Stop Giving Away Your Audience: Start Monetising Your Video Library

Most organisations are sitting on hidden assets that aren’t earning a cent.

Years of interviews, live streams, explainers, events, training, and editorial video are often scattered across YouTube, Vimeo, different content platforms, and multiple social feeds.

Algorithms decide who sees them. Platforms take a slice of any revenue earned. Viewer data stays locked away. And the direct relationship with the audience never really forms.

The result is familiar: lots of video activity, very little long-term value.

Why most video archives don’t make money

The issue here isn’t usually around content quality. Media teams typically struggle with:

• No clear monetisation model, or no tools to support one
• Limited insight into viewer behaviour and no hard data to guide packaging or pricing
• Legacy content management platforms (CMS) built for articles, not modern Video-On-Demand (VOD) experiences
• Small teams stretched frustratingly thin, with no capacity for complex workflows

As a result, video ends up being treated as disposable. It gets published once, watched briefly, and then it’s quickly forgotten.

That’s not a content problem. It’s a ‘structure’ problem.

What’s changed: monetisation is no longer “hard”

Until recently, turning video archives into revenue required custom development, multiple vendors, and ongoing technical maintenance. Those barriers have largely disappeared.

Cloud-native video platforms like Vimond now make it possible to manage, curate, and monetise video from a single cloud-hosted environment. Features such as centralised ingestion, automated metadata enrichment, branded front-ends, and built-in monetisation layers used to be enterprise-only workflows. Now, they’re available to everyone.

And this changes the economics of video streaming completely. Old content doesn’t need to go viral to earn significant revenue. It just needs to be findable, packaged well, and correctly positioned for the right audience. And best of all? When you design your own streaming service, you own it end-to-end.

How owned streaming turns archives into evergreen revenue

An owned OTT service gives you something third-party platforms never will: control.

With control, modern media teams can use (and reuse) their archives in smarter ways:

• Curated collections around themes, topics, or moments
• Evergreen video libraries that stay relevant long after publication
• Premium tiers or add-on bundles for niche or high-value audiences
• Ad-supported experiences that generate revenue without paywalls

This approach is already working. Broadcasters like TV Vest have shown how structured video libraries and controlled monetisation can turn existing content into a sustainable streaming service, without relying on third-party platforms or large technical teams.

There’s a simple process modern OTT teams follow

Turning a video library into a revenue engine doesn’t start with pricing. It starts with organisation.

A proven, low-friction process looks like this:

1. Audit your archive
   Start by identifying what you already have, e.g. formats, topics, depth, and gaps.
   
   
2. Structure categories and metadata
   Metadata turns video into a library. Without it, discovery fails.
   
   
3. Choose your monetisation models
   Choose subscriptions, ads, premium access, or a hybrid approach. Base your decision on audience value, not assumptions.
   
   
4. Curate themed experiences
   Packages outperform playlists. Context increases perceived value.
   
   
5. Publish across multiple channels and devices
   One backend, everywhere your audience watches.
   
   
6. Iterate using viewing data
   Use engagement, completion and conversion metrics to guide what to promote next.

This isn’t a broadcast workflow. It’s a product workflow that scales with small teams.

Where to start: structure first, revenue follows

You don’t need to monetise everything at once. Start by:

• Organising existing VOD into a structured, searchable library
• Applying consistent metadata so content can be discovered and reused
• Identifying the audience segment with the strongest identity or willingness to pay
• Curating content for that audience first — then expanding

You don’t need a broadcast engineering department to build a monetisable video service. But you do need the right architecture, a clear monetisation logic, and a platform that removes friction instead of adding it.

Owning your revenue starts with owning your platform.

Ready to learn more? See how organisations are turning video archives into owned streaming services in our Customer Stories. Or discover how to start building your own video platform.

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