VideoNuze Posts

The past week has brought some pretty remarkable statements from Verizon executives, suggesting that the company - which has long-trumpeted its FiOS TV service - has all but thrown in the towel on traditional pay-TV. The decision has broad implications for the pay-TV and broadband industries.

First, at this week’s Ignition conference, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said “People do not want 300-channel bundles and the economics won’t work for that.” Instead he’s betting on Verizon’s skinnier “Custom TV” service, which averages between 40-60 channels, and which McAdam said now drives “40% of FiOS’ subscriber volume.” McAdam also talked up Verizon’s Go90 mobile video service as a potential substitute and the company having hired “a couple thousand people” in Silicon Valley.

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With my focus yesterday on Amazon’s introduction of its Streaming Partners Program and my recognition as a top 10 media writer by LinkedIn, I didn’t have a chance to weigh in on something else significant, which is that Clearleap has been acquired by IBM (terms weren't disclosed). I have covered Clearleap for years and was able to catch up with CEO Braxton Jarratt later in the day to learn more about what drove the deal and what to expect going forward.

Braxton said that Clearleap will be a wholly-owned IBM subsidiary, retaining all of its employees and offices while being integrated into IBM Cloud. Clearleap will continue to provide its cloud-based video/OTT services to customers including HBO, A+E Networks, NFL, BBC America, Time Warner Cable, Verizon and others but it will gain new sales/business development leverage internationally, which is a key company focus. Clearleap’s solutions will be sold by IBM’s Media and Entertainment teams internationally, with incremental Clearleap staff to be hired internationally as well.

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Amazon made a very significant announcement this morning, unveiling its “Streaming Partners Program,” which I believe could disrupt the entire SVOD industry if executed well. There are many ramifications of the Streaming Partners Program (which has been rumored, and I’ll call “SPP” for short) that I’ll explain below, albeit based on still limited information.

First, what is SPP? From an SVOD provider’s perspective, it’s an opportunity to have Amazon promote the SVOD service to tens of millions of Prime subscribers, with special pricing and promotions. Amazon handles subscriber acquisition, customer service, billing, credit card management, video streaming and device compatibility. Basically it frees up SVOD providers to focus on what they do best - create great content. Amazon announced that Showtime, Starz and 18 other SVOD providers are initial SPP partners.

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Pardon a little personal horn-tooting this morning, but I’m honored to share that I’ve been selected by LinkedIn as one of their top 10 media writers of the year. To put this in context, as LinkedIn’s executive editor, Daniel Roth explains, every week there are 150K+ articles posted on LinkedIn by almost 2 million different writers. LinkedIn has become a massive publishing platform where original content is distributed to one’s professional network and beyond.

With LinkedIn’s “Top Voices” feature, the company is recognizing the 10 top writers in 8 different verticals (finance, technology, marketing, healthcare, leadership, media, education and venture capital). LinkedIn used a formula that measured engagement (especially comments), growth of followers tied to publishing, number of times the writer had been featured in their respective channel, and how often the writer had been chosen as an “Editor’s Pick.”

Daniel’s description of writing as being a “lonely, nerve-wracking process,” where “ideas bouncing around in your head turn into a worldwide conversation,” completely resonates for me. Each morning when I sit down to write my post(s), I grapple with what to focus on, why this matters and how to add distinctive value to a topic that is often covered in infinite other places. Some days things come easily; other days it’s grueling. While I talk to lots of people in the industry regularly, it’s rare when I discuss a specific post or seek any specific editorial input.

I’ve been doing this now for 8 years (remarkable how time flies!) and I can tell you in all candor that the anxiety over what to write about and what to say never diminishes. One thing VideoNuze readers have no doubt observed is that, unlike journalists who provide the valuable service of incorporating quotes/perspectives from industry experts to craft a narrative that supports their article’s headline, with VideoNuze posts, it’s all about what I think. I don’t look to 3rd-party experts to support a thesis; I aim to BE that expert, providing original analysis and insights which hopefully impart a deeper level of understanding to readers (the same is true of the weekly podcast I do with Colin). I rely on my own professional experience and analytical frameworks, creativity and data to guide my conclusions. It's the epitome of "flying without a net."

Admittedly, it’s a pretty ego-centric pursuit. In my more paranoid moments, I sometimes wonder, “why should anyone give a sh-t about what Will Richmond thinks anyway?” In our noisy media lives, VideoNuze is just one delete key tap away from oblivion, just like everyone else. Just to raise the stakes a little further, the online video landscape is extraordinarily confusing. There are days when I’ll concede I’m not 100% sure what to make of a certain product announcement or initiative. Is this truly meaningful or insignificant? Is it pure PR spin or is it a game-changer?

