VideoNuze Posts

Netflix reported its Q1 '12 results yesterday, adding almost 3 million subscribers, of which 1.7 million were domestic and 1.2 million were international, while showing its first loss in a while. Focusing just on the domestic side, the 1.7 million additions are certainly a positive reversal from the past 2 quarters, but are just about half of the 3.3 million domestic subscribers added a year ago in Q1 '11 (see chart below). While Netflix is forecasting to add 7 million subscribers in 2012, the company's domestic expansion rate is clearly slowing from its torrid pace of a year ago.

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Last week at the NABShow, Kevin Schaff, CEO and Founder of T3Media (formerly Thought Equity Motion) came by the VideoNuze booth for a video interview (see below, 10 minutes, 32 seconds) .

In addition to its content licensing arm, T3Media has become an integral part of the work flow for master file storage, helping improve the economics for content archives by improving access to them. T3Media operates on the principle that there are now so many innovative use cases for content that media companies need high-availability, flexible access to it, while still also preserving a behind-the-firewall production copy.

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Google has taken the beta tag off of AdWords for video, opening up the ad platform targeted to small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to run video ads on YouTube. To help drive interest, Google is also offering $50 million of free advertising credits to prospects. I wrote about AdWords for video last September when it was first announced, and I continue to be enthusiastic about its potential to broaden video-based advertising to SMBs for which traditional TV advertising was out of reach.

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At the NABShow last week, I interviewed RAMP's CEO Tom Wilde about why closed captioning is coming to online video as a result of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act from 2010. The Act specifies that any video broadcast on-air after April 30th must have closed captioning by September 30th if it's placed on the web.

Tom explains that given broadcasters' existing analog and digital work flows, creating closed captions for the web creates huge challenges, which RAMP's Media Cloud addresses. The good news is that research shows that closed captions give viewers more control and therefore are also more engaged, driving a higher ROI.

See video below (5 minutes, 19 seconds)

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Something new for the 130th edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast - video! That's right, this week found Colin Dixon, senior partner at The Diffusion Group, and me at the NABShow in Las Vegas, so we recorded a video for the first time (for you audiophiles, there's still a link to the audio below, and it's still in iTunes as well). For this week's edition, we discuss what hit our radar at the NABShow. Enjoy!

Or click here to listen to the podcast (12 minutes, 43 seconds)

Click here for previous podcasts

The VideoNuze Report is available in iTunes...subscribe today!

TV Everywhere is a major trend in the pay-TV industry these days and thePlatform, a large online video platform, has been in the middle of a lot of the activity.

At the NABShow, Marty Roberts, thePlatform's SVP of Sales and Marketing stopped by the VideoNuze booth and explained how consumer expectations are helping drive pay-TV innovation with TV Everywhere, enabling anytime/anywhere/any device access. Marty also addresses other key trends he's seeing in the industry. See video below (6 minutes, 14 seconds).

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I'm excited to share information about several sessions and speakers at the VideoNuze 2012 Online Video Advertising Summit on June 19th in NYC. The Video Ad Summit will bring together executives from brands, agencies, technology providers and other stakeholders for a highly-focused day of learning and networking. Lots more to come over the next few weeks!

Early-bird, discounted registration is now available (note, the VideoNuze Online Video Advertising Summit takes the place of last year's "ELEVATE" event).

How Multi-Platform Video is Leveling the Playing Field for All Content Publishers
- Alisa Bowen - GM, The Wall Street Journal Digital Network
- Baba Shetty - Chief Strategy Officer & Chief Media Officer, Hill Holliday (moderator)

Description:
With its recently unveiled WSJ Live video app, the Wall Street Journal has become a perfect example of how a traditional media company can expand into video, leveraging its assets to engage its audience and create new revenue streams. In this session, learn the secrets to WSJ's multi-platform video success and how new opportunities are opening up for all content publishers.

Connected TVs: Game-Changer Coming to the Living Room
- Sam Chang - VP/GM, LG Electronics
- Ed Haslam - SVP, Marketing, YuMe
- Colin Dixon - Senior Partner, The Diffusion Group (moderator)

Description:
Connected TVs are bringing high-quality online video directly into the living room, with the potential for massive new viewership, behaviors and video ad inventory. This session will explore the timeline for connected TV adoption, new ad formats that are already being deployed and how connected TV are going to change the video landscape, again.

Case Study - When Brands and Content Connect
- Mike Henry -  CEO, Outrigger Media

Description:
High-quality original online video series allow advertisers to connect their brand objectives with their target audiences better than ever before possible. In this case study, learn how Tumi, a premium lifestyle travel company, has benefited from exclusively sponsoring the original series "Bourdain's TV Crew" and how Outrigger's video content marketplace, OpenSlate, is helping develop the market for brand-supported video series.

Early-bird, discounted registration is now available.

If your business success depends on online video advertising in one way or another, the Video Ad Summit is a must-attend day of learning and networking. I hope to see you on June 19th!

An interesting new company named Brevity came out of stealth mode here at the NABShow this week. Its V3 technology transcodes large video files during highly accelerated transport from one location to another without any degradation of quality. The company is aiming to disrupt traditional production workflows which it considers expensive and inefficient.

Given the push to higher resolution and longer-form video, along with multi-screen delivery, Brevity's time savings and simplification is an exciting prospect for content creators. V3 will be available at the end of Q2.

Brevity's COO, Timothy O'Brien explains Brevity's approach in detail in the following video.

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