The words the
industry uses
Distribution and streaming have their own vocabulary, and most of it is never explained. Here is what each term actually means.
- SmartLink
- A shareable video URL with a built-in paywall, player, delivery and analytics. Posts natively anywhere and handles the full transaction.
- Screener Room
- A secure, forensically watermarked screening environment used to share films with press, buyers, festival juries and industry contacts with per-viewer access control.
- TVOD
- Transactional Video On Demand - pay-per-title model. Viewer buys or rents an individual film or episode.
- SVOD
- Subscription Video On Demand - recurring payment for library access. Netflix-style model.
- AVOD
- Ad-supported Video On Demand - free to viewer, monetised by advertising.
- FAST
- Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV - channels that stream linear (scheduled) programming free to viewers, monetised by advertising.
- DCP
- Digital Cinema Package - the theatrical delivery master format, JPEG 2000-based.
- ProRes
- Apple’s professional finishing master codec. ProRes 422 HQ is the festival/finishing standard; ProRes 4444 adds alpha for VFX.
- H.264 / HEVC (H.265)
- Streaming delivery codecs. H.264 is universal, HEVC is more efficient (smaller files, same quality) at the cost of compatibility on older devices.
- Windowing
- Scheduling when a title is available on which channel. Theatrical first, then direct-to-fan, then syndication - each stage called a window.
- Forensic watermarking
- Embedding a unique identifier per viewer into the video frame - visually subtle but tracking-grade. If a copy leaks, the source viewer is identifiable in seconds.
- Multi-party revenue split
- Automatically dividing each transaction between multiple recipients - co-producers, talent, territory sub-agents, rights holders - at the moment of sale.
- Stripe Connect
- Stripe’s product for platforms that pay out to many recipients. Handles KYC, multi-party splits and global payouts - Hiway uses it to send 90% of every sale direct to filmmakers.
- CRM
- Customer Relationship Management - the database of every buyer, viewer or subscriber, with behaviour history and segmentation.
- Direct-to-fan
- Selling content directly to your audience without an intermediary distributor or platform aggregator. You own the transaction and the audience relationship.
- Catalogue monetisation
- Deriving revenue from a film or TV back-catalogue - usually via direct-to-fan sales, syndication, branded channels and licensing combined.
- EFM
- European Film Market - the industry-facing market alongside Berlinale. One of the world’s three biggest film markets. Hiway Screener Rooms are used to share slate with EFM buyers.
- Clipping
- Cutting highlight-length clips from a longer asset to share on socials, with attribution back to the full paid experience.
- Egress
- Data leaving a platform (e.g. video streamed to viewers). Egress cost is a core part of streaming economics.
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