VideoNuze Posts

AT&T is spinning off WarnerMedia to Discovery, just 4 1/2 years since it announced it was acquiring Time Warner (as WarnerMedia was then known) and just three years since the deal actually closed, following exhaustive regulatory challenges and litigation. For AT&T, the U-turn in strategy is a tacit admission that it didn’t realize the benefits it touted as the rationale for the deal.

That’s no surprise because, as I said at the time, the benefits were illusory and were completely out of synch with realities that broadband, streaming and connected TV were driving. The press release announcing the Time Warner acquisition was filled with corporate gobbledygook such as “The future of video is mobile and the future of mobile is video” and “Combined company positioned to create new customer choices - from content creation and distribution to a mobile-first experience that’s personal and social.”

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Welcome to Inside the Stream, the weekly podcast where nScreenMedia’s Chief Analyst Colin Dixon and I take listeners inside the world of streaming video.

Deloitte recently released the 15th edition of its Digital Media Trends survey, and this week we’re pleased to have Kevin Westcott, Deloitte’s vice chairman and leader of its telecom, media and entertainment group join us to discuss key findings.

The survey shows that SVOD churn has doubled, with many viewers binging hit content and then churning out. Kevin believes services need to focus on retention, adding non-video content (e.g. music, games, audio, etc.) to become more compelling and perhaps most important, offering lower-priced, ad-supported tiers.

Many like Hulu, Peacock and Paramount+ already have these tiers and HBO Max intends to introduce one. We discuss why others like Netflix and Disney+ are resistant and the implications.

Kevin speaks at length about the role AVOD services are playing, and especially how different age groups relate to advertising. He notes that for younger viewers, gaming is now their preferred media, with watching TV shows and movies falling to number five.

These are just a few of the subjects we discuss during the wide-ranging interview.

Listen to the interview (33 minutes, 32 seconds)

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The program for the Connected TV Advertising Summit virtual on June 9th and 10th is now posted, with over 30 speakers confirmed. Reminder that registration is complimentary and all attendees will be entered to win a Roku TV and Smart Soundbar generously provided by Roku.

Executives from Roku, NBCUniversal, Bloomberg, Amplifi/Dentsu, Publicis, LG, Samsung, VIZIO, Vevo, A+E Networks, eMarketer and many more will be sharing their insights and perspectives on all the hottest CTV topics.

The program’s sessions will explore topics such as how ad spending is moving to CTV/streaming as linear TV consumption declines, the role of FAST/AVOD, navigating omnichannel marketing with CTV, programmatic’s role, data/targeting, smart TV makers' ad strategies and more. There will be presentations by leading industry data providers eMarketer and Leichtman Research Group, and interviews with Roku and Bloomberg executives.

Many thanks to our Gold partners Beachfront, DoubleVerify, Evergent, Extreme Reach, IRIS.TV, Mediaocean, Roku, Wurl and Xandr. To learn more about sponsorship opportunities please contact me.

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If you were one of the 14,000 attendees of last week’s NewFronts presentations, a central message that you couldn’t miss was that streaming has become an essential way for advertisers to reach 18-49 year olds. The coveted age group, which has long been the bread and butter for TV networks, is rapidly shifting its video consumption behaviors, and NewFronts presenters wanted ad buyers to know that they can either follow the eyeballs or risk losing access to this huge cohort.

Presenters expressed the message in different ways, but here are a few that caught my attention:

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Welcome to Inside the Stream, the weekly podcast where nScreenMedia’s Chief Analyst Colin Dixon and I take listeners inside the world of streaming video.

This has been NewFronts week, in which 30+ companies pitch to advertisers and agencies why they should be allocated a portion of the tens of billions of dollars of video/TV campaign budgets. NewFronts presentations typically include the presenter sharing audience profile data, updates on how advertisers can best reach their audience and reveals of upcoming original shows, which often include appearances by the talent. The NewFronts are organized by the IAB, which does an incredible job.

I attended about a dozen presentations, by Roku, Crackle Plus, Tubi, Samsung Ads, VIZIO, Amazon, YouTube, Vevo, A+E, Snap, DoubleVerify, TikTok and NBCUniversal and was very impressed. All emphasized streaming-first messages: younger audiences watch little to no linear TV so running campaigns on streaming is essential, streaming offers full funnel marketing capabilities, and screens like CTV and mobile are the way of the future.  

Many thanks to our inaugural Inside the Stream sponsor Verizon Media. When you have quality connections at scale, you’re truly connected.

Click here to listen to the podcast (27 minutes, 18 seconds)

Browse all previous podcasts

Subscribe to Inside the Stream
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Over 50% of the viewing on Comcast’s Flex streaming TV device is free, ad-supported, according to an update Comcast shared this morning. Comcast didn’t identify viewing shares by specific services, but said four services - Peacock, Xumo, Pluto and Tubi - were “routinely among the most viewed apps on the platform.”

Comcast offers the Flex box for no extra charge to its 31 million Xfinity broadband users and said it had over three million Flex boxes deployed as of March. Flex users also get free access to Peacock Premium, the $4.99 per month ad-supported tier that includes all Peacock content, including all seasons of “The Office” which is Peacock’s most valuable content and gets significant promotion in the app. Comcast also noted its “content forward design that puts free programming front and center.”

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Ad buyers plan to allocate 56% of their video advertising budgets to digital video (CTV, desktop, mobile), with 41% to linear TV (linear TV, addressable, data-driven linear) and 2% to other video, according to IAB’s new Video Ad Spend 2020 & Outlook for 2021 report, which is based on a survey of 350 video advertising decision makers conducted Mary 19th to April 5th. Within digital video, CTV is expected to get the largest share of spending, with 35%, followed by mobile with 33% and desktop with 32%.

CTV is expected to have the strongest growth in 2021, with 35% of respondents planning to increase budgets, followed by data-driven linear TV and broadcast/cable TV (21%) and addressable TV (15%). The primary reasons buyers behind the increase for CTV were “premium/high quality content,” “trusted, brand safe environment” and “targeting.”

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The U.S. SVOD market has undergone significant fragmentation over the past two years as new services have launched, according to the Q1 2021 Growth Report from Antenna, an SVOD insights provider. In Q1 ’19, Netflix and Hulu together accounted for over three-quarters (78%) of all SVOD subscriptions. But two years later, in Q1 ’21, their combined share fell to just over half (51%), with Disney taking 17%, HBO Max 11%, Paramount+ 7%, Starz 6%, Showtime 4% and discovery+, Peacock and Apple TV+ all at 2%.

Antenna didn’t report Amazon Prime Video numbers. Amazon said in its Q1 ’21 earnings report that 175 million Prime members have streamed TV shows and movies in the past year, though it didn’t provide any breakdown of U.S. share vs. rest of world.

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