By Roger Jackson
Previously: VOD Myths vs. Reality
We’re often asked what makes Kinonation different from other VOD distribution companies. While we are both a content and a distribution venture, we tend to regard ourselves as – above all – a technology company. And it’s technology innovation that allows us to do things a little differently. Here’s what we’re building for filmmakers – 9 points that define our business philosophy and operational goals.
No upfront fee
No transcode or metadata authoring fee, no signup costs, no hidden charges. Cloud technology efficiencies allow us to waive the upfront fees that other aggregators charge. Our philosophy is that Kinonation only wins when content creators win. Simple, modest revenue sharing only on success, makes engaging with Kinonation a risk-free scenario.
No gatekeeper
Let the audience decide what fills are worth watching, not us. We are open to any content – feature films, TV, documentary, childrens… any format, any genre, any language (subject to simple minimum requirements, such as an IMDb page for films). Some VOD outlets might decline your title – but we don’t.
Keep your rights
No exclusive contract. You are free to work with other distributors in parallel. No lock-in. No minimum terms. Cancel anytime. Exclude territories/countries and outlets à la carte.
Fully automated
Kinonation turns VOD distribution into a fully-automated all-digital workflow with a modern, easy to use, cloud-based web app. No shipping drives, no DVD screeners, no one sitting in a room full of equipment encoding each film manually. Upload unlimited size asset files. Easily resume after interruptions. We then author into all different VOD outlet formats.
Discovery Guide
Our proprietary ranking system – built with a Harvard PhD statistician and filmmaker – ranks any title on a 1-100 scale of probable VOD success, based on 40+ empirical data points. This helps VOD outlets select the most promising films – and helps content creators understand how to improve their film’s chance to be profitable.
Scale and reach
The technology and the zero up-front cost enables us to scale rapidly. We can ingest hundreds of titles simultaneously, from anywhere on the planet, into a huge catalog. And it allows us global and multi-language reach – to deliver titles to video-on-demand outlets worldwide, into growing markets, and in any language.
Get paid fast
Transparent, automated online reporting. See every stream & sale and when it happened. Consolidated accounting from outlets worldwide.
Fanatical quality
Top-quality cloud transcoding, consistent authoring, and a 100+ step quality-control checklist. We’re ready for 4k and beyond.
Marketing Tools
We’re busy building self-service marketing tools, checklists, tutorials – resources for motivated content owners to identify and reach their film’s core audience – what we call its “affinity group.” This is definitely a work in progress, and it’s the piece of the puzzle requiring maximum participation by content owners. But fundamentally it’s a 2 step challenge: i) identify the film’s affinity group. ii) reach the affinity group at scale, profitably.
We Want Your Film
Kinonation wants your film to distribute to video-on-demand outlets, with no cost, no risk and 100% integrity. Click to Get Started.
Next Up: Post # 47: (scheduled for Tues April 1st)
Roger Jackson is a producer and the co-founder of film distribution start-up KinoNation. He was Vice President, Content for digital film pioneer iFilm.com and has produced warzone documentaries in Darfur, Palestine, Bangladesh and Nepal…plus a reality series for VH1 and one rather bad movie for Fox’s FuelTV. You can reach him at support@kinonation.com.
