VideoNuze Posts

Virtual pay-TV (or “vMVPDs”) providers already deliver live, linear and on-demand programming to millions of subscribers, creating a rich new source of targetable premium video ad inventory, often on connected TVs. But virtual pay-TV is itself in a state of flux, with providers revamping packages, evolving their marketing and raising their prices.

At the recent Video Ad Summit we discussed these dynamics on a session I moderated that included Hannah Brown (Chief Strategy Officer, fuboTV), Chris Maccaro (CEO, Beachfront Media), Matt McLeggon (Senior Director, Advanced TV Growth, SpotX) and
Beth Weeks (VP, Director Media, Digitas North America).

Some of the key takeaways included that virtual pay-TV operators are seeking more scale, especially to help educate ad buyers about why the opportunity is compelling (buy side education and overcoming fragmentation was a big theme), how important automation, content discoverability and viewer experiences will be for virtual pay-TV and how linear/sports remain an important part of virtual pay-TV’s appeal.

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Data has become the rocket fuel behind video advertising and an audience-based buying future – helping advertisers boost targeting for higher ROIs, while allowing content providers to propel the value of their inventory and transact more fluidly.

At our recent 9th annual Video Ad Summit, a panel including Natalie Gabathuler-Scully (SVP, Revenue Operations, Vevo), Ben Maughan (VP, Business Development, Product, and Client Services, Advanced Media and Advertising, TiVo), George Musi (EVP of Marketing Sciences, Citi, Publicis OneTeam) and Dan Punt (Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting) as moderator, dug into the above topics and much more.

In particular, the panelists explored what’s involved in investing in a data strategy, the complexity of audience targeting models (and who does this modeling work), the incremental value of data when used appropriately and key challenges including many proprietary anonymous ID spaces that aren’t interoperable.

Data tends to be an overused word in the video ad business, but the panel demystified where data’s value really lies.

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At the recent 9th annual VideoNuze Video Ad Summit, connected TV was a major focus throughout the day. In a presentation, Telaria CEO Mark Zagorski shared research illustrating how connected TV enable customized ad experiences that are more enjoyable, especially for younger viewers, better conversion than social and higher purchase intent than linear TV. With 30% of U.S. households not reachable by linear TV, forecast to jump to 50%, Mark makes a persuasive argument about CTVs’ important role.

A related after lunch session, “Connected TVs Take Center Stage: What Does It All Mean?” delved even deeper. The session included Christina Beaumier (VP, Product, TV Platform, Xandr), Alison Levin (VP, Global Ad Sales and Marketplace, Roku), Harold Morgenstern (SVP, National Advertising Sales, Pluto TV) and Ken Ripley (VP, Sales, Newsy) with Howard Homonoff (Principal, Homonoff Media Group) moderating.

Alison noted that 30% of viewers’ time spent is now spent with CTVs, but only 3% of ad budget are. So there’s a lot of room for budgets to shift. Ken, Harold and Christina explained how today’s media plans must include CTV to be complete, especially given viewership fragmentation. They also discuss the value of brands, discoverability, data, a unified currency, attribution and more.

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I’m pleased to present the 471st edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

On this week’s podcast we first discuss local broadcasting’s video opportunity. Colin provides updates on an interview he did about Google News Initiative’s role. Then he shares a few takeaways from a panel he did, highlighting the new Sinclair OTT service Stirr. More broadly we explore how the combination of connected TV, longer engagement time and better monetization is laying the foundation for ad-supported original programming.

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Advertising in mobile video is an important revenue stream for many content providers, so understanding how to optimize the viewer experience is essential.

At the 9th annual Video Advertising Summit on May 29th, mobile video advertising was the subject of a panel including Henry Embelton (Head of Ad Products and Revenue, Ellation), Dan Hurwitz (Chief Revenue Officer, Penthera), Bobby LaCivita (VP of Research and Measurement, Group Nine Media), and Colin Dixon (Founder and Principal Analyst, nScreenMedia) moderating.
 
Among the topics discussed were mobile video distribution in social vs. owned and operated properties, which video ad units work best in mobile video, how offline ad-supported mobile video experiences are being enabled, how mobile drives video consumption for younger audiences and key challenges in mobile video given the fragmentation across many different apps/services.

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The OTT era is challenging established premium video providers to adapt their businesses to a totally new set of ground rules. At our 9th annual Video Advertising Summit on May 29th, our opening panel shared their insights on the adaptation process and also what advertisers are looking for in where they allocate budgets in the OTT era.

The discussion included Rob Aitken (Managing Director, Deloitte Consulting), Danielle DeLauro (EVP, Video Advertising Bureau), Domenic DiMeglio (SVP, Distribution and Operations, CBS Interactive) and James Shears (VP, Advanced Advertising, Extreme Reach) with moderator Mike Shields (Shields Strategic Consulting).

A few key takeaways: premium video providers may be known for one particular business model today but eventually they're likely to utilize a variety of business models, live retains significant consumption and is a a critical part of the viewing mix even for OTT services, advertisers recognize live and on-demand are synergistic in terms of extending reach and attribution is an essential KPI for direct-to-consumer companies using TV advertising that traditional advertisers are emphasizing as well.

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Hulu is on the forefront of virtually every major streaming video trend, so the company’s success is a model for others to watch closely. At the 9th annual VideoNuze Video Advertising Summit on May 29th, we were privileged to have Hulu’s SVP and Head of Advertising Sales Peter Naylor as our keynote guest, who I interviewed.

Peter said that having a “viewer first” approach has been critical for Hulu. That means being respectful of the viewer experience, providing choice and control and capping ad pods at 90 seconds, among other things. Of Hulu’s 82 million monthly viewers, 58 million of them subscribe to a tier that includes ads.

Peter talks at length about his experience with advertisers and agencies and where they are on the learning curve of moving traditional TV budgets into streaming. He also cites direct-to-consumer, digital-native brands as leaders in being data and attribution focused, aligning them well with Hulu. We cover lots of other topics as well.

For anyone interested in learning how Hulu is driving change across the video landscape and what’s ahead, the interview is must-see.

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I’m pleased to present the 470th edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

This week we start with Colin sharing his views on CuriosityStream’s market opportunity. Colin had several takeaways after listening to a podcast with company founder John Hendricks describing the addressable universe streaming is creating and how CuriosityStream is capitalizing. We also discuss challenges CuriosityStream and other DTC streaming services face.

Speaking of challenges, we then shift to focus on YouTube’s latest policies meant to combat hate and conspiracy speech, plus predatory behavior towards kids on its platform. Colin and I agree YouTube is engaged in an ongoing game of whack-a-mole trying to control what content runs on its platform, while also trying to respect freedom of speech. It’s an extremely hard balance to achieve. Now regulators around the world are stepping up their pressure to address the situation.

Listen in to learn more!

 
Click here to listen to the podcast (25 minutes, 28 seconds)

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The VideoNuze podcast is also available in iTunes...subscribe today!