VideoNuze Posts

Cord-cutting accelerated in 2015. Once again, It dominated headlines about the pay-TV industry, portending its imminent demise, as SVOD awareness and original content investments skyrocketed. But despite all of that, top Wall Street analyst Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson (who has participated in many VideoNuze events) issued a bullish note this morning on cable TV operators’ prospects in 2016.

Craig’s analysis highlights the subtleties of the pay-TV industry’s dynamics that are too often glossed over in generic media coverage about cord-cutting’s ascent. The nub of his argument is that while the overall pay-TV industry is indeed pressured in many ways, cable operators’ distinct product and technology advantages vs. its primary competitors (satellite and telcos) have led to cable operators taking market share, helping insulate them from macro issues.

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What exactly is “programmatic TV” and what are its main challenges and initial successes? These were the topics of two of our sessions at last month’s SHIFT // 2015 Programmatic Video & TV Ad Summit. While the term “programmatic” was in the conference’s title, as our panelists explained, it means something very different when applied to online/mobile video vs. when it’s applied in TV.

In fact, a number of the panelists on the two sessions objected to the very use of the term “programmatic” for TV advertising (as did our morning keynoter, Turner Ad Sales president Donna Speciale), believing it shouldn’t be carried over from video and display advertising because TV’s specifics are so different.

Regardless of terminology, both sessions highlighted how TV network groups are building out their own data platforms to support a shift to audience-based targeting/buying beyond just age and gender. But many panelists noted that these disparate efforts will cause even more market complexity compared to the singular (if imperfect) current Nielsen system.

Panelists also explained that data-centric buying in TV advertising is happening in many different ways, and “addressable TV” (which uses set-top box viewing data) appears to have emerged as an early favorite.

All in all the two sessions provided many critical insights on programmatic TV (loosely defined), the key hurdles, early successes and likely trends for 2016. For anyone trying to better understand how TV advertising is going to evolve in the face of OTT’s growth, watching the session videos below, will be time well-spent.

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The latest evidence that wireless carriers will fuel a boom in unlimited mobile video viewing came this morning with AT&T announcing a new plan that gives new and existing AT&T wireless subscribers who already have or who add either DirecTV or U-Verse TV service unlimited video on their smartphone for $100/month. Options are available for adding more smartphones and tablets for additional fees. AT&T also said it was the “first of many integrated video and mobility offers the company plans to announce in 2016.”

Wireless carriers’ capped data plans have meant that subscribers needed to meticulously monitor their usage as they watched data-intensive video in order to avoid costly overage charges and also to aggressively search out WiFi hotspots. As wireless carriers have migrated to unlimited text and talk, data has become a key source of incremental, usage-based revenue.

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As wireless carriers ramp up promotion of unlimited data and video viewing, mobile is poised to account for a bigger share of video viewing. As a result, understanding how mobile video will be fully monetized is becoming a more critical topic. The recent SHIFT // 2015 Programmatic Video & TV Ad Summit featured a session on programmatic’s role in mobile video advertising.

As the panelists explained, programmatic is a really good fit for mobile in a lot of ways, including that mobile generates a lot of actionable data, mobile inventory can be volatile due to unexpected viral hits or weather events rendering traditional upfront sales sub-optimal, and that there’s a long tail of publishers that don’t necessarily have direct sales teams. The session explored all of these topics and others such as the technical challenges of delivering mobile programmatic video campaigns, the impact of VAST 4.0, how data is being used to drive improved campaign results and more.

The panelists included Jeremy Hlavacek (VP, Programmatic, The Weather Company), Brian Rifkin (Co-founder and SVP, Video Sales, JW Player), Chip Schenck – VP of Programmatic Sales and Strategy, Meredith), Frank Sinton (CEO, Beachfront Media) and Gavin Dunaway (Editor, US, AdMonsters) as moderator.

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I'm pleased to present the 305th edition of the VideoNuze podcast  and the first of 2016, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

This week we dig further into Netflix’s rollout to 130 additional countries and more specifically, the implications of its “content globalization” experiment that I wrote about yesterday. We discuss the pros and cons of the company’s “produce locally, distribute globally” approach. With Netflix’s viewer data, I continue to believe the company has a big opportunity to leverage its international reach in ways we’ve never seen before. It also has a potentially powerful competitive differentiator.

However, Colin points out a few gotchas, including that Netflix is only deploying in 20 languages, the single price of the Netflix global player means it will be very expensive in lower-wage countries and the risk that government censors in some countries may intervene given some of Netflix’s racier programming. These are all great points, and will make it even more interesting to see how the international expansion goes.

Listen now to learn more!
 

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In watching the press conference with Netflix’s CEO Reed Hastings and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos that followed the company’s CES announcement yesterday that it was expanding to 130 additional countries, the most significant thing that struck me is that Netflix is pursuing the biggest-ever experiment in content globalization. Depending on the results, there will be profound implications for all players in the video value chain.

First, it’s important to clearly understand Netflix’s content globalization initiative. In the press conference, Hastings and Sarandos emphasized that the company’s focus is on investing in original content and retaining global distribution rights (this is a big departure from the “House of Cards” strategy where co-investors got the global rights in order for Netflix to mitigate its financial exposure).

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Eager to unlock the full value of their audiences, premium publishers are tapping into programmatic, using data and a variety of tools. At the recent SHIFT // 2015 Programmatic Video & TV Ad Summit we dedicated a session to exploring how this is all unfolding. Among the topics discussed was how programmatic aligns with direct sales, the evolving role of measurement, how to aggregate across all platforms and much more.

The session included Trent Anderson (Senior Director, Client Solutions, FreeWheel), Jason Barnett (Head of Programmatic, Teads.tv), Jason DeMarco (Director, Programmatic and Audience Solutions, A+E Networks) and Jana Meron (VP, Programmatic & Data Strategy, Business Insider), with Tim Hanlon (Managing Director, FTI Consulting) moderating. Follow the link below to watch the session video (31 minutes).

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Online video platform JW Player announced a $20 million Series D round today from existing investors Greycroft Growth, Greenspring Associates, Cueball Capital and e.ventures. JW Player’s CEO and co-founder Dave Otten told me that with the new round the company has raised a total of $46 million, though approximately $11 million of the Series C round was used to buy out prior shareholders.

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