Cost of Delivery
The cost of delivering video becomes less expensive every year. Distribution to multiple devices and platforms also increases. The cost to develop high quality Video content continues to increase in cost to produce even though the cost to distribute goes down. All of these processes cost money and if the content owners are to make money the consumer will have to pay something. The success of an ad-based revenue model is still not showing enough success to content owners for them to continue going down this path. Something has to break here. Either consumers have to start paying to access the content or advertisers will have to pony up the cash.
Bandwidth Prices
Even though the price of bandwidth declines every year we will never see the costs go down to zero. If the cost goes down enough to create a streaming media world where content owners will upfront the money for creating, but distribution will be almost free, then and only then will the content owners start to see more money coming in. This does not seem to be anything that will happen in the near future as bandwidth providers are in the bandwidth business and the chance for the costs to go down enough for this to happen is nil.
Pay Per View Model
If ad-based revenue won’t work, and giving free content won’t work, and bandwidth prices will never fall to zero, then where does this leave the content owners? Pay to access the content is the solution that enables the owners to set a price and if consumers want access they simply pay. If On-Demand TV can do it just as Comcast and others have, then eventually Internet viewers and viewers on all other devices will have to get on the band wagon.
Bottom Line
If you want access to any content that costs money to create and distribute, you will have to pay for it one way or another. Get off the “I want all video for free” thinking and realize that these guys are trying to make a living too. What’s interesting in all this is that the cost to buy and view an audio or video clip is so low now, that it seems ridiculous that we are even have to talk about it.
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Earn Money Distributing Video Online