When it comes to digital content, video is recognized as the most impactful way to engage, grow and delight customers. As video distribution expands across all industries and opens new business opportunities, the amount of premium-quality video has exploded, revealing a potential goldmine for increasing revenues and profits. For more on video monetization, check out our comprehensive guide to video monetization for a complete look into the nuances of video monetization.
Today, a new generation of cloud-based, online video platforms (OVPs) have emerged to level the playing field when it comes to video delivery across all formats, devices and platforms. The businesses with an eye on video as a means of winning in the market can stream, publish, distribute and monetize their content with more control than ever before.
The Rise of Video
With the rise of direct-to-consumer OTT models, there are more convenient ways than ever to consume video – and the numbers suggest that this trend will continue in a big way. The OTT market alone has experienced a 17 percent increase in OTT viewing households just in the past year (ComScore State of OTT 2018 Webinar).
Media companies are rapidly getting on board with these video trends because of the vast potential for revenue. MLB Advanced Media, the digital media arm of Major League Baseball, is a perfect example of this. It became a $1 billion business in 2016 and now powers both MLB content and live streaming for other entertainment companies.
While content has secured its place as “king” of the digital world, premium video is now the crowned jewel – because businesses are creating entirely new revenue streams and meeting the demand for video on all devices through online cloud-based services.
Premium Paid Content Wins Big
The use of OVPs to distribute content is expected to see significant growth as well. According to recent studies, the OVP market will be valued at $2.58 billion by 2025 and will grow by 16 percent. As more consumers cut the cord and look for new ways to consume content tailored to their specific interests and passions – new opportunities for video development and distribution continue to surface. As we’ve seen with MLB Advanced Media and our own customers, premium paid content has gained steam in this arena because it drives tangible ROI for video.
Entertainment networks are still looking for ways to bring more value to their content, whether they want to make the content more accessible on a variety of devices from set-top to mobile, or they want to incorporate premium paid content into the business model.This is becoming a major movement in the television entertainment space where reports predict that each “major” TV network will introduce OTT-powered, direct-to-consumer services by 2022.
Direct-to-consumer is reaching even further than major television networks, as businesses with premium video look for new ways to monetize and share the content they have developed for their audience. Industries like local sports, outdoors, faith, fitness, media and entertainment, food and cooking (to name a few), are seeing opportunity in the direct-to-consumer approach to create and distribute subscription-based content from platforms they own and control - delivering them to a captive audience that is willing to pay for the content they enjoy. They are embracing new video services that enable everything from live streaming and content distribution to advertising and subscriptions – all on a unified platform.
Video is the preferred method for modern content distribution. Growing market demands indicate massive potential for ROI and new business revenue streams. However, if businesses want to make the most of their premium content, they need to consider the changing market dynamics. As OTT trends drive direct-to-consumer approaches for video, subscription-based content will continue to thrive. Through these new methods and end-to-end platforms, companies are empowered to deliver video that their audience cares about, and it’s paying off big time now – and well into the future