Video Monetization: 6 Reasons Why You Should Use Dacast’s New Paywall

By 2021, the live streaming industry could reach $70.05 billion. Online video as a whole represents an even bigger market. Business is booming thanks to online video. This blog will present 6 reasons why you should use our streaming solutions for your video monetization needs.

Video monetization is key to the boom in online video. Countless businesses are building revenue streams based on video content in one way or another. Netflix was the pioneer in this field. Their meteoric stock growth over the years has been the result of effective video monetization.

However, major businesses like Netflix aren’t the only ones cashing in on video monetization. In fact, smaller companies now also generate revenue with video in various ways. Now, let’s take a look at how video monetization works in 2019 before we visit those six key points.

Video monetization in 2019

In 2019, video monetization typically takes one of three forms. First, we have an advertising/sponsorship business model. This approach centers on maximizing audience size. However, you don’t need a massive audience to maximize this approach. Instead, a unique target audience is a very valuable thing to specific niche businesses. In short, advertising is driving major revenue for various businesses today.

The second approach is subscriptions. This model involves viewers paying a regular fee for content. This Netflix-style model is commonly used in OTT media, sports, and other areas where high-quality content is released on a regular schedule. Global OTT subscriptions are hit 473 million in 2018, an 18 percent growth from the prior year. That growth is expected to continue.

The third major form of video monetization is transactional, also known as pay-per-view. This model is simple: pay a fee to watch a video. Both rent (stream) and buy (download + stream) are common methods.

Finally, we should also mention that you can and should get creative with video monetization. These aren’t firm categories. You don’t have to fit exactly in one box. Many publishers exist today that use a hybrid model. They might, for example, offer some free supported content and include a subscription option for die-hard fans. Then, they might have an overall sponsor for their work and offer downloads of specific videos for sale.

Overall, mixing and matching is often the best approach to maximize and diversify your video monetization revenue streams.

6 Reasons to use Dacast for video monetization

Here at Dacast, we work to provide a powerful, secure and affordable online video publishing platform with all the tools you need. This means offering our users a variety of video monetization features (including all 3 models explained above). Dacast includes a paywall that supports pay-per-view and subscriptions. Plus, our features make it easy to monetize via advertising.

With that context in mind, let’s look in more detail at some particular tools. In this segment, we’ll highlight six features that make Dacast an excellent choice for video monetization.

1. Group pricing 

First up, group pricing allows you to sell access to multiple pieces of content for a one-time fee. This can include videos hosted on different sites, or video content showing at different times.

Broadcasters can use the same tool to sell access to content hosted in different places. For example, a single group price could gain access to two different educational lessons on an e-learning website (for example, a 101 and a 102 class). This is another flexible pricing option that supplements subscriptions and Dacast’s packages feature.

2. Powerful subscription management system

Worldwide OTT revenue was roughly $46.5 billion in 2017. That number is expected to rise to $83.4 billion by 2022. This trend depends on a powerful subscription system. Thus, Dacast’s powerful subscription management is another great reason to use Dacast for video monetization.

In particular, our platform allows users to subscribe to your channel easily. Subscriptions are managed via our dashboard or video API. As far as timing, broadcasters can make subscriptions:

• Weekly
• Monthly
• Quarterly
• Biannual

From there, users can track subscriptions via an easy-to-use database that you can export as a CSV file. That way, it’s easy to track who is subscribed to what, and how much revenue they are bringing in.

3. Support for multiple currencies

Internet use in places like Africa and the Middle East has increased by more than 1000% in the last 10-15 years. Dacast helps you to maximize your video monetization globally by supporting multiple currencies—basically any major currency in the world!

When you set up your pricing, simply select the currency you want to use. Or, you can sell in multiple currencies to better gain access to a global audience. Also, the Dacast paywall supports both credit cards and PayPal so it’s easy for users to pay.

4. Multi-lingual interface

Next up, let’s continue with the global theme. Today, 79 percent of all global consumer web traffic comes from video. People are watching video all over the world. Much of the coming growth will happen abroad.

Dacast’s video monetization paywall is adapted to the user’s language. It’s easy to switch to a new language via a small dropdown menu. Our HTML5 paywall is then presented in this language. Ten languages are supported, with more languages added all the time.

5. Live event support for viewers

As you’re likely aware, viewers don’t like to watch poor-quality live streams. It makes them upset, views your brand negatively, and much more likely to browse away.

To counter this challenge, we offer a variety of options to help our broadcasters avoid these issues. First, the Akamai CDN delivers all Dacast streams. Akamai is the largest and fastest CDN on the market. With more than 240,000 servers globally, using Akamai to distribute your content is a smart choice. And it’s included free with every Dacast account.

Dacast can also offer live event support for viewers via our professional services. With this option, our tech team will be available during your event to help viewers who experience any issues. For highly important live streams, this can be essential. Additionally, live event support helps to assure that any problems that do occur reach a timely resolution for you and your viewers.

6. Hosted event pages

Lastly, one of the key elements in any live stream is a dedicated video page. Broadcasters can utilize this page before, during, and after the live stream.

• Before the event takes place, this page can help you sign up viewers for email reminders, capture leads, advertise the event, and more.
• During the event, this will be your main hub for viewing.
• After the event, this page can provide free or pay-per-view access to the event recording, continue to promote and advertise other associated events.

Setting up a hosted event page is easy. However, professional event pages should include features that might be difficult for the average person to set up. However, Dacast offers professional services to help you build a high-end event website. In fact, our techs can help you to set up landing pages, embedded video players, registration, secure login, and more.

Conclusion

In this article, we’ve introduced you to video monetization in 2019. We’ve discussed advertising, pay-per-view, and subscription payment models. We’ve reviewed the six key features of our new paywall to take your business to the next level. Try them for yourself with our 14-day free trial (no credit card required).

For detailed information about how to use our paywall, check out our tutorial.