VideoNuze Posts

I'm pleased to present the 351st edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

In this week’s podcast Colin and I discuss our top 10 online video stories of 2016. It’s been another incredibly busy year with tons of industry innovation and progress. As always, it has been a lot of fun to analyze all of this and report on it. Let us know what you think of our choices, whether you agree or disagree!

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At the recent SHIFT // Programmatic Video & TV Ad Summit, we had a deep dive session called “Transactions in Transition: Sizing Up the New Possibilities” in which our panel discussed the key changes in transactions/business models for programmatic video and TV. The panel explored the trend in content providers pursuing private marketplaces along with how they’re operationalized, the shift to audience guaranteed models, yield optimization and the pros and cons of header bidding for video ads plus much more.

The session included Jason Barnett (Head of Programmatic, Teads.tv), Dvir Doron (Chief Marketing Officer, Cedato), Erica Schmidt (EVP, Managing Director, North America, Cadreon), Bryan Sherman (VP, Director, Programmatic, Media Technology, Digitas LBi), with Matt Prohaska (CEO and Principal, Prohaska Consulting) moderating.

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Here’s more evidence that most smaller SVOD services are fighting for the attention of a tiny group of prospective subscribers. New research from Limelight Networks indicates that just 13% of SVOD subscribers in the U.S. and U.K. take more than 2 services. Of all respondents, 60% subscribe to SVOD, broken down as follows: 33% taking 1 service, 19% taking 2 services, and approximately 8% taking 3 or more services (which translates to 13% of overall SVOD subscribers).

Since Netflix, Amazon and Hulu have by far the biggest market share, they undoubtedly are among the first 2-3 services most people subscribe to. As a result, all other SVOD services, which in the U.S. exceeds 100, are vying for attention from the sliver of people who go beyond the big 3 to subscribe to others. The data highlights how difficult it’s going to be for the dozens of smaller SVOD services to achieve scale.

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Watching video on mobile and connected TV devices is exploding, particularly among younger audiences. Yesterday’s Q3 ’16 FreeWheel Video Monetization Report noted that 22% of video ad views were on connected TVs (up 63% YOY) with 17% on smartphones (up 39% YOY) and another 9% on tablets (up 15% YOY). Combined, that means nearly half of all video ad views are on mobile and connected TV devices.

To further explore video advertising on these devices and programmatic’s growing role, at our recent SHIFT // Programmatic Video & TV Ad Summit, we had two dedicated sessions, one on mobile and one on connected TV devices.

The mobile session included Brian Danzis (Head of Global Video Monetization, Spotify), Jeremy Hlavacek (VP, Global Automated Monetization, The Weather Company, an IBM Business), Frank Sinton (CEO and Founder, Beachfront Media), Sarah Warner (Managing Partner, Digital Investment Lead, Programmatic and Video, GroupM), with Alanna Gombert (SVP, Technology & Ad Operations, IAB) moderating.

The connected TV session included Sean Buckley (SVP, Global Revenue, SpotX), Scott Rosenberg (VP, Advertising, Roku), Seth Walters (Senior Partner, Interactive & Connected Television, Modi Media, part of GroupM) with yours truly moderating.

Below are the session videos.

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Amazon has officially made Prime Video available in over 200 countries and territories around the world, a move that has been expected. Prime Video will be included for Amazon Prime members in Belgium, Canada, France, India, Italy and Spain. Elsewhere, Prime Video is being offered for a special rate of either $2.99 or 2.99 Euros per month for the first 6 months, after which it will revert to the standard rate of $5.99 or 5.99 Euros per month.

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Akamai has released its State of the Internet report for Q3 ’16 finding, among other things, that global average broadband connection speed increased 21% to 6.3 Mbps vs. Q3 ’15. The country with the biggest jump in the past year was South Korea, which increased 28% to an average 26.3 Mbps, with Hong Kong next, up 27% to an average 20.1 Mbps. South Korea continues to have the highest average connection speed.

The US had an average connection speed of 16.3 Mbps, with the top 5 and their improvement over Q3 ’15 as follows: District of Columbia (24.8 Mbps, up 1.8%), Delaware (21.4 Mbps, up 9.8%), Utah (21.4 Mbps, up 13%), Massachusetts (21.1 Mbps, up 11%) and Rhode Island (20.7 Mbps, up 5.4%).

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At the recent SHIFT // Programmatic Video & TV Ad Summit a recurring theme was how premium video providers are navigating carefully into programmatic. To dig in more deeply, we devoted a full session to the topic, which featured Mike Dean (VP, Programmatic and Data-Driven Sales, ABC), Jason DeMarco (VP, Programmatic and Audience Solutions, A+E Networks), Doug Fleming (Head of Advanced TV, Hulu), Jana Meron (VP, Programmatic and Data Strategy, Business Insider), and James Rooke (Chief Revenue Officer, FreeWheel) moderating.

The group did an excellent job exploring all the key issues including how they’re thinking about the role of automation vs. data, how to achieve scale in targeted cross-platform campaigns and then accurately measure attribution, why standards are the most important missing piece of the puzzle, how to satisfy the buy side’s desire for more data, what types of technologies they’re seeking and much more.

All in all, it was a candid discussion of how premium video providers think about the opportunities and challenges of programmatic, and where things are going from here.

Watch the video (32 minutes, 27 seconds).

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I'm pleased to present the 350th edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

This week we return to the cost of sports and specifically why sports TV will be under pressure in 2017. Colin noted new SNL Kagan data this week that sports programming now costs pay-TV operators $18.37/month, which is 40% of their total programming budget. Colin also noticed that DirecTV is planning to increase its rates by $2-$6/month next month, which it blamed on the rising costs of programming.

These types of increases will no doubt contribute to a rising level of cord-cutting and cord-nevering, especially for entertainment-centric viewers who now have more choices of great TV shows to watch than ever and therefore have less reason to pay for expensive multichannel bundles. We’ve seen some of this effect already in the soft NFL ratings this season. Then there’s the question of where skinny bundles will fit in with sports; they’ll almost certainly have to keep sports to a minimum to maintain low rates.

As we discuss, all of this threatens the unique value of sports as a firewall for pay-TV, live viewing and advertising - the reasons why sports rights have ballooned in the first place. 2017 is going to be a very important in redefining sports’ actual value in the video ecosystem.

Listen in to learn more!
 
Click here to listen to the podcast (22 minutes, 45 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!