Digital Hollywood, May 5, 2008–Go shoot me – instead of going to a panel on the hardware and other technology at the base of enabling mobile TV and video, I went to one on producing and monetizing online or broadband content. Why? Broadband content was considered to be a wild and crazy thing not that long ago. Now, still wild but definitely not crazy. Although the path to mobile TV success may play out quite differently, it’s always instructive to learn from those who have gone before, even if it’s measurable by months not decades.

As I hoped, the panel was very instructive. First, the panelists represented a great group of new online studios–Vuguru and MyDamnChannel–that aren’t that different from film studios: creatives pitch ideas that subsequently get developed. Vuguru business executive Jane Hu pointed out that rather than getting a greenlight from an advertiser first, they try to bring all the pieces of the puzzle together at the same time. MySpace director of marketing & content Cristian Cussen reported they are piloting programming, spending on average $15,000 for three epsiodes, then internally reviewing them to see if they want to move forward. Then they take the episodes to advertisers to see if they can sell it and move forward. “It’s a low-risk way to proceed,” he said.

YouTube content partnership manager George Strompolos noted that although the company is pigeonholed for its cat videos, they partner with content creators of all kinds, including professional. “It’s a performance-based model,” he said. “If there are a lot of views, there is significant ad revenue.” Some content creators sell their own ad inventory on YouTube. With overlay ads, the content creator can determine who’ll be there, and it opens doors for selling ads.

Speaking from the advertiser point of view, Lori Schwartz, who is svp/director of emerging media at Interpublic Emerging Media Lab, said that ““once again, it’s the Wild West with no standard rules for engaging online” “It’s very confusing and a lot of my colleagues are a bit overwhelmed on who to go with – where does my budget come from? And especially premium content – where do I get that from? If I’m not from the broadcast side of the agency, I don’t have dollars to create content.”

Heavy.com vp of entertainment Jimmy Jellinek reported that they have found an extremely successful advertising model. Instead of cluttering up the page with buttons and banners, they deliver one brand impression, wrapping the player in that, increasing click-through dramatically. And it doesn’t interfere with the video you‘re trying to watch

MyDamn Channel’s Barnett said “it’s about not trying to overwhelm the audience,” and reported that the site is now lucky enough to keep people for up to 4 views per visit “because we’re offering a smaller amount (of videos) but higher quality. In the end, it’s brands, actors and characters that getaudiences and revenue. We passed 20 million views so we’re able to start talk advertisers – we’re bringing stars and consistency.”

Moderator Daniel Harris, chair/CEO of Mediapass Network asked what format the panelists are streaming in. Heavy.com’s Jellinek said all of them but noted the programs work best in Windows, not Mac. Hu noted that the various distributors take responsibility for encoding. But Flash was hands-down the most common format for distribution.

Next came questions from the audience. The conversation quickly turned to convincing wary advertisers that broadband content was worthy of their dollars. Ms. Schwartz talked about the benefits of a portal like Heavy.com. “When you’re talking to an advertisers about Heavy.com, it’s a specific portal where you are editorializing the content so I know who exactly will be there,” she said. “In this hyper-syndication model where you put video on every site, it’s harder for advertisers to know who their brand will be exposed to. Hyper-syndication loosens the brand.”

Discussing the download or transactional model versus ad–supported, Hu said “you have to offer something slightly different to get them to pay for the content. We did a deal where you could get the entire season plus some extra stuff for $9.99 from Amazon.”

Bottom line, broadband contentn creators and distributors are still trying to figure out which business model works and how. Sound familiar? MyDamnChannel’s Barnett brought the conversation back to why so many people are drawn to creating–and watching–broadband content. “We have Harry Shearer – he knew we’d sit down and agree what he would do and after that point he’s have total creative control,” he said. “Having done that, the networks are calling and want deals for content. But the onlyway it’ll work is if it’s independently created for this medium. The greatest thing about where we are now is the freedom.”

That’s another conversation for mobile content creators…