The inaugural OVPSummit went well in conjunction with StreamingMedia West which supposedly had record breaking attendance this year. Overall, there was not a huge turnout for the OVPS portion of the show with only 47 registrants and 90-ish OVPS + SMW registrants. The bulk of the floor was occupied by OVP booths and the attendee list was mostly the same. It was basically an inside industry event which had its benefits for me as I was able to meet many of the people running the platforms which make up the VidCompare database. It was a pleasure to speak with everyone and to hear their resounding support of VidCompare.com.
A personal highlight of the show was sitting on the opening panel, Defining Online Video Platforms, with Ron from Kaltura, Alex from Delve Networks, and Bismarck from Ooyala. Following are the questions which were asked of us and my responses:
1. In 50 words or less, define what an online video platform is.
- An OVP is typically a SaaS based business offering top to bottom video solutions including ingestion, encoding, storage, management, analytics, syndication, and playback of video.
2. What are the main functions and features customers should be looking for when evaluating online video platforms?
- It’s important to know your use case for online video prior to getting started with your search. Identifying the purpose of your video effort be it a start-up marketer looking to extend brand reach and increase time spent on site, a large media publisher looking for content management, syndication, and distribution, or a SMB looking for an internal training solution with multiple log-ins, and administrative rights. Once you’ve identified your needs you can look for a provider who can accommodate the top 4-5 features that address your goals.
3. What about as we look down the road two or three years? What sort of features will online video platforms be offering then that aren’t available now?
- 2 – 3 years is a long way out but I think by then TV everywhere will be adequately addressed as well as the movement towards TV and OV oneness therefore OVPs will need to provide more holistic solutions to further blur the lines between them. I think OVPs will grow beyond partnerships and meld with the CDNs, search and discovery players, and the ad networks. I don’t think it’s going to be a features race but rather a movement towards ubiquity and completeness.
4. Does it make sense for some organizations to simply use free players like YouTube? And at the other end of the spectrum, does it make sense for some businesses to build their own platform? What factors go into the decision to build your own, use a free service, or invest in the kind of online video platforms that are being shown here at the summit?
- Well, we’re attending the OV-P-Summit, not the OV-DIY-Summit so I think the argument is in favor of the Platform today. Online video, for the most part, is a strategic purchase made typically by a marketing manager with light technical skills and little to no engineering resources at their disposal. That said, the top-to-bottom solutions that an OVP can provide are invaluable to the VP of marketing with a tight budget. YouTube does not address B2B needs completely and is therefore not an option in my opinion other than to test the video waters and to get your feet wet. Today marketers need to expose their brand in new and far-reaching ways with built-in viral and social tools, they need to drive traffic to their site, not someone else’s, and they need to know exactly what their content is doing and how it’s performing at any given moment.
5. We’ve got an entire session devoted to monetization tomorrow, but what are the most effective ways for business to monetize their video? Should most organizations even be looking at video as something to be monetized directly?
- We’re still in our infancy as an industry especially when it comes to monetizing video with very few standards, and not enough premium content to turn a profit. CNN can demand $75 CPMs but not many others can do the same without a million streams a minute. Businesses should look to their already high value web pages and rather than monetizing video directly, monetize pages with video turning 3.2 second bounces into 2.3 minute clicks to Leaderboards, skyscrapers and high-value site sponsorships.
I’m looking forward to next year’s event, Eric and Larry did a fantastic job organizing and managing OVPSummit and I’m sure learned a lot to add to next year. According to Joel, SM Publisher, SMW will be in LA next year so I guess we’ll be traveling next go around.
I’ll soon have video of the opening panel which I will post shortly along with an interview by Mark Robertson of ReelSEO.
We’re seeing 2010 predictions emerge in the Online Video space by industry leaders and it provides for interesting reading. That being said, there’s nothing shocking being stated, or rather, there are no big surprises or prognostications of something new to come. Everyone tends to agree on what to expect in the New Year including the much hyped TV Everywhere, set-top boxes, multiple screens, and of course, mobile.
I’ve culled together a short-list of success factors we’ve seen in the Online Video Platform space so far in 2009. Be it funding rounds, acquisitions, or product launches…these efforts stand out to me this year:
You know an industry is on a serious growth trajectory when a conference is created to support it. We’ve all seen the numbers; 41% YOY growth in online video views as reported by Nielsen last month, and more than 168 Million U.S. viewers watched online video in September, streaming nearly 26 Billion total views according to ComScore. 
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