How Monetization works in the digital economy – a tale of content copyright and platform wars

The multi-media world of on-line is changing viewing habits forever. The recent figures of more people watching live broadcast events through mobile tablets for certain demographics is raising both opportunities and issue for advertisers and media broadcasters. The 2014 FIFA World Cup broke online streaming records around the world with 5.3 million unique viewers watching at peak viewing (1). The challenge is how to support compelling media experience while monetizing the events to get the return on investment the broadcasters have paid for Television and Online media stream rights of these games. With alternative social media platforms like Vine, Snapchat and the established Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, the social online public have many choices to interact. The broadcasters have their own mobile apps and web sites for official stream of services and the contractual and legal clout to manage the violations of recorded videos posted on the sites like Vine.

The issue is an old one in Internet terms where copyright material shared through a social media or a search engine is violating the original broadcasters terms and conditions. You can post links to official streams and you can list and search video clips but this breaks down when copies might be put on sites like Vine that specialise in momentary clips for sharing. When does a short 15 or 30 second looping clip represent stream a football game or video service. More over the recent Premier league clamp down in fans posting incidents in games on sites like Vine are stated as against the copyright laws of the event.(2) It’s difficult to see why from a fan point of view how this is intended to violate copyright rather than the social network experience it is typically intended to foster. It’s ironic that where the digital world has disrupted the physical “bricks and mortar” it is further disrupting itself through alternative digital platforms competing indirectly for a finite viewing and social media public.

I see two root issues that remain are the open nature of social media platforms and the challenge this creates for copyright content that prevents wide spread usage. Another is the impact of virtual business where like the Uber taxi service the digital world can empower anyone to be a broadcaster or a business without any physical or commercial attachment. The monetization model is in the moment of the transaction, not the “old style” monetization model of a legal contract that says “it’s mine”. A core problem is that social media sites and main stream broadcaster web sites are not really integrated and to some extend may never be so. We are still in the early days of the multi-media social world and these battles will play out as digital platforms seek to own parts of the user experience and the monetization models from this. The problem and opportunity is that the barriers to entry and switching are very low in the cyber world and consumers can just click to another platform. Content is king though and this battle I see will rumble on.

1. http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/news/newsid=2401405/

2. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/premier-league-set-to-clamp-down-on-unofficial-vine-videos-of-goals-as-they-get-tough-on-copyright-laws-9670653.html

#Media #Copyright #SocialMedia #DigitalStrategy #Digital #DigitalEcosystems