Comparing Video Distribution Applications: Veoh, Hey!Spread, Vidmetrix, And TubeMogul

Producers of videos and advertisers may have more in common than they might think - both want to distribute video content across the web, and both rely on services that distribute videos across multiple networks. At one time these services were expensive, used only by professionals or businesses to promote themselves, but as web 2.0 has developed, these services have become accessible for everyone.

This week we looked at four such applications: Veoh, Hey!Spread, Vidmetrix and TubeMogul. We paid particular attention to how easy they are to use, what features they offer, and how many networks they can reach. There’s a chart below to show how these applications stacked up, and for an introduction to this category please see Promoting and Distributing Video Content With Web 2.0.

With a video distribution service it may seem that distribution is the most important thing, and indeed TubeMogul's 20 plus network outstrips the other applications, but it should be mentioned that others have their niche. Veoh, for example, may only have 6 outlets, yet can post to blogging platforms such as WordPress and, as Listio readers may already know, Veoh comes with a video hosting site with film and video. Hey!Spread came in second for distribution reach with 17 networks, though Hey!Spread requires users to buy credits before they can use it.

Having a video sent out to the networks is not enough to get your video seen, so promotion too can play a role. All the applications offered a chance to give meta information - descriptions and sometimes tags - to help place the video in front of a receptive audience, and Veoh adds language information (spoken language and subtitles) to further place it. Here again TubeMogul stood out among the applications, offering the categorization the others did as well as a marketplace. With a marketplace, producers of videos can promote and sell their video content, and advertisers can shop for videos that may help promote their product.

To help keep an eye on your videos, each of the applications offered basic, and in some cases extensive tracking. Viewership, ratings, and the number of comments of your video were standard, but Vidmetrix, Hey!Spread, and TubeMogul also allowed you to track videos by url. TubeMogul goes an extra step with analytic charts that can be emailed and embeddable widgets for daily tracking.

There was little question that TubeMogul held more for users wishing to distribute videos, even without its premium services which include partner APIs and a comment manager. Hey!Spread was the least attractive, since its service requires a pay-as-you-go model. Users with Hey!Spread are asked to buy credit ($1 for 20 credits) and each action they perform is charged against that. Most services included Veoh in their distribution list, which may lessen the appeal of Veoh, but only Veoh offered language and content meta-information, which in the case of entertainment media may give it better placement and thus more viewers.

In the end, users may find the best approach to distributing videos is to combine TubeMogul with Veoh to maximize their reach. To find this application or others like it, there is the Listio search: manage+videos.