Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Yahoo's Do's & Dont's of Online Video

We're cheered by Paid Content's optimistic outlook on Web video, in today's report by James A. Pitaro, vice president of media at Yahoo!

He prefaces his advice to video producers, in "The Do’s And Don’ts Of Creating Original Video," by noting:

Today, web video has mainstreamed. Three-quarters of Internet users, or 47% of the U.S. population, now watch video online. Videos streamed in September totaled 11 billion, up 24% year over year. Web-original video content is making up a bigger chunk of this consumption and has quietly become a viable business model for many online distributors.

As a result, new Internet companies focusing on video are emerging every day, and many existing businesses are transitioning to a video-intensive model.
Though he's focused on original drama, see if you can find ways to take his advice and apply it to nonfiction videojournalism stories:

You need more than just a good idea: Identify something that is not just a good idea, but a good idea for the Internet -- something that takes advantage of the medium.

Track your audience: If researched and developed correctly, your program should be virtually foolproof because it will deliver the right content to the right user at the right time on your site.

Get sponsors involved early in the creative process: Partner with the advertiser starting with idea conception and co-develop your program.

Be fast: Regardless of genre, web content must be timely.

Don’t spend a lot of money: Yes, it is possible to produce high-quality content without breaking the bank if you hire seasoned professionals and offer them some creative freedom and license – a somewhat novel concept in the entertainment business.
Read the whole report here.

1 comment:

Shrubber said...

eh. That could have been written ten years ago.

IMHO he should have said: make your production values as high as possible. Putting more low quality crap out there in the name of "speed" and taking advantage of the medium doesn't help us. It doesn't take a lot of money to make something look and sound good. People should focus hard on quality of image and sound...in addition to having good ideas, which is sort of obvious.