Our YouTube channel has over 4,600 subscribers and over 16 million video views. Trailers and segments of most of our programs are available on the channel. Often, so are the full programs themselves. Some of our producers wonder why we are showing our full programs. Their logic seems to be that if a full program is available on the web, then no one will buy the DVD. We disagree. When programs air on traditional linear television channels (cable, satellite or broadcast), DVD sales only increase. Why would the same not be true of programs “airing” on the web?
The next technology format, or platform, always causes fear and trepidation among content owners. When VCRs first appeared, the initial theory was that since consumers could tape programs “off the air,” they would never again need to buy them on VHS. This may have been the case for some Disney movies, but it was never the case for documentaries or special-interest content. In fact, the opposite was true, because the television broadcasts quickly became a promotional platform for the packaged, pre-recorded content. Whether the television network or channel paid to license a program or acquired it for free, the effect was the same — additional publicity and awareness for the program. The same is true of the internet.
Viewers of online streaming (not downloadable) content are very different from traditional linear television viewers. And neither lean-back linear TV viewers or lean-forward web viewers watch what they watch instead of buying DVDs. If the consumer who watches internet video is not a DVD consumer, the program has attracted another view, just as if it had aired on a linear TV channel. If that web viewer is also DVD consumer, he or she now knows about the program and they can surf over to our website or to amazon.com to buy it.
