Beyond News and Movie Trailers

A quick scan of the top streaming portal sites reveals most are delivering virtually the same video content: news feeds, sports, and movie trailers, occasionally augmented with a smattering of fashion and music videos.

It seems creativity and unique branding grind to a halt when it comes to supplemental and alternative video content. Perhaps the key missing link is source targeting. Where does the streaming content manager find alternative programming? One source is Venture Media.

This Florida-based company owns a library of almost 1,000 video clips running 30 seconds to 8 minutes in length. Venture Media president Jim Duffy describes the content as "alternative fun learning."

"We felt there should be streaming content available besides the usual news and trailers," says Duffy. "And we were sitting on a tremendous asset that could help fill that void: An 800+ hour video library. So we set about repurposing this content and developed programming that works on multiple levels. It entertains, but with a high ‘Gee I didn’t know that’ factor. There’s some excellent take-away information here, from cooking tips to how to make your home child-safe. We trimmed the 800 hours down to 47 hours of prime evergreen content. This also kept the running times in line with the ‘Short Attention Span Theater’ syndrome of Internet streaming."

Clip topics include pop culture, holidays and observances, lifestyle, health and fitness, history anecdotes, geography quizzes, military heritage, and travel.

Some of the company’s most popular clips come from its "Fun Facts of American History" series—one-minute clips that look at fascinating stories you never learned in history class, like the saga of America’s first subway, the real Moby-Dick, train crashes staged to promote railroad safety, and the origins of baseball’s 7th-inning stretch. Another popular series many viewers find addictive is "The Great American State Quiz," where users are shown video clues unique to a particular state and asked to guess the correct state before the one-minute segment is over. Other clip series include "Explorers & Pioneers," "50 Years In Military History," "Nutrition & Weight Control," "Home & Vehicle Safety," and many more. All the clips feature professional narrators, animated graphics, background music, rare historical footage, and original Betacam videography.

Venture Media’s motto: Learning Can Be Fun. "Everybody loves trivia and everybody loves to learn, as long as it’s in a fun environment," says Duffy. "Why else would Jeopardy be in syndication for 20 years and shows like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire keep coming back? Our content capitalizes on that thirst for knowledge. Our pop culture segments include subjects like ‘Back To The Drawing Board’—a series of ten one-minute clips focusing on bizarre inventions that were actually patented—and ‘Space Spin-offs,’ which look at ways the space program helps us on Earth. We also answer other common questions: Why do we throw rice at weddings? Where did Uncle Sam come from? And why is popcorn popped in movie theaters?"