RSS powered digital marketplace launched!
Open Television Network is launched. Using RSS, the network probably provides a fresh model getting and distributing different forms of digital content from owner/creators to consumers. The Open Television Network allows consumer to choose and pay for video content easily through its kilckTab system and gives creators/owners a marketplace to sell their content via RSS feeds.
But how does it work? And what is klickTab?
From the About page of Open Television Network klickTab is described as:
klickTab uses a familiar model: the bar tab. You don’t pay for what you buy, until you’ve bought it.
klickTab is the only micro-payments system that works transparently with podcasts and other RSS enclosures in any aggregator or client software. With klickTab your subscriptions are intact and delivered automatically and charges are only made for the files actually downloaded.
[Source]
It is based on the American way of buying drinks at a bar. Punters or customers open a tab at the bar by leaving a credit card. All purchases are added up at the end of the night and everything consumed is paid on one tab: a single charge.
Once you establish a klickTab account using a credit card, your purchases of digital content are added to your tab until the end of a billing period, or preset limit, are reached. The tab is then charged to the credit card and a new tab opened automatically.[Source]
In the system digital content creators can sell by signing up as a merchant and by adding their RSS feed. (i) Merchants are charged 15% of any item’s price. (ii) Payment is received by the merchant through a monthly check or a direct bank deposit if total sale reaches 20 US dollars, check the details here.
According to Marketwire, The network will roll-out the RSS powered-service in two phases:
Phase 1:
Promoting the availability of the service, kickTab, for content owners. During this phase the network will be building a library of content with the (Content) owners providing trailers in their channel feeds This will allow customers to preview content before it is bought.
while Phase 2:
… will include the launch of Open Television Networks Application Programming Interface (API) and Affiliate Tracking program. As a result of this phase, third parties will be able to embed Open Television Network channel feeds into social networking sites, such as MySpace and FaceBook, and within their own sites, enabling them to earn affiliate commissions for themselves. Phase two will become available in the summer of 2008. Additional details will be announced at that time. [Source]
I wonder how this business model will fare? It would be interesting to visit Open Television Network to see how it is doing. Or… create an RSS feed focused on Open Television Nerwork.
