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Video distribution profit yield
Here’s an interesting distribution issue about DVD vs Video on Demand I’ve run into:
We have a DVD for sale which is also available for Video on Demand (VOD) download. We make $11.50/DVD sale and only $0.99/Video stream. We’ve had 2 sales of DVDs and 4 video downloads.
If the VOD wasn’t available, what’s the probability that someone would have purchased the DVD? I’d much rather sell one more DVD and lose the 3 VOD sales, as it takes 12 VOD sales to make up for 1 DVD.
What have others done? I’m thinking about making the VOD unavailable, as I feel like we’re losing a lot of money. I don’t have long-term case history to give me better insight. Anyone with ideas is greatly appreciated. -
13 Replies
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It would help to know the nature of the program, and what the audience is.
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The video is for special interest photography training, specifically covering the basics of using strobe flash lighting. It’s currently distributed on Amazon. Here’s the link:
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Off-Camera-Strobe-Flash-Photography/dp/B00IMQZFE0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1406042740&sr=8-2&keywords=Introduction+of+Off-Camera+Strobe+Flash+PhotographyAaron L.
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I’d let it be, raise the download price to about half the DVD price, and concentrate on your marketing. I think over time you’ll sell more downloads than DVDs, but you should continue to offer both.
I would think that a product about high quality photography would have taken advantage of BluRay High def quality, but maybe Amazon doesn’t make that affordable to you. Your downloads ARe high def, yes? If so, you should point that out in marketing communications.
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I would have raised the price to something that made sense. But Createspace/Amazon controls the download pricing, so I can’t even do that.
A blueray is an interesting thought but it has licensing issues that DVD doesn’t, as least that I know. They don’t offer it in any case. As this is an instructional video and not a show off photos video, blueray never came into the equation.Aaron L.
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Hi Aaron,
Have you considered a distribution platform other than Amazon? We have a product called e-Delivery that would cost you nothing until you made a sale. Customers can download the content to their PC, Mac, iOS device (iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch), Android smartphone or tablet, or Kindle Fire. You can offer a DVD in addition to the download, or offer the DVD without the download. You set the price at whatever you want it to be. Download content can be protected against unauthorized use and distribution. You can even let PC users burn their own copy-protected DVD of the content.
Let me know if you’d like to learn more.
Ron Hershey
Endeavor Digital, Inc.
Digital Content Management Solutions
717-685-4030
ronh@endeavordigital.com -
I’m always interested in a broader market. I don’t want to have the uncontrolled content downloaded to devices, only rental streamed. It’ll be up on Youtube in no time, then I’ll have to chase that down. I liked the streaming viewing but at $1.99, it’s essentially worthless.
How do you broadcast your media to the market? How do people find you? I’m always interested but I need to make sure I get a return on our investment.
Thanks!Aaron L.
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Hi Aaron,
I think I hear several concerns here, so let me see if we can address them.
First, the download to devices is controlled using Digital Rights Management (DRM). DRM gives you the ability to control various aspects of the content’s usage and distribution. The basic level service (which is free from monthly fees), allows you to protect the content against copying or redistribution (i.e., upload to YouTube), while allowing the customer to download the content multiple times so it is available on all of their devices.
Second, because the content is downloaded to the user’s device and played from there, the customer only needs an internet connection for the initial download, so this would not be “streaming” in the conventional sense (i.e., directly from the internet), although the solution does support streaming while downloading. Conventional streaming is not secure against unauthorized copying and distribution as there are numerous “stream capture” applications available.
Third, you can offer the content in various ways. It can be as a VOD rental, a “download to own”, download and purchase a DVD, purchase DVD only, or download with the ability to burn a copy protected DVD on the user’s PC (this capability is PC only and you can set the number of copies the user is permitted to burn). You can set your price for each of these distribution options. This enables you to set limits on how you want customers to use the content, based on the value of the content relative to the price paid, and you set your pricing for each option you wish to offer.
Fourth, related to how people find your content, the distribution platform is normally set up as an ecommerce subdomain of your web site. This, in and of itself, helps with SEO. But, you can also set SEO for the individual page(s) of the item(s) and for the ecommerce subdomain that would be created. This, of course, enables search engines to help your customers find you and your product.
