Content distribution is the act of promoting content to gain new customers through online channels. This can be done through owned, earned, and paid channels.
Owned channels are content published on sites that you control, such as your business blog, social media profiles, and email newsletter. These can be boosted through PR, guest articles, and social sharing.
Innovative Entertainment
The media industry is in a period of constant evolution. Consumer behavior dynamism, technological innovation and competitive intensity are pushing media and entertainment companies to reframe their business models.
This is particularly true in the film and television content space. While some of these business model shifts are landscape-shifting megamergers (such as AT&T’s pending acquisition of Time Warner) others are more targeted, such as the purchase of smaller studios with localized production capabilities and expertise in international markets.
In both cases, the goal is to offer a deeper lineup of desirable programming to attract and keep consumers. This requires a content library that is constantly growing. It also means that Buyers must be able to source, negotiate and close licensing deals much more quickly than in the past – ideally, in days and weeks rather than 3-6 months. This is where new content distribution platforms like Vuulr are transforming the industry by cutting costs, time and complexity of film and TV-content deals.
Off-Network Distribution is the New Reality
In television and radio, syndication is the process of selling a program’s broadcast rights to multiple stations without going through a central network. This gives content producers and distributors more control over their audience and allows them to distribute shows that might not have reached a large enough audience through centralized networks. Broadcast stations also benefit from syndication, as they can air nationally-recognized personalities and gain access to programs they might not have otherwise been able to acquire for themselves.
OTT Licensing Models
Content owners that use OTT streaming can monetize video content using several different pricing models. For example, SVOD (Subscription Video on Demand) services like Netflix and Hulu charge subscribers a recurring monthly fee for access to an extensive library of on-demand videos. Other OTT services, such as YouTube Premium, provide ad-supported free content or subscription-based ad-free video, while others like AVOD charge users for individual movies and TV shows.
Many OTT services also offer a transactional VOD (Video on Demand) model, where operators pay a one-time fee to purchase or rent video content. These transactions are often made for specific events such as live sports or one-off movies.
With these multiple monetization and pricing models, balancing the scales for licensing negotiations can be challenging for content owners. However, leveraging data-driven content analysis can give content owners the insight they need to forecast performance on different platforms or predict which monetization model will generate the most revenue.
OTT Subscription Models
OTT apps like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video offer both subscription based access to a vast library of content (SVOD) and also provide consumers the ability to rent or purchase individual video content on demand (TVOD). The hybrid monetization model is popular amongst streaming platforms and allows users to watch their favorite shows and movies when they want.
Distributors self-report revenue share performance metrics, and it is often challenging for content owners to verify that their distributors are in compliance with agreement terms – especially when managing agreements at scale. This complexity, along with the short duration of OTT distribution agreements compared to traditional Pay TV 3-5 year partnerships, creates significant challenges for content owners when calculating and tracking revenue.
A robust OTT solution like Endavo eliminates the need for manual data entry and helps to simplify and streamline the revenue management process. The solution aggregates distributor and content data in one place, tracks consumer transactions, and delivers accurate, data-driven content valuations to support a revenue-optimized licensing strategy.
