VideoNuze Posts

I’m pleased to present the 525th edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia. As always we wish our listeners all the best and hope everyone is staying well.

This week Colin and I discuss Comcast’s Q2 ’20 earnings, which underscored how critical broadband is becoming to the company, with video further receding. Comcast has stated its broadband focus for a while now, but the pandemic is accelerating the impact on the company’s financials. In Q2 broadband subscriber gains were at a record high, as cord-cutting took a toll on video subscribers and NBCUniversal. The percentage of subscribers to a single Comcast service (broadband) are up significantly.

Comcast’s broadband focus means that both Peacock and Flex, its streaming media player, are critical pieces for leveraging broadband subscribers into OTT services, advertising and devices. This is prompting Comcast to offer 3rd party video services, like Sling TV, for the first time. Comcast’s transformation is part of larger changes in the industry toward OTT and CTV that every company is now pursuing.

(Separate, Colin also describes an interesting webinar series he’ll be hosting starting August 10th, “The Psychology of the Subscriber” which will probe the consumer’s decision-making process when signing up for SVOD services. Registration is free.)

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NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock signed up 10 million users since launching for Comcast’s subscribers in April and nationally in July, Comcast announced today in its Q2 earnings release. On its earnings call Comcast noted that the 10 million figure represents sign-ups, not monthly active accounts or users, and that it was still too early to report on these latter metrics which are critical for ad-supported businesses. However, Comcast said use and engagement times were running ahead of expectations so far. CEO Brian Roberts said “Peacock exceeded our high expectations.”

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I’m pleased to present the 524th edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia. As always we wish our listeners all the best and hope everyone is staying well.

With the pandemic accelerating a shift from linear TV, sports and pay-TV, AVOD is poised for significant growth in both viewership and ad revenues. Earlier this week, MoffettNathanson forecast AVOD growing from $3 billion in 2019 to $14 billion in 2024, compensating for most of the $14 billion decline in traditional TV ad revenues expected over that same time period.

On this week’s podcast Colin and I dig into all the factors behind AVOD’s rise and these coming changes.

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Video ad platform SpotX has made an undisclosed investment in SpringServe, an independent OTT and connected TV ad server, extending an existing partnership. SpotX is owned by RTL Group; it says it reaches 50 million CTV households per month and it acquired server-side ad insertion provider Yospace last year. SpringServe was founded in 2015 and serves publishers and content owners.

The deal underscores how viewership is moving to OTT and CTV, driving publishers and content owners to seek stronger monetization of every view and manage their inventory in more sophisticated ways across programmatic and direct sold. I reached out to both companies for more details on what the deal will mean for them, the broader market and their respective roadmaps going forward as viewership of OTT and CTV accelerates. Below is what they shared with me:

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I’m pleased to present the 523rd edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia. As always we wish our listeners all the best and hope everyone is staying well.

Peacock launched nationally this week and Colin and I are both impressed. The user experience and value proposition to advertisers are both strong. As more library and original content is added, it’s only going to get better. However, Peacock’s distribution is currently limited without deals with Amazon Fire TV and Roku, which is why Comcast’s own Flex device is critical. Peacock is also entering a highly competitive SVOD/AVOD market; it is poised to play a lot of different roles for NBCU and Comcast.

Listen in to learn more!
 
Click here to listen to the podcast (25 minutes, 59 seconds)

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Peacock launched broadly yesterday, though as a Comcast Xfinity broadband subscriber, I’ve had access to it for several months using my Flex device. I’ve spent a bunch of time with it and have been quite impressed. That the Peacock team put it together during the pandemic is quite a feat.

Some of the highlights to me are the very strong UI, the comfort food of popular programs like ’30 Rock,” “Parks and Rec,” “SNL,” and others, plus plenty of movies, the modest ad load of 5 minutes max per hour and the “Channels” which are about 30 virtual linear networks sorted into a traditional program grid.

As I’ve spent time with Peacock and followed the pre-launch coverage it’s become apparent how many different roles Peacock is poised to play for NBCU and its parent Comcast. Here’s a quick rundown:

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SpotX has released new research highlighting how use of connected TV has become mainstream behavior, with 40% of U.S. adults using CTV, for an estimated reach of 100 million 18+ adults. Among CTV viewers 63% watch daily and 94% watch weekly. CTV users watch an average of 3 hours per day (pre-Covid when SpotX fielded its survey). CTV viewers are quite evenly distributed by age group; 18-24 year-olds represent 21%, 24-34 year-olds (24%), 35-54 year-olds (27%) and 55+ (29%).

These findings and others are included in SpotX’s new paper, “CTV is for Everyone: An In-Depth Look at Connected TV Viewership in the U.S.”

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With the Covid-19 pandemic ongoing, this year the Connected TV Advertising Summit will be a virtual event, on the afternoons of September 21st and 22nd. Registration is complimentary and one lucky attendee will win a drawing for a Roku living room makeover including a Roku TV, wireless speakers, wireless sub-woofer and one year Netflix subscription, all generously provided by Roku.

There will be plenty of opportunities for audience participation and interaction with speakers. My goal for the CTV Ad Summit is to make it a robust learning and networking experience for all participants. Sessions will be a mix of keynotes, research presentations, interviews and panel discussions.  

The pandemic has further accelerated CTVs’ rise, with recent estimates that 80% of U.S. TV households now have at least one CTV, and that there are over 400 million CTVs deployed in the U.S. alone. Distribution on CTVs is critical to all recent SVOD and AVOD service launches and were a key focus of presenters at the recent IAB NewFronts.  As consumption has shifted, CTVs have begun accounting for around 50% of all video ad impressions.

Even as advertisers are moving spending over CTV, many questions still remain, especially around measurement, cross-platform buying, pricing stability, distribution, control/access to user data, business rules and more. CTV has grown quickly but a lot is still being figured out. We’ll dig into all of the critical opportunities and challenges over the 2 afternoons of the CTV Ad Summit.

Many thanks to our CTV Ad Summit's 8 partners who have been amazingly gracious and supportive. Our Presenting partner is Deloitte; Gold partners are Extreme Reach and SpringServe; Silver partners include Beachfront, SpotX, Roku and Xandr and Branding Partner Verizon Media. Please contact me if you’d like to learn more about sponsorship opportunities.

Complimentary sign up now!