For Your Imagination (FYI)/New York, an online video production company, is syndicating six original Internet TV programs in an effort to build an audience it can sell to advertisers.
“Advertising and sponsorship is part of the monetization plan and we want to break 400,000 to 500,000 views per month, so there’s no major dollars to speak of since we haven’t passed that level,” said FYI’s CEO Paul Kontonis.
The Patrice ONeal Show — Coming Soon, which stars the popular comedian, has garnered 200,000 views per month over the first six weeks, and has begun to attract advertising. Another show, BSchool Talk, about business schools, is playing banner advertising from Kaplan, the test preparation company.
“We can dynamically insert pre-rolls at the beginning of a video and wherever it’s syndicated the ad will show up,” Kontonis said. Each show plays at its own site and is syndicated to the major video sites, including YouTube, Veoh, blip.tv, ifilm and Dailymotion. The shows are also available as video podcasts on iTunes.
The company has also produced Design 2 Share, an Interior design show and The Shirtless Apprentice, a show about digital video production.
Most of the shows run weekly, which Kontonis said is “the best fit for growing an audience.” The shows run five to 10 minutes, with 24 episodes making a complete season.
The company produces the shows in its own Manhattan studio with a production team. “We develop the ideas, produce them, set up the sites, create the marketking materials and distribute them in sydication,” Kontonis said.
The company has hired a salesperson to sell advertising, and isn’t using an ad network, he said.
He thinks his programs, and others like it, are revolutionizing TV by bringing it on the Internet. “As more original and high-quality programming becomes available and more AppleTVs and IPhones bring the videos into the living rooms and hands of consumers, it’s only a matter of time before Internet TV overtakes traditional TV,” he said.
