Why C-Span’s YouTube Deal Is a Precedent - DTNS Weekend  ## Metadata - Author: [[Daily Tech News Show]] - Full Title: Why C-Span’s YouTube Deal Is a Precedent - DTNS Weekend - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/f962d819-b728-4283-b092-527f9cd683fe ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **C-SPAN's Funding Is Distributor-Led** - C-SPAN is a small 501(c)(3) nonprofit funded primarily by license fees from distributors rather than taxpayers. - That funding model enables C-SPAN to operate three public-service channels and extensive archival coverage. Transcript: Tom Merritt What's the log line for C-SPAN? Peter Kiley Yeah, just a little bit of the basics on us. We're a rather small nonprofit media organization based here in Washington, D.C. We're a 501c3 nonprofit that is funded almost entirely by license fees paid by our distribution partners. We do a small amount of licensing of content to movies or documentaries and things. We have a modest amount of advertising on our website, and we have advertising on our apps. But the great bulk of our revenue over a 46-year history of providing these three public service channels, C-SPAN that has the House of Representatives and lots of congressional administration Procedures, C-SPAN 2, which is the Senate and more of the same, and C-SPAN 3, which gives us an outlet for when the House and Senator are in session or to do things like our book and history Programming. The funding from that primarily has come from those distribution partners. We don't have any advertising on the television networks, so there's no chance for our distribution partners to recoup any of the revenue that we receive from them paying the license Fee. They fund us out of a goodwill, corporate citizenship, public service, contribution to democracy and good media. That has been a wonderful place for C-SPAN to be able to put cameras in rooms where the most important public policy is discussed and debated each day. ([Time 0:03:22](https://share.snipd.com/snip/a17dc1fc-dd66-41d2-bfc3-60fd7c63b63d)) - **Political Pressure Helped Close Streamer Deals** - Streamers initially saw C-SPAN as unnecessary because it brought no direct revenue to them. - Political pressure and C-SPAN's live content convinced Hulu and YouTube TV to negotiate carriage deals. Transcript: Peter Kiley Had very strong relationships with the cable and satellite guys. Cable dating back to the 70s and then those huge growth areas of cable TV going into the 90s. And in the 90s, the two satellite companies, DirecTV and Dish Network, launched their services. And there was some question, would C-SPAN be made available to these new competitors of the cable industry? And I think very sage leadership of the cable industry said it would not be smart politically, it would not be smart for business to restrict access to this public service from any distributor That's putting television into the marketplace. So we were allowed to go to DirecTV and Dish, and right away they signed up for our services. And for all those years since the mid-90s have been great partners. As the streamers came into business a handful of years ago, they were really looking at initially, I think, building something different. I'll let them characterize why it took so long. They could do it better than I. But I think that perhaps we were seen as too old school cable. We weren't really necessary. They didn't understand at first sort of the value equation that we brought because we weren't bringing them any revenue opportunity. We were just cost to them. Over time, we talked and talked and talked with them. We showed them the value that we have in terms of viewership and reach. We showed them the value that we have in the amount of live content we have. We have a lot of live programming, particularly across the three channels with that much real estate, we're able to show so much. And ultimately, they ended up getting some political pressure because as members of Congress realized that these growing platforms and there were even some senators and house members That were subscribing to these new streaming services. And after subscribing, realizing that they didn't have C-SPAN, weren't too pleased about it. So as they became more vocal, that helped us raise more awareness within these organizations. And we were able to sit down and over the last few months, get these deals done. ([Time 0:05:56](https://share.snipd.com/snip/824abdeb-8af7-48e3-a62f-34c83fb52b85)) - **Target Big Streamers First** - Prioritize distribution on the largest platforms to regain reach quickly and efficiently. - Target platforms with millions of subscribers to restore household coverage and license revenue. Transcript: