Don’t make online video content and expect to monetise it, producers warned
Content made for online video may never be possible to monetise, Yahoo7’s audience director Kath Hamilton has predicted.
Speaking at the final session of Adtech, Hamilton said that while there was a model for getting new dollars out of existing TV content, the online audience numbers made it harder to make the case for creating dedicated content.
Asked what her advice was for producers contemplating a move from TV to online, she said:
‘Stay on TB. That’s where the money is. It’s really difficult to get the revenue return for creating the content. There’s just not the numbers.
Stay on tuberculoses? Doesn’t seem like sound advice.
interesting.
TV definitely has a place in promoting brands, but with TV audiences decreasing, the ability to fast forward through the ads and the fact that people are on their ipad, iphone and cooking dinner all at the same time are you really engaging with anyone? At least online, people are choosing to view and share videos.
The point Kath and Todd are missing is that the audience IS online, there were 964 million videos viewed in Aus in Jan 2010 (comscore)
If you book with a video distribution network you will get ROI. Yahoo and NineMSN’s video inventory is expensive, (which is fine for certain briefs), but if you want reach you have to look outside the top 5.
Michelle- If its as strong as you’re saying, why do 3 TV outlets pull nearly 4B in Aus advertising revenue over a year, while 000’s of websites cant even get to that same level?
Sure, online has a place, and TV audiences are in a small decline, but some digital people are clearly delusional to the ad-power of Online vs TV. You sound like one of them.
Money talks. Full stop.
If I had money in Yahoo7 the admission by Kath Hamilton that she has no idea how to monetize content on the web would make be seriously re-assess my portfolio. It is not often that you hear senior people admit their faults so openly.
In my opinion her comments say little about upcoming industry tends and more about exactly how big the problems are Yahoo7 are.
964 million videos viewed in Aus in Jan 2010 (comscore)
Let’s actually look at this by day – works out at around 3m
3m pieces of content viewed. Apply the same logic for TV and it would be 20x higher.
964m sounds nice and big (like all digi babble stats) but the reality we all know and fail to acknowledge is the overwhelming majority (90%+) of videos are watched on that “dead” device the TV through broadcast
TV at the moment has high saturation in the household. Everybody has one and knows how to use it. As TV’s get access to the internet and TV has to compete with online videos on the same screen that is when you will see those TV stats plummet.
Logic you ain’t seen nothing yet!
I think the people in the room for the Q&A will recall my comment was about a career in online video production. It would be challenging for an individual to make a living creating original content purely for the online medium.
There was a great deal of discussion around the high yield of premium TV content online and the massive advertiser demand. Yahoo!7 is thriving in online video – thank you Ben – due to the strength of Plus7, our full TV episode destination.
I would continue to assert, as I did in yesterday’s session, that this premium video experience with the promotional support of a TV network provides the best opportunity for millions of monthly streams and video monetization.
Since we’re sold out of video inventory and continue to see strong demand from advertisers I’d repeat that we do an outstanding job monetising video online. As was also discussed yesterday Yahoo!7 is leading the push for transparency in video measurement and we hope there will be an industry solution very soon.
Im with Michelle & Ben. The proof is in the pudding!
Look at the stats, online video continues to soar at the most amazing rates. This is evident with all the new emerging online video ad networks.
Think about it, gen Y are massive perpetrators of this growth, & once gen Z kicks in, digital will surely take over!! Fortunately for you logic & anon you will probably have retired by then ;p
Logic and Anon.. TV advertising has its place, its great for mass awareness. I’m just saying how engaged is the TV audience??
I’m also responding to the point made in this article that you can’t get ROI with online video… yes you can, just not with expensive pre-rolls
POP: When you say the proof is in the pudding…
Do you mean bullshit digi stats made up by self absorbed digital wankers?
Or by proof do you mean actual real world CASH revenue?
You’re a dreamer and a battler mate.
Michelle – I’d say the TV audience are pretty engaged – look at the numbers and average viewers for key shows in prime time, plus sport etc, plus Foxtel subscription numbers etc etc
Online needs to stop trying to ‘outdo’ TV or sell by criticising another medium … there’s space for both but these big numbers/small numbers stats that are wheeled out by digital evangelists/salespeople are misleading.
You can get ROI with online video – sure – probably exactly the same as TV. The format is the same – moving pics with audio. Just because someone is watching it on their laptop doesn’t mean it’s better.
In terms of revenue, well … this is where it gets a bit funny. TV is around $3.5b PA, online video maybe $40m (excluding in banner video). Right now it’s closer to a rounding error on the financial statements of those involved in it than a real cash contributor.
Why has Karl rolled his sleeves up?
when are yahoo going to be ABA audited?
when are yahoo going to be ABA audited?
woops sorry – did that comment just get counted twice?