Where's the Money?

The full screen experience

Just a quick post to highlight something I saw this morning..... I read a lot of information about the economics of second screen, streaming distribution......yeah, usually it's a lot of hype and mind numbing information that doesn't really talk about the meat of the matter, where's the money, who's paying and what's the payoff?  So I thought I'd share this link from one of the myriad of people out there (Viaway) looking to distribute and monetize content.  Again, this is more of a "take a look at this" post, than an analysis.  Mostly, I was surprised to see actual numbers for compensation.

I'll summarize [emphasis added by me]:

1. Per minute and subscription royalties:

For professional video content (no cats allowed):  "$0.001 per minute watched.  For example, if 10,000 users watch your 2 hour show, your [sic] earn $1,200."

For professional Audio content: "0.0003 per minute watched. For example, if 10,000 users listen to your 2 hour show, your [sic] earn $360."

2. Pay-per-view royalty (Video on demand)

50% of the rental price of the content.

I don't have a lot of time to talk about this today, however, I think the models do raise interesting questions.  My previous post spoke about the importance of engaging user experience.  When you start talking about per minute or subscription models, it really starts getting interesting.   Now, you're in a marketplace where you're getting paid by the minute watched, in a world where the reality is ever diminishing attention spans for content.  How do you engage viewers long enough to make a profit at $0.0001 per minute per viewer?  Especially if you're content is on a channel which is taking a slice of that?  I'll try to look into this more, I see that that content is offered as a channel in the Roku Channel Store and other places, including via Android and iOS apps.

I honestly have no idea what's happening here, I'd love to hear the overarching vision from someone in-the-know. Fascinating.  Frankly, it is always ominous to me when I see video content listed alongside Pandora, iTune Radio and the other music streaming sites, given what musicians earn from those services.  The subscription options for Viaway are here.

How far are we from a day when you will be able to create your own online channels of content and pay just for the technical infrastructure?  How does this compare to the evolving YouTube advertising type model?  What are the opportunities, or is this just another  treadmill of diminishing income for content creators?  Who will be able to market their content, so it isn't lost in the tsunami of content created every day?  So many questions today.