VideoNuze Posts

Another day, another skinny bundle launch. Yesterday, YouTube took the wraps off its long-rumored skinny bundle, dubbed YouTube TV, which will debut in unspecified select markets in the coming months. YouTube TV has all the usual skinny bundle characteristics - low price ($35/month), many broadcast and cable TV networks included, but many missing as well (e.g. Viacom, Discovery, AMC, Turner, Scripps, A+E, etc.), and some updated web-like features (unlimited cloud DVR, recommendations powered by Google, UI that integrates YouTube content, etc.).

Fundamentally, YouTube TV’s value proposition to its target market of millennial viewers is the same as other skinny bundles: for a lower monthly price than a typical pay-TV multichannel bundle, you’ll still get access to a lot of great TV, available on all devices.

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Please save two dates on your 2017 calendars for VideoNuze’s big annual conferences. On Wednesday, June 14th, we’ll be hosting our 7th annual VideoNuze Online Video Advertising Summit at the Westin Times Square in NYC. And Wednesday, November 29th will be our 3rd annual SHIFT // Programmatic Video & TV Advertising Summit, also at the Westin.

Last year, each of these conferences drew 425+ attendees, 50+ speakers and 16-18 sponsors. Over the years they have both become must-attend days with well-curated programs, high-impact executive speakers and extensive networking opportunities.

I’m pleased to share that FreeWheel will be the Title partner for both conferences in 2017. Other industry leaders already on board include Premier partners VertaMedia and Videology, Headline partners Beachfront Media, Cedato, SintecMedia, Smart AdServer and Vemba and Branding partner SpotX. If you’re interesting in partnering, please drop me a note.

The web sites for both conferences will be live soon and lots more information will be coming, so stay tuned.

In addition to our VideoNuze conferences, I’m excited to be producing the 3rd annual NABShow Online Video Conference, in Las Vegas on April 24-25. We have an amazing program planned, including two keynote interviews I’ll be doing, on day 1 with Jim Lanzone, Chief Digital Officer of CBS and Chief Executive Officer of CBS Interactive, and on day 2 with Michael Paull, who was just named CEO of BAMTech and was previously VP, Digital Video at Amazon where he led the Amazon Channels business.

You can save $100 on NABShow Conference FlexPass tickets using the code EP06.

YouTube’s app will be added to Comcast’s X1 set-top box later this year, the companies announced this morning. The partnership is a win for both companies and for X1 users. YouTube gains seamless access to millions of X1 users who no longer have to switch inputs to a connected TV device to tap into YouTube’s massive video library on their TVs. For Comcast, integrated YouTube further expands X1’s value proposition as an all-in-one TV/video device.

Of note, the companies said that X1 users will be able to search the YouTube catalog with the X1 voice remote control. Searches for a favorite actor’s clips, a specific music video, recipes, workout routines and more will all be available when users add the word “YouTube” to their voice search request. The YouTube app will bring up relevant results in the same way as, for example, doing the same search on Siri with an iPhone.

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I’m pleased to present the 359th edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

This week Colin and I interview Arielle Sumits, who is the senior analyst and founder of  Cisco’s Visual Networking Index (“VNI”), which has become the gold standard for forecasting data traffic on fixed and wireless networks globally. The interview is focused on mobile video, which the latest VNI forecasts will account for 78% of mobile traffic in 2021.

Arielle shares many insights about what’s driving mobile video as well as the nuances of the market. We dive into the role of smartphones, the trend toward unlimited data plans by mobile carriers, the impact of “reverse migration” from WiFi networks, how video applications like social, live-streaming and long-form viewing will grow, which companies are driving mobile video content usage, how zero-rating will impact mobile viewing, 5G’s rollout schedule and lots more.

Overall, Arielle provides terrific context on mobile video’s future and her comments reinforce my belief that mobile video is at a tipping point.

Listen in to learn more!
 
Click here to listen to the podcast (32 minutes, 26 seconds)

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Online video, music and sports experiences are poised to become even richer and more personalized as metadata provider Gracenote announced today a suite of new data products for each market. The data are meant to support entertainment providers’ and device makers’ voice and text search, user experiences and personalized recommendations.

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VidMob, whose platform provides clients access to thousands of video post-production professionals, is expanding its scope, announcing this morning that it is launching a self-service ad platform for Snapchat. This means that small-to-medium sized businesses will be able to buy, create and manage video ad campaigns through one interface. To date only larger brands and agencies have been able to buy Snap Ads.

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Mobile video is white hot, and here’s yet another data point illustrating it: 67% of U.S. consumers say they watch mobile video daily, which is almost equal to the 70% of U.S. consumers who say they watch video on their desktop or laptops daily. And 62% of consumers say they plan to watch more online videos in the next 6 months, on whichever device is handiest.

The data comes from AOL’s new 2017 State of the Video Industry Global Research Study, which covered 7 different markets.

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I’m pleased to present the 358th edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

Apple and Facebook have contrasting ambitions in video, with the former pursuing a very modest approach while the latter appears to be embarking on an all-out company pivot to being video-first.

Earlier this week I wrote about Apple’s new TV series,  “Planet of the Apps” and “Carpool Karaoke” spinoff. They each have their own appeal, but are far from the expensive undertakings we’ve seen from Netflix and Amazon, for example. That means that far from re-inventing TV as Apple was one predicted to do, it will in fact continue to play a very small role, which Colin and I see as a real missed opportunity.

Meanwhile, Facebook has confirmed it will launch connected TV apps as the company aims to have users expand how they engage with the social media giant. Colin and discuss some of the pros and cons of the CTV approach and also Facebook’s motivation, which is to attract TV ad dollars.

Listen in to learn more!
 
Click here to listen to the podcast (24 minutes, 30 seconds)

Click here for previous podcasts

Click here to add the podcast feed to your RSS reader.

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