Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - (Page 20) NEWS YouTube Exposure Can Jumpstart Disc Sales Continued from page 1 www.homemediamagazine.com has made more than $10,000 a month during peak months of online viewing through YouTube’s partner program. While the exposure has had people knocking on Williams’ door, from “Saturday Night Live” to filmmakers, Williams has turned them down, saying he likes being his own boss and wants to continue making clips for the Web. He said that he has filmed content A Thousand Years of Good Prayers in high-definition and hopes to resaid high-def streams of a show such lease it on Blu-ray someday. as the original “Star Trek,” which saw “I want to preserve my work. Youa rise in DVD sales after its clips were Tube may not be around forever, so placed on YouTube, don’t compare to to have it on disc, it’ll be there for counterparts on disc, which can have me,” Williams said. longer episode running times than What’s clear to anyone involved is the TV broadcasts and extras. that it’s all up in the air, as far as when “It was only a few months ago that YouTube added higher quality streams,” Doherty said. “Even with my fast FiOS modem, I’m watching the Enterprise in stop-motion across the Continued from page 1 screen. It’s not the kind of thing I want tive rates, I am confident that it will to bring my friends over to watch.” foster the growth of the Blu-ray Disc market and serve the interest of all Monetizing content on YouTube companies participating in this marPollack said YouTube now has in place ket, be it as licensee or licensor,” said several different methods for monetiz- Gerald Rosenthal, former head of IP ing content: the click-to-buy feature tak- at IBM, who will be CEO of the new ing users to Amazon or other sites, licensing group. The three companies expect liplacing ads through YouTube’s partner program (for which any user can apply) cense fees for a Blu-ray player to be and sharing the revenue, and engaging $9.50, $14 for a recorder. Blu-ray users to drive ancillary markets and Disc license prices are expected to awareness to get them into theaters, drop to 11 cents for a read-only disc, 12 cents for a recordable disc and 15 watching TV and into stores. “It’s really about looking at all of these different revenue streams as one source,” Pollack said. Whether it’s a show such as “The Tudors,” the season premiere of Continued from page 1 which YouTube debuted, helping with DEG: The Digital Entertainment drive TV ratings, or an independent Group, will be held at the La Costa feature such as Four Eyed Monsters Resort in Carlsbad, Calif., June 29(the first film to screen on YouTube), July 1. The existing Summit structure where fans ended up buying mer- — a day of seminars and workshops chandise based on the film in part aimed at studio leaders and marketbecause of its online buzz, Pollack ing executives — will be expanded said it’s more than just disc sales that to include a second day of studio can be affected — it’s about building presentations for key retailers, along a brand and recognition as well. with networking opportunities. For independent content creators, The Summit will open with a cockmaking an impact through YouTube tail party Monday night, June 29, also can lead to bigger things beyond followed by the eighth annual Home the money generated through the site. Entertainment Critics Awards dinThe animated short “9,” a YouTube ner. The regular features of the Sumsensation created by Shane Acker, was mit, including a studio Presidents nominated for an Oscar; it’s now being Panel, will be held on Tuesday, June produced as a feature by Focus Fea- 30, while studio presentations will tures, with Tim Burton as a producer. take place Wednesday, July 1. One user, Cory Williams of SMP The Home Media Conferences calfilms, who has his own channel of endar begins April 28 with the fifth “choose your own adventure” style vid- annual Latino Home Entertainment eos in which users can choose the fate Awards, which this year will be held of a video’s subject by clicking different at the Museum of Latin American videos embedded as video responses, Art (MOLAA) in Long Beach, Calif. to stream content, how to monetize content and what that means. “You have to have a good story, and you have to have a good story about your story,” Weeks said. “In our case we were one of the first feature-length movies ever on YouTube. I think the problem is, nobody — whether you’re on the big studio side or the independent filmmaker side like me — nobody knows what to do right now.” YouTube’s Pollack seems to have an idea. “As things evolve, all of us have to innovate how we market to audiences,” she said. “What you put on a site doesn’t have to be what you put in theaters or on DVD.” By partnering with YouTube, Weeks and his crew get 55% of revenue generated by ads placed with the film on YouTube. And the DVD? Sales for 10 MPH doubled after placing it online, with a click-to-buy link below the video, taking viewers straight to the DVD’s page on Amazon.com. Weeks said blogs picked up that the film was available online, and YouTube helped promote the film, featuring it in such places as its screening room (www.youtube.com/ ytscreeningroom), which is currently sponsored by Grey Goose vodka and has featured such content as Sundance Film Festival coverage and films in the spirit of Black History Month. “As it’s kind of settled down now, we’re still getting hundreds of views a day,” Weeks said, while traveling from Denver to Seattle (by car). “Netflix ordered another 210 DVDs of the movie.” Studio content on YouTube For an indie filmmaker without a big marketing push or DVD distribution deal, it seems like a no-brainer: Make the film available online, and people will be able to watch it and perhaps buy the DVD. But when it comes to studio content streaming online for free, both tentpole titles and catalog content, it’s not such an easy answer. “I think YouTube can help incrementally by driving increased recognition/advertising for DVDs,” said Edward Woo, analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles. “As for putting entire films out there, this is likely to