Publishers aim for quantity with automated video production

Arianna Huffington

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As video continues to flood the internet, publishers are looking for solutions to streamline, automate, and increase the videos that they produce, The New York Times reports.

Publishers like Tronc, The Huffington Post, Hearst, Gannett, and Rotten Tomatoes are employing these tools in order to pump out ever more videos, with the aim to expand video ad revenues. Tronc, for instance, publishes over 200 videos a day, but is aiming for 10 times that amount. 

The automated video production process works by analyzing and summarizing text, and then automatically matching it with the right photographs and video clips. These images are usually sourced from The Associated Press and Getty Images. Humans can add their own touch at any point in the process, but by largely automating the production process, publishers are able to create more videos than ever. The main providers of these automated video production services, according to The NYT, are two companies called Wochit and Wibbitz.

The surge of video has been significantly influenced by social platforms, which are increasingly favoring video content. Facebook has been critical in this shift. Earlier this year, Nichola Mendelsohn, the company’s VP for EMEA, said that she expected Facebook to be all-video within five years. This largely echoes prior comments from CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Meanwhile, Twitter has also begun to seriously build up its platform for video, to expand upon its footing in text.

However, the rush to create more video content could have an adverse impact on video ad revenues for publishers in the long run. While producing more videos does create more ad inventory for publishers to monetize now, this could eventually resulting an oversupply, and end up depressing video ad rates. At the same time, changing algorithms from the aforementioned social sites could also impact video ad revenues. Pumping out thousands of videos will not result in meaningful revenue if users don't see them. 

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