Drive Network

tomscott

tomscott

Elite
 Manchester
Most of you probably know of the Drive network on youtube, with the great content from Chris Harris and other presenters with a wash of brilliant cars.

Originally the channel got a two year budget from youtube to make a great motoring channel. That time is up… and they have not given them a 3rd year. Many channels try to make money through advertising but Youtube takes 45% so for example the F40/F50 video cost £9,000 to shoot although amassing two million views it only grossed £4,800. Most of the vids followed suit.

So this brings us to the depressing part.. subscriptions. Drive is now capping its Youtube vids to 4 mins for free content, then there is drive+ which is £2.49 a month for full content then there is the NBC channel not available in the UK.

Whats crap is all the good channels are going onto this subscription based services like Patreon where you pay a subscription to guarantee the content makers a wage. Being in a similar business I know how much effort and time it takes to create good content and relying on advertising that youtube takes 45% of isn't a great business strategy.

Just a shame because it all ads up, IMO TV is dying and I never watch it, Netflix youtube and other sources are all I use. Enjoying content is one thing but paying for 1 dedicated channel is another. Its not a lot of money but it all adds up. ATM a decent sky package is £50 (mine is £96 with broadband) then most will have a separate internet provider, phone contracts etc etc

Where does it stop? and really the companies raking in this huge amount of money from good content should be doing more…

More info

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=30564
 
£4800 for 2 million views, I hear stories of these viral video makers making £100k's a year....how many views do they get??

Sad news for the Drive Network, but I suppose from eBays point of view, they're not getting their money back either.

I'm not sure TV is dying, but internet based viewing is certainly increasing.
 
Its all about selling content, model applies to lots of things nowadays sadly. Phone apps are about maximising "in app purchases", consoles are pushing DLC to users immediately after releasing £50+ games, not surprised Youtube want in on the action.
 
Ye your talking millions and millions of views 2 million isn't a huge amount of views world wide really. £100ks in total maybe.

What I mean by TV dyeing is that people dont want media they have to wait for, for instance Game of Thrones was this years most pirated show of 2014, probably because it is 12 hours behind and people want to watch it when they want. Instant access, on demand and catch up is more appealing then endless channels of rubbish.
 
/Drive is good - but they dropped alex roy, and continue to employ Leo, and the two Mike's infront of the camera - and they aren't great.

Harris & Farah would do better alone (with the UK camera guy.. he's great) - they have enough followers.

The content they provide is by far the best automotive review content on the web, and really competes on the Top Gear level for watchability (for petrolheads).
 
Tom,
Good points and totally agree. Why do we still have to pay TV license, to pay for BBC. BBC commercial arm BBC Worldwide makes millions. I pay Sky to watch TV if I watch BBC through Sky then Sky should any fees, it's old and outdated.
TV as we know it will change, the only scheduled shows will be those that are time sensitive; News, live sports and other live events. Anything that is filmed edited and distributed for viewing will become on-demand, if I want to watch Game of Thrones then I decide when. I guess services such as Sky on-demand is kind of going that way, but if I want a viewing marathon and to watch then back to back or watch 2 episodes each day then the content should be available.
 
tomscott said:
Ye your talking millions and millions of views 2 million isn't a huge amount of views world wide really. £100ks in total maybe.

What I mean by TV dyeing is that people dont want media they have to wait for, for instance Game of Thrones was this years most pirated show of 2014, probably because it is 12 hours behind and people want to watch it when they want. Instant access, on demand and catch up is more appealing then endless channels of rubbish.
Click to expand...

Ah OK, yeh that makes sense.
 
Yes Television is changing but I remember when TV was only 2 channels and didn't start until 5pm and finished at 11pm :lol:

And it was in black and white!!! (and on a small grainy screen!) :o

Didn't believe it when my Dad told me they had brought out colour Television - not until I saw it :(

Ohhhh I'm feeling old. . . . . . . :cry:
 
Chris Harris review of the new M3… reduced to a crap 3 mins of drivel.

[youtube]/y99rDTGsZvA[/youtube]
 
Yeah the cut videos are more like trailers than actual vids.. kinda annoying.

I think they've got the pricing model wrong - nobody is going to subscribe to only ONE channel where they make something every few weeks - they'd be better on a pay per view basis maybe (press a button, and you get charged to watch it 50p or whatever), or maybe as part of some larger content subscription.

The money they're asking makes it compete with tv packages on my virgin media subscription.. where i get hours of content a day.. :/
 
jimmybell said:
Yeah the cut videos are more like trailers than actual vids.. kinda annoying.

I think they've got the pricing model wrong - nobody is going to subscribe to only ONE channel where they make something every few weeks - they'd be better on a pay per view basis maybe (press a button, and you get charged to watch it 50p or whatever), or maybe as part of some larger content subscription.

The money they're asking makes it compete with tv packages on my virgin media subscription.. where i get hours of content a day.. :/
Click to expand...

Basically my thoughts too.

There is maybe 1 video a week that interests me on the Drive Network (I couldn't give a rat's ass about the Tuned channel etc.)

Pay per view is the way forward imo.
 
Looks like they might be uploading 720p version of the long review in dailymotion. Probably to allow international users a way to watch it legally while allowing paid subscriber to enjoy it at 1080p or higher.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x230qbz_drive-plus-2015-bmw-m3-chris-harris-on-cars-720_auto

EDIT: NVM, quick read through the user profile seems like it is not official.
 
difficult one to call as i wouldn't pay 2.50 a month to just watch his reviews... i might have watched more if id known about them but its not something i search for or see any ads for. having said that i wouldn't see adds anyway as i have lots of add blockers on firefox.

you all are right tho, on demand is the way it will go. i much prefer it. most of what her indoors watched is via netflix but then they pull a fast one. UK netflix is total shite compared to US.

its a shame they couldnt get chris harris onto topgear etc as i find 12 mins of him much better to watch than an hour of clarkson or plato and the drivel they put out
 
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