Thursday, July 31, 2008
Pay to Play: Online Video Subscriptions on the Horizon, Conde Nast Portfolio's Blaise Zerega
Believe it: There will be a subscription model for online video. paidContent's Joe Weisenthal reports today that TheStreet.com will soon experiment with a subscription model for online video. Surely more publishers will follow as advertising opportunities are limited and some will pay a subscription price to watch video content.
How to get users to sign up? The engaging power of video games could help turn online video viewers into registered users or paying subscribers, says Conde Nast Portfolio Deputy Editor Blaise Zerega.
All Those Eyeballs and Not Enough Ads
Blaise was editor of Red Herring and managing editor of Wired. He's seen a few cycles in the Valley. Like during the first Internet bubble, valuations are being based on "eyeballs" rather than on a viable business model.
As advertising can't support all these digital media start-ups, we expect a subscription model could be viable for some.
I interviewed him at Stanford last week where he participated in the Beet.TV online video roundtable.
--Kelsey Blodget, Associate Producer
http://www.beet.tv/2008/07/history-repeats.html