Branded Online Video Content — The New King?

Advertisers are trending in the direction of branded content. Meaning an online video series is sponsored by or supported by a certain brand. This can range from shows designed for TV that for some reason never made it to news programs.

In large part, Hulu’s success is based upon this content model and recently even YouTube had to admit that they have missed the boat and are focusing on exploring ways of capitalizing on high-quality branded video content by creating specific channels to be more niche oriented and targeted (e.g. Motor Trend).

Here is a panel discussion about an aspect of the branded content conversation that I came across from Streaming Media. It is unfortunately long and not particularly well produced (i.e. mediocre shooting and only one channel of audio) but has some very interesting perspectives about the future of branded content online.