I’m pleased to present the 479th edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

Q2 was a very tough quarter for pay-TV operators, with cord-cutting soaring to a record level. This week we dive into the numbers and discuss why things have changed so dramatically since Q2 ’18. Then we transition to the Viacom-CBS deal, which was formally announced this week. Colin sees substantial upside, leveraging Pluto TV, which Viacom acquired earlier this year.

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Cord-cutting surged to a record in Q2 ’19, with pay-TV providers that account for 93% of the industry losing just over 1.5 million subscribers, according to Leichtman Research Group. The loss is up from 420K in Q2 ’18. As usual, satellite providers were responsible for the majority of the losses, with DirecTV losing 778K subscribers in the quarter and Dish losing 79K. The combined drop was nearly double the 480K lost in Q2 ’18.

The biggest seven cable TV operators lost a combined  455K subscribers in Q2 ’19 compared to a loss of 275K a year ago.

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I’m pleased to present the 478th edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

We lead off this week discussing Roku’s strong Q2 ’19 results, including a 36% increase in player unit sales, which the company said was the highest in the growth in the past nine quarters. The results bucked industry research from Parks that Colin and I were just expressing surprise at on last week's podcast, which said streaming media player sales were leveling off. On top of brisk player sales, Roku continues to dramatically expand its platform revenues, which include ad sales and OS licensing.

Data from Conviva and Pixability this week provides additional evidence of connected TV’s rising viewing share. Finally this week, we explore the dynamics behind a recent Comcast Spotlight report showing TV usage increasing.

Listen in to learn more!

 
Click here to listen to the podcast (21 minutes, 44 seconds)

Click here for previous podcasts

Click here to add the podcast feed to your RSS reader.

The VideoNuze podcast is also available in iTunes...subscribe today!

Video ad spending remains strong on the biggest social platforms, while connected TVs are gaining, according to a new Pixability survey of ad agency executives. 90% of agencies are running video ad campaigns on Facebook, followed by 88% on YouTube and Instagram. Hulu was fourth with 80%. Roku was at 58%, ahead of Twitter (42%) and Snapchat (36%). Amazon Fire TV lagged at 27%. Linear TV is used by 76% of ad executives surveyed.

All platforms look poised for continued success with 63% of agency executives saying they’ll increase video ad spending in 2020 by 1-10%, and another 20% saying they'll increase spending by over 10%.

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