VideoNuze Posts

SpotX has revealed that ad spending on its platform for OTT inventory increased by 18x for the 12 months ending October 2017. SpotX defines OTT inventory as including broadcast-quality inventory from TV networks, pay-TV operators and other live, linear and VOD streaming services delivered via connected TVs, desktop and mobile. SpotX said the portion of ad budgets spent on OTT inventory increased from 8% in Oct. ’16 to 26% in Oct. ’17, with 30% expected by end of the year.

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Almost 75% of 18-34-year-olds use SVOD services at least once per week to watch movies and TV shows, with 40% watching daily, according to new research released by consulting firm Altman Vilandrie & Company. In addition, 40% of 18-34-year-olds use SVOD services daily. 78% of them have at least one SVOD subscription, with 55% having more than one.

These SVOD services are becoming the go-to source for younger viewers, with 77% of 18-24-year-olds using them first when they don’t know what they want to watch instead of broadcast or cable. Younger viewers rely most on peer recommendations for what to watch. Conversely, when viewers over 55 aren’t sure what to watch, 65% of them first turn to broadcast or cable.

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Our morning keynote interview at the SHIFT // Programmatic Video & TV Ad Summit was with Jon Stimmel, Chief Investment Officer, Universal McCann. Jon was interviewed by Matt Spiegel, Managing Director, Marketing and Technology Solutions, MediaLink about a range of topics including unified measurement, data fragmentation, changes to UM’s planning and investment process, integrated buying, CMOs’ outcome targets and much more.

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At our recent SHIFT // Programmatic Video & TV Ad Summit, one of our sessions focused on innovation in programmatic video and TV, with many topics discussed including header bidding, AI, brand safety, mobile, role of data, syndication and much more.

Panelists included Paul Bannister (EVP, CaféMedia), Dvir Doron (CMO/BDO, Cedato), Joe Lospalluto (Head of Sales, Americas, Smart), Chip Schenck (VP of Audience and Programmatic Solutions, Meredith), Frank Sinton (President and Founder, Beachfront Media) with Brian Ring (Principal Analyst, Ring Digital LLC) who moderated.

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I’m pleased to present the 398th edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia. Many thanks to Brightcove, our podcast sponsor, which, with SpotX and the IAB Tech Lab, shared a great presentation at last week’s SHIFT event about how server side ad insertion complements programmatic (session video is here).

First up on this week’s podcast, Colin shares his thoughts about why programming costs are likely to continue rising for pay-TV operators, counter to Charter’s CEO Tom Rutledge belief that they’ll moderate. Colin details his reasoning, which could portend higher subscriber bills and therefore more cord-cutting.

Next, we discuss Netflix’s surprised reaction to the popularity of downloading among its subscribers. I had a laugh out loud moment reading about it earlier this week, since Netflix was steadfastly against downloading until a year ago, when, having been leap-frogged by Amazon, it finally began offering the feature. Netflix’s bias against downloading has been really bizarre and showed a real disconnect in understanding its subscribers.  

Speaking of reversals, Facebook has had a change of heart about running pre-rolls and now plans to introduce them in Watch. Colin and I discuss why Facebook made the change and what it means for the industry.

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One of the highlights of last week’s SHIFT // Programmatic Video & TV Ad Summit was a joint presentation from Brightcove (Mike Green, VP, Marketing and Business Development, Media), SpotX (Kevin Schaum, Sr. Director, Mobile and Connected TV) and the IAB Tech Lab (Amit Shetty,  Sr. Director, Video & Audio Products) on how server side ad insertion (SSAI) adds value to programmatic for both linear and on-demand advertising.

For those not familiar with SSAI (also known as “ad stitching”), this is a process for inserting ads into a piece of content (frequently long-form). There are multiple benefits of SSAI including better user experiences, reduced buffering, extended device reach, elimination of ad blocking and lower cost of deployment. Mike, Kevin and Amit elaborated on how these benefits are even more valuable for programmatic, especially in live and in skinny bundles, while also noting some of the key outstanding challenges.

The presentation clearly communicated how the industry needs to work together to evolve video advertising given new viewer behaviors, device proliferation and publishers’ pressures to fully monetize.

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At last week’s SHIFT // Programmatic Video & TV Ad Summit, Lauren Fisher, eMarketer’s principal analyst, kicked off the day sharing her forecasts for both programmatic video and programmatic TV ad spending in the U.S. Following her presentation, I interviewed Lauren and the audience asked a number of questions.

Overall, Lauren sees strong growth ahead for programmatic video, which will account for 76.5%, or over $13.4 billion of online video advertising by 2019. She’s particularly bullish about the role of mobile, which she sees growing to 60% of programmatic video by 2019. Lauren is also optimistic about connected TV’s opportunity, though she still see it as early in its development.

Programmatic TV is not nearly as far along, with Lauren forecasting $3.8 billion in spending by 2019, representing 5% of overall TV ad spending. Lauren also reduced her 2018 forecast to $2 billion, which is roughly half of what she forecast for 2018 when she presented at SHIFT 2016. We discuss all the reasons behind her revisions.

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There’s more momentum behind video ads getting shorter. Video ad tech provider Genesis Media, has introduced a new 6-second ad unit, which advertisers only pay for when fully viewed, as verified by Moat. The Cost Per Viewable Six or “CPv6” unit is meant to provide a better viewer experience, especially in mobile, while giving advertisers a more effective format than the standard 15 and 30-second ad.

Joe Grover, Genesis Media’s president and chief marketing officer, told me in a briefing that the company has been testing the CPv6 format for months and that “publishers love it.” Joe explained that publishers are very sensitive to abandonment by viewers due to lengthy ads which in turn causes the viewer’s lifetime value to decrease. With viewers increasingly impatient to get to the content, Joe said there’s been a “groundswell” of interest in shorter ads over the past 6-9 months.

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