Of course, that’s the true fun of doing what I do - constantly analyzing, synthesizing and trying to make sense of the turbulence engulfing the video industry. It’s endlessly fascinating to have a front row seat to the disruption occurring throughout the industry, the new technologies and devices that are relentlessly pushing us forward and creating unprecedented new challenges. I love the intellectual challenge of trying to cut through the clutter and help explain to sophisticated industry professionals what’s really going on. I’ve always believed in quality over quantity in terms of how much to post and that worst thing I could ever be accused of is doing little more than regurgitating a press release. At the end of day, I view my role at VideoNuze as an analyst and an educator, doing my best to help busy executives understand things just a little bit better. It’s still a great thrill when an industry CEO periodically emails me to say “you nailed it” (though in truth, sometimes I'll receive the opposite “you completely don’t get it” email as well).

For those of you who are devoted VideoNuze readers and attendees at our conferences, thanks for your constant feedback and encouragement. The LinkedIn top 10 recognition is a huge validation of the work I do each day, but your loyalty and the trust you put in me each day ultimately means far more.

Sandvine has released its December, 2015 Global Internet Phenomena report, revealing that video and audio traffic now accounts for 70.4% of North American downstream traffic on wired networks in peak period. Sandvine said that 5 years ago, video and audio accounted for less than 35% of peak period traffic.

Netflix has become even more dominant in the past year, now with 37.1% of downstream traffic, up from 34.9% that Sandvine reported in November, 2014. Among other popular services, YouTube was in second place with 17.9% share (up from 14% share in Nov. ’14), Amazon Video was fourth (3.1% share, up from 2.6% in Nov. ’14), iTunes was fifth (2.8% share, flat from Nov. ’14), Hulu was sixth (2.6%, up from 1.4% in Nov. ’14) and Facebook seventh (2.5%, down from 3% in Nov. 14).

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I'm pleased to present the 301st edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

First up on this week’s podcast, I share some of the key highlights from this past Tuesday’s SHIFT // 2015 Programmatic Video & TV Ad Summit. Perhaps the biggest takeaway is the diversity of perspectives on what programmatic means in video and TV. Most definitions focus on automation and data, but understanding which business model applies makes things fuzzier. I’ll have a lot more on SHIFT as I post the session videos in the coming weeks.

Next we discuss Digitalsmiths’ new Q3 2015 Video Trends Report which was released this week. Colin zeroes in on a couple of noteworthy data points: the soaring adoption of over-the-air antennas plus how these complement SVOD subscriptions and the wide variation of SVOD subscription rates by pay-TV operator. Colin has much more detail in his analysis of the report here.

Listen now to learn more!

Click here to listen to the podcast (21 minutes, 51  seconds)

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The WSJ reported last night that YouTube is now talking to Hollywood studios and production companies about licensing TV shows and movies to include in its recently launched $10/month YouTube Red subscription service. The WSJ said the talks are still preliminary and YouTube’s specific plans are not well understood. While it’s too early to judge, I’m skeptical that this will be a game-changer for YouTube Red for many reasons.

First and most important, the world does not need another place to watch TV shows online. We already have Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, TV networks’ full episode players/apps, TV Everywhere services, HBO Now, iTunes, Google Play, etc, the list goes on and on. Though it’s by no means straightforward for viewers to actually FIND the shows online they’re looking for, the shows are almost certainly somewhere online already. For YouTube Red to become yet another online home for TV shows creates little new value and only more confusion.

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We had a jam-packed day at SHIFT // 2015 Programmatic Video & TV Ad Summit today, with 50+ industry leaders speaking on 14 sessions. There were tons of insights shared about what programmatic does and doesn’t mean for video & TV, with more than a few speakers saying they strongly dislike the term “programmatic” even being used in this context!

Our 2 keynotes guests, Donna Speciale, President of Turner Ad Sales, who was interviewed by Matt Prohaska, CEO and Principal of Prohaska Consulting and Lou Paskalis, SVP, Bank of America, who was interviewed by Michael Kassan, Chairman and CEO, MediaLink, totally hit it out of the park with their incisiveness and candor.

Many thanks to all of our speakers, our 18 sponsors and the hundreds of industry colleagues who attended.

I’ll have many more takeaways to share about SHIFT in the coming days and will also be posting all of the session videos on VideoNuze. There are also lots of tweets at #ShiftVideo2015!