VideoNuze Posts

I’m pleased to present the 371st edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

The persistent media narrative around pay-TV cord-cutting has gained a lot of traction in the past few weeks as it became clear that the industry lost 700,000-800,000 traditional multichannel video subscribers in Q1 ’17, the first time a first quarter loss has ever occurred.

But pay-TV’s losses are attributable to key factors beyond cord-cutting as our guest this week, Bruce Leichtman, president of Leichtman Research Group, and a premier industry analyst, explains. Bruce reveals why the Q1 loss in fact has more to do with specific pay-TV providers (primarily Dish Network) cutting back on new subscriber promotions. This reduction in “top of the funnel” additions ultimately flows into the net subscriber numbers.

While cord-cutting is indeed ticking up, Bruce walks us through his analysis of why the industry’s dynamics are more nuanced than most media reports suggest. We also dig into the role of connected TVs, the prospects for skinny bundles, SVOD’s impact and how Comcast in particular is bucking industry trends using X1. Bruce also discusses the significance of there now being more broadband subscribers than video subscribers in the U.S.

(Apologies in advance, the recording is a bit scratchy as we were in 3 locations and had some WiFi challenges.)

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Ads inserted into programming consumed on connected TVs are being funded equally from linear TV and online video budgets, according to new research released by Videology. In a study the company commissioned Advertiser Perceptions to conduct, 31% of advertiser and agency respondents said their connected TV advertising dollars are coming from linear TV budgets, the exact same percentage that cited online video as the budget source.

These 2 sources were followed by digital (not video specific), cited by 16%, test/experimental (13%) and integrated video budgets (9%).

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Although there are already 5 major skinny bundles in the market - DirecTV Now, Hulu With Live TV, PlayStation Vue, Sling TV and YouTube TV - it seems all but inevitable that a 6th will emerge, from Amazon, which could be the most disruptive one yet. While I continue to be skeptical about how big the market for skinny bundles currently is, Amazon has a number of unique attributes that could both enlarge the potential audience and change the current competitive dynamics.

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Early bird discounted registration ends this Friday for the 7th annual VideoNuze Online Video Advertising Summit on Wednesday, June 14th in NYC. All early bird registrants save $100 and are entered to win a 55-inch TCL 4K Roku TV.

Our amazing program includes keynote guests Troy Young, Global President of Hearst Digital Media, who I will interview, and Brian Lesser, CEO of GroupM North America, who will be interviewed by Matt Spiegel, Managing Director, Marketing and Technology Solutions at MediaLink, plus over 40 other industry executives from Bloomberg Media, Bonnier, Disney ABC Television, Hill Holliday, IAB, Initiative, Mic, NBCU, Publicis Media, Roku, Trusted Media Brands, Turner Broadcasting, The Washington Post, Universal McCann, Pfizer, Reuters, USA Today Network, VEVO, Viacom and others still to come.

Many thanks to our 15 sponsors, including exclusive Title Partner FreeWheel; Premier Partners Comcast Technology Solutions, Extreme Reach, Verizon Digital Media Services, VertaMedia and Videology; Headline Partners Beachfront Media, Cedato, SintecMedia, Smart AdServer and Vemba, and Branding Partners Brightcove, JW Player, Roku and SpotX.

Don’t miss out - learn more and register now!

I’m pleased to present the 370th edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

Earlier this week, in “A World Awash in Video - Part 2,” I argued that we are on the cusp a massive explosion in the amount of video being produced, as major companies across the ecosystem put video at the top of their strategic priorities.

In today’s podcast, Colin and I explore the topic further, specifically digging into how multiple business models are driving the video boom. Colin shares recent data points focused on how well Google and Facebook monetize their users, which feeds into why video is so central to both companies’ plans.

Many of the monetization topics will be discussed in depth at our 7th annual VideoNuze Online Video Ad Summit on Wed., June 14th in NYC. Early bird discounted registration is available, save $100 now!

Listen in to learn more!
 
Click here to listen to the podcast (22 minutes, 43 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!

comScore has taken the wraps off comScore OTT Intelligence, a new syndicated service that measures U.S. viewership of OTT content like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and others on connected TVs. Subscribers to the comScore service access the data through a dashboard that includes household reach, audience size, demographics and other metrics.

The data is drawn from comScore’s Total Home Panel, which measures viewership in over 12,500 U.S. households with over 150,000 active devices per month.

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I’ve been a skeptic of skinny bundles, partially because of the huge holes in their channel lineups (what I’ve dubbed the “Swiss cheese” problem) which I believe narrows their appeal. The most glaring hole has been the absence of all the broadcast TV networks except in a handful of the biggest metropolitan areas. Not having all the broadcast networks is a serious drawback because even in the fragmented cable era, they still draw the biggest audiences outside of sports.

But there’s reason to be cautiously optimistic that this problem may soon be solved. Three of the four big broadcast networks have announced agreements with their affiliate boards which essentially allow the networks to negotiate carriage in skinny bundles on their behalf. NBC was the first to announce its deal, on April 13th. That was followed by Disney ABC on April 24th. And then yesterday, CBS announced its own deal. While FOX hasn’t announced a deal, it has added more affiliates to DirecTV Now, which is a positive sign of progress.

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