Declining Value of Content? Not for VBS.tv

In a MediaPost story on the declining value of content, digital content producers and distributors are finding that content is becoming harder to monetize… and for content that is being monetized, the value has plummeted. You’ll get several causes depending on whom you talk to — but I ultimately feel that there’s too much clutter on the web with the low barriers for amateurs to produce content and mainstream acceptance of lower quality/UGC video content.

The solution for content producers and distributors: Get more creative in how they package and sell their content to both consumers and brand advertisers.

I recently explained to a client of my concept of the Video Value Chain, a sequence of inter-connected valves that move content from production to in front of consumers. Under this concept, content owners must be proficient in 1) Content production/acquistion; 2) Content publishing; 3) Distribution; 4) Monetization; and 5) Reporting and tracking. Content production is offering the right content to the right audience. Publishing is the technology-driven process that gets your video online (think, Blip.tv and YouTube). Distribution is actually putting the content in front of people. So a person can publish their video on YouTube and embed on their blog. But that won’t guarantee any eyeballs. Distribution is purchasing media and striking partnerships to get content in front of people on a large scale. Brightcove and ClipSyndicate (for news content) are two companies that do distribution effective. Reporting and tracking doesn’t really need to be emphasized as much these days as it is a basic expected requirement for any company doing business on the web to have analytics and tracking.

From the MediaPost article,VBS.tv is effectively solving the Video Value Chain in a creative way.

Relying less on an expensive platform technologies and more on brilliant business executions, VBS.tv is discovering high-quality, low cost content through direct relationships with producers. Then, they match content with brand sponsorships. Eddy Moretti, co-founder of VBS.tv, goes on mention the importance of distribution (through its own trusted brand site) — which I feel is the real token to attracting producers and advertisers and tying it all together. Content is very difficult to monetize. But what I like about VBS.tv is they’re selling semi-pro and newly discovered content to brand advertisers. Creativity is always cheaper (and less risky) than another platform technology.