Since the launch of BBC iPlayer in 2007 online catch-up services from UK broadcasters have attracted much attention. This segment is growing rapidly – in the UK online TV (including TV shows, sport, news and niche) generated £48.2m in 2008 according to Screen Digest, projected to grow to £92.4m in 2009. The broadcasters’ own websites accounted for 53% of UK free-to-view online TV consumption in 2008.

But how can broadcasters increase their share of online eyeballs and, by extension, revenues? Online, TV is not the only source of entertainment for web users and it must compete with a host of sites demanding users’ time – from passive consumption of music to active participation in social networks and user-generated video sites.

Broadcasters cannot ignore the fragmentation of the traditional TV audience or the swell of traffic which has grown up online. In order to tap into it there are two obvious strategies which can be adopted. One option is to license shows to other online video sites, taking a cut of the ad-revenue (usually around 70%). But third party providers often cannot sustain CPM rates equivalent to those for a broadcaster’s own site. The process of reselling shows to an affiliate may also be complicated by rights issues – for example, many premium shows are from the US, making UK broadcasters’ ability to resell content more complex than if its catalogue was purely locally-produced.

The alternatives are syndication and viral distribution which are likely to be more lucrative for broadcasters on a per-view basis. This involves embedding the broadcaster’s own video player into third party sites leveraging popular destinations and allowing shows to be embedded in blogs directly into the conversation. Although the broadcaster carries the cost of ad sales and video delivery, the benefits of this system are two-fold. Firstly, by centralizing ad sales the broadcaster can maintain the typically higher CPM rates associated with their own catch-up services. With no third party sites competing to sell ads against the same content the downward pressure on these ad rates will be minimized. Secondly, the broadcaster will be able to retain a greater percentage of ad revenues compared to a straight licensing deal.

In the US Hulu, ABC and CBS all syndicate their video players. According to web metrics firm comScore CBS recorded nearly three times as many viewers for its videos across the 300 partner sites which make up the CBS Audience Network as it did visitors to cbs.com in July 2009 thanks to this strategy. In the UK Five is emerging as the most forward-thinking when it comes to tapping into the disaggregated audience. The broadcaster announced in June 2009 that it would begin syndicating its video player to a number of websites, extending its reach beyond five.tv.

Dan Cryan, Editor, Screen Digest

Social TV Forum will explore these topics in conference format – visit www.social-tv.net for more details.