Opportunopoly

Online media opportunities abound if publishers are but willing to look beyond their traditional definitions. Opportunopoly examines emerging technology and market game-changers, thought leaders and, well, opportunities that may lie beyond the usual newspaper comfort zone.

It’s no secret that news organizations – even major ones like NPR and ABC News – have used YouTube as their video backbone for some time. Not only is it free, it affords access to the largest pool of video viewers online. Some of these marquee players have been afforded special status to create channels on the Internet’s video cache and share in ad revenue driven by viewership, but now the company seems to be willing to open the doors to any and all news organizations.

The new offering is called YouTube “Direct” and the program will allow Webcasters to integrate the functionality of YouTube directly to their own sites. (Something that's been relatively easy to "hack" anyway.) As YouTube portrays the advance, it hands the controls to the video producer, allowing producers to “request, review, and re-broadcast user submitted video with ease.” Using the YouTube API, the video destination site can tailor the look and feel of its YouTube viewer and its surroundings, even allowing user-generated video (“citizen journalism” for the newsies out there) to be uploaded to YouTube and become viewable directly from the publisher’s site.

A video CMS seems to accompany the offering, because one of its features is a “moderation panel” that allows editors to review and either approve or reject all submitted videos, “deciding which ones meet your organization’s editorial criteria” before they go live. All videos that pass the test of acceptability and relevance will include a link back to the publisher’s site when they're posted on YouTube.

This is undoubtedly a relief to some organizations who withdrew from YouTube’s earlier content channel offering when it became clear that YouTube, not necessarily the publisher, was exercising editorial control. (I detailed some of the thornier issues in my Opportunopoly blog posting more than a year ago.)

Some of the advertising issues may be TBD, but this at least represents YouTube’s effort to mature into the kind of video repository that can make the next leap into the home viewing channel of the future.

This year’s CES, now taking place in Las Vegas, is replete with hundreds of new devices that incorporate Internet video and audio networks – we covered the coming inclusion of Pandora in many new devices at last month’s digiday:APPS show in Los Angeles. NetFlix is making a bid to upgrade its streaming video offering by cutting a deal yesterday with Warner Brothers to wait 28 days before making new releases available for consumer distribution via DVD and online. (WSJ.com  notes that live video streaming by NetFlix subscribers jumped 20 percent in the third quarter.) NetFlix CEO Reed Hastings told CNBC that more than 100 new devices made their debut at CES this year “with NetFlix built right in.”

Asked whether online behemoths Apple with its iTunes store or Amazon posed a competitive threat to NetFlix' enhanced streaming business, he essentially said that one-off purchases would certainly find synergy on these popular platforms (and probably Hulu as well, though he didn’t name this platform specifically.) But for people looking to subscribe to a service that offered them access to more than 100,000 titles, including new releases, for less than $9/month, a NetFlix subscription remained a good value play, Hastings said. 

Lurking over YouTube’s shoulder, Cisco made an interesting bid for the video content creation space last March with its acquisition of Pure Digital Technologies, maker of the popular Flip camcorder. At the time, observers thought it was likely Cisco would be building in Flip integration with its Linksys Media Hubs, something that eventually could morph into some kind of personal or family-centric video cloud.

Our observation is this: everyone may be a videographer, but there remains an appetite for “news” video by reputable providers. Giving such entities the tools to till their own video gardens is long overdue by YouTube and a definite sign that the portal acknowledges the need to share the wealth with those channels that can raise the bar on its content offerings. News providers can’t follow NetFlix’s example and turn these channels into potential subscription plays, however, without Google (YouTube’s owner) being willing to take the next step: permitting pay-per-view or subscription models.

Note that this is a step Google already has taken for paid content providers who allow the search giant to scan and index their site information. Essentially, it would allow site-published video to be discoverable via YouTube, but only viewable on the publisher’s site. Publishers could, conversely, only upload excerpts of longer form stories (YouTube said nothing about lifting its 10-minute limit in its information page on the new service), or adopt some form of the YouTube channel scheme that allows them to sell video overlays and keep the revenue. But it's well past time to have this conversation.

YouTube was at least open enough to ask potential “Direct” program participants what they planned to do with their improved opportunities. Doubtless, what the company hears will cause it to change the landscape once again.

DM2Events is planning a video “upfront” half-day conference in NYC in April to explore all the digital ad delivery options available to agencies and brands in what will undoubtedly make 2010 “the year that it happens” for online video. As the kinds of reputable content providers who would benefit from better access to online video advertisers, I’d welcome your suggestions on what would be the most useful take-aways from such an event (email Melinda.gipson at gmail.com.)

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