About UsNarrowcasting Playing On Web Site Near You
By Brian Deagon - Investor's Business Daily
Move over, broadcasting, and make room for "narrowcasting" - a term that defines the delivery of niche channels to a narrow audience on the Web.
An early leader in this fledgling field is Narrowstep, a London company traded over the counter in the U.S. whose technology was used to launch Web channels, or Web pages, on subjects such as cycling, sailing, golf, martial arts - even the Vatican.
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Founded in 2002, Narrowstep has helped to establish more than 100 Web channels. Narrowstep provides the software and technology to build the Web channels. It gets a licensing fee and a cut of the channels' profit.
One customer is Land Rover, which created a Web video channel at landrover.com, called Land Rover experience, that offers a bevy of edited film clips of people all over the world driving their Land Rovers. One entrepreneur started a channel devoted solely to single malt scotch.
Narrowstep's Steve Beaumont recently spoke with IBD about narrowcasting.
IBD: What makes Narrowstep's approach to delivering video different from other video offerings?
Beaumont: We play to long format (whereas most online videos are short). We can deliver two-hour programming. We can also insert dynamic advertising, just like regular TV.
The other thing is our main channels have a regular TV-like schedule that starts in the morning. You may think in this age of consumer choice that people wouldn't want to be driven by a schedule, but 79% of all our clients' channels are watched by viewers on schedule rather than as video on demand.
IBD: Can people search the Web channel to watch what they want, when they want?
Beaumont: Yes. For example, if you're watching the (Web channel for) Horse TV and you're more interested in show jumping vs. bareback riding, you can search for that, and all the content relevant to that will come up.
IBD: How fast can you get a channel up and running?
Beaumont: Using Horse TV as an example, they came to us on a Thursday. They had already reviewed other technology suppliers. By Tuesday we signed a contract, and they're Web channel was up and running 10 days later.
IBD: How do the channel owners make money?
Beaumont: There are several ways. They have traditional TV advertising. And because it's on the Internet, they can also sell banner ads. If it's niche content, they can get sponsorships. In addition, they can do pay-per-view if the content is rich enough.
We just signed (to create a Web channel for) Rome Reports - a TV channel run by the Vatican that appeals to the 400 million Catholics worldwide. They run some free content, to get you interested, and charge a fee if you want more detailed content.
Then there is e-commerce. A channel can be used to sell things that you see on the channel. And you can also make money syndicating your channel.
IBD: What about branded product channels such as Land Rover TV?
Beaumont: Land Rover is an interesting client. It doesn't want to make money per se directly off the (Web) channel. What it chose us for was to help develop innovative ways of communicating with those interested in its vehicles. The company challenges people to upload content. Now all of a sudden you engage the community with the brand and people talk about it. That's something you won't get from TV or through press ads.
IBD: Will we get to a point where every major branded company will want its own channel?
Beaumont: Yes. We've been very successful in Europe and we're becoming more successful in North America. The way to be a success is to follow a vertical strategy. Once you get into a market, like tourism, that starts a treadmill effect.
IBD: How else could a company use its TV site?
Beaumont: One company I worked for had a CEO who wrote an e-mail to employees once a week, delivering short highlights. That's fine, but it's pretty flat. Why not put that on your own corporate channel? You could have a CEO communicate better and also have a training channel, a retailing channel and a customer channel.
Think about Home Depot. Flat-package retailing is wonderful, but we all know what it's like when you get it home and try to put something together. If Home Depot had its own channel, it could talk you through it.
Think about cooking. You can read recipes in books, but try to visualize what the food will look like at the end of the day. If someone talks you through it and shows you how, it's so much easier.
IBD: What are your most popular Web channels?
Beaumont: It varies. Big ones include iTV, in Europe, and Telefonica TV, which reaches Latin America, Spain and Portugal. In niche groups, you have Horse TV and Cycling TV. Cycling is an interesting one. It started with us three years ago on a small scale - which is another positive thing. With us, you can start small and grow. It's based in London, but 75% of viewers come from North America, where you don't see a lot of cycling on broadcast TV or cable.
IBD: What about watching this Web content actually on a TV set, instead of a computer?
Beaumont: That requires having a set-top box. We announced one but are not yet shipping. I would guess we would ship by the end of January. We can also deliver to Windows-enabled mobile phones.