First, really, watch the three videos and see if it works for you.
[ it died and I don't want to fix it... it was an ESPN.com prototype of a embeddable video player similar to YouTube or Yahoo video ]
Now, imagine if we were able to offer bloggers and other users the ability to syndicate these videos and publish them on your blog. Would that be interesting for you?
What you're looking at is a prototype application that allows ESPN Motion video to be shared. The player isn't all that interesting. Instead, the interesting piece is the tool and application that allows you to build out a custom player to suit your site and your preferences. Whether you want a single screen, single clip experience or you want to build a la carte playlists for your readers, the app can do that.
There's no plan to launch something like this yet. It's simply one of many prototypes floating around the ESPN.com Technology development labs. One of the practical reasons something like this would be difficult to launch is that we don't have the rights to redistribute all of the content we show on ESPN Motion, ESPN360 or Mobile ESPN. I suspect that we'd have a pretty good chance of getting all the ESPN original content out there, but then there's the question of advertisers and branding. For example, advertisers want to advertise with ESPN, not necessarily with Joe's House of Porn out there on the Internet. Just some of the challenges to rolling out a syndication model that I never really thought about until I started working here at ESPN.com.
Feel free to leave any thoughts, opinions, or comments on this video idea below.
March 3rd, 2006 at 11:28 AM
I would do that in a heartbeat! Its a fantastic idea (emphasis on the FAN part) and I think could be huge for ESPN syndication.
March 3rd, 2006 at 11:32 AM
Couldn’t it be streamed to other sites for a nominal fee per video…. you could work out licensing agreements with the original owners to a small percentage of the feed along with credit somewhere in the video (much like on clips of replays)… and then the advertiser could get a percentage of the video feed so that, although they may be upset about Joe’s House of Porn having it… they are happy about getting back some of the advertising dollars for it…. Or…stream the video without the advertisers clip (a) because you are charging a nominal fee and (b) then they aren’t upset for being advertised on joe’s House of Porn.
Just a thought…
March 3rd, 2006 at 2:03 PM
We couldn’t stream it because we simply don’t have the rights. Keep in mind the size of the contracts with the various leagues and rights holders.
People are working on these type of ideas (just not me
). There are various ideas being tossed about and even negotiated. Never know what they’ll come up with because often the finance math works out in ways that I didn’t imagine.