HP announced a slew of new licensing partnerships this morning as part of their on-demand wholesale DVD service called HP Video Merchant Services. The service allows business customers to order on-demand production and packaging or digital downloads of niche video content that would be unfeasible for retailers to sell otherwise. Online storefronts for digital downloads appear to be included in the list of retailers supported by the service. It sounds like a pretty cool idea to me.
Today's announcement, first covered in the San Jose Business Journal (press release here), was that HP has made deals with 30 video content production companies for more than 4,000 titles. Classic TV, religion, independent film and geographically targeted content were among the examples of provided of available content.
Context
As points of consumption for video content proliferate and the cost of production falls, the market for video content is sure to expand substantially. Lingering brand fears around user generated content have kept demand high in distribution channels for professionally produced content. Facilitating a supply chain and market for small producers is a smart move by HP reminiscent of other large companies' offerings in the independent film and music markets. Related startups include digital content brokers Mochila, iAmplify and video licensing platform ImageSpan, among many others.
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