Insight24 is a specialist Business-to-Business video site that focuses on tech and business videos and podcasts. The average YouTube surfer would be out of place here with no cute cat or skateboarding videos in sight.
However, the business minded individual or tech enthusiast will find themselves at home here. Insight24 is packed with a selection of videos & podcasts from industry thought leaders and webcasts from world leading companies such as IBM and Hewlett Packard.
Site Features
Insight24 is powered by ON24 and recently announced a web 2.0 makeover a few weeks ago after originally launching in April 2007. The site now has almost everything you might expect from a modern video site:
- A simple search feature with video thumbnail results
- A word cloud of popular topics and companies
- The ability to see new, popular and featured videos.
- The ability to rate, tag and comment on any video.
- RSS Feeds to keep up with particular topics including RSS feeds for individual keyword searches.
In total Insight24 has over 5,000 rich media content pieces in over 30 business and IT categories from over 160 companies.
IPTV & Web Video Industry Podcasts & Videos
After a quick search on the site I quickly found a number of videos focused on the IPTV and broadband video industry so I was happy. Here’s a few that you may like to take a look at:
- IPTV – Remotely In Control
- Is YouTube Worth a Second Look
- Which Video Conferencing Solution Is Right for You
- Video on Demand at Channel 4
- How to Video Podcast a Powerpoint Presentation
- How to Video Podcast a WebEX meeting
- Video On Your Website
- Apple TV’s Impact on Video Podcasting
- Is Viacom Going to get the Best of YouTube?
- VSocial connects viral video and business objectives
You’ll quickly see that these are rare industry videos you are unlikely to find anywhere else. For anyone working within the broadband video industry they’ll likely find the information within these videos extremely useful.
Downsides of Insight24
Registration
Annoyingly you have to register to watch any videos. It’s not a simple username and password registration either – Insight24 want to know your phone number, your job position and industry you work in. I looked for the box to tell them what color underwear I was wearing but it looks like they left that one out.
Compulsory registration is bound to turn away a large proportion of people browsing the site and I urge Insight24 to drop the registration for watching videos and only have it for advanced features like rating and commenting.
Have to Download Videos
When I went to watch a video I expected that I would be able to stream it direct from the website (YouTube style) in flash format, but I had to download it. Streaming is so much more user friendly than downloading and it would be nice to see that added to Insight24.
I Want to Embed the Video
I liked some of these videos so much that I would actually love to embed and post them here on WebTVWire. Insight24 obviously believe that these videos are too valuable within their respective niche to have any Tom, Dick, or Harry posting them on their website. This leads me nicely on to their business model:
Insight24 Business Model
Syndication:
Insight24 appears to have 2 main business models. The first is through syndication and revenue sharing where Insight24 will allow select syndication partners to republish the videos and podcasts and share revenue.
Actually Insight24 intends for most of its videos to be viewed through partner websites such as such as ITtoolbox, IT.com and most recently PC World’s Business Center. Insight24 claims to be able to reach 8 million people through its syndication network.
Lead Generation:
The second is through lead generation. Many of the videos being posted, while being informative, actually act as a way for companies and individuals to show of their knowledge and expertise. These videos will therefore in-turn offer a valuable way for the companies to gain exposure and leads.
If the content providers are interested in leads they can enter into a lead generation relationship with Insight24. Real-time reporting and customizable marketing campaigns are available to companies using Insight24 for lead generation.
As far as I can see there is nobody doing something quite like what Insight24 is doing, the closest I could find was FeedRoom which has its own unique approach to distributing business to business video.
Conclusion:
Insight24 has a brilliant selection of valuable industry videos and podcasts covering a variety of complex topics. It is a useful resource for business and technology specialists to compare vendors, research an industry and learn insider information.
The podcast and video library is perfect for Insight24’s syndication partners to bring highly valuable industry videos to their specialist audiences. It also provides an effective and free way for content creators to distribute their video to the right people.
Overall I like it and will be subscribing to the site to keep up to date with any new web video indsutry videos.
