Posts tagged with 'Online video'

SeeSaw launches new online TV service

By Abid Warsi on 17 February 2010

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SeeSaw has just launched its TV service bringing together recent and archive TV programmes from the BBC, Channel 4 and Five. It bought its technology from Project Kangaroo, which was joint venture by the same broadcasters that the Competition Commission blocked. Now that this service has finally arrived will it succeed?

3 channels in 1 place

Bringing programmes from different broadcasters into a single place has been popular elsewhere. Hulu did this in the USA where it offers programmes from NBC, Fox and ABC, amongst others, and has been very successful. For users it’s convenient to have all the programmes they want to watch all in one place and it encourages them to browse around and find various programmes, just as they do on their living room TVs. However, UK broadcasters already have their own successful catch up servies so SeeSaw will need promote itself heavily and attract users to its website.

SeeSaw will contain thousands of hours of archive programmes and this may help it to attract users. However, it’s not clear from its homepage that it contains a large amount of archive footage. It should make its proposition clear in its marketing material and on its homepage.

Living room

Most users will still prefer to watch programmes on their living room TVs rather than on their PC monitors. Living rooms are used for socialising and large TVs work much better PCs in this environment. If SeeSaw found a way to integrate its service into TV sets, set-top boxes or gaming consoles then it could get head of the competition. Netflix has does this quite successfully with its own streaming service in the USA and SeeSaw could benefit from doing something similar.

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Accessible video and audio

By Trenton Moss on 30 September 2009

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We published a top tip in last month’s newsletter on how to go about ensuring you have accessible video and audio on your website, so I thought I’d put my thoughts up on the blog as well.

Accessibility isn’t just limited to the text on your website - it applies to all types of content including multimedia. With video and audio becoming more and more common across the web it’s essential that you do as much as possible to open up this content to all website users, and it’s not as complicated as you may think.  Below are some tips for catering for three key user groups:

Blind web users
The key requirement for blind web users for accessible video is that all visual changes within videos are conveyed through non-visual means. Ideally this would be though an additional voice-over within the video (which can be switched on or off) describing the visual changes. Creating this for all your videos can be very costly and time-consuming, so an alternative is to provide a written transcript for the video, with a comprehensive description of the video. Also, ensure that video and audio don’t automatically play on web pages as the sound can interfere with screen reader speech.
Mobility-impaired web users
For most mobility-impaired users, effective keyboard access to content is key to offering accessible video and audio. All audio/video controls need to work with the keyboard as well as the mouse and the tabbing order through these controls should be logical (which usually means left-to-right). Finally, there should be a focus state for each control when tabbed onto – often this is a yellow border around the control so it’s probably best to follow this convention. Do also bear in mind that blind users utilising screen readers are also keyboard-only users so these guidelines also apply to them.
Deaf web users
For deaf web users the most important thing when making accessible video and audio is that equivalents are provided for all content that relies on sound. This means offering written transcripts for audio files and subtitles within videos (which can be switched on or off). Ideally, and for optimal accessibility, you’ll also provide sign language for any videos as this is the first language for many hearing impaired people (especially those deaf since birth).

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Using videos on your product pages - a good idea?

By Ismail Ismail on 10 September 2009

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IMRG logoJon and I attended the IMRG workshop on interactive marketing yesterday. We really enjoyed the session and like all IMRG events we met some great new people there, as well as old friends.

One particularly interesting topic of discussion was on the use of digital video as part of the online retail experience. There were good points made by a number of delegates about how video can support brand building and marketing efforts as part of an interactive campaign. I’ve previously blogged about video content on YouTube so I won’t make that point here.

Video content production can be an expensive business so if you’re seriously considering putting video into your retail journey you need to be sure it’s going to give you the return you need.

So, under what circumstances is it optimal to support your customers with video?

In my opinion the best way to work out where in the journey your videos should sit is by examining your customers’ decision-making and discovery process across multiple channels. Videos could be used to provide rich insights at the point when people are scouting around looking at competitior products, trying to understand what features and capabilities they’d like in their new purchase. The kind of product videos that add a great deal of value are the ones that really use the medium to full effect.

For example, videos of expensive, technical products could support customers to answer some preliminary questions about the tactile qualities or usability of a product such as a mobile handset or a digital camera. Apple successfully (and some might say controversially) used product videos of their iPhone across multiple channels to educate would be customers about the user experience of their product. So, there’s a good chance that customers will be visiting your bricks and mortar store to get a feel for the product for themselves and seek some expert advice from your staff. But if you’re a pureplay digital e-tailer then this might not be possible.

So, given the cost involved in producing high quality videos how would you decide which products are worth investing in?

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Online video content deals - the future for magazine publishers?

By Ismail Ismail on 3 July 2009

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The digerati have been talking about the decline of print and broadcast advertising revenues and the continued growth of digital for some time so I won’t bore you by going on about that. But there was an interesting story published in Brand Republic yesterday about a joint venture agreed between magazine publishing giant IPC Media (the publisher behind high profile magazine brands like NME, Marie Claire, Wallpaper, Nuts and dozens of others) and YouTube.

Screenshot of Youtube homepageThe strategy of syndicating your content onto a platform like YouTube is about taking your compelling material to the people, wherever they are. Because, after all, content is king and a lot of users will typically use Google and ‘content marketplaces’ like YouTube to discover and consume to their hearts content.

YouTube has evolved into a free marketplace, combining the content produced by the amateur and the hobbyist alongside professional producers and even our esteemed HM Government. However, often the desired outcome for the commercially-minded content producer is the generation of traffic to their website, thus giving would-be advertisers a flow of motivated and interested unique visitors.

The reason why this joint venture is so interesting is because YouTube has effectively met IPC Media ‘half way’ on the monetisation of their content on YouTube. Clearly, the content produced by the likes of NMETV and Nuts.tv is very compelling indeed (I don’t have any experience of the latter I hasten to add).

So, what does this mean for others wishing to monetise their content directly on YouTube? Well, I’m not convinced that YouTube will necessarily be rushing to draw up contracts with any old Tom, Dick or Harry but it does set an interesting precedent for others. Perhaps user-generated content really can be commercialised if there’s real, proven appetite for others to consume it?

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