Anyways, now, I’m not sure what to do (since we run a company that wants to sell content to our users). Anyone who has a suggestion or advice is very appreciated.

I have a English/Chinese e-Learning website (www.teacherjames.com) that allows teachers to teach English to people online, and we’re targeting
Chinese/Asian students. This is what I want to do:

1. Each lesson is recorded in our system via a URL link that teacher and student can click and view at any time which streams off a local server.

2. I want to embed within each teacher’s profile page, a “Teacher’s Store” which allows teachers to sell their previously recorded lessons via links to
   students.

3. I want to allow teachers to be able to control and access which lesson links they are offering on their “Teacher’s Store” page.

4. I want to split the revenues with the teachers.

5. I want to allow teachers the ability to combine these lessons with live tutoring lessons. (this may just mean a description area that describes a
   combination package. Imagine something like:

   “Combine 5 recorded lessons with 5 live tutoring lessons for 50% off! Contact me for details!” (and the student would email the teacher).

6. Since this site is geared towards Chinese students, the webpage would need to be in Chinese as well as English.

Any feedback or advice is appreciated, either on this forum or at:

info@teacherjames.com

Best Regards,

Damon
http://www.teacherjames.com

What we hear from the larger players in the market (studios, networks, carriers) is an understanding that there is a continuum of content business models with PayMedia on one end and Ad-Supported on the other. Different content lends itself to different business models online, and their intent is to map the online business models to the offline ones so that consumers know how to properly value the offering.

That means advertising support for episodic television during the broadcast window…it’s hard to get people to pay for what they’re already getting for free. Yes, iTunes has had some success, but I’d wager the consumer use case is largely “perishable”, i.e. it’s become a way of catching a missed episode now and then rather than a replacement for brodacast viewing. As the networks are increasingly doing this for free (ad-supported) on their own websites, even this model will face continued pressure.

Exceptions to this come from the same places they do offline…PayTV services will build subscription models online, either at a premium or as an added value to existing subscribers. Similarly, I think there’s an as-yet-untapped DVD-window selling opportunity for full seasons of regular TV content.

On the studio side, we’ll be seeing paid models for some time to come. Yes, they’ll need to get the pricing right (wholesale and consumer) or risk the same meltdown we saw with the the first-gen EST services. And liberal usage terms will also aid consumer acceptance. But they’re simply not going to risk de-valuing their offline business models (theatre, DVD) until it’s in a much more severe state of decline than it is today.

Brightcove’s customers largely weren’t using them for their PayMedia services, so it makes sense to abandon the offering. We’re still seeing both PayMedia and Advertising models being pursued aggressively by our customers, and will continue to serve those needs.

We tested the pay media option and our users proved by their lack of interest that it was not for us. I figured that it was more related to the content offered for sale but this shows that we were not an anomaly.

It seems that consumers just don’t like BC’s pay media service but I am sure that other, less restrictive services will eventually thrive.

J