Dailymotion to expand production studio footprint to US and eyes UK VOD deals
Dailymotion is planning to launch production studios in the US and the UK as it continues its drive to bring more original, premium content to its platform.
The video platform, which had 3.6 million unique visitors in the UK in March this year, and 113 million globally, according to ComScore, is to debut its first ever production studio in Paris next month as it looks to cultivate emerging creative talent for both short and long-form video.
Now it is eyeing studio launches in other markets including the US, which generates 20 per cent of its overall traffic, and potentially the UK, according to Dailymotion head of content Marc Eychenne.
He told The Drum in such a fiercely competitive market in which YouTube dominates user-generated content, it is increasingly critical to have original, exclusive, premium content which can maintain high advertising CPMs.
Around 70 per cent of its viewing in France is for premium content but that figure is lower in the UK where it is more like 25 per cent, according to Eychenne. It will now focus on developing more deals with UK broadcasters and content creators for catch-up content and is already in talks with the BBC.
It is also keen to work with other broadcasters including Channel 4 to run certain shows on Dailymotion, and in doing so open up the content to international territories. “For example the Channel 4 drama Top Boy is a great TV show and we really want to broadcast it in France where no one knows it. We want more US and UK content and can open these shows to new markets, and then monetise that,” he said.
Focus will be on bringing content that falls into the entertainment and news categories and it is also working with the Guardian and other newspaper titles on video content, according to Eychenne. “We are also doing a lot of live streaming of music festivals and thins and we have highlights for the FA Cup so we do already have UK partners but we want to develop more relationships with content owners here and offer them visibility in other territories,” he added.
When it comes to co-funding content and bringing in new content partners to create video via the Paris-based studio Eychenne said it will favour digital companies over traditional production companies as they better understand how to create content for digital audiences.
“Digital companies know what is important and what isn’t – it you look at the YouTube Channel partners it is the likes of Machinima and Vice that have done well because they know what kind of content to create but the more traditional production houses are used to creating content for broadcast channels and selling their content to broadcasters, so their channels do not do so well,” he said.
A third of all Dailymotion traffic is now via mobile globally, a figure which fluctuates according to territory. In France and the UK it has a 25 per cent split, whereas in Japan half of all traffic to the site is via mobile and in Korea it is 70 per cent.