Peter Kiley And to be perfectly honest, you know, the revenue is really important from getting the license fee from these companies because we peaked, C-SPAN peaked at around 100 million homes About a decade ago, right there with ESPN and CNN and everybody else. We were in every cable and satellite television household. That number has now dropped for C-SPAN to around 50 million homes. And so that's a big revenue hit from us, not only relevancy of not being in those homes. Now that we've gathered back these two biggest and fastest growing streamers, we've brought a lot of equity to that and are pretty much in every home that subscribes to sort of a, I call It a traditional bundle of aggregated television programming networks. Tom Merritt Yeah. I mean, you rose with the tide of cable TV and you had to make the jump. We had to make the jump. Peter Kiley And now we fortunately made the jump with the two largest. ([Time 0:09:15](https://share.snipd.com/snip/b80acdd0-f6a5-4743-84ed-94c496e8f98e)) - **Distribution Loss Shrunk C-SPAN's Reach** - C-SPAN's household reach fell from about 100 million to around 50 million over a decade. - Losing distribution harms both revenue and public relevance for the service. Transcript: Peter Kiley That number has now dropped for C-SPAN to around 50 million homes. And so that's a big revenue hit from us, not only relevancy of not being in those homes. Now that we've gathered back these two biggest and fastest growing streamers, we've brought a lot of equity to that and are pretty much in every home that subscribes to sort of a, I call It a traditional bundle of aggregated television programming networks. ([Time 0:09:34](https://share.snipd.com/snip/da4e3bf3-84bb-42b2-bf1d-f6a4512eba76)) - **Think Twice About Direct-To-Consumer** - Building a paid direct-to-consumer service would require many subscribers and heavy marketing spend. - Do not underestimate acquisition and operating costs when considering a DTC model. Transcript: Peter Kiley It's pretty tough. One, a lot of people think we're taxpayer funded. It's important to know that we're not. So they say, why do I have to pay for a government service twice? Well, we're not a government service. So that's key for people to understand. And our budgets are very modest. We're a very small group. There's only about 200 of us that do everything. That may sound like a lot of people unassociated with the media, but it's a really small group to do all that we do. And we have to have revenue coming in to fund it. So you look at different opportunities you could have, and a lot of people wish we had a direct-to offering. Love to have one. Maybe someday we will. But it's pretty tough to get the amount of money we need. How many subscribers would we need and how much would they have to pay? And then you have to say sort of for an operating budget today, to get to that number, you'd have to double it because you have to spend that much on marketing. Right. It's a whole it's a whole different kind of thing. And C-SPAN day in and day out is not attracting huge audience numbers. ([Time 0:13:21](https://share.snipd.com/snip/96b88e6f-c4c6-42b9-a311-f39f7437ba81)) - **Exploring Philanthropy And Sponsorships** - C-SPAN anticipates distribution funding will decline and is exploring corporate philanthropy and sponsorships. - Diversifying revenue sources may be necessary to sustain the service long-term. Transcript: Peter Kiley You've probably talked about ESPN and their new app and all the things that they're doing. We're not all that dissimilar to that, right? We're trying to figure all that out as well. They have certain market powers and clout and big dollar opportunities that we don't, but we're paying attention to all the same business factors and all. And we'll, in essence, ride their coattails a little bit, but the same way they're sticking with the cable bundle, we're sticking with the cable bundle. But knowing that that funding might not be there five years from now, 10 years from now, 50 months, I don't know what the timing is. We're going to look at lots of different things. And one of the ones that we could go to, and we're talking a lot about here right now, is corporate philanthropy, foundations, wealthy individuals. You know, maybe there would be some sponsorships bought. You know, we're trying to figure all that. It takes a few years to stand up a really robust effort like that. So we're just dipping our toe in, starting to talk to people, figure out what sort of a team we'd need to develop here to do that. But that might be a big part of our funding in the future. ([Time 0:16:56](https://share.snipd.com/snip/08f92440-0250-4625-a60d-6a106d889776)) - **TikTok Growth Breathing New Life