VideoNuze Posts

Video ad tech provider Extreme Reach has released its inaugural Benchmark Report for video advertising for Q2 ’17, finding, among other things, that video ad completion rates, viewability and time spent have all increased over the past year. For everyone in the industry, these numbers are encouraging signs that video ads are maturing and resonating with audiences, which will in turn help drive more spending.

Key highlights of the new report include:

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With AT&T reporting its Q2 ’17 results yesterday, the pivotal role that the company’s DirecTV Now skinny bundle is playing in sustaining its wireless business is becoming increasingly clear. It has never been any great secret that DirecTV Now, which now has approximately 500K subscribers, was meant to be bundled with AT&T’s wireless service, but the speed with which it is already contributing to the wireless business is quite noteworthy.

In supporting slides and on the earnings call, AT&T CFO John Stephens repeatedly called out the role DTV generally and DTV Now specifically are playing, particularly in reducing post-paid wireless churn (the type of wireless service most readers of this post have). At .79%, Q2 marked the lowest-ever quarter of post-paid churn.  More broadly, post-paid churn is down 25 basis points since the close of DirecTV deal.

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Niche programming provider ZoneTV has partnered with Microsoft and Ooyala to introduce a set of customizable AI-driven linear TV channels that will be made available in partnership with pay-TV operators using IP-enabled set-top boxes.

ZoneTV will leverage 6,000 hours of video that it has licensed across a number of different content categories to create specialized linear channels. Then, as the viewer consumes the content that has been characterized using Video Indexer algorithms from Microsoft Cognitive Services, a more and more personalized channel is presented for subsequent viewing.

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U.S. adoption of Netflix, Amazon Prime and/or Hulu is up to 64% of homes, an increase from 47% in 2014, according to Leichtman Research Group. Of those who have one of these SVOD services, 51% now have more than one of them, up from 35% in 2014.

On our podcast last week, Colin and I talked about how the number of people taking multiple SVOD services has become a central trend in the industry and is helping spur growth for all providers. Both Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Netflix’s Reed Hastings have insisted over the years that people will take multiple services, and that appears to now becoming reality.

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I’m pleased to present the 380th edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

Earlier this week Netflix reported its Q2 ’17 results, with domestic and international subscriber additions exceeding even the most optimistic Wall St. forecasts. But as Colin and I discuss, it is extremely murky what actually drove the strong performance. In fact, Netflix’s Q2 ’17 varied dramatically from prior years, creating a roller-coaster feel that makes it almost impossible to predict where Netflix is heading next.

Highlighting the confusion is that Netflix management again emphasized the role of its original content in driving the Q2 numbers. Yet independent research just a couple months ago indicated that in Q1 ’17, 85% of Netflix’s U.S. streams were actually licensed content, despite the many billions the company has invested in originals. To top it off, Colin reports that he repeatedly hears industry friends say “there’s nothing on Netflix to watch.”

There’s no question Q2 reinvigorated the Netflix growth story. But what’s behind that story feels harder to understand than ever.

Listen in to learn more!
 
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Videology has released its latest Knowledge Lab research report which is focused on first-party data and how it is being used to help target video ads.  Among the highlights of the report are that 25% of video campaign impressions Videology now serves use first-party targeting. Overall, the percentage of video campaigns using first-party data has increased from 5% in 2015 to 11% in the first half of 2017.

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Tout, which syndicates premium video to over 4,000 sites, has inked a partnership with Grapeshot, a real-time marketing intelligence and optimization platform. Tout’s CEO Michael Downing told me in a briefing that the goal is to provide ad buyers increased transparency about the pages in which Tout content partners’ video is placed and also enable buyers to target more specific audience segments and context.

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Video ad tech provider Cadent announced this morning enhancements to its core addressable linear TV solution to enable ad delivery across OTT, network DVR and VOD as well. The entire system connects to multiple third-party ad servers through open standards so that pay-TV operators can fulfill on advertisers’ desires to plan, deliver and measure video campaigns holistically across screens.

In a briefing, Cadent’s CTO and COO, Stephanie Mitchko-Beale told me that a big differentiator for Cadent’s solution is that all ad decisioning is done in the cloud, which reduces the load that set-top boxes must carry and allows operators to dynamically insert ads in appropriate places. Operators can aggregate audiences across the different ways viewers consumer content, in turn giving advertisers a total view of usage.

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