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HealthiNation Adds Doug McFarland as Chief Digital Officer
HealthiNation, an independent provider of health-related online videos, is announcing this morning that online industry veteran Doug McFarland has joined as Chief Digital Officer to oversee digital strategy and operations.
McFarland was previously co-CEO of Dimestore Media (acquired by Knowledge Networks), CEO of online video ad network ScanScout, EVP/GM of Eyeblaster and EVP/GM of Advertising.com. He's also been on HealthiNation's board for the last two years.
Categories: Indie Video, People
Topics: HealthiNation
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Nielsen: iPad Already In 3.6% of U.S. Homes in Q2. How's That Compare?
I was checking out Nielsen's Q2 '10 Home Technology Report findings and one stat jumped out at me: 3.6% of U.S. homes now own an iPad. The percentage would actually be a little higher than Apple's own data given that it reported 3.27 million iPads sold in the quarter ending June 26th (assuming there are approximately 110-115 million U.S. households).
Either way, when you think of iPad sales in household penetration terms, the question that comes to mind is how long after their introductions did digital products and services like DVR, HDTV, broadband Internet, VOD and others reach 3.6%? I don't know the answer, but I suspect it was far longer than a single quarter.
With Apple's next quarter performance due on Oct. 18th, we'll see how many more millions of iPads were sold in the 3rd calendar quarter of 2010. And of course with Q4, the holiday quarter, now underway, the biggest wave of purchases is just ahead. At some point it will be fascinating to overlay the iPad's early years' quarterly household penetration curve on other digital products and services. No doubt it will tell a remarkable story of success.
What do you think? Post a comment now (no sign-in required).
Categories: Devices
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5 Items of Interest for the Week of Sept. 27th
It's Friday and that means that once again VideoNuze is featuring 5-6 interesting online/mobile video industry stories that we weren't able to cover this week. Have a look at them now, or take them with you for weekend reading!
Nielsen Unveils New Online Advertising Measurement
comScore Introduces Digital GRP `Overnights` in AdEffx Campaign Essential
Dueling initiatives from Nielsen and comScore were announced on Monday, aimed at translating online usage into comparable TV ratings information, including reach, frequency and Gross Ratings Points (GRPs). While online video ad buying is ramping up, the tools to measure viewership in a comprehensive way have been lacking. This is one of the main issues holding back content providers from participating in TV Everywhere.
Analyst: Cord-cutting fears overblown
New research shared this week by BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield concludes that less than 8% of the market is actually interested in cord-cutting. The big impediment: losing access to sports and cable programming, which is unlikely to migrate to free over-the-top alternatives. Greenfield's conclusion is that cord-cutting isn't a major threat to pay-TV operators over the next 3-5 years. Notwithstanding the research, another factor I'd point to that could tip cord-cutting the other way is consumers' belt-tightening. Much as nobody wants to lose access to programming, if the price is perceived as too high, they'll make compromises.
Why YouTube Viewers Have ADD and How to Stop It
Abandonment rates for online video have always been a concern, and using new research, Visible Measures CMO Matt Cutler now quantifies the behavior. Expect 20% of the audience to drop out within 10 seconds of hitting play, 33% by the 30 second mark and 44% by 60 seconds in. Pretty sobering data but incredibly important in thinking about content creation and monetization.
Networks Have Sharing Issues With Hulu
Hulu's New Hoop
On the one hand, Hulu's network partners, ABC, NBC and Fox are reportedly pulling back ad inventory that Hulu is allowed to sell, yet on the other, Hulu is reportedly out aggressively selling ads in Hulu Plus, its subscription service. Meanwhile this week Hulu also announced that Hulu Plus will be accessible on both Roku devices and TiVo Premiere, as it continues chasing Netflix in the subscription game.
The New Apple TV Reviewed: It`s All About the Video
Apple TV devices started shipping this week, and reviews began popping up all over the web. This mostly positive review indicates that the user experience is solid, but that content selection is still skimpy. That's no surprise given how few deals Apple has struck to date. Yet to be seen is how Apple TV performs when it can access other iOS apps.Categories: Advertising, Aggregators, Analytics, Broadcasters, Devices
Topics: ABC, Apple TV, comScore, FOX, Hulu, NBC, Nielsen, Visible Measures, YouTube
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Break Media Lands in comScore's Top 10 Video Sites for August
Who says independent online video can't compete with the established media? Yesterday comScore released its August Video Metrix rankings and while Facebook moving into the #2 position (ahead of Yahoo) was noteworthy,
even more eye-catching was male-focused 18-34 Break Media coming in at #6, ahead of big players like Microsoft, NBCU, Viacom and Turner Digital. It's only the second time Break has cracked comScore's top 10 video sites (June '10 was the other). Also worth noting is that Break's ad network achieved August reach of 65.7 million unique visitors, second only to Google/YouTube's 146.6 million.
