All the big Web companies know there is a giant amount of money in streaming… but getting it is not simple. Advertising is the main revenue engine, yet the idea of establishing a subscription mechanism is much more attractive. That detail led to things like YouTube Red, and now Amazon Video Direct. That's right: Jeff Bezos and his battalion have presented a new video platform aimed at very high-profile names, including Mattel, Machinima, The Guardian, HowStuffWorks and Mashable, among others.
Competition for YouTube? It is a bit hard to imagine if we consider the chilling number of views the service receives daily, whether on traditional computers, mobile devices, or new access routes such as set-top boxes and smart TVs. However, that little gem called Netflix arrived, and the video titan discovered it had wandered into quicksand, or at least into a territory it did not fully understand. Users are willing to pay for streaming as long as the service fits their demands. Netflix made a misstep by blocking the use of proxies and VPN systems, while YouTube Red is more tied to the United States than Prometheus to the Caucasus. That said, we now have Video Direct, and the mastermind behind this new service is none other than Amazon.
Several specialized media have presented Video Direct as a direct rival to YouTube – which isn’t bad – but in reality it would be more accurate to say it is a rival to YouTube Red. The new Amazon service promises greater flexibility to content developers, since they can distribute it via rental, sale, subscription, free with advertising, or earning revenue from the streaming hours that Amazon Prime users dedicate to it. Video Direct also talks about "combining" these options, and as expected, in all cases a percentage is shared with Amazon (50 percent of rentals, sales and subscriptions, 45 percent of ads).
Probably the most striking piece of information about Video Direct is that it doesn’t prioritize the common user for uploading videos, but rather the big names of the industry. In essence, all those interested in creating material for Video Direct must open an account as a company profile, link a bank account, and provide all necessary tax information so that the distribution of earnings (established in 90-day periods) can be carried out without problems.
Amazon anticipated that videos will be available on all devices compatible with Prime Video, including the Fire family, iOS, Android, consoles, connected TVs, and of course computers. As a "help" to stimulate the launch of Video Direct, Amazon presented a program called "Video Direct Stars," which will give out one million dollars each month among the Top 100 videos, although we don’t know its duration. The advantage of Video Direct? It will debut simultaneously in the United States, the United Kingdom, Austria, Germany and Japan.
