How People Make Big Bucks off Viral Videos
Viral video worth $250,000? Ain't that a kick in the head.
April 22, 2014— -- Sometimes priceless moments come with a big payout.
A Canadian man kicked in the face by a train conductor caught the painful strike on camera and could become hundreds of thousands of dollars richer.
His viral video – viewed more than 23 million times on YouTube – was quickly snapped up by a California-based licensing company, Jukin Media.
“Our whole business is to get the maximum out of a video for the creator,” Mike Skogmo, Jukin’s director of communications, told ABCNews.com.
Jared Frank is the man who filmed the viral clip, which shows him getting knocked in the face by a conductor’s foot as a train he was standing too close to sped by in Peru, according to CBC News.
He told CBC News he got several offers from companies eager to license the 9-second video of the selfie gone bad, and that Jukin Media told him he could earn up to $250,000.
Jukin Media wouldn’t confirm that figure to ABCNews.com but said that while it’s “probably an over-estimate,” it’s possible.
Owners of viral footage make cash when news organizations stream it on TV or online and through premium ad rates on YouTube. The big jackpot comes if brands buy the clip for advertising purposes.
But Skogmo isn’t certain that will happen to Frank.
“The popularity might turn away some brands because everyone’s seen it already. But I could see it as part of a bigger campaign – maybe around selfies.”
