However, many filmmakers do not always understand the digital video world and in many cases do not realize that tools like Tubemogul, Google Analytics, Comscore, and Quantcast exist. So, only the most savvy will get the most out of this tool. I suspect that the tool will be used by ad agencies more than anyone. Now, they need a way for youtube account holders to share their account data tools with 3rd parties, like a “read only” google doc authorization.
Topics: community engagement, content programming, distribution, monetization, online video | No Comments »
Hulu’s Content Strategy (???)
By Charles | September 23, 2008
I have been a fan of Hulu’s since it was launched. The UI is simple and clean, and the content is excellent. The b2c value proposition is very clear. Consumers enjoy the Hulu experience; and as a result Hulu is now one of the top 10 video sites in the US.
Lately, I’ve been spending more time thinking about Hulu from the b2b perspective. One question that has been on my mind is how they decide which films and shows to take, and which ones to leave on the shelves.
“Popular video aggregator Hulu… says it now has roughly 900 titles from more than 100 providers…”
I am surprised to see that Hulu has 100 content providers. I have browsed through a lot of the content on their site and have recognized the brands of many different rights owners that have licensed their content to Hulu. (In many cases, I have already worked with the digital media BD teams at each company.)
With the proliferation of new media brands like Strike TV, Next New Networks, Filmaka, etc.; I wonder where they will draw the line. How will Hulu’s gatekeepers decide who can enter and who must remain outside in the cold? How are the content programming schedules created?
These questions are meant to be open-ended. I look forward to watching Hulu as it evolves…
Topics: content programming, distribution, online video | No Comments »
YouTube Is the Most Viable Distributor
By Charles | July 21, 2008
From TubeMogul:
“YouTube’s market share is large, but less clear is whether a typical video uploaded to YouTube gets more views than videos uploaded elsewhere. Curious, we turned to the data, which is unequivocal: on average, videos uploaded to YouTube consistently get more views than any other site, regardless of category.”
(iTunes is the most viable est/vod platform. Keep in mind that TubeMogul does not track everything.)
Topics: Uncategorized, distribution, online video | No Comments »
Adweek: “Why Brands Need a New Kind of Leader”
By Charles | July 14, 2008
Check out this article in Adweek. [ link ]
Topics: community engagement, p2p | No Comments »
Youtube Content Progamming, Wholphin Soars!
By Charles | July 7, 2008
I’ve been curious about how much traffic the Youtube Screening Room can generate for the films that it features, so I’ve been looking at some of the data. During this process, I came across some interesting data that shows a huge spike in traffic for the Wholphin film label.
It looks like the Wholphin has done very well in the last few days. On July 5th, Wholphin content generated ~560K views, which represents 89% of all the views that Wholphin has generated on Youtube since they first opened their account on November 14, 2006.
(Please ignore the stats for the first data point. The data was not being tracked at that point, so it appears as a zero.)
The red line represents a film titled “The Big Empty,” which has been featured in the Youtube Screening Room. It generated ~138K views when it was featured on the Screening Room main video playback space. The film’s traffic dropped significantly once it was removed from the main video playback space, the following day the number of views dropped down to ~57K.
Another film, which was not featured in the Screening Room, generated more traffic. “Are You The Favorite Person of Anybody?” generated ~274K views on July 5th; the film had been seen ~5K times for the entire month prior. The data for this film is represented by the green line on the graph. Its clear that this traffic was created by the content programming team at Youtube, given that the film’s data shows that it was featured on many of the regional sites:
So, it can be very helpful to catch the attention of the content programming team at Youtube..
Wholphin films are cool. Check them out.
Topics: Uncategorized, content programming, distribution, online video | No Comments »
Scobleizer on the “Participation Premium”
By Charles | July 7, 2008
Tech guru and blogger Robert Scoble just wrote an article on his blog about a phenomenon called the “Participation Premium.” All of the points that he raises are very true.
I have found the “Participation Premium” theory to be true for online video content. It is very possible for an individual video or web video series to become a success on its own. However, I think that it is fair to say that the majority of series that have been successful are the ones that understand that it is important to give your audience ways to engage with the content.
Back in July of 2007, I attended a Newteevee Pier Screenings event at the Metreon in San Francisco. Liz Gannes interviewed Greg Goodfried, a creator of Lonelygirl15. Read the article, its very interesting.
I am not sure if it is really worthwhile for content creators to use some of the more complex strategies that Greg discusses in the interview. However, given the proliferation of web video content, it is more and more important to engage with online communities in compelling ways. After all, its going to be increasingly difficult to get content in front of online audiences. People only have so much time to engage with entertainment products…
News from that front:
Strike.TV is launching a consortium of more than 40 online shows coming from Hollywood guild members. The platform was inspired by the writers’ strike. Read about it on Newteevee.
