Last year, the SCAM in partnership with Red Corner has published a very comprehensive study “documentary on internet, its authors and its publics”, in order to explore obstacles to VOD documentaries growth.
We wanted to respond in our own way, to several issues raised, especially on the overall lack of ococumentaries available in VOD (legally), in France (but we are sure this situation applies to many other countries in different continents) :
1 / AVAILABILITY OF CONTENTS
Everyone agree on this : documentaries are difficult to find online. Many reasons can explain that, we’re not going to list them all. But one of the most important is the difficulty to be listed in existing VOD platforms.
At OKAST, we’ve created a simple and easy tool allowing any right owner to create himself, and within minutes, its own VOD documentary offer and of course to keep all in control: no rights assignment or licence, no price policy to respect, no front costs: in short, a flexible, immediate, free service with no long-term commitment to publish a great piece of content online.
2 / PRICE AND PROCESS TO PURCHASE VOD DOCUMENTARIES ONLINE CAN BE AN OBSTACLE
With OKAST, purchasing a content is done securely through our partner Stripe (the leading payment service in the World) and very easily (without any complicated sign in process : one email address and credit card information, and Voilà !).
In addition, once the first purchase is made, it is possible to continue buying via OKAST without having to re-enter banking credentials… Cool right?
As for the price, our model is transparent: a commission of 10% of sales (more bank fees of 50 cents), which allows the legal successor of positioning a fair price, without fear to see half retained by an outdoor platform.
3 / the involvement of developers in the development of their film
It seems certain that the promotion of content by its creators, is not only legitimate and necessary, but above all, can generate virtuous effects.
The issues here are time and skills necessary to handle this.
We are 100% agree 🙂
Besides, on OKAST, everything has been made to make it quick and easy: any creator can write an “update” and publish it instantly on its OKAST website, on Facebook, and via a newsletter. All of this without being a Marketing expert from the digital generation 😉
We couldn’t be agree more with this study. This remind us the initial purpose of OKAST creation : a major partner in the distribution and promotion for online contents.
We encourage all filmmakers (documentary or not) who wish to distribute their work online to sign in on OKAST (it’s free) or to contact us at hello@okast.tv !
Creatively yours,
The OKAST Team
PS: you can also find our video summary of the April meeting by ‘What horizons for the documentary online’ at SCAM