VideoNuze Posts

Amazon is making a major push into smart TVs, with rival Best Buy as an unlikely partner. The companies announced that Best Buy will introduce more than ten 4K and HD “Fire TV Edition” TVs from Toshiba this summer and in-house brand Insignia later this year. Best Buy has had a deal with Roku for its Insignia line, which will now end. Amazon has had a Fire TV Edition model with Element that is being discontinued.

The new Fire TV Edition TVs will be sold exclusively in Best Buy physical stores, on BestBuy.com and from Best Buy as a third-party seller on Amazon.

continue reading

In the hubbub of NABShow last week, Comcast Technology Solutions made several announcements, including one for a new product called AdStor, which caught my attention. AdStor is a cloud-based platform that hosts ads in a centralized library. Josh Arensberg, VP/GM at CTS told me in a briefing that the main goal of AdStor is to streamline how ad buyers and sellers interact, to accelerate ad delivery across multiple platforms. The result is reduced operating expenses and new revenue opportunities.

continue reading

VideoNuze readers are invited to attend 4C’s closed-door VIP breakfast session in New York this Thursday, April 19th, “The Modern Microscope: Using Data to Predict Marketing Success.”

At the event, executives from global brands and agencies, along with press & analysts, will gather to hear from industry experts including:

- Terry Kawaja - Founder & CEO of LUMA Partners, who will discuss how technology is changing to empower marketers to reach their audiences

- Susan Bidel - Senior Analyst at Forrester Research, who will share research and insights about where marketers are on this journey

- Seth Stephens-Davidowitz - New York Times columnist and bestselling author of Everybody Lies, who will explain how data and audience insights is helping marketers get there

- Other speakers include Krishan Bhatia (EVP Business Operations & Strategy, NBCUniversal), Marni Walden (former EVP and President, Global Media, Verizon), Lance Neuhauser (CEO, 4C) and Anupam Gupta (Chief Product Officer, 4C).
 
The VIP breakfast will be at The Ace Hotel New York, 20 W 29th Street, on Thursday, April 19th, 8am – Noon.
 
Learn more about attending here.

I’m pleased to present the 415th edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

Colin and I were both at the NABShow in Las Vegas this week. I was producing the Online Video Program once again, which featured 30+ speakers on 8 different sessions. On today’s podcast, I share some of the highlights of the keynote session with Christy Tanner, EVP/GM of CBS News Digital, who oversees CBSN, the 24x7 OTT news service. CBSN has an average viewer age of 38, which is 20 years younger than the average CBS News viewer.

Christy explained how the CBSN team collaborates internally with its focus on news/facts vs. punditry. She also noted that 50% of consumption is on connected TVs, with 30% on desktop and 20% on mobile. CBSN is an example of how OTT is giving traditional media a whole new way to connect with viewers.

We then turn our attention to some of Colin’s takeaways from the show, including Android TV deployments and the value of open platforms, how operators are broadening their focus to broadband/OTT as viewers are increasingly assembling their own preferred services and the growth of live-streaming.

Listen in to learn more!

 
Click here to listen to the podcast (21 minutes, 39 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!
 

Yesterday I produced the Online Video Program at the NABShow in Las Vegas. It was a great day of learning, with 30+ speakers on 8 sessions focusing on the rise of OTT. There were many highlights, but to be brief, below I’ve summarized 5 soundbites that hit my radar:

continue reading

On behalf of 4C, I’m pleased to invite VideoNuze readers to attend a closed-door VIP breakfast session in New York on Thursday, April 19, “The Modern Microscope: Using Data to Predict Marketing Success.”

At the event, executives from global brands and agencies, along with press & analysts, will gather to hear from industry experts including:

- Terry Kawaja - Founder & CEO of LUMA Partners, who will discuss how technology is changing to empower marketers to reach their audiences

- Susan Bidel - Senior Analyst at Forrester Research, who will share research and insights about where marketers are on this journey

- Seth Stephens-Davidowitz - New York Times columnist and bestselling author of Everybody Lies, who will explain how data and audience insights is helping marketers get there
 
The VIP breakfast will be at The Ace Hotel New York, 20 W 29th Street, on Thursday, April 19th, 8am – Noon.
 
Learn more about attending here.

12% of 18-34 year-olds in the U.S. are now subscribing to a skinny bundle such as Sling TV, DirecTV Now, YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV or PlayStation Vue, according to new research from Leichtman Research Group. This group accounts for 53% of adults who subscribe to a skinny bundle. Just 3% of people 45+ take a skinny bundle.

The data is part of LRG’s first survey on the topic, so there aren’t any trend lines available. Skinny bundles have been around for several years, and multiple analysts have estimated there are somewhere between 4-5 million U.S. homes now subscribing. It’s still very early days for skinny bundles as there’s been very little mass marketing to date.

continue reading on VideoNuze iQ

I’m pleased to present the 414th edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

DVDs have been fading for years now, as viewers shift to streaming alternatives. This week marked another milestone in that evolution as Oppo, which made high-end DVD players, announced it was shutting down its manufacturing. Colin shares the statistics on DVDs’ decline and how inexpensive smart TVs and connected TV devices that support both UHD/4K and HDR have gained share.

However, the downside of streaming UHD/4K content is that it uses up a ton of bandwidth. Colin shares his personal story of almost exceeding his 1 TB/month data cap and the math behind how easy it is to do that when consuming UHD/4K content. He also explains the challenge of controlling the quality of what stream is delivered and how to overcome it.

Listen in to learn more!
 
Click here to listen to the podcast (21 minutes, 26 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!