The CA based Monetizemedia is going after User Generated Content creators.

The name Monetizemedia rang a bell for me for a while, though I couldn’t remember why. So when Alan Sherin, the company’s Director of Marketing, left me a lengthy comment on my post about meta aggregators, I took the chance to have a chat with him.

I was surprised to hear that the company exists only for two years, and has 40 full time employees. With all the noise around them, I wasunder the impression they were much bigger.

The company targeted mid size content owners – ones with libraries of video content that cannot monetize it. Its main offering revolves around creation of online channels, DVR platform, VOD offering and content protection. After creating the channels, the company brings in advertisers and share revenues with the content owner.

Soon they realized that the major problem their content owner have is how to drive traffic to their site. So they created a neat little product called VeZoom. The product has three layers:

1. Search engine – video search engine, that its main advantage when compared to competitors is that it is international and not focused on the US market.

2.Myvezoom – a Netvibes style homepage, for RSS distributed video content only.

3.VeZoom Pipe – a desktop application where user choose general categories and search terms, and get content pushed to their desktop.

The concept behind these layers is to cover different user needs – starting from actively looking for specific content, through personalizing a homepage, to passive content consumption.

The product is still in beta stage, and several basic functions are still missing (such as inline video presentation), but as this technology is commoditized, I believe they will quickly close this gap.

The real question is how can a company create a competitive advantage in this segment. One strong point for MonetizeMedia is that they are not relying on the new field of UGC as their sole revenue source. It is an advantage as they already have a revenue generating business. I also liked the fact that they are approaching global markets, a topic I wrote about its importance in the past.

However, one should take into consideration that the company is geared toward a different market segment as a primary revenue source. Indie content creators have different requirements then mid size content providers MonetizeMedia approached till now: while mid size content providers want to protect their content, use pay per view schemes, and control their media flow, Indie content creators are looking for exposure, multiple distribution channels, see DRM as a dirty word, and no one will pay to watch their content, at least at this stage.

Furthermore, Indie content creators have a close community and it is not a simple thing to penetrate it with new offerings.

There are some who believe that a company has a unique DNA that enables it to compete in the market. I wonder if MonetizeMedia DNA can be versatile enough to play on both markets.

Technorati Tags: aggregator, online video, monetizemedia, VOD, DVR, VeZoom, User Generated Content, Technology, Media, DRM, Indie

The guys behind Something To Be Desired (STBD), Galacticast, and other great shows have one thing in common - they know how to create high quality content on the cheap. Most of them are not making a dime of their work. This is not their fault - it is a market that needs to mature. But still, they create great content in micro budgets.

How can STBD make a show for fraction of the cost of a regular TV show?

First of all they have one camera. Unbelievable, right? With smart editing they manage to make it look as if there are at least two cameras on set. Second, all their actors are volunteers. So, right, it is harder to do it for a long period with professional actors, but it is a creative way to do things. Third, they don't have separate guys for editing, directing, sound, lighting, and overall production responsibility. It is all the same guy with the T-shirt. And fourth, their actors are involved in the script writing. Now compare that with the set of Studio 60....

As we all know, the world of television is changing. It is harder to get high rating for shows that are not event based. This viewership fragmentation reduces the economic value of single productions, and in time force old media producers to cut their budgets. So if there is one thing the old media guys can learn from these new energetic creators is how, with some creativity, to do things much cheaper than in the regular let's-have-a-battalion-of-people-on-the-set-cause-everyone-does-one-thing approach.

This is not new. Robert Rodriguez made El Mariachi for 7000$, using the same concepts. Did it change the movie industry? No. but I am certain that when gross revenues will drop, the Hollywood guys will wake up. TV industry can do it now.

Somehow, I don't believe it will happen...

One thing we all agree about is that independent media creators don’t have a lot of money. We wish it was different, but it is the case. Most of us are working without external financing, and don’t see a lot of money from our work. So we are using one camera, editing on our home computers, trying to cut costs in every way possible. We cannot match the money and crew invested in traditional media productions.

But there is one thing that the big guys and us can do exactly the same – write a good story.

I had the pleasure of attending the Story seminar of Robert McKee. If you have the chance to attend it – it is an amazing experience. If not, you can buy his book Story, an equally eloquent source for his vision. Robert teaches how to write a good story, with a focus on screenwriting. There are tons of books about how to write a script, but this one is different – not only it is written by a real life scriptwriter's Guru, it is also clear, direct, and with no bullshit approach. In his seminar, Robert stated that a good script is a seller’s market. There are tons of scripts out there – but not good ones.

We, unlike the film industry, don’t have a gatekeeper. We have a bigger problem – clutter, noise, tons of shows out there. It is still a major challenge to tackle, differentiate from more than 500 shows out there, and get people to watch ours. But no one can stop us from putting our content out there. Couple that with a good story, and you have a rival for big media. We have the ability to be brave. We can experiment, as we don't invest the huge amount of money the big guys are throwing in their productions.

It is true that lighting, sounds, image quality, are all important factors of production value. But a story, telling an interesting tale, is impossible to beat.