By Katherine NoyesStreaming video on-demand is an increasingly common part of many subscription sites — for a recent example, just see Sony’s decision to add such functionality to its PlayStation gaming service. Pay-per-view events, however, are less frequently seen.Yet here’s some food for thought: Live pay-per-view content generates six times more revenue per user than on-demand video programming does. That’s according to Dutch Cleeng, which last week announced Cleeng Live, a new solution designed to make Live PPV more accessible to companies of all shapes and sizes.”We kept on hearing from event organizers that selling Live PPV is just a too complex and costly option to be even considered,” explains Cleeng CEO Gilles Domartini. “Our inspiration for Cleeng Live was Eventbrite. We have finally removed all barriers for broadcasters and make Live PPV easy and free for everyone.”Cleeng Live aims to allow any organizer to monetize live-streamed events to millions. “In 2 minutes, they will be able to open up their live broadcasts to the global Internet audience while creating a new revenue stream,” the company explains.Users of Cleeng Live begin by creating an event, choosing from among nine preset templates, and setting a price along with any geographical restrictions. Prebooking can then start right away, Cleeng says, using 150 payment methods and promo codes. Management tools allow users to track sales and user satisfaction, control interactions and engage with their audience, even as Cleeng handles secured cross-device access, customer support, financial reporting and VOD after the show. Pricing for paid events is 2.5% plus 99 cents for each ticket sold. The video above offers a visual summary.It’s not clear from Cleeng’s press release whether consumers will be billed by Cleeng or whether the content-delivering company’s name and customer service number will appear on their credit card statements, as is generally considered a best practice.Also, one would hope companies using Cleeng Live will get to collect retention-critical email addresses and credit card numbers for viewers of their events. We’ll be interested to see how this service unfolds — and to hear any first-hand accounts from those who try it out.
