The beta of Sling.com’s video site is pretty awesome. And smart.
After streaming a full clip or episode, the viewer is given the ability to leave a comment, purchase the full episode, or buy the entire season. You can also create a subscription feed that provides updates on your friends’ activity along with the shows you’ve subscribed to.
The site currently imports content from Hulu (which doesn’t allow for commenting or purchasing just yet).
The networks are smart because they know that in this day and age users will always find a way to get copyrighted content for free.
They figured that they may as well direct eyeballs back to their site, or an affiliates, to allow free streaming while generating dough from ad-based revenue.
Perhaps just as important as ad-based revenue is connecting directly with viewers on a one-to-one basis. The viewer has the ability to engage with the brand by leaving comments, tagging items, sharing clips with friends, and providing feedback on what they watch.
Users can create profiles allowing basic data to be pulled by the site admin such as age, gender, and location.
NBC and ABC already offer up full streaming episodes on their sites as does Comedy Central and The CW – and more have come aboard.
Music labels are coming into the fold too although there doesn’t seem to be a site that aggregates music in the same way that Hulu, Sling, or Fancast does for video. Perhaps Imeem?
Indie label Team Love recently launched a music library allowing the perusal/streaming of music from their label and even offering free downloads with no stipulations.
For a content creator, the ability to connect directly with fans is a big deal. There’s a strong possibility that they’ll stick around to purchase, share, participate, or simply watch more to connect with what you have to offer.
Viewers are also directed to your site to discover free content – rather than hitting up P2P, YouTube, or bit torrents for the goods.
Which is always a good thing.