The past month, there was a special event taking place in California, USA. Traditionally, Streaming Media held their Streaming Media West Conference, where all the major players in the online video world gathered and discussed the new market developments. It is a great event for everyone involved in streaming live video. It has always been an event where you can participate and listen fantastic debates and best industry practices. We are going to extract one panel discussion that should be a great resource for our video publishers titled: "Turning live streams into profits".
In this panel you’ll find monetisation experts who will break down the challenges facing live event monetisation and offer insights into innovative ways to make real profit from your live stream.
Our Head of Business Development in the U.S, Luke Carriere was one of the panelists and shared some great insights and tips for video publishers. Here is a short recap of his talk.
How are client publishers building their audiences (plus best practices)?
Luke:
- Build your database: Start off and offer your first live game free, gather emails and build your initial customer base;
Example: Coxhub (selling college sports events) - Monetize: After you have your solid customer base, start selling your live events via pay-per-view and sell video replays via video-on-demand;
Example: IMG academy, with its on-demand channel.
What type of content makes the most money? (plus best practices)
Luke:
- Sports, especially sports content that is not a commodity and has a highly engaged niche audience;
Example: WFTDA - Worship, and spiritual events (with focus on personal development);
Example: Silent Yoga Retreat - Conferences, especially high-profile business events
Example: Nordic Business Forum.
What is the required live streaming quality for an audience?
Luke: "Speaking about PPV live events, there is a trade-off between production value and prices. High production quality and graphics is commanding high prices and it all depends on the publisher's main objectives and audience. "
How to pre-sale and drive traffic before the live event? (best practices)
Luke: "With our solution, publishers can start their marketing and sales actions before a streaming platform is selected. Cleeng's platform enables tickets pre-sale from a ready, live event landing page. The publisher can upload a trailer or preview videos to engage the audience long before the event takes place. "
What are you top 3 tips for video publishers? (plus best practices)
Luke:
- Start up with a minimum viable product: Make sure you are not investing right away. Start with an simple offering, monitor the growth and scale up.
- Keep a global audience on mind: Online live streaming sets the bases to extend reach and serve the global market. One way to do this is by offering multiple languages and currencies.
Example: Partnering with Sportsmax TV, we managed to broadcast the May-Paq fight to 23 Caribbean countries. - Be mobile: Take care how your content is accessed and enable responsive design anytime (30% of transactions are happening from mobile devices).
Watch the full video from the panel at StreamingMedia.com:
