Let Your Video Free, and Make Money?
What if content creators could distribute a file with embedded, clickable ads, and then let that file loose on the web? Viewers could watch it as much as they like, move it between computers and devices, and share it with friends or peer-to-peer networks — with ads that follow at every step, and even updated by the content creator dynamically when a user is on a device with a network connection. That’s the promise of Hiro, and according to Robert Cringely, one of the major networks will be deploying their technology this week.
It’s not an entirely new idea — YuMe Networks is powering a similar solution for downloads of G4 TV on BitTorrent. And as Cringely points out, similar functionality is planned for Adobe’s new web player.
The technology is based on Windows Media Player, making it a nice fit with Microsoft’s new Silverlight. This means that it probably doesn’t support the iPod or Apple TV, though the site promises that Realplayer and Quicktime support will also be added. For now, it seems that they’re primarily marketing the product to large companies, such as broadcast and cable networks.
What I can’t find are any specimens in the wild, so the particulars of the viewing experience remain something of a mystery. And I have little doubt that enterprising hackers will figure out how to extract the content. The assumption is that the majority won’t know how, and only part of the minority that does won’t bother, as we’re all pretty used to commercial breaks by now.
While I wait to hear back from the Hiro team in Israel, please sound off in the comments: Which would you prefer — a freely distributable video file with embedded ads, a paid download with no ads but DRM, or none of the above?
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I think that’s a great idea. We are currently offering our breakdance instructionals videos for free and making money through DVD Sales on amazon as well as through Cruxy–www.cruxy.com
I have to say, I really do like this idea. Especially if the ads can be somehow personalized for the video. I think this is what will be key. Some way, a tagging system perhaps, that matches tags of ads to tags of videos. This way, the ad you are seeing won’t seem annoying like a television commercial–along the lines of Adworks I guess.
Either way, it’s all happening! Check out our videos, for free, at http://youtube.com/profile?user=ElasticIllusion
:)
Brit
THE ROBOTS
Brit Wolfson on April 20th, 2007 at 1:57 pm - Permalink
This idea has been around for awhile, including alternative forms of embedded advertising, such as branding ‘bugs’, see
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1720068211869162779&q=piracy+is+good
I think it is a great idea, as long as the advertising is not too intrusive to the user.
Marco Parente
CacheLogic CDN
Marco Parente on April 20th, 2007 at 2:52 pm - Permalink
The video advertising technical hurdle is when “user-generated” video is moved from site to site and media player to media player (like WMP to Flash). When the video is placed on YouTube or Yahoo Video it is converted from its orginal into Flash or other format for the purpose of a) keeping the size of the file small and b) letting the viewers use a single video player when on the site. What happens during the conversion is that the ad code gets stripped out. When the ad code gets stripped out an ad delivering media company – like TremorMedia, DoubleClick or BurstMedia – can no longer track impressions on the ad. Impressions equals dollars paid on CPMs. Attaching ad code to video clips that can move from site to site and be converted to different formats without deletion is a difficult task and has not been accomplished to my knowledge.
Barlow Keener on April 21st, 2007 at 7:33 am - Permalink
[...] and content providers earn per click. That way,the video can be viral and still produce revenue. New TeeVee gives more [...]
901am » New Media Wire - Mon Apr 23, 2007 on April 23rd, 2007 at 10:49 am - Permalink
[...] I love the idea of Mochila because it democratizes syndication the same way blogs have democratized media publishing. It also seems to have a good amount of support given both its existing publisher network and the money behind it. The only worry I have is that Mochila is ultimately going to find itself up against some serious heavyweights. The company talks about syndicating real, authored content, but most of its money is coming from shared ad revenues. Is Google or even Brightcove really going to sit still and let Mochila take over that market? Seems unlikely. And that’s without even mentioning newbies like Hiro. [...]
Zatz Not Funny!»Blog Archive » More on Mochila on April 30th, 2007 at 8:21 am - Permalink
[...] has been around since 2004, but only recently began to trumpet its product worldwide. Namely, a means by which video files can travel freely from official servers, across P2P networks and between friends, but upon playback display [...]
NewTeeVee » Hiro: Making Ad Insertion Dynamic on May 5th, 2007 at 10:00 am - Permalink
i would like to know more about this business if you can send me the informations about how to do a project like this thank you.
youssef johny on May 31st, 2007 at 11:32 am - Permalink