As newspapers and magazines continue to adopt metered paywalls, could online video be next?
New York-based Press+, the company that pioneered the text-based article meter currently in use by 450 content groups around the world (including Postmedia in Canada), has introduced a new product designed to help content companies monetize online video.
Like its text-based counterpart, Press+’s new video metering service enables viewers to consume a certain amount of content for free before being asked to pull out their credit card. Newspaper publishers typically give consumers free access to 7-10 articles a month before urging them to subscribe.
The new video service launched with the Courtroom View Network (CVN), an online service that provides streaming video of court trials on its website and on YouTube. Press+ co-founder Steven Brill said the company has sold “a dozen or so” subscriptions to its channel since it began testing the model earlier this month.
The service works best with longer videos that engage viewers and leave them wanting more, said Brill. With companies such as Yahoo and AOL actively creating original online video, there’s no shortage of potential customers.
Most appealing to content companies, said Brill, is the fact the video metering service enables them to retain advertising revenue from existing platforms like pre-roll video while adding an entirely new revenue stream.
“The CPMs for video advertising are still a lot higher than they are for text pages, but they’re falling rapidly,” said Brill. “We know they’re not going to be enough to sustain a quality product any more than advertising alone is enough to sustain a quality text product.”
Speaking of the text-based product, Brill said that number of free articles being offered by online publishers has been steadily falling; the average number of monthly freebies offered by U.S. publishers is currently around seven per month.
“Publishers realize they don’t lose any ad revenue, and as CPMs keep going down, the more eager they are to solicit people to pay.” Brill predicted there will always be free content as a way to let consumers sample the product before making a financial commitment.
