Demand for content has grown fuelled by Martini media (I know the phrase is a tad out of date but I just love Leonard Rossiter) or “anywhere, anytime, anyplace” (or if you prefer personalised, multi device, place and time shifted) media consumption. Add in the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting, which created a proliferation of new channels as the cost of a television channel has fallen dramatically,and the liberalisation of media in emerging markets demand for content has never been so strong. So where are all the new licensing models and platforms ?
The big daddy is Getty Images which basically created the market for digital images through foresight combined with an aggressive acquisition and pricing strategy and Rights-ready (for a particular project), Rights-managed (use by use) and Royalty free ( one off fee dependent on image and number of users)
Mochila have developed a self serve syndication model through the creation of a marketplace and providing simple tools/widgets to facilitate distribution of content building their ad network. The business model is almost certainly a revenue sharing one. They have signed up rights owners such as BBC worldwide and interestingly hosting provide Go Daddy in an effort to to get in front of as many publishers as possible.
GumGum offer something similar but have narrowed their focus to photos from agencies. How many people will want photos of britney getting into her car is moot ? Presumably they offer photos the agencies have not sold to the mainstream media and do not offer exclusivity. What I do like is their use of IPTC meta data standard which provides great indexing and categorisation. Their search function is just fantastic. They offer two models Pay-per-use where as a publisher you can arbitrage on ad revenue and an ad supported model.
Content Republic act as an aggregator for independent film distributors to sell digital rights to online stores. Anticipating growth in demand for digital movies, a fair assumption, they hope to lower the cost of entry for independent film makers.
