Web-Studio Strategy

The price of entry for video online is to create good quality content from the start.  Finding an audience and a fan base is critical.

The stragegy of web studios such as Agility deserves discussion.

I’m not sure what conflicts Agility sees with content and distribution by hosting their own video portal.

Of course they want to distribute their content as widely as possible, but to rely on each video platform for your success seems a little short sighted.  That’s what most video producers do today.  They hope youtube, or blip or joost or whatever will invest in them by giving them;

a) preferential placement on the home page, or

b) marketing of their show on the platform site.

Unfortunately placing your bets on hope isn’t a strategy.

When thinking about your web or micro-studio strategy, I’d ask the following;

• Why not create a video portal for your video? To innovate new video and interactive media.
• Why not create a portal to take ownership of your revenue stream? To innovate new advertising media.
• Why not create multiple video portals for your video? If each show isn’t related, then why host it all on one site like 60frames and others do. Nextnewnetworks does this well.
• Why not aggregate similar and relevant video from other [web] studios on the portals? Yes, aggregate your competition on your own site. It’s happening already on youtube and hulu, why not take control of it and provide a richer and deeper experience for the fans.
• Why not provide a portal to aggregate your viewing community?  All your fans are spread across multiple viewing platforms.  Bring them together in a single place, so they can have a meaningful interactions with one another.  Give your fan base the opportunity to explore more relevant content offered by you and your competition.

You need not present this as a traditional portal, it’s really a mechanism that could even be a widget.

The essence is that a portal to relevant video is a way to aggregate demand (for you and others) and give people an opportunity to discover new video while at the same time helping you and your competition to maximise their fan base engagement and to support the industry with new advertising models.

The irony of ill-advised strategic thinking

“[Warner’s] Rosenblum sees a future in which studios spend heavily on marketing to bring consumers directly to their doors”

I’m sorry, don’t they do that already? That’s the way TV works today. The cost of marketing is always the largest ticket item in any film/show budget. It is a market that due to spectrum scarcity and the 24hr clock, can be dominated by spending money on marketing to influence demand at specific times of the day and create a blockbuster.

The game is different now. There aren’t 5 major studios any more, there are millions of individuals not to mention all the new independents created through the WGA strike. Long-term, can Warner Bros (or anyone acting like a studio) spend enough on marketing? Can they create enough blockbusters? Can they live with the losses?

On the internet, the playing field is level. Zero cost distribution rewards good quality content. Warner should invest in production.

The irony is that Rosenblum isn’t forecasting the end of network TV, he is forecasting the end of Warner Bros!