MCNs No More, "MPN" Please"! (or, What's In A "P"?)

As you readers know, I write continuously about MCNs (multi-channel networks).  And, recently, I have been writing about escalating challenges to YouTube.  So, where do the "'twain" meet?  At the nexus of the overall OTT video lexicon, that's where.

You see, several of the leading digital-first video networks formerly known as "MCNs" no longer answer to that name/acronym.  They prefer (justifiably) the new significantly expanded label "MPN" -- as in, multi-platform network.

What's in a name?

In this case, a lot!  "MPN" connotes mass distribution of videos across multiple distribution platforms -- not just YouTube.  While these mobile/millennial-focused new media companies initially birthed and aggregated their videos as channels on YouTube only (hence, the moniker "multi-channel" networks), now YouTube is only one of many (to be sure, still the most critical "one").  The new MPN game for most is to now initially build mass audiences on YouTube, but then take those audiences -- and monetize them -- off YouTube.  That's why these MPNs seek the widest spray of their video programming across the widest array of distribution platforms (including the likes of Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Vessel, Xbox -- just to name a few) to create a non-55/45 revenue story.  They just can't drive 55! (a musical reference that is likely lost on several of you ...).

Call it simple evolution in the OTT video world.  Just like Webster's continuously expands to meet the changing language of the times, the OTT video and digital media/tech dictionary expands to more accurately reflect movement in the overall space.

And, significant meaning in that movement there is ....