The popularity of Web video is now no longer in question. YouTube is massive, and growing all the time, and services such as Hulu and the BBC iPlayer have proved to be massively successful.
However, an ongoing problem which has yet to be fully explored, let alone solved, is how to successfully monetize the business of online videos.
Sure, Google saw fit to pay $1.65 billion for YouTube, but that worth was all potential. So far it has yet to make so much as a bean from the site.
Glam Media Enters The Fray
One company which thinks it may have the solution is Glam media, who yesterday announced the GlamTV Platform, which allows videos to be distributed around the Web, but importantly, offers everyone in the chain a share of the revenue.
Glam itself is an online advertiser and publisher for women, which with 64 million people in it’s network, is one of the fastest growing properties on the Web.
Revenue For All
From today, those people can run videos from various media companies, including Sony, Lifetime and E! Glam. The network also offers adverts in the video streams, if the publisher wants it, which can then generate revenue for all concerned.
This centrally controlled way of doing business could prove very lucrative for a lot of people, but especially Glam Media. If the model works, then expect a host of copycats to crop up very soon.