Compared to June, Break recorded strong growth: 42.4 million total unique viewers (up 58% vs. 26.9 million in June) and 167 million viewing sessions (up 78% vs. 93.6 million in June). The only disappointment was that minutes per viewer slipped from 31.8 in June to 25.9 in August. Still, the results are pretty remarkable, and I caught up briefly with Andy Tu, Break's VP of Marketing to find out what's behind the growth.
Categories: Indie Video
Topics: Break Media, comScore
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Technology Innovation is the Key to Online Video's Rise
While in LA this week, I moderated a short panel at Always On's "OnHollywood" conference with Kaltura's Ron Yekutiel, Akamai's Kevin Freund, Microsoft's David Sayed and Fox Digital Media's Gregg Colvin. The conversation focused on the key technology building blocks for online video.
Clearly there has been a ton of innovation in online video technology, and the panel concluded that online distribution has now come into its own, with key strides in publishing/delivery, devices, user experience and monetization. In particular, panelists pointed to adaptive bit rate streaming, live streaming, HD and video opening up to new applications as important steps forward. On the flip side, the challenges identified as remaining included better measurement, improved capacity in broadband ISPs' "last mile" and reduction in work flow complexity to distribute to multiple devices.
Categories: Technology
Topics: Netflix
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Panvidea Positions As "Post-House in the Cloud" With Move to Joyent
Panvidea, a leader in digital media preparation is positioning itself as a "post-house in the cloud" with its move to Joyent's Smart Technology
infrastructure hosted by SwitchCloud. Panvidea's CEO Chris Cali and VP of Marketing Doug Heise brought me up to date on the initiatives a couple of weeks ago.
Panvidea is working with various media/entertainment companies like A&E, Fox and Getty Images to move their digital video production processes into the cloud. As Chris and Doug explained, traditional post-production houses have performed both craft services and more fundamental media creation services. It is these latter services - storing, processing, packaging and distributing digital media - that Panvidea is looking to automate, while having post-houses still concentrate on the high-skill craft roles.
Categories: Technology
Topics: Joyent, Panvidea, SwitchCloud
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Both Roku and TiVo Get Hulu Plus Access
Hulu is extending access to its Hulu Plus subscription service to Roku devices and to TiVo Premiere. The service will be available to owners of these devices for $9.95/mo. Roku and TiVo follow availability of Hulu Plus on Samsung connected devices, Sony PS3 and the iOS devices.
Of course it's a real benefit to Hulu Plus subscribers to gain on-TV viewing through inexpensive connected devices, and no doubt we can expect more
devices to come, with boxee right at the top of the list. Still, with Hulu Plus following Netflix onto these devices, consumers are inevitably going to closely compare the two services. In this respect, as I've pointed out numerous times, most recently in the wake of Netflix's expanded deal with NBCU, Hulu Plus's content is going to look skimpy.
To be fair, for what it is - access to current and past seasons of broadcast programs, Hulu Plus is a great service. The problem is that DVRs already solve the current season episode value proposition for many (40% of homes and growing, according to Leichtman Research) while the prior seasons episodes are increasingly available on Netflix. Meanwhile, with TV Everywhere rolling out, Hulu Plus will be challenged to get access to cable TV network programs.
Expanding the number of devices that can access Hulu Plus is the right move (and a refreshing update after previously blocking free Hulu.com content). Nonetheless the big challenge for Hulu Plus remains getting more content.
What do you think? Post a comment now (no sign-in required).
Categories: Aggregators, Devices
Topics: Hulu Plus, Netflix, Roku, TiVo
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5Min Acquired By AOL, Why Exit So Early?
This morning AOL announced that it has acquired 5Min with the rumor mill suggesting the price is $65 million. For AOL, the deal makes a lot of sense and is yet another building block in its video and niche content strategy. 5Min is especially relevant to AOL since it acquired Studio Now earlier this year. 5Min gives AOL significant distribution reach both for video that Studio Now creates and for other content AOL develops. 5Min has masterfully executed the video syndication opportunity that I've been bullish about for some time and I've been a big 5Min fan for a while.
The bigger question for me, which I've emailed to Ran Harnevo, 5Min's CEO and Co-Founder, is why sell now? While $65 million is certainly nothing to sneeze at, given $13 million was invested in the company the returns for investors are likely in the 2-4x range, again not shabby, but not a grand slam.
Categories: Deals & Financings, Portals, Syndicated Video Economy
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