RealGravity Launches New Video Marketplace to Shift the Economics of Online Video Distribution and Management

SAN FRANCISCO and LOS ANGELES, Nov. 10, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, RealGravity, Inc., unveiled a new online video marketplace that dramatically shifts the economics of the online video platform market. RealGravity offers content owners, advertisers and publishers an easy and simple way to work together by providing web publishers access to more than 500,000 professional videos in dozens of categories and offering enterprise-class video publishing tools for free. RealGravity also provides an enterprise ad server to manage direct sales, and an ad exchange to optimize unsold inventory. The result is a 50% to 80% cost savings for online video support costs, higher engagement through the addition of contextual, professional video content and virtually 100%, profitable sell-through of ad inventory. This not only represents a new way of doing business for existing video publishers, but it makes online video publishing possible and profitable for a whole new range of small and medium sized web publishers.

"Over the past five years, online video has become a mainstream medium. However, the tools to manage and syndicate video have remained clunky and expensive, "said Luke McDonough, CEO of RealGravity.  "We believe that the success of an online video business lies in the power of content syndication, and the elimination of the up-front cost and risk of building a video site."

RealGravity maintains a content marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of online video content and advertising. The marketplace provides content owners and web publishers with enterprise-class tools to manage content and create an unlimited number of custom video players on an unlimited number of sites, with an unlimited number of admin users. All of this is done free of charge and with little technical integration. Advertisers leverage the RealGravity marketplace through an ad exchange that provides transparent access to tens of millions of streams per month of high-quality pre-roll video ad inventory. RealGravity charges a flat-rate, CPM-based transaction fee each time that a publisher sells an ad, or uses a piece of content that they do not own. There are no set-up fees, support fees, or license fees. Additionally, RealGravity does not set any minimum or maximum usage charges, and charges only for raw bandwidth for videos that run without ads, at a rate of $0.50 per thousand streams. VIBE Media, NBC Universal, Howcast, Tribune, Local.com, and many others use the RealGravity marketplace today to slash their video support costs, access high quality content from third-party providers, and increase sell through and CPM rates.

The results of the RealGravity platform are:

• Content providers are able to efficiently distribute their properties and generate revenue
• Publishers obtain easy access to enterprise publishing tools and a wide variety of professional video content
• Advertisers get transparent access to high quality video ad inventory
• RealGravity generates revenue only when market participants make money

"We publish millions of streams a month through our partnership with RealGravity. Since switching to RealGravity in June, we've seen a significant decrease in costs associated with publishing and syndicating our online videos," said VIBE Lifestyle Network's President, Chris Smith. "RealGravity's product also makes it easy for us to manage content and ad sales across our partner websites, which has increased video streams and revenue by more than 46%.  RealGravity provides a solid platform for us to grow our online video reach and revenue."

Debuting today at the GigaOm, NewTeeVee Live Conference (#NTVLive), RealGravity also announced that it has closed a Series A round of funding for $3.2M led by Kohlberg Ventures with individual investors including Peter Boboff of Kicklabs and Transmedia Capital and the co-founders, Luke McDonough and Sid Conklin also participating.  

For more information on RealGravity or to use the RealGravity marketplace visit www.realgravity.com.

About RealGravity

RealGravity is an online video marketplace that enables video content owners, web publishers, and advertisers to work together quickly, easily, and at radically lower cost than by any other means. Publishers get enterprise-class video publishing tools for free, and self-serve access to over 500,000 professional videos in dozens of categories. Content owners can distribute videos to any web publisher, with little or no technical integration, and with no up-front costs or risks to either party. Advertisers get transparent access to tens of millions of streams per month of high-quality video inventory across hundreds of sites. RealGravity is located in San Francisco and Los Angeles, CA. For more information visit www.realgravity.com. On Twitter: @RealGravity  

About VIBE Lifestyle Network

VIBE Lifestyle Network is the parent company of VIBE Magazine and VIBE.COM and is the premier destination for the hip-hop generation. VIBE Lifestyle Network represents over 25 sites and reaches over 19 million unique users per month. The new VIBE is the premier destination for urban music, entertainment, culture and lifestyle for the aspirational 18-34 year old. Visit www.vibelifestylenetwork.com for more information.

About Kohlberg Ventures

Kohlberg Ventures invests in early stage digital media, consumer product and clean tech companies.  We invest alongside founders of companies who have identified and solved a unique customer problem. We help these companies perfect their solution and expand their access to customers. Kohlberg Ventures was founded in 2008, although its principals have been investing in early stage companies for over twenty years. Learn more at:  www.kohlbergventures.com

SOURCE RealGravity, Inc.