Topics: community engagement, distribution, online video | No Comments »
P2P Networks, Engaging the Audience
By Charles | July 6, 2008
It is very clear that some of the network television shows and Hollywood feature films that appear on p2p networks are leaked by insiders. Sometimes its done by “rogue elements” within a media company. In other cases, it has become a marketing strategy for ad agencies and in-house teams in the media industry. Marketing and content development execs attempt to understand whether or not a entertainment product can become popular with mainstream audiences by watching how it performs with the early adopters of technology who use p2p networks.
There are a few questions should frame the practice of releasing content onto p2p networks:
- How can content creators leverage p2p communities to increase the awareness about their films or tv shows?
- If a show becomes popular on p2p networks before it is released to mainstream audiences, how can the buzz that is created fan the flames for the mainstream product release?
- How can we communicate with p2p communities to receive constructive criticism that will lead to the creation of better content?
Here are a few of my thoughts about how this can be done:
1) Creating content that fits the demographic. (this is by far the most important factor)
2) Blog outreach
3) IRC chat rooms
4) Participate on usenet and p2p discussion forums, trackers
5) Google Adsense campaigns that target p2p keywords
6) Distribute the content on Vuze. (Disclaimer, I am a former employee.)
7) Create open venues for discussion about the entertainment product where the audience can engage with the creators of the content, and give feed back. (flickr photo blogs of the production, wiki forums, live streaming video sessions with the cast, etc..)
Newteevee has written an article about the Fall 2008 broadcast television shows and how many of the pilots have appeared on BitTorrent trackers around the world. Its definitely worth reading, check it out here.
Topics: community engagement, distribution, online video, p2p | No Comments »
Top Torrent Sites Ranked by Google
By Charles | July 6, 2008
Google Trends data mapping the popularity of BitTorrent trackers is available here.
.
Topics: distribution, online video, p2p | No Comments »
The Effects of Youtube Content Programming Decisions for Content Providers
By Charles | July 5, 2008
Lets take a look at some Tubemogul data for three different short film brands that have content on Youtube…
Please visit their websites to learn more about each company:
Future Shorts
Filmaka
Movieola
Their Youtube channels are here:
Future Shorts
Filmaka
Movieola
Lets jump into the data…
Tubemogul data for Future Shorts:
This data shows:
Future Shorts generates ~9000 views on Youtube per day on its own.
When their content was featured on June 8, 2008; Future Shorts generated ~119K views for the day. If you scroll to the right, within the embedded graph, you can see that Future Shorts had ~190K views on May 11th.
Tubemogul data for Filmaka:
Tubemogul data for Movieola:
The graphs for Filmaka and Movieola show that their metrics are fairly low.
As far as the content is concerned, there is not a large difference in the quality. All three companies have uploaded innovative short films to their Youtube accounts. What accounts for the large difference in the audience engagement figures?
The primary difference between the companies is that Filmaka has been included in Youtube’s content programming scheduling, while Filmaka and Movieola have not.
I have worked with the founders of all three companies. I think that part of the reason for the differences in the audience engagement for their content comes down to the amount of time that each company has spent in promoting its brand on the internet. This takes more than just signing distribution deals. [No offense intended, my friends. ;)] Future Shorts is by far one of the most dynamic teams I have worked with during my time in the digital media industry, so I am not surprised that they are one of the most successful brands in the digital content space for short films.
However, there are many strategies that could be used to make several of the Filmaka or Movieola videos viral, without needing Youtube’s help on the content programming side. My feeling is that Youtube is much more willing to give traffic to brands that have shown that some of their videos can go viral on their own. All this takes is a very deep understanding of the algorithms that control the automated “real estate” on any video portal, and then coordinating blogs, fans, and their facebook / myspace / twitter / friendfeed / stumbleupon networks to push as much traffic as possible to the content during the first few hours that it is online. The goal here is to get the video onto the “most viewed” page for that day, then for the week, then for the month. Once an initial seed is planted that can help the content get in front of the Youtube community, the community will decide if the content is worth paying attention to. The coordination of web 2.0 spaces to push traffic during the first few hours just helps the content stand out long enough that the organic engagement on Youtube can help the video appear in front of more Youtube users. From there, if people like it, the video will travel into the blogosphere and the email conduits.
In the long run, if a content company is very adept at selling its own ad inventory, Youtube may be more willing to feature their content over other brands; regardless of its preexisting fan base on Youtube. Given the new web video distribution strategies announced by the Google Content Network, I think this will be more and more common as time goes on.
I will be analyzing the data from Youtube’s new “Screening Room” during the next few weeks and will be positing my findings shortly thereafter.. Use my RSS feed to stay tuned..
For your viewing pleasure, a very short film from Future Shorts:
Topics: content programming, distribution, monetization, online video | No Comments »
