VideoNuze Posts

As a Patriots fan, it was a bummer watching them go down in last night’s Super Bowl, but one major positive surprise was that streaming the game was a superb experience. I was on the road, and watched the entire game (except for the last minute) using the NBC Sports app on my iPad, on the public WiFi network in Palm Beach International airport in Florida where I arrived early for my flight which ended up delayed.

I could have watched on any number of TVs in restaurants or camped out on the floor like the fans below watching on TVs mounted in the terminal. But the circumstances created a good opportunity to see what it would really be like to be dependent on streaming.

continue reading

I’m pleased to present the 405th edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

This week we dig into Fox’s newly announced deal to broadcast NFL Thursday Night Football games for the next 5 years. The price was reportedly $3 billion, which translates to an average of $60 million per game, a 30% increase vs. what CBS and NBC paid last season.

Sports have long been thought of as TV’s firewall, but given the NFL’s own ratings declines, combined with accelerating changes in viewers’ behaviors, cord-cutting and adoption of ad-free SVOD, this deal carries risks for Fox. Can Fox turn a profit on the games as pay-TV operators push back on rate increases and advertisers balk at smaller audiences? Will we see a direct-to-consumer streaming service emerge? Time will tell.

Listen in to learn more!

 
Click here to listen to the podcast (20 minutes, 15 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!

Also note, Colin has a new white paper out on content portability in the EU. Download it here.

Facebook released its Q4 ’17 earnings yesterday and on the subsequent earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg disclosed that its decision to deemphasize video shown in the News Feed has already led to a 5% drop in users’ time spent on Facebook in Q4. The reduction translates to approximately 50 million hours per day. The viewership reduction was previously indicated by research from Wochit a couple of weeks ago.

It’s certainly not every day when a service makes an intentional change that leads to reduced usage, but Zuckerberg explained that the drop is worth it to serve Facebook’s higher mission of prioritizing meaningful social interactions over passive consumption of content. As News Feed VP Adam Mosseri said in a recent Wired interview, Facebook has found that video is more passive in nature so it tends not to drive conversations and connections which are prized.

continue reading

Last week, ad tech provider AppNexus shared several examples of customers which are having success with Prebid Video, the company’s video header bidding solution. I caught up with Eric Hoffert, AppNexus's SVP, Video Technology, to learn more about Prebid Video and also what’s ahead for the year in video advertising. (If you want a good primer on header bidding, a few months ago AppNexus released a helpful white paper.)

VideoNuze: AppNexus announced customer momentum with its Prebid Video solution for header bidding. What news did you share?

Eric Hoffert: AppNexus has shared metrics of client success with Prebid Video, built on Prebid.js, the industry’s most widely adopted open source header bidding technology. Premium publishers, including Ranker, FANDOM, and Diply reported increased share of revenue through video header bidding, including eCPMs up to 100% higher than tag-based integrations; ease of integration and extensibility with different video players; advantages of customization with different video ad servers; and optimized national and international video yield. These publishers are all Top 100 web sites in the US (based on Alexa and Quantcast data).

continue reading

Fox will have broadcast rights to NFL Thursday Night Football for the next 5 years in a deal that is reportedly worth over $3 billion. That would work out to an average of $60 million per game, up from the $45 million NBC and CBS paid per game over the past 2 years and up from the $37.5 million CBS alone paid in 2014 and 2015. The broadcasts will be presented by Bud Light.

The deal gives fresh credence to the idea that “live sports are TV’s firewall” against changing viewer behaviors and the rise of SVOD. The “firewall” concept has been around for years now and has driven the exorbitant rise in sports rights and the multi-billion dollar “sports tax” that pay-TV subscribers who are not sports fans pay each year.

continue reading

I’m pleased to be hosting the NABShow’s Online Video Program once again this year, on Tuesday, April 10th in Las Vegas. This is the 4th year I’ve put this program together and as always the goal is to make OVP a high impact day of learning for attendees about all the critical industry issues.

We have a great group of sessions coming together including a keynote (TBD), panel discussions and new research to be presented by Parks Associates’ Brett Sappington. I’ll have a lot more details in the coming weeks.

If you’re already planning to attend NABShow, please plan to stop by North Hall (room TBD) for OVP. If you’re on the fence about attending NABShow, you can save $100 on registration now by using this link and code EP02. Don’t miss out, register now!

I’m pleased to present the 404th edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

This week we’re joined by Henry Embleton, who is the Head of Ad Products and Revenue at Ellation, which owns the Crunchyroll (focused on anime) and VRV (focused on aggregation and pronounced “verve”) streaming services. Ellation itself is wholly owned by Otter Media, the JV of AT&T and The Chernin Group, as of earlier this week. Together the services have over 2 million registered users.

Henry walks us through how he is optimizing the video ad experience on the services by extensively testing different models. As with all ad-supported services, Henry is looking to balance ad loads with viewing time and satisfaction. He relies on 2 key metrics, Minutes per User and Revenue per Hour to guide the testing.

Henry explains what he’s learned from his testing so far and what he’s still exploring. He also talks about which devices are working best and how all of his work supports the SVOD part of the business. Henry offers a ton of fascinating insights about how online video ad models are working and how to optimize them.

Listen in to learn more!
 
Click here to listen to the podcast (24 minutes, 15 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!