Monetizing Consumer-Created Video, a JupiterResearch report released April 2, says advertising is “the only revenue stream worth pursuing” for ventures that aspire to be consumer-created video (CCV) aggregators. The study focuses on consumer attitudes toward advertising, because most consumers are willing to view ads in exchange for free content. Pre-roll ads are preferred by 19 percent of consumers, post-roll by nine percent and banners by 30 percent, the study found. Ad revenue will grow from $489 million in 2007 to $1.3 billion in 2011.
To placate advertisers and consumers, JupiterResearch says the sites “should offer advertisers new creative formats as they become available and should avoid imposing too much clutter and delay between viewers and the video clips they want to see.”
The study reports that ad revenue is high, using Revver as an example. It uses a cost-per-click model, charging $0.75 to $1.00, with a 3.5 to four percent click-through rate. The report said that “ad rates and response levels this high are sustainable only when audiences and inventories are very small, or when content quality is extremely high.”
It also said, “As CCV aggregators proliferate and video-related ad inventory increases, advertisers will gain the upper hand and rates will fall.”
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More