GodTube‘s name mirrors YouTube and its motto, “Broadcast Him” mimics YouTube’s “Broadcast Yourself.” But the site isn’t a religious recreation of YouTube, because it differs in significant ways — from the use of licensed content it pays producers for to the extensive use of advertising, including two types of video advertising that will play with the content. Chris Wyatt, a former TV producer and a student at the Dallas Theological Seminary, started GodTube earlier this year and speaks about it with iSPOT.
iSPOT: Please describe your background as a TV producer.
Wyatt: I was a television producer with Screenmedia Entertainment where I produced 2500 hours of programming for CBS, including Day and Date, a news magazine show that was Oprah’s competition for three, almost four years. I also produced other specials and series, including Slam Dunk and The Player’s Show.
iSPOT: Now you’re a student at the Dallas Theological Seminary.
Wyatt: Yes.
iSPOT: How did you start the site?
Wyatt: I’d been working with video on the Net since 1996 at www.Communities.com, which was the largest social networking site, and Winnov, a leading streaming hardware provider. Then I was the principal at Family Pass, the online DVD rental company, where one of our biggest channels was the Christian market. I was sitting in a seminary one day and I came up with the idea of creating a family friendly version of the video sharing sites. No one had done it, it was the next logical step. I had all the technology background, so we threw up a server on January 5. It was just for friends and family at first, with no advertising and promotion, and then Newsweek called.
iSPOT: It caught on fast. Can you give us the numbers?
Wyatt: Right now, we’re the most trafficked Christian site on the Net. In the next 30 days, based on what we’ve done, we’ll do three to four million page views. We average 25,000 to 50,000 visitors per day.
iSPOT: The site hasn’t officially launched yet.
Wyatt: It will launch May 31. We had a soft launch. The idea wasn’t just a video sharing site but an online community, so we have to put a new system online with a lot of the technology we developed. It’s time to deploy that.
iSPOT: Is all the content user generated?
Wyatt: No, we’ve been licensing content aggressively from Christian producers. It comes from the largest media ministries, non-profit organizations and traditional broadcasters. We adhere to all the copyright issues and pay for the licensed content. A lot of the content is user generated and you’ll see technology that allows users to create their own content.
iSPOT: What kind of advertising opportunities are available?
Wyatt: It’s ad supported now with traditional banners. We’re in conversations with agencies. It won’t just be Christian advertising, we’re looking at Fortune 500 companies. A lot of major companies are pursuing socially responsible initiatives and want to do branding on sites like ours.
iSPOT: Will there be video advertising as well?
Wyatt: Absolutely, there will be two kinds of video advertising. We’ll have pre-rolls on selected clips, we’ll insert :15s and :30s from the back end. We’re also going to use another video format to collect e-mail addresses. Advertisers will give us content in exchange for putting a buy button in the video stream in the lower left hand corner. Ministries can ask for donations this way. The video will be a donor message that asks for an email address directly in the video stream. While the ad is playing we’ll bring up the message in the lower third of the screen, like a TV commercial that plays a toll-free number, and it will ask for an email address. In preliminary tests, the response rate for targeted viewers is very significant. This application can accompany traditional pre-rolls and it can also be used by record companies to sell DVDs and CDs.
iSPOT: Is your staff selling ads or are you working with an ad network?
Wyatt: KMA Direct is our agency of record and we’ll work with other Christian and secular agencies as well.
