YouTube Video Rental Program – Friend or Foe?
I just received my invitation to join YouTube’s Video Rental program, which allows content creators to offer videos to users at various price points (from .99 on up). Another step forward in the ongoing experiment to make web video profitable, and yet…
As a YouTube consumer myself, I can’t say that I could ever see myself leaping to pay to view a video. It seems YouTube was built on the premise of free, and people are now accustomed to that. That said, I could see this program being successful in the future (at least, I REALLY WANT it to be successful.)
For those who decide to experiment with the program, here are the types of videos I would think would be the most successful to sell:
1. Niche Information - On a site like YouTube, you could reach a larger niche audience and offer a much lower premium on your informational content. I LOVE how-to books, so I don’t see a reason why this couldn’t work on the YouTube Rental space as well. For people who want to be bloggers, for example, they could either buy a blogging e-book for $10 or rent a $0.99 DVD.
2. Exclusivity - celebrities and web celebrities with major platforms could use the YouTube rental service to offer fans exclusive content. For example, Lady Gaga offering an inside look into her recording studio. Taylor Swift taking you backstage before a concert. YouTube celeb Phil DeFranco offering his fans a “Day In the Life” video. For people who are die-hard fans, $0.99 for an exclusive peak into their idols’ lives isn’t that bad of a deal…
3. Porn - well, maybe not porn. But ‘racier’ content could find a home in the YouTube Video Rental program. People are more willing to pay to watch premium content, so it makes sense that an “R” rated version of a video be released under the payment caveat. Wonder what would have happened to ‘Wrong Hole’ if it had been offered as a premium? It probably wouldn’t have become a viral hit, but I guarantee that more than a few people would have paid….if not just out of curiosity alone.
Have any of you experimented with the YouTube Video Rental program or know anyone who has? If not, do you think it could work, and if so, how can creators integrate it into their web series/web video strategy?
I too was contacted by Youtube to join their rental program last November. I have over 100 how to videos on various home improvement projects. Just last week I completed the application and enabled 2 of my most viewed videos for rental. So far I am still trying to figure out how to see if downloads of those 2 videos have occured. Will give a status update in a month, after I have given it some time and maybe enabled a few more videos for rental.
April 7, 2010 at 10:51 am,
If people would actually pay for it (i.e. not hack or go to a different site) I think it could work well to have “regular” YouTube for your basic videos and then some kind of advanced ($$$) tier for movies and webseries and music videos and whatnot. Rick Rolling would still be free though. ;)
But I’m not sure how many people would be willing to pay for something like that. If commenters are any indication, YouTube has a pretty rabid fanbase and they (or at least a good deal of them) could just leave altogether or hack/torrent everything.
And people already feel like they pay too much for stuff anyway, and not just entertainment.
Just my thoughts. I actually kind of modeled the idea off of wrestling, boxing, and MMA where you get some of the minor fights for free and they want you to pay for the bigger stuff.
March 16, 2010 at 8:20 pm,
I was contacted in November and asked to join YouTube’s rental program as a partner. As a producer of 21 sports instructional videos for Little League, soccer, basketball coaches etc., I was somewhat skeptical. With that said, the first month I had 20 downloads which might seem small. When I became part of Amazon’s Video On Demand program, I had 8 downloads the first month and that program has grown steadily but slowly. My doubt with this program has taken a 180 degree turn and I see this becoming huge. If and when they set up affiliates programs for this, it will score big. Also the recent popularity of hand held devices and Apps will also help stimulate this program.
But it will not happen overnight!
March 14, 2010 at 9:29 pm,
Thanks for sharing, Marty. Very interesting. Like I guessed in my post, I think that instructional vids could work well overtime….
March 25, 2010 at 4:09 pm,
I’d pay $ for an informative video on how to make exclusive porn with a celebrity.
March 13, 2010 at 1:41 am,
Being a Media Studies student at a university, I find this debate part of a much larger issue. Many websites have been discussing the option of having pay-per-view sites and content. While perhaps not inherently bad, this causes a lot of problems with the online community. Namely, the theory of the internet. The internet was designed for the exchange of information with little to no cost. This is particularly true with social media websites. Could you imagine paying to make a tweet? What about to see your Facebook profile? What if to view 10 videos on Youtube you had to pay $10? Web 2.0 and social media sites would lose a large percentage of users if there were costs involved.
That’s my rant. Have a wonderful day!
March 12, 2010 at 5:08 pm,