Netflix surpasses TV in viewership

[Dan Robinson]

For the survey of 2,500 U.S. adults conducted in May, Cowen & Co. asked, “Which platforms do you use most often to view video content on TV?” Overall, Netflix captured the No. 1 with 27% of total respondents, followed by basic cable at 20%, broadcast at 18% and YouTube at 11%.

https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/netflix-tv-survey-broadcast-cable-youtube-1202864459/

I have yet to receive a stock video licensing request for something on Netflix, but if you do, they should be top-tier rates just like any national long-format TV (worldwide rights).

This article seems to be focusing on long-format programming. Social media and Youtube still are the dominant form of day-to-day video consumption online for short-form and viral clips.

Bottom line, *online* is where the media corporations are making the bulk of money from content, and that share is only going to get larger. Again, this includes social media, the corporations of which right now are making billions off of user content and not sharing a dime of that with any creators. That's not a good thing moving forward. Posting your valuable work to those platforms natively is giving free content to what *should* be one of your primary big-ticket licensees. They are bigger today that what NBC, National Geographic or Discovery were 10 years ago! Viral images and videos are bringing in thousands (probably mid five figures and up for the more viral pieces), all going to the platform owner.

 

[Douglas Kiesling]

The media industry is in a major metamorphosis. Content distribution platforms that were not even created 10 years ago are now taking over. News viewership is tanking, news content producers are leaning more and more on social media for free content.

Those who were smart enough to do rights managed licenses with limited distribution and length of usage contracts in the past will be the ones to benefit from this growing trend of online content moving to the OTT broadcasts.

Shows that were licensed years ago for over the air are now creeping on OTT with Netflix, Hulu and other CDN providers. Even The Weather Channel is starting to move content from long format shows filmed 10 years ago to Netflix.

If you did a limited usage ten year license for a project, time to dust off your old footage license agreements and keep an eye on things.

As for rates, OTT is the same rate as OTA broadcasts. It is all about the viewership and potential eyes on the product.

 

[Warren Faidley]

This along with an over-saturated market has made it almost impossible to make substantial profits from selling footage. Those days are gone. In addition, the new generation of editors and producers are use to paying very low prices for footage.

Having said that, every so many years, subject matter needs to be recreated to match current technology. VHS to Hi-8 to Digital to HD to 4k to 4k Cine to 8k. Everything I shoot now is 4k Cinema and soon 8k when my super computer arrives from MIT (lol). So tornadoes, lightning, hurricanes, storms, time lapse, etc., will all need to be upgraded. Even the time I invested shooting 3D footage of tornadoes and hurricanes will soon be history -- although the market was never developed. This is a good argument for concentrating on still shots like I originally did. Damn video.