Video Production in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area, encompassing the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia, June 2025.
Video Production Services in DMV
The Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area market has always been one of the most competitive markets in the United States for video production and streaming. As we enter the second quarter of 2025, this continues to be the case.
What has changed is outside circumstances. With the elimination of so many government jobs and programs, many of my compatriots have lost their video jobs with the federal government, either as a quasi-Federal employee, or working for the government as a contractor with a video production company.
In addition, other freelancers who were dependent on work through the various government agencies, i.e., the Treasury Department, N.I.H., etc., have found that the work is gone and probably will not return, certainly not in the near future.
This has caused on overflow of qualified people looking for work and this is the time of the year where you want to be busy, because when you get to the summertime in a typical year, everything stops for the season.
Strategies for Video Production Companies in the D.C. Area
What does this mean to a video production and streaming company like MTI? It means that you have to be very aggressive in bidding for jobs because your competition has increased dramatically. And this also forces rates to stay flat or decrease. Communication with prospective clients, as well as established clients, is critical. You can’t take anything for granted.
When we bid on a project, we try to get as much information as possible. We also understand the importance of responding quickly. Many times a client will take the first or second company that responds. If you don’t have the proper information, it’s hard to fashion a quote. However, your hope is that you can reach out to the potential client and start a dialog.
We continue to work on our SEO and advertising, including search. What we always do is to immediately respond when we get an email inquiry. These days it is rare to get a phone call asking about a project. Most of the time, its an email inquiry through our website.
This is an incredibly competitive market. Many times there can be 15 companies that can do the job.
What Makes Metro Teleproductions Unique?
Free Surveys and Competitive Quotes: At MTI, we offer free surveys of jobs and also extra prep work, even though we don’t charge for it. This is beneficial for clients and for the video production crew, as communication and understanding of client goals is increased. A survey gives you a chance to take pictures and video of the site, and interface with building or hotel personnel. When we put together a quote, we try to find out if a client wants a line-by-line or a grouping of categories, and of course the final price. After 35 years, we are fond of saying that we are not the cheapest or the most expensive but are always competitive in our quotes.
Focus on the Client: Sometimes you can do everything right and you don’t get the job: do everything right anyway. In this era of emails, having a phone conversation with a prospective client can offer more for the client than an email interaction alone. Listening carefully to potential clients’ wishes helps us to determine a level of interest in project specifics. This ensures a bid for what the client wants, with a focus on their goals. We have seen that because of the current economic situation that clients, especially nonprofits, are pulling back on the amount of work or simply electing not to do an event or livestream.
Set Expectations, Especially for Data Transfer: It is so important to make sure that you and the client are on the same page in terms of expectations. For example the biggest change in our industry in the last couple of years is that material is sent to the client via the cloud. However, what some clients do not understand is that the amount of material and the format, especially 4K video, can mean that the files are huge! If you are dealing with a pressing deadline it is incumbent that everyone understands how long it will take to send material through the cloud. If possible it’s better to put it on a drive and ship it, but that’s not always possible. Also, if a client wants material uploaded to multiple places that takes additional time and it is not a service that can be provided for free.
In Summary: Video Production in June 2025
From a video production perspective, this is the toughest market since the Recession and since the pandemic hit, which stopped everything for many months. In summary, the second half of 2025 will be very challenging. At Metro Teleproductions, we have faith in our personnel and our process and look forward to working with new clients as well as continuing work with existing customers.
Dave Lilling
President, Metro Teleproductions
Metro Teleproductions, offering video production in the Washington, D.C., area for 35+ years, is owned and operated by Dave Lilling with creativity, reliability and professional excellence. Contact Dave at 301-608-9077 or dave@mtitv.com for video production success!
