Niche Online Video + Loyal Audience = Big Ad Dollars

On the heels of Comcast & Time Warner's murmurings about offering cable content free-of-charge to existing subscribers, CBS has nearly sold out $30 million in ad inventory for its upcoming March Madness on Demand.

Through MMOD, basketball junkies can stream all of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament games. MMOD even comes with a "boss button" that pops up a fake spreadsheet if at-work fans sense The Man approaching (sponsored by Comcast, of course).

If you're sitting on a niche content library with a faithful audience--be it entertainment, ministry-related, or otherwise--think about the implications of CBS' success for your online offerings. While you're at it, consider that other networks are capitalizing on tremendous demand for niche content through paid subscriptions for video on demand and live online events. In one previously unreported case of which I'm intimately aware, a Christian ministry netted thousands of subscriptions and a whopping profit from a recent live-streamed convention.

Whatever your model, if you've got a niche content library that's already generating interest, you're halfway there. Now you simply need to combine your content with an easy-to-use/easy-to-manage Internet TV platform.