Going Beyond YouTube – Your Internet TV Network
Although YouTube is the most popular streaming platform in the world, there are some serious drawbacks to using the platform for your own network, including live broadcasts. Many people don’t realize that YouTube is the 3rd most commonly blocked website in the world today.
Plus, YouTube DOES NOT ALLOW white labeling (using your logo and custom branding).
If you are starting your own Internet TV network, you need your own powerful and flexible system that can handle all the needs of a network (like scheduling playlists, live broadcast across social platforms, VOD integration and much more). Plus, you can broadcast across platforms like Roku, FireTV, Apple TV, your mobile apps and much more.
Let’s discuss some more of the drawbacks of YouTube:
1. Content rights:
When you stream or upload a video to YouTube you give away the rights to your content. Let’s review the 6C terms in the YouTube terms of use agreement: “by submitting Content to YouTube, you hereby grant YouTube a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the Content in connection with the Service and YouTube’s (and its successors’ and affiliates’) business.”
Loosing your rights to your content may not be a big deal to someone posting a non-professional video, but it is a big deal to those that have put time and effort into their video creation.
2. Ads and Monetization: Dynamic ad insertion is a huge business, with more than 40.84 billion spent by 2022. This is an annual growth rate of 20 percent! However, with YouTube, your monetization options are very limited in scope. First, YouTube monetization is tightly controlled and your only option is advertising (you cannot do a Netflix subscription model).
3. YouTube advertising rates are very low and you have almost no customization options. For example, you have no control over what ads appear before, during, or after your content.
For a professional service, you have several monetization options; pay-per-view, subscriptions, and dynamic add insertion with each having its own advantages. You can even mix and match these monetization options for revenue optimization.
4. Branding and Customization: To maintain a professional image for your network you need to be able to brand it with your own logos and colors. You need the ability to embed your videos anywhere with a easy to understand interface.
YouTube and other social media platforms do not allow this. They also link unrelated content alongside your content. The bottom line is a YouTube channel never has the sense of professionalism to it that it needs to represent your network.
5. Customer Support: Customer support is non-existent for professional content creators when it comes to free platforms like YouTube. This is completely unacceptable if you are doing a live broadcast on your network.
Conclusion: Your own online TV network is a massive opportunity for you to monetize your video content and reach new audiences from around the globe. However you need a professional platform that can help you manage your video content as well as distribute it to large audiences in a professional way with your own branding.
You need the ability to create and schedule playlists, simultaneously broadcast across social media, record live broadcasts and get tech support.
Our channel manager does all of this, if you would like to get your network started check it out by clicking on the link below.