Cinematech editor Scott Kirsner has published a free excerpt from his terrific new book, The
Future of Web Video: New Opportunities for Producers, Entrepreneurs, Media Companies
and Advertisers. It's the most thorough analysis I've seen of websites that offer filmmakers and videobloggers money for their work.
New revenue opportunities are emerging with the
recent boom in video viewing on the Web. On this chart, I've tried to list all
of the Web sites that enable independent video producers to make money from
their work. I've ranked the sites subjectively, based on how much traffic and
buzz they've been attracting, and also how likely it seems that a video
producer would actually manage to earn a significant return by posting a video
to them. (Media companies with large libraries have a wider range of options
for monetizing their content, including Apple's iTunes Music Store, Movielink,
and Vongo.)The majority of these
sites are geared shorter-form content, but a few, like Brightcove, EZTakes, and
GreenCine, make it possible for producers of hour-long or feature-length
projects to generate revenue. Most of these sites don't demand
exclusive rights to a video, and I've tried to highlight the few that do, like
The Yahoo! Current Network and TurnHere.Below the main chart,
there are two supplemental charts: one lists Web video sites that have
announced plans to enable producers to make money with their videos, but
haven't yet gone live, and another chart lists DVD-burning services, which help
producers sell good old-fashioned DVDs of their work.
Link to the complete, chart-o-licious excerpt.
