Muzu.TV pre-roll ad revenues to rise on deal with Metacafe

26 Apr 2011

Dublin-headquartered music video site Muzu.TV has signed a deal with global video entertainment site Metacafe that will see Muzu’s record industry-supported pre-rolled videos reach an extra 50m viewers.

Muzu CEO Ciaran Bollard told Siliconrepublic.com that the deal will help transform how the music industry monetises via web video. In the UK alone, pre- mid- and post-roll advertising increased from stg£28m to stg£54m over the last year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCooopers.

The deal comes ahead of rumours that US video site Vevo is launching in the UK shortly.

“We’ve been working on this deal for over six months and the deal will see the Muzu player integrated into Metacafe’s websites,” Bollard said. “The deal will bring our record industry-supported ads to Europe via MetaCafre’s 50m global audience. We see this as a big deal because for the record labels it expands their reach considerably.”

Muzu’s content, which currently stands at 85,000 videos, will be made accessible to Metacafe’s 10m unique monthly users in Europe.

This will include video from all four major record labels, as well as key independents, an exclusive live footage through Muzu’s ‘Live and Loud’ sessions and behind the scenes videos.

Metacafe’s 35m unique monthly users beyond Europe, including the US, will also be able to view Muzu’s independent catalogue.

Pre-roll video advertising boom

Muzu launched in Dublin in 2008 and powers music videos for more than 100 sites in the UK, including NME, Express Group, AOL, HMV, 4Music and Mama Group. The company’s business model sees that labels and artists are jointly rewarded based on pre-roll advertising around their videos.

“In terms of pre-roll advertising, we are sold out in the UK, having signed a major deal with Group M recently. There is a huge demand for pre-roll-based advertising and because of a lack of available inventory for professional video content, we think the sky is the limit,” Bollard explained.

Recent developments at Muzu include the establishment of an official Facebook app. The company now has 250,000 fans on Facebook and Bollard says the arrival of Facebook’s new ‘Send’ button will be revolutionary.

“The whole area of social is exploding and the ability for fans to connect more readily and easily is paramount. In the next few weeks, we intend to integrate the ‘Send’ button. The key to social is adapting quickly. For music, it is about being able to help bands get their names and content out there quickly and easily.”

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com