Video Streaming Site - Worth the investment?

Hey everyone. I have a few questions, if you don't mind! I am interested in bring up a Video Streaming website, now I do know the completion, YouTube, MetaCafe, Google Video, etc but I will not only be streaming custom videos but also movies, tv shows. Now I would like to know if you guys think this is worth the money? it looks like I will be investing about $600 dollars just starting month without advertisement but if I can earn at least 35%-50% of my total investment in a full year I will be glad. The script that I was going to use is this one

http://www.videowatchpro.com/

They also offer Video Ads which I can place at any time during the video(Most likely 1-5 ads depending on the duration of the video) And they also offer image ads on the right. I do know that streaming movies and/or tv-shows are illegal but many websites are doing it such as Hulu.com which was recently bought by NBC(I believe it was NBC but not 100% sure). They started off as I will be. Please give me your advice.

If you have good content and enough CHEAP bandwidth go on!

Well as of now I would just use the limited bandwidth I have now, 1TB and if I need more I will just get a dedicated server. Do you think it will be hard to advertise this type of web site?

What will be your specialty? Why should folks visit your site instead of the others already out there? To make this viable I'm thinking you need some sort of hook to make people visit you instead of the sites people already have heard of.

I always like to see someone give the big players a run for their money but to succeed you will need to be something they aren't.

Well a couple of things, I would want it to become a place where users will not only be able to see videos submitted by other users, but also able to Movies and TV-Shows for free.

If you can get away with copyrighted content especially for movies, then you won't have any problem.  Worst case scenario is that you get sued for unauthorized reproduction or in more lenient cases, they just ask you to remove the movie from your database ;)

Hi,

Don't use these ready made scripts, there are so many sites out there. I did some experiments in the past with youtube videos:

funniest-videos.us is a custom youtube video site with "funny/humor" as the theme. After a few month I got up to 3000 visitors a day. After a while the domain get blacklisted in Google (this one is the second domain). I get trapped while trying to redirect adult content to a second site (the reason why the domain got banned). No I restarted again and have now almost 100 visitors a day.

Tubethemall.com is a wordpress blog showing selected youtube videos too. Using social media I got up to 3500 visitors a day.

Promotion I did not a lot, try a concept where you create unique text content too, just the video will not work. The best thing is that you have you own (recorded) videos

ooh and about the bandwidth, if you use too much resources with each shared hosting provider thy close your account ;)

those cheap accounts with lots of bandwdith and webspace are just marketing acts

Well from what MediaTemple told me that I don't have a limit on my bandwidth nor space no matter what. My account won't even be suspended, I would just have to pay the over-charges or purchase a Bandwidth Package so I can get more. I feel safe with MediaTemple:)

actually their network structure should handle any traffic :)
anyway at the moment that a Provider will to you to move on you have a well visited site

I'm sorry olaf I didn't understand:S

I think there's something in YouTube's terms of service that says you can't make a site using their videos. I researched when a crafter submitted a site like that to my directory. Have you verified with them that you can do this?

videos from other people = youtube
tv shows = abc, nbc, cbs and the other original creators
movies = netflix

I would suggest you look a bit deeper for something to differentiate yourself. What you mentioned doesn't make what you are doing special. Look at the sites Olaf mentioned - both of them had a theme. Maybe do Heros, Supernatural, and other fantasy-type things; people who do the dumbest things or something else that interests you.

Please understand that I am not trying to be mean or discouraging but that I am trying to get you to really think about this before you invest your money.

I hope you become the next great thing that Google buys out for millions but I'd hate for you to jump into this only to realize that all of your investment was for naught.

YMC
my website is featured on their API site ;) they offer tools to create websites using their data


IsThatJose
I try to tell that at the moment that your site has such a high load, your site should earn enough to buy a bigger hosting/server

YMC: Thanks I understand
Olaf: Thanks, I will:)

I look your site its good. Just as with any other stocks, penny stocks are also listed. There are two types of listings for penny stocks. Over the counter lists are lists of stocks that are not listed on major stock exchanges because they do not usually meet the minimum requirements to be listed.

Thanks

The most important thing of Video streaming is your clients can see you live and the trust between this going to increase and  this will help to make your own identity on internet.

hah

With the right promotion and great offers you will defiantly will get recognition just like youtube. I wish you best of luck for your website...

Whatever web service you offer can create profit if it is popular and can create buzz to the online community.

Yes its worth  i personally feel, because with this world move on to more of video online  advertizement  thats is something to think upon.

But you really need have long term lookout while you think for it.

It is worth if you appear on first page of Search engines why? because there are a lot of video streaming sites already. All I can think of is video streaming has a tight competition.

I would be careful of the copywright details with the movies. But, if you are creating your own to build your brand, then I say go for it.

Oh my. Where have I been? I haven't really tried doing video streaming for movies
but I think Imma try it!

I got one from http://www.videowhisper.com/ and made a site in my country called http://www.fatanfata.ro/. The idea with this site is that I'm selling this service directly to the companies. I had success with this project.

Great information! I like the post, thanks for sharing.