help smaller independent movies to get publicity, but unlikely to help more well-known movies (since they can afford more traditional advertising). I think it will have the negative effect for wellknown movies, as then viewers don’t need to buy the DVD to watch. “The better-known and popular you are, I think you’re better off putting out less content. You want enough content to get people interested, but not too much that they don’t have to buy it.” Independent analyst Rob Enderle agrees, to an extent. “Putting clips of movies on YouTube, if they are good, can work like teasers and drive folks to the DVD,” Enderle said. “Putting movies that look vastly better on a bigger screen on YouTube may do the same because few folks want to watch long-format films on the small screen, but this is riskier. If you take the position that people who generally want to watch movies prefer big screens and that folks who will sacrifice the big screen for the small screen to save money generally won’t pay for DVDs anyway, then prudent use of YouTube can result in vastly greater DVD sales.” A good example of YouTube driving sales came with “Monty Python” DVD sales showing a reported 23,000% rise after the debut of a “Monty Python” YouTube channel, featuring episodes of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.” And while high-quality clips of “Flying Circus” are available, YouTube filters also catch user-uploaded “Monty Python” videos and ask users if they want to include a click-to-buy link; if they do not, the clip is pulled. “We’re definitely trying to encourage that kind of commerce between users and filmmakers, distributors and whoever else might use that feature,” said Sara Pollack, partner marketing manager for YouTube. She noted similar features are in place for partnered content from studios, such as Lionsgate and MGM, who offer on YouTube streams of films such as Lionsgate’s Drugstore Cowboy, with click-to-buy features. YouTube plans to build its library of streaming full-length films on www. youtube.com/movies. Pollack said YouTube can work in unconventional ways when it comes to studio fare. An example is The Princess of Nebraska, a film directed by Wayne Wang (The Joy Luck Club) hitting DVD May 26 from Magnolia Home Entertainment at $19.98. Through YouTube’s recent partnership with independent film purveyors Cinetic, the film had more than 250,000 views its first weekend on the site last October. The online screening helped create buzz for A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, Wang’s film that was released theatrically by Magnolia last fall, to which The Princess of Nebraska is a companion film. Magnolia also is releasing A Thousand Years May 26 at $19.98, and the two films the same day in a two-DVD set at $29.98. Pollack said YouTube is interested in working with studios on bigger fare as well, even if it’s not putting the entire film on the site for free. “Look at how much leaking footage helped the weekend box office for Cloverfield,” she said. But with premium content, it can come down to quality of streams and their speed. Analyst Richard F. Doherty of The Envisioneering Group BD License Fees to Drop? cents for a rewritable disc. Independent analyst Rob Enderle praised the announcement, saying it may help the Blu-ray format in the down economy. “It makes a whole lot of sense,” he said. “Blu-ray is still priced out of its [entertainment] segment, no matter what the BDA (Blu-ray Disc Association) says. This is what they need to do to get through this economy. “Right now the media and the drives are just way too expensive, and people are watching their media purchases.” Conferences Are Expanding After five years the Latino DVD Conference will be scaled back into an awards show only, similar to what was done with the TV DVD Conference in 2007. The evening will kick off with a cocktail reception in MOLAA’s sculpture ga http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://www.Amazon.com http://www.youtube.com/ytscreeningroom http://www.youtube.com/ytscreeningroom http://www.youtube.com/movies http://www.youtube.com/movies http://www.DreadCentral.com
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 Contents News TV DVD SXSW Reviews Research Top 20 Sellers Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts Just Announced Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 (Page Cover1) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 (Page Cover2) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 (Page Cover3) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 (Page Cover4) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 (Page 1) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 (Page 2) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 (Page 3) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 (Page 4) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - Contents (Page 5) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - News (Page 6) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - News (Page 7) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - News (Page 8) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - News (Page 9) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - TV DVD (Page 10) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - SXSW (Page 11) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - Reviews (Page 12) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - Reviews (Page 13) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - Reviews (Page 14) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - Reviews (Page 15) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - Top 20 Sellers (Page 16) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - Top 20 Sellers (Page 17) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts (Page 18) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts (Page 19) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - Just Announced (Page 20) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - Just Announced (Page 21) Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2009 - Just Announced (Page 22)
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