Beyond News and Movie Trailers

A lot of the content also comes from television broadcast series produced by Venture. For example, 39 adventure travel segments were derived from the Travel Channel series Great Park Adventures. There are also 195 Latin cooking segments from the Spanish-language TV series Buen Provecho.

Duffy says the clips are used in a multitude of ways by their clients. "Sometimes the clips become part of a large ‘video vault’ on the site where viewers can search by topic. But often our customers get creative about using the clips to their full potential. Some will create links from news stories that relate to the topic. For example, many of our World War II military heritage clips were timely links for the recent D-Day anniversary celebration stories. One site created a special ‘Homework Help’ channel where younger viewers can find our history and geography clips. A Spanish-language site rotated our Latin cooking clips in a ‘Recipe of the Day’ sidebar. Not only did they sell ads on that sidebar, but it created a sticky environment that brought users back daily. Our holiday clips provide a rich seasonal experience for the viewer, plus they provide another advertising opportunity for the portal. A florist or jewelry ad could be very effective tied to a Valentine video clip."

Venture’s business model is based on licensing agreements. The company offers non-exclusive licensing deals, generally in one-, two- or three-year terms, although longer terms have also been negotiated. The pricing is based on two parameters: length of license period and quantity of clips. Site volume and number of downloads have no bearing on the price. License deals have been completed with companies ranging from Fortune 500 giants to small intranet hubs. In recent months, Venture has also been contacted by mobile wireless companies who see the unique content as the perfect way for customers to pass the time during a car pool commute or while waiting in long lines.