Category Archives: Monetize Video

Netflix’s international competitors

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Scott Roxborough reports in The Hollywood Reporter on Netflix’s international competition.

He says:

“Since Netflix took its streaming video service truly global in 2016, the company has pretty much had the market to itself. But things are about to get very crowded, very fast. While Disney and Apple roll out their own services — with WarnerMedia and NBCUniversal hot on their heels — scores of local players, in Spain and Singapore, Britain and Berlin, are pushing into the SVOD market, looking to occupy at least a portion of Netflix-controlled territory.”

Here’s a list of some of the countries and the contenders:

  1. Britain: BritBox
  2. France: Canal+Series
  3. France: Salto
  4. Germany: TV Now
  5. Germany: ProSiebenSat.1
  6. Spain: Rakuten TV
  7. Spain: Moviestar
  8. Scandinavia: Viaplay
  9. India: Hotstar
  10. Malaysia: iFlix
  11. Indonesia: Hooq
  12. China: iQiyi
  13. China: Tencent
  14. China: Youku

My take: Everyone has woken up and realized there’s a battle for the eyeballs to be won — or lost. As TV continues to decline and mobile continues to rise, old media needs to reinvent itself to take on Netflix, which is itself in its second incarnation. The two advantages they have are their localness and their non-Americanism. However, I think there are big improvements waiting to be made in how viewers discover content. Two ideas: the SJ (Streaming Jockey) who is the next version of the VJ (who was the next version of the DJ) and Viewing Clubs that allow you to band to together with like-minded folks to share recommendations and even comment on things you’re all watching at the same time (I think there’s something like this in Asia already.) This would be one strategy for all the smaller platforms to band together and collectively build their audiences.

European Parliament bends digital single market for indie films

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Scott Roxborough relates in The Hollywood Reporter that the Indie Film Business Wins European Territory Rights Battle.

Recall that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker had a vision where:

“…we must create a digital single market for consumers and businesses – making use of the great opportunities of digital technologies which know no borders. To do so, we will need to have the courage to break down national silos in telecoms regulation, in copyright and data protection legislation, in the management of radio waves and in competition law. If we do this, we can ensure that European citizens will soon be able to use their mobile phones across Europe without having to pay roaming charges. We can ensure that consumers can access music, movies and sports events on their electronic devices wherever they are in Europe and regardless of borders.”

This threatened the traditional country-by-country pre-sales strategy filmmakers have used to raise money for their budgets in Europe, fearing the digital single market would mean distributors could pay for one territory and get 27 for free. Roxborough first reported on this four years ago; see What’s Behind a Europe Plan That Would “Destroy” Independent Film.

Late last month, in the midst of Brexit, the European Parliament finally got around to approving this legislation, by a vote of 460 to 53. But with a few key compromises:

“The digital single market will apply to online services for news and current affairs — meaning the BBC or Italy’s RAI can offer their online reporting to anyone in Europe. The same applies to productions, including films and TV series, that are fully financed by a single network. But co-productions or films pre-sold in the traditional manner, as well as sports rights, are excluded from the new law. Here the old rules apply: online platforms will have to clear rights in each territory they want to operate in.”

My take: So it’s a blending of old and new. The “fully-financed” stream is interesting because I think it means rich producers (Netflix et al) will be able to treat Europe as one 500-million-viewer territory. Truly indie filmmakers though will still have access to traditional pre-sales, cobbling together an amalgam of territories, soft money and some actual investment in order to raise enough cash to shoot. I know which avenue sounds easier to me.

Filmocracy deserves your support

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There’s an interesting project on Kickstarter I want you to seriously consider funding: Filmocracy.

Paul Jun and his team are developing a streaming platform for independent filmmakers that gamifies watching new movies and rating them.

Ratings won’t be simply thumbs up or thumbs down. Instead, viewers will be able to select 1-5 for:

  • Plot
  • Characters
  • Cinematography
  • Performances
  • Dialogue
  • Sound/Music
  • Overall

Half of revenue will be returned to filmmakers based on time screened with another 10% going to viewers.

Check out their pitch and please contribute.

My take: I think this is an interesting model that might just take off. Gaming is huge so why not gamify indie streaming? I’m a backer!

The (almost) free self-distribution strategy

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Three self-distribution lessons today from L.A. filmmaker Noam Kroll.

Two have no cost, so I’m keenly interested.

Noam shares the distribution strategy for his latest feature Shadows on the Road: TVOD for two months, then SVOD and finally AVOD.

For the Transactional Video on Demand (TVOD) window, Noam chose Distribber ($1,500) to place his film on iTunes. He promoted it hard and was in the black within months because the budget was so low ($12,000.) Later he added it to Vimeo On Demand for international audiences.

For the Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) window, Noam used Prime Video Direct ($0) to place the film on Amazon Prime.

For the Ad-based Video on Demand (AVOD) window, Noam used FilmHub ($0) to place the film elsewhere — they have ~75 other platforms. You may or may not have heard of many of these: TubiTV, Fandor, Filmocracy, etc.

His goal with this strategy was to break even and then maximize his exposure.

My take: thank you, Noam, for being so transparent here. The key to this successful strategy is to set the financial bar low enough that you can recoup your budget within a few months and then build as many fans as possible.

Distribution lessons learned the hard way

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Avril Speaks, writing on Dear Producer, shares her recent experience with the distribution of Jinn by Orion.

“I recently had a conversation with a friend who used to work in distribution and she said, ‘Distributors make money off of your ignorance.’ Truer words have never been spoken.”