Fifth, you said you have a DVD. It’s possible your DVD has a menu, perhaps chapters, maybe even “bonus” or extra viewing options, subtitles or the like. With our solution, your customer plays, directly from their devices, an electronic version of your DVD. In other words, all elements of the DVD (menus, chapters, special characteristics, etc.) are encoded into the download file so the customer has the full DVD experience without the DVD. As I’m sure you know, you can’t provide that sort of customer experience with streaming video – it just starts, plays, ends. The customer can jump to various points, but not to pre-assigned chapter locations.
We do charge relatively nominal fees if we do the setup for you. Or, you may do the setup, the encoding and uploading, and the SEO work yourself. In that case, there would be no charge to you at all, except for the download fee when someone makes a purchase. If you have PayPal or some other compatible payment processing system, the money can go right into your PayPal account or whatever account is linked to your payment processing system. We retain a credit card on file to bill monthly for download fees resulting from sales. So you collect your money before you have to pay for the download fees! If you don’t have a payment processing solution, we can handle that for you, but there is a small charge for it (percentage of sale price).
Oh, and here are a couple more things that may be of interest to you. If you have a Facebook page, the ecommerce shop can be integrated with your Facebook page to make sales right on Facebook! And, if you sell physical products in addition to digital content items (it could be anything – hats, t-shirts, coffee mugs, cameras, editing systems, lighting, etc., etc., etc.), you can sell those items on the same ecommerce site for NO CHARGE.
There really is no risk. The ROI is 100% positive if you do your own setup. After that, the SEO will help drive customers to the download shop, but you should also promote it everywhere you can.
What else can I tell you? It’s a great solution. Let me know what other questions or concerns you might have.
Ron Hershey
Endeavor Digital, Inc.
Digital Content Management Solutions
717-685-4030
ronh@endeavordigital.com -
Ron,
It certainly sounds more attractive than the nearly worthless $0.99 we’re getting from Amazon streaming. We won’t be doing that more, it seems to drain off much more valuable sales.
Thanks!Aaron L.
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Aaron,
My quick two cents…
Back in 2006-2007, we created two DVD titles… one on underwater videography, and one on a specialty still photography niche.
Both were on Amazon as regular DVD sales (digital downloads weren’t available then). Both broke even. But after that point, sales simply stopped. I’m sure there’s a book or article that explains this sales arc and how to counter the downward trend, but at the time, I was more interested in making more more programs, then sales. So now, I have about 800 copies of each DVD in my studio in NYC, taking up valuable space. Oh well.
Content creation and sales is a very tricky business these days.
But no matter what distribution platform you use, you can’t forget one of the most important things you need to concentrate on – promotion. Are you going to photo expos, are you posting on social media, have you put low-rez snipppets of the videos on YouTube to help create an audience, do you have a landing page for the title itself? Those would be a few things I suggest you concentrate on once you settle on a distribution platform.
Hope that helps!
Tom
24fps Productions
New York City -
Aaron,
Tom makes a couple of good points that only enhance what I have mentioned to you previously. One is about the performance of sales on Amazon. If you are interested, my blog has a post about an article detailing how your online sales can outperform selling on Amazon (blog can be found at https://bit.ly/1lDvfsn).
The second point Tom makes is about unsold inventory. Obviously, a download solution would have no inventory. And, using the Basic Level web shop, there would be a charge for initial setup unless you choose to do the setup work yourself. But, other than the setup, you only pay AFTER you make a sale! This greatly reduces your risk and maximizes ROI. In fact, if you handle all of the setup yourself, your only risk is the time you have invested in the setup. And when you sell the digital download, it’s protected against unauthorized use and distribution which translates into more sales, more revenue, and more profit for you.
Contact me if you’d like more info about e-Delivery (or visit the web site at https://bit.ly/1dIR3RJ).
Ron Hershey
Endeavor Digital, Inc.
Digital Content Management Solutions
717-685-4030
ronh@endeavordigital.com
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