My Internet TV Network – How Much Can I Make?

Q1 – Yes

Q2. I am going to assume you are already familiar with “Monetization techniques” for internet TV (OTT)…if not click here to read about it. .

Q3. Well, that’s what this article is about…read on.

The most common way to monetize your online network is through DAI which stands for Dynamic Ad Insertion (and for the sake of this article I will mainly concentrate on this method). DAI allows advertisers to swap out creative ads in both linear, live or video-on-demand, content. 

This means we can have viewers in different locations watching the same stream, but serve them with different ads. 

Cost Per Thousand means how much is paid per 1000 impressions of an advertisement. This means your viewers have seen the ad 1000 times. This could mean that 100 viewers watched the ad 10 times in an evening or that 200 viewers watched the ad 5 times… and in most cases it does not mean that 1000 people had to see the ad. It’s impressions, or better yet, its views, not viewers. 

Smart TV and connected TV”s CPM can be between $8 and $20. 

Desktop between $2 and $6. 

You will want to use DAI for your streams and your VOD’s. 

Once you have that number, then use the formula below to calculate revenue: 

Now, lets just make a simple scenario. 

So that would be 300,000 X 15 divided by 1000 = $4,500 in DAI revenue. 

Let me give you another example using the same CPM. 

This means that in one hour you have 8 minutes of possible ad time. That would be 4 thirty second ads for each avail. This equates to 16 impressions per viewer per hour. 

So now if you have a CPM of 15 dollars you can figure out what you made for that hour: 

This of course varies depending on your fill rate of your avails but should give you an idea of the possibilities. 

Keep in mind that this was referring to adding an insertion into a streaming channel (linear) but the same principal applies to VOD. Having pre-roll and mid-roll ads inserted dynamically into your VOD’s will increase your ad revenue greatly. 

The longer each viewer watches and the more ad avails that are filled (per hour) then your math starts to add up because now your impressions are much larger. 

Keep in mind that this was referring to adding an insertion into a streaming channel (linear) but the same principal applies to VOD. Having pre-roll and mid-roll ads inserted dynamically into your VOD’s will increase your ad revenue greatly. 

Now back to our first example of 30,000 viewers tuning in for the month. Depending on how many impressions each viewer saw (how much time they spent watching your VOD’s and streaming channel) will indicate the actual revenue received. 30,000 viewers could equal $4,500 or it could equal $45,000 depending on all of those variables. 

The longer each viewer watches and the more ad avails that are filled (per hour) then your math starts to add up because now your impressions are much larger. 

Charging a monthly subscription is a common way to monetize your content. 

Netflix is an example of how subscription services can really be a viable option. 

Typical questions we get are “how much should I charge for my subscription network” ? The best answer I can give you is this. The more niche your network, the more you can charge. 

In other words, the more targeted your audience, the higher you can price your monthly subscription. 

Other questions such as; Are there other competitors competing for that same audience? Look at other niche networks,…what are they charging? 

Let me give you some make believe samples of “extremer niche”:

• • A ball room dancing channel
  • A golf channel that focuses just on teaching golf techniques
  • Channels that cater to languages not commonly spoken in your home country

It can’t just be a standard channel targeting standard entertainment if you want to charge a subscription. The only exception to this is of course Netflix with has thousands of video titles to choose from. 

You have to know your audience and as a channel owner/operator you are the best to know what you can charge and what you can not. 

To give you an idea I see our customers charging their viewers between 1.99/month on the low end and as high as $29.99/month on the high end. 

What’s great about subscriptions is you are monetizing all of your views the same….no matter if they spend one hour a month watching or 50 hours a month. You can predict your revenue and 

growth easily.

You can mix and match by providing a paid/premium version with out advertising and a free version of your channel with ads.