DailyMotion isn't known too much yet in the U.S., but that will probably change pretty soon as they are partnering with production company RDF USA in a content deal. RDF USA provides professional programming for broadcast TV and cable channels.
Among video sharing sites worldwide, DailyMotion is only second to YouTube (GOOG) in unique users with 37.5 million. In their backyard of France, they lead YouTube, and had 3.2 million U.S. users in May. They led some of the other more well-known video sharing sites like Break.com and MetaCafe in people who actually watch videos with 4.7 million streamers in April, says comScore Media Metrix.
DailyMotion is pretty much a knockoff of YouTube, with their focus having been on user-generated content. The partnership with RDF USA is a move to monetize by the company, as professional content is considered much more valuable by the advertising community.
As far as the deal itself, over the next year RDF will deliver eight nonexclusive first-look short-form video programs to DailyMotion. They will especially target drama, comedy and political programming. Some programs created with brand integration in mind will also be part of the deal.
I am very interested to see how those that upload user-generated videos eventually respond to the growing focus on professional productions. Once they're embraced in a big way, DailyMotion and others like them are no longer amateur focused sites. While the monetization side is easy to understand, I wonder if it will impact the unique users and streamers side.
No matter which way you look at it, once professional video is added, they are no longer what they were. The question is if that will make a difference to users or not. The answer won't come overnight.
At this time the trend is definitely going the professional video route. What will happen to user-generated video over the next few years is yet to be determined.
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