Oprah's Second Webcast Does 200,000 Simultaneous Viewers

This past Monday, Oprah webcast her second class online and peaked at 200,000 simultaneous viewers. While that was down from the 500,000 simultaneous viewers she had for her first class, it's to be expected and is not any indication of failure.

Having done a lot of series of webcasts myself over the years, the first webcast typically gets more traffic, more promotion and has more excitement around it since it is the first one. And with eight more classes to go, Oprah still has a lot more viewers she will be picking up along the way.

One of the interesting metrics of the webcast is that the average user stayed on for almost the full 90 minutes. Most webcasts don't have an average viewing time that long and you see a lot of people dropping in and out of the webcast along the way. Considering the nature of the content Oprah is talking about, I think you have to be pretty into it to begin with, so it didn't surprise me that the average viewing time was so long.

Some in the industry have criticized Oprah for not making it a pay-per-view event or for doing more advertising during the webcast. They are almost seeing it as being a failure since Oprah didn't monetize it the way they think she should have and some even went on to say how she didn't leverage the traffic properly. I think they are all missing the point.

For starters, Oprah did have three sponsors for the event; Chevy, Post-It and Skype. I saw commercials run just before the webcast started for Chevy and Post-It and those ads are still running where you to go to watch the archives. But the biggest point I think people are missing is that Oprah does not need to make it a pay-per-view event. Not every piece of video on the web needs to be monetized or charged for. As an industry, we need to stop being in the mindset that if we don't somehow charge for every piece of content or show enough ads with the content that it is a failure. Many companies use webcasting and on-demand video all the time as marketing and promotional platforms and are quite happy with the results.

These webcasts give Oprah a way to reach an audience outside of the one hour a day she is on TV. In many cases, she is reaching a different audience in parts of the world who can't get her show on TV. It enables Oprah to further expand her reach, get more awareness and increase her brand. She's taken her content and made it available on demand and portable via iTunes. She is using many different platforms to reach the widest possible audience on many devices. She's doing what any smart content owner would do who already has a huge audience they can tap into and easily grow.

I expect once all of her webcasts are over you are going to see her talk about just how well this platform worked for her, how many total views she got from the content and she will make a commitment to do more events on a regular basis. I think Oprah will very quickly become one of the biggest advocates of webcasting on the Internet and will become a regular webcaster.

Comments

[bstruhl]

Hi Dan, Thank you for the update...I was very curious as to how her second webcast did after her 1st one. Did she use the same companies for both? Were there any changes made, that you are aware of? Thank you, Barry

[Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen]

Oprah used Limelight for both the first and second webcasts. As for the numbers, I'm guessing that (in addition to the typical dynamic Dan cites, where the premiere draws more than the followups) once people saw how easy it would be to get the content on-demand after the fact, many realized they didn't have to feel tied down to watching the live webcast and opted to wait to download from iTunes or watch the on-demand version.

[Cece Salomon-Lee]

I'm glad to hear that the second webcast went better and that people viewed the webcast for nearly 90 minutes. I think people forget that unlike TV, people come to a webcast to learn something - whether it's a book, cooking show or technology related. From the B2B perspective, our numbers tell us people will stay on a webcast for nearly 40-45 minutes.

With this in mind, Oprah's use of webcasting will have a positive halo affect on everyone in the business and will demonstrate that online video is more than monetization. It's engaging an audience with your message for a specific amount of time.

[Adrian Payne]

Dan -- You touch a topic that I hear all the time. We have to charge for it because we don't want to give it away for free.

In the entertainment industry the opposite is true. What most entertainment companies don't realize is casual users are not going to sample your product if they have to pay for it. There are many choices out there for users that are ad driven as you mention in the Oprah webcast. The ad model is currently the most successful in terms of exposing your product to new users.

200,000 simultaneous viewers users is more than some cable stations get. To me that may be viewed as a success for the online video.

[Larry Kless]

Hey Dan,

I'm glad to see you cover this as it is big news when the almighty Oprah extends her reach with live web casting. I actually logged on to this web cast and got a solid connection (588 kbps) and I was quite pleased with the video quality along with the use of Skype for Q&A. She's really taking chances pushing the bandwidth envelope but you're right about the pay off, she's reaching a worldwide audience using an emerging medium and to a certain extent she's incorporated a social networking/global web cast pioneering into her brand. I agree that she's just getting her party started.

Thanks, Larry

[Sam Raphael]

I think you guys are missing the point. If one watches Oprah's and Eckhart Tolle's webcasts, one would see that the very concept of making money just because you can or building her brand, is not what they are trying to accomplish. They speak of an alternate perspective on life, reevaluating the importance of many of the concepts that we value and count upon to provide meaning and happiness in our lives. One always has the choice to be cynical and assume that brand-building is the reason Oprah does these for free, but I think many hundreds of thousands of people have chosen to accept the effort as is. I am not saying anyone is incorrect, just that the facts are: any one who wants to can participate in learning about a great set of tools that can change one's life for the better, without feeling like its another attempt by someone to sell them something. The truth doesn't need to defend itself, so my opinion is just that, an opinion.

Thanks, Sam