When independent producer Norlynne Coar from Manhattan Beach, California finished her DVD Learning to Surf with Surfer Joe instructional video, she was not impressed by her options to get her content viewed by as many people as possible. She simply didn’t have enough of a budget to advertise on Google or with a surf gear and clothing giant like Roxy. The sales that she was generating from selling the DVD in local surf shops around Southern California just were not generating enough revenue.
Her only other options were to send the video out to the plethora of film festivals and hope that it got picked up, and/or send it to as many video and film shows as possible and to continue trying to sell it to as many surf shops across the U.S. as she could.
It used to be that independent producers like Norlynne were in a bit of a Catch 22: they had unique content that people absolutely wanted to see, but no clear distribution channel or route.
Niche content has a home and it’s staring at you right now: Your computer. Suddenly, there is a huge demand for niche content online that can’t be found easily somewhere else. Thanks to the widespread adoption of broadband (some 50% of Internet users have high speed access at home), producers like Norlynne are no longer in plight.
Thanks to TotalVid (www.totalvid.com), the third largest video download store online, Norlynne has sold hundreds of DVDs in over 26 countries around the world: an audience she would not have reached without online distribution. A distributor like TotalVid is an inexpensive answer to both producers looking to distribute their hard to find, tailored content and those consumers who are starving for what interests them most.
In the past, a consumer who wanted to watch the latest surfing release only had one option for viewing the title -- purchasing the video for $25-30 through a specialty retailer. Today, TotalVid offers over 1,000 of these titles as well as action sports, anime, motor sports, and travel in a rental-download format for $1.99 to $3.99. Not only can customers begin watching these titles in minutes, but they can also try the video for a price comparable to a video rental.
About 36 million Americans download either music or video files and it’s clear that many Americans are changing how they watch movies. Studios actually make more on DVD sales and licensing products than on theatrical releases.
People are staying home more, and entertainment in the home has become so much easier to access, thanks to TiVo and video on demand.
But simply providing popular content or a convenient user experience will not drive adoption of these new services. Instead, consumers will pay for video over the Internet when the content is compelling yet not readily available through existing media channels (e.g. cable PPV, Blockbuster, etc.) Categories like action sports, anime, home improvement, martial arts instructional, and travel have traditionally suffered from limited access to these mass distribution channels, despite the fact that millions of people are interested in viewing the content.
TotalVid is seeing over 25% repeat purchase rates and 50% monthly revenue growth. Additionally, over 95% of TotalVid’s customers cite TotalVid as the only place from which they've downloaded paid video.
