On Tuesday, VideoNuze and The Diffusion Group hosted their fourth webinar in a 2010 series of six sponsored by ActiveVideo Networks, with this one focusing on “Demystifying Independent Online Video and Syndication Models.”

The webinar featured informative and timely discussion/Q&A with Richard Bloom, SVP, Business Development for 5min, and Jim Louderback, CEO of Revision3.  The focus of the discussion was on business models for success in independent online video with a specific lean towards syndication. Both Jim and Rich honed in on how syndication helps solve the difficulties with finding eyeballs and building audience in the fragmented broadband video landscape.
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Rich argued for hyper-syndication, explaining how 5min gains viewers for its lifestyle, knowledge and instructional content partners by syndicating to video portals and text based websites. 5Min has executed its vision well, with Rich noting that 5Min is now rolling up 100 million+ monthly video views across its network.

Jim was equally enthusiastic about platform syndication, discussing how Revision3′s success derives from leveraging passionate fan bases and delivering video on whatever platforms and devices those consumers use, including OTT/connected devices, mobile, web, and social. Another differentiator Jim pointed to was “super-serving” highly targeted audiences (for Revision3, it’s young males) and working hard to build a sense of community.

Regarding monetization, both favored brand integration in addition to pre-rolls. Jim noted that with certain Revision3 shows like Tekzilla, the hosts will pause to personally deliver brand messages, helping create trust and improve recall. While this requires a more involved sales process, Jim said the payoff comes in a higher ROI per stream. Despite their overall enthusiasm for the industry’s growth, both Jim and Rich cautioned against media hype and noted further work is required on issues like discovery, standardizing view counts, encoding and supporting multiple devices.

Click here to access the full discussion and download the presentation slides.

Related posts:

1. Webinar Today: Independent Online Video and Syndication
2. "Demystifying 2011" Complimentary Webinar on Wed., December 15th
3. Is Demand Media’s "Factory" Approach the Future of Online Video – or Not?
4. Complimentary Webinar Tomorrow, July 8th: Demystifying Open vs. Closed Internet Video Distribution Platforms