Video Distribution: Special Delivery

Many of you may think that Videomaker is a hardware and technique magazine. It is; however, we know that delivery is where you harvest the value of your work.

Most videomakers put a lot of time and money into their video projects, but if they never deliver them to an audience then the work was for naught. In fact, delivery is so important that we're considering a new column to provide coverage on the topic.

Most of our readers deliver their tapes by hand or through the mail. They use store fronts, direct marketing, or mail order to sell their product. All of these methods involve getting a "hard copy" of the tape to the audience. Home movie enthusiasts and most wedding videographers actually hand their finished work to their viewers. Special interest video producers sell their tapes to mail order companies who then mail the tape to the viewers. Some of these producers also practice direct marketing, which also includes the postal system. Some successful special interest producers are lucky enough to have their tapes featured in video retail stores where they sell or rent their programs to the viewers.

But most of the video that we see is on broadcast and cable TV. As you know, these programs do not come to us in hard copy form; they arrive via airwaves and wires. Most of our readers don't make use of this method of delivery because they can't get past the cable and broadcast gatekeepers. TV executives have many programs to choose from and most videomakers have little if any access to these peo…