Avril shares these lessons:

  1. Know, Show and Prove: Every filmmaker should have an idea of what they want to happen to their film after it’s completed.
  2. “Meaningful Consultation” is Meaningless: Once you turn over your film to the distributor, it is theirs and they have the right to do with it and package it however they please.
  3. Day and Date Releases Aren’t What They Seem: Know that the focus for day-and-date releases is more on VOD than it is on theaters, which means that if you had high hopes for a theatrical presence, you might need to rethink your expectations and your marketing strategy.
  4. Negotiate Delivery: Do not sign a contract without seeing the deliverables list first.
  5. Speaking of Delivery: Your distributor will have lots of demands that are difficult for you to achieve with limited resources (which is why I advise you ask for a portion of your MG upfront).
  6. Minimum Guarantee: Ask for a portion of your MG to be paid upfront so that you can pay for delivery expenses.
  7. “Let’s just finish the film; if we get a distributor, we’ll let them handle everything else.” Your distributor will not pay for your music, they will not pay for your clearances, they will not throw you a party, they will not handle all of your marketing and press needs.
  8. Reach Out: Find yourself a community of producers who can help you walk through the process.

My take: it seems if you have a year or two to invest in your brainchild, self-distribution is an option to seriously consider.

||Superwoman|| brb???

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CBC Arts correspondent Eli Glasner reports that Canadian Youtube star Lilly Singh is taking a break. Appropriately, she made the announcement on Youtube:

Understandingly, she wants to prioritize her mental health. She is:

  1. physically, mentally and spiritually exhausted
  2. not happy with her current content
  3. confused by constant Youtube algorithm changes, and
  4. busy with her production company and other commitments

She says she will be right back but needs this break for her sanity and happiness.

Singh was 2017’s highest paid female Youtube star, earning $10.5M and tenth place. She was third on the list in 2016, earning $7.5M.

My take: clearly celebrity takes a toll. Being at the mercy of your platform must be difficult too. One day, your formula works. Some technological tweaks later, it doesn’t: it’s not you, it’s Youtube. Happened to me when Google tweaked its search algorithm and we disappeared off the main page for our search term where we’d been happily ensconced for a decade. Poof!

Facebook reach no longer organic

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Chris O’Falt, writing on IndieWire, exposes the new reality at Facebook: you might not be reaching the folks you painstakingly attracted to your pages anymore.

He interviews a number of independent filmmakers and reports:

“Facebook first announced its reemphasis on ‘friends and family’ three years ago, when Facebook first started to ‘throttle’ fan and community pages for nonprofits, films, and other organizations…. Today, Facebook film and nonprofit pages are virtually cut off from their followers, with independent filmmakers forced to pay to ‘boost’ posts to reach the followers they once reached organically through likes and shares.”

He goes on to say social media consultant Dor Dotson suggests that filmmakers should:

  1. leverage in-person relationships
  2. maintain an email list
  3. diversify platforms and
  4. experiment with micro-targeting

My take: Dor’s advice is great! I’d be interested in hearing about your experiences with Facebook. Has organic reach worked for you in the past? Do you find you need to buy ads now to get the same reach? How much are you paying? Have you explored other platforms? And most importantly, do you have your own opt-in mailing list?

Google and Facebook take lion’s share of global advertising

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CC BY-SA 3.0 Nick Youngson

Sara Fischer reports on Axios that Google and Facebook are booking “83% of every new ad dollar,” at $80.8B and $36.3B this year respectively.

These are huge percentages of the global advertising spend:

“Google’s ad revenue is roughly the same as all print ad revenue globally and Facebook’s ad revenue nearly topples all radio ad revenue globally.”

Related: the world’s biggest advertisers with country and category breakdowns.

My take: I was curious if this is a case of growing the market or of dominating the existing market. I think it’s a bit of both. Certainly mobile is where it’s at right now.

Streaming strengthens

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As Netflix releases the first trailer for its most expensive movie to date at San Diego’s Comic Con ($90 Million USD for Bright, starring Will Smith), CMF Trends explores the flourishing streaming world:

They claim one out of three homes are watching Netflix every night; one out of six are watching Youtube; and one out of 25 is watching Amazon.

“In 2016, the consumption of audio and video content amounted to 71% of evening online traffic on fixed broadband networks in North America according to Sandvine. This proportion has doubled in the past five years…. The spending shift towards streaming services can also be observed in Canada, where spending on Internet access has been higher than spending on cable TV subscription since 2015.”

The cost of all that content is exploding on an upward curve as well:

For instance, prices paid for comedy specials have doubled:

My take: I’ll tell you what drove us to Netflx: TV commercials. We didn’t mind appointment viewing for the new shows we liked but the commercials became too intrusive for all but live events (like sports and award shows). And on Netflix, if the story really grabs you, you can binge watch multiple episodes.

Indie distribution strategies

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Ben Fritz reports in The Wall Street Journal that Video on Demand Gives Low-Budget Films Wider Audience.

The sub-head continues: Amazon and Netflix can widen movies’ reach. Just don’t expect big box office.

“Indie movies have become marginalized at the box office. Most rely exclusively on VOD rentals to make their money and use short runs at a handful of theaters to generate reviews.”

He outlines three ways independent filmmakers can distribute their work:

  1. Sell the movie to a digital distributor who then releases it on tVOD platforms (upfront payment, few stats and complex accounting)
  2. Launch on sVOD services like Netflix (one payment and no eyeball stats)
  3. DIY and release on Vimeo or other outlets and do all the marketing yourself (nothing up front but full stats)

The first is closest to the old film distributor model. The third is the method that most fully embraces the potential of the new economy. However, it requires the most time and energy.

My take: which model you choose might depend on your audience. For instance, if your film is mainstream, you might be tempted to look to Netflix. However, if your film is purely indie, Vimeo might be better suited. The real problem, of course, is getting noticed. How to stand out in a crowded pond. Discoverability is the main challenge for every project and filmmaker.