VideoNuze Posts

The intersection of online video and advertising is one of the most exciting corners of the Internet landscape today. Yet despite all the buzz, there are still lots of unknowns. If you need to deepen your understanding of what's working in online video advertising and what's ahead, then join over 300 industry colleagues one week from today, on Tuesday, June 19th, at the VideoNuze Online Video Advertising Summit in NYC.

The Summit will bring together an amazing group of executives from brand advertisers, agencies, content providers, technology companies and others for an immersive day totally focused on online video advertising. There are 40 speakers spanning 18 sessions on virtually every aspect of online video advertising. Expect to come away with insights, research, best practices and new relationships that will help you succeed. And you might even win an $850 Samsung SmartTV, raffled by Jivox!

The Summit is generously supported by Title sponsors Adobe/Auditude and YuMe, plus Adap.tv, The AOL On Network, Collective, Conviva, Eyeview, Innovid, LiveRail, Jivox, Mixpo, TubeMogul, VideoHub, and Videology.

Learn more and register now

At the recent Cable Show, John Holobinko, VP of Strategy for the Network Infrastructure Group of Motorola Mobility, stopped by for a brief video interview. We primarily discuss "nDVR" which Motorola was demonstrating at the show. nDVR allows viewers to record programs and store them in the network/cloud, vs. locally on their own DVRs. The obvious benefit to the viewer is not having to worry about limited storage capacity. In addition, as John explains, nDVR also opens up out-of-home, multi-device on-demand viewing. It also offers operational improvements for the pay-TV operator and new ad opportunities for content providers. Watch the interview below (6 minutes, 6 seconds).

Watch the interview

Since I read Dish Network's press release last month announcing its new Auto Hop feature, I've been scratching my head, wondering (like many others), what Dish's cryptic CEO Charlie Ergen was really thinking about with the move. Auto Hop is such a blatant poke in the eye to broadcasters' ad-based business model that Ergen surely knew it would evoke a legal and business response - as it has.

Therefore, I was hoping an article in last Friday's WSJ, based on the first interviews with Ergen about Auto Hop, would clarify his motivations. While some have called Auto Hop a negotiation tactic with broadcasters over retransmission consent fees (which, in part it is), rather, I think Ergen's larger message with Auto Hop is that the traditional TV ad model is irreparably broken and it's urgent the industry figure out what's next. Not doing so risks the ultimate unraveling of the great American broadcast TV industry.

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I'm pleased to be joined once again by Colin Dixon, senior partner at The Diffusion Group, for the 136th edition of the VideoNuze-TDG Report podcast (our podcast's new co-branded name, going forward).

This week we first discuss a fascinating new web site, TakeMyMoneyHBO.com that invites visitors to submit how much they'd pay for a standalone HBO GO service. It's the latest in the larger dynamics around HBO going direct-to-consumer, rather than solely via pay-TV operators. In my video interview with HBO's co-president Eric Kessler 6 months ago, he explained the rationale for HBO sticking to its roots with HBO GO, which Ryan Lawler at TechCrunch enumerated this week. While Colin and I understand the reasoning, we contend that changing consumer expectations and a strong desire for viewing flexibility will inevitably pressure HBO - and others - to re-think traditional approaches. This is a topic I explored at length over a year ago.

Then Colin offers his reactions to E3 and what the major gaming console providers announced with streaming video apps this week. Last I discuss my video interview with top Wall Street analyst Craig Moffett that I posted yesterday, in which Craig states that the TV industry is so "ossified" that re-invention can only come from outsiders.

Click here to listen to the podcast (22 minutes, 46 seconds)

Click here for previous podcasts

The VideoNuze-TDG Report podcast is available in iTunes...subscribe today!

There are lots of things to be excited about when it comes to online video, but the main appeal continues to be targeting, according to BrightRoll's latest U.S. Video Advertising Report (free to download). Targeting was cited by 43% of respondents as the most valuable aspect of online video (up from 41% in 2011), far outpacing the next favorite attribute of reach (cited by 28% of respondents). All other attributes had 10% or less appeal.

Like 2011, contextual and behavioral again lead in terms of targeting methodologies, with the former cited as most valuable by about 37% of respondents and the latter by 34%. Demographic and geographic trailed. Behavioral targeting will increase by 24% over 2011 with two-thirds of respondents said that over 40% of their ads in 2012 will include behavioral targeting.

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At the recent Cable Show, I had the great pleasure of doing a video interview with Craig Moffett, who is SVP and senior telecom, cable and satellite TV analyst at the investment firm Sanford Bernstein. Craig is likely the most widely-followed Wall Street analyst of the pay-TV industry - both video and broadband - and someone whose work I have long respected.

Craig generously spent almost 45 minutes sharing his views on practically every pressing industry issue. A key recurring theme: that the pay-TV industry is so "ossified" and inflexible that true innovation with TV can only come from outside the industry. I have split the interview into 2 video segments below. For anyone who wants to better understand where the pay-TV and online video industries are heading, and what the key drivers are, I highly recommend these.

In Part 1, we discuss:
- Pay-TV industry's overall health
- Why cable isn't really a video business, but rather an infrastructure business
- The truth about cord-cutting and cord-shaving
- What role online original programs will have with younger "cord-never" viewers
- Why young people already think of pay-TV as a luxury service and settle for "good enough" alternatives
- How expensive sports programming is driving pay-TV's affordability challenge
- What will happen with Aereo
- And more

In Part 2, we discuss:
- The role of usage-based pricing by broadband ISPs
- Why the threat of Netflix is far lower today than a year ago
- Nickelodeon's ratings problem and the role of Netflix in creating it
- Whether cable networks will cut back licensing to OTT operators
- What will happen with Dish Network's Auto Hop feature
- Why TV Everywhere will remain on a slow rollout
- What disruptive roles Google and Apple might play
- And more

Watch the video interview

Online video platform (OVP) provider thePlatform, which has primarily served larger-size media companies and distributors to date, is looking to broaden its market appeal by launching "mpx Essentials," targeted to small-to-medium size businesses (SMB) and agencies. As Tim Sale, program leader for mpx Essentials explained to me, the move is a bet that all organizations will need to have a video presence in the future, just as they've all come to need a web presence.

Tim said thePlatform has been receiving inbound calls from prospective SMB customers for a while, but hasn't had an appropriately priced or featured service to offer them. As a result, it's been in the position of often referring callers to competitors like Brightcove, Kaltura, Ooyala and others. Recognizing that SMBs pursuing video need more than what a getting-started platform like YouTube offers, yet not all of the features that big media companies need, thePlatform decided to launch mpx Essentials.

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Online video advertising platform provider Mixpo is announcing this morning that is supporting Microsoft Advertising's deployment of the VPAID standard on MSN, MSNBC and other properties in its network. VPAID is an IAB standard for video players and ad units that enables market efficiencies for in-stream interactivity. VPAID helps make ads more engaging to viewers, more effective for advertisers and more monetizable to publishers. Here is a sample ad for Nordstrom Rack using the Mixpo ad platform that offers interactive elements to shop, see social media updates and find the closest store.

(Note: Mixpo is a sponsor of the June 19th VideoNuze Online Video Advertising Summit and will have a team on hand doing demos and answering questions.)