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I've got a client or two that have a LOT of specially niched content and looking to offer a paysite feed as part of their overall program down the road. I need some information on what's involved here to setup something like this. IE: software, tracking, billing, server requirements, etc.
If any of you can provide some links, insite, etc, I'd be most grateful!
you could approach an already established feed company and save $$$ not having to do custom scripts and such and split the revs.
While that may be one option, I'm still wanting to know the ingredients required to produce and manage a feed site from a cash program. Thanks for the reply though!Quote:
Originally Posted by Daymare
Can you do this by using .htaccess features?
You give the subscribing site allowances to link to the content page from
their page using .htaccess..
As long as they keep paying their monthly bills you continue to allow them linking access and when they unsubscribe, simply remove them.
sort of a reversal of the anti hotlinking use of an .htacesss file.
maybe this would work?
Hi Bec,
Are you asking about how cam feed sites are setup?
If so I can probably give you little help on it, not so much about the technical as I have technical people handle that and I don't know a ton about that end of it. But I can explain a lot of the headaches of the business versus the rewards of it.
I don't know a ton about it, but can give you a little info, 'cause we were looking into doing just what you're talking about some time ago.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bec
You'll need Windows Media Streaming Server (or Helix, if you're doing Real, or the open-source Quicktime server if doing Quicktime). All except Quicktime are pretty pricey, it was $10-15,000 for the software when I last checked some time ago. Then, if you want to DRM protect your feeds, you'll need either a deal with DRM Networks (aka CCBill) or else you'll need a Windows Media licensing server and, most likely, a custom script to handle the licensing issues.
The actual issue of controlling access to the feeds is fairly trivial; basically, you're just checking the referer to make sure the surfer is coming from the members area URL of one of your customers. There's some anti-spoofing code that needs to be in there to prevent spoofing of the referring URL, but that's pretty simple and off-the-shelf.
Then you'll just need a way to track the bandwidth used by each of the feed leasees. That shouldn't be too difficult, just something that can parse your server logs and tie that to the amount of bandwidth used by each refererring URL, and that, in turn, will feed your billing solution.
Your bandwidth costs are something to really watch when pricing your feeds, and you'll need to really shop around for bandwidth. A lot, of course, depennds on the resolution of the feeds you're offering. Depending on traffic and number of members actually viewing the feeds, you may be able to start out with one server... but remember that if you grow past that, as far as I know, you'll need either an additional license or an upgrade license (both of which are spendy) for Helix or WMServer.
Hope that helps!
Advise them it's not worth the hassle and expense. Just lease feeds from me or another feed company. For them to get in this late in the game and have to put up all of that expense to get up and running, they won't see a profit for years, if they decide to still even hassle with it by then.
Requires constant mgmt, recruiting, scheduling, HR, re connecting cams, etc, etc. Bandwidth bill is big, you also have to pay the models.
We got in it 6yrs ago luckily, my passion is voyeur cam, if they don't have that passion and think they are going to make big bucks, they are way wrong! Advise them to just lease the feeds out is my best suggestion.
What they will need to make it happen:
You can use Windows Media Player or Emulive for the stream (1k a month) - we just switched to Windows Media Player from Emulive. Windows Media Player is a pain in the ass, but worth the great video and audio.
If you use emulive they charge you a monthly or yearly fee for it, around 1100 a month, yes 1100 a month. Stream isn't as good as Windows Media Player, but emulive is secure out of the box and auto reconnects which Windows Media Player doesn't.
You will also need to purchase a program to secure the feed if using Windows Media Player.
You will need a chat client - we use webmaster chat.
You will need some sort of authentication - we use .htaccess on a linux server.
We have some linux boxes and one windows 2003 enterprise server box for Windows Media Player. That license will cost you around 2500. The box probably a couple grand.
I think that covers it!
I really appreciate all the responses!
chip - what software is costing 15 grand? :eek:
And doing a cam site has also come into discussions here and there so I appreciate your feedback as well Jacob of Live Twinks Cam. :thumbsup:
What I'm trying to figure out is how you'd offer a feed of content like Webmaster Central does for instance.
No problem Bec I was glad to help. Let me know if I can be of further assistance.
bec, i've seen lots of feeds that just offer wmv or wmv and mpg and don't use or require a streaming server.
perhaps asking a host is the best idea as being able to accurately and quickly see how much monthly bandwidth each feed customer is using would be very important.
other than metering bandwidth use separately for each user, seems like the only real issue is security. .htacess is not going to do it - perhaps they could use a special license for a system like strongbox or proxypass.
The way I see it, you need a custom script that does accounting and integrates some sort of strongbox-style security to allow members coming from the referring site to get access. I do not know of any commercially available products that would do this.
cheers,
Luke
Hi Jacob....
I dont think bec is talking about cam feeds... rather about PPV / VOD feeds.
We have been looking into it as well, but information is scarce. We dont really want to do revshare on this... I have 10 years of films in the can and probably over 500 titles!
So - where would I even START to find out about doing this myself? Colt's done it... it must be doable!
Doing PPV means buying the X3 script that lets you bill by the minute, and being able to stream your material.Quote:
Originally Posted by shaun
Setting up a site that you can then lease to other paysites is something different. Both have their place in a long term business plan for utilizing older content, and I'm trying to learn more about how the lease feed system is created, protected, billed and maintained without aligning with a 3rd party rev share or % situation.
Colt's done it? Really? Do you have a url of their feeds?Quote:
Originally Posted by shaun
Btw Bec, why don't you try to get hooked up with someone like Pistol Media? They seem to know what they are doing and have branded feeds with some of the best in the business like Fratmen, Treasure Island, Hot Desert Knights and Raging Stallion.
and Brian a very nice guy!Quote:
Originally Posted by Xstr8guy
I'm not for or against the idea of teaming up with a company that already has everything in place. This particular thread is to find out what it takes to do it on ones own.Quote:
Originally Posted by Xstr8guy
Having figures in front of you that shows what it will cost to:
1. produce & maintain the site(s)
2. having hack and password trading security in place
3. costs for a server that can stream and handle the load
4. evaluate on whether to use flash movies, allow downloads, or do DRM
5. any special software and software license fees, etc
...and taking all the lease fees for yourself over the years vs taking a % and what the long term "payment" is via signing on under another feed company helps to make decisions about what will or won't be implemented down the road. It's about having the data to make an informed decision based on a lot of variables to determine at what point you'll see a return on your investment.
Bec, the pricey software is Windows Media Streaming Server or Helix Streaming Server (RealMedia). Helix is priced based on max # of simultaneous feeds it is supplying; I'm not sure how Microsoft does it but I think it's similar. When
It is obviously possible to serve video without a streaming server, but I don't think you can support Windows variable bit rates and many of the other things you need as a feed provider without an actual streaming server.
And... depending o what other services you are offering (pay-per-minute or pay-per download, etc), you may also need a billing solution. If you are only charging other webmasters for feeds based on bandwidth, then you can probably get by with something built to read logfiles and generate billing data from that, which should not be expensive.
We looked at it in detail almost 4 years ago and determined the financial outlay wasn't worth the potential return... but it's possible costs have come down since then, and/or more off-the-shelf scripting is available, so it might be worth another look.
Sure - here: http://www.coltstudio.com/ppv/ppv.aspxQuote:
Originally Posted by Xstr8guy
That's not a "feed" site Shaun, but a pay per view site. It looks like they're doing DRM movies with a 72 hour license. Not sure how they've setup the billing and login per movie though.Quote:
Originally Posted by shaun