Into C-SPAN** - C-SPAN rapidly grew its TikTok presence to nearly 3 million followers and expects over a billion views this year. - The organization uses short clips to reach younger audiences beyond traditional TV viewers. Transcript: Peter Kiley That's good. Older people have time to watch a lot of C-SPAN, and C-SPAN is certainly long-form programming. Some of our stuff is 6, 8, 10 hours long. Cory Booker went for, what, 25 hours. That's long form. So to be able to go on social platforms, we have grown to nearly 3 million followers on TikTok in the last year and a half. And this year we'll get more than a billion views of our content on TikTok, short form clips of a minute to two or three minutes long. So that's really exciting of really reaching an audience there. And we do the same across other social platforms. We have a really robust, a terrific mobile app called C-SPAN Now. And it's just that, C-SPAN Now. It's the latest. You can watch all the live events on there. So if you're on the go, you can get to the things that are happening. We send push notifications to hundreds of thousands of people, and they will tune in right now, right then, as some breaking thing is happening on Capitol Hill or at the administration At the White House. That's really important. We have also launched a television, a connected TV app called C-SPAN Select. And currently it goes to our cable affiliates, Comcast, Charter, Cox, and Mediacom. ([Time 0:22:12](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f21f2ec0-5e01-48ff-9ed3-9828831932e3)) - **Meet Viewers On Apps And Connected TV** - Use mobile and connected TV apps to reach audiences where they consume content. - Maintain inexpensive, platform-specific apps like C-SPAN Now and C-SPAN Select to expand access. Transcript: Peter Kiley And it's just that, C-SPAN Now. It's the latest. You can watch all the live events on there. So if you're on the go, you can get to the things that are happening. We send push notifications to hundreds of thousands of people, and they will tune in right now, right then, as some breaking thing is happening on Capitol Hill or at the administration At the White House. That's really important. We have also launched a television, a connected TV app called C-SPAN Select. And currently it goes to our cable affiliates, Comcast, Charter, Cox, and Mediacom. So if you're a subscriber to their services or to their broadband services, you can access C-SPAN Select. And it looks, heck, it looks pretty much like a Netflix. It's carousels of content. It's just our stuff. So it's Congress, it's hearings, it's books, it's history, it's that sort of stuff. ([Time 0:22:54](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d0ec28fe-7141-4f31-8f68-683f088ad165)) - **Archive + Creators = New Audience Paths** - YouTube carriage opens opportunities to expose C-SPAN's 300,000-hour archive to creators and new audiences. - Partnering with creators can repurpose archival clips into engaging educational content. Transcript: Peter Kiley As part of what we're working on and getting the YouTube TV relationship, we're going to be working with them a lot on YouTube as well. We've for many years had a page on YouTube where C-SPAN posts clips and things. We do occasional live streams of some of those biggest events. We've got, I think, 1.6 million followers on YouTube. But we get a lot of events and a lot of clips that will get hundreds of thousands and even millions or a couple, in cases, tens of millions of views on YouTube. So we're going to work with them over the coming months and years and hopefully establish a really strong long-term relationship with our new friends at YouTube to provide more content There, to help them mine this video library that I mentioned. There's 300,000 hours of content in the C-SPAN video library. It's all digitized. It's all archived. It's searchable by keywords based off the transcripts of those interviews. The closed captioning becomes kind of a transcript. So YouTube has this incredible creator community, right? Well, they don't really know about and haven't been exposed to the C-SPAN video library. But I'm very excited and eager to work with YouTube and meet their creators who are really into history and politics and educate them about what c-span has available in that video library And then build some partnerships for them to do fun creative smart educational historical perspective kind of work kind of like howard does howard's the king of it with blazing the Trail yeah weekly he is so we'll show them what howard's done and boom let them go to town in our video library, expose that content on YouTube. ([Time 0:24:00](https://share.snipd.com/snip/740efc22-fd0b-48fc-ba47-ec7eb95df74f))