VideoNuze Posts

Multi-screen video app platform provider You.i TV announced support for Roku’s SceneGraph 7.6 XML framework for building channels on its connected TV devices. FilmStruck, Turner Classic Movies’ SVOD service, which already used You.i TV, is the first content provider to take advantage of the new capability to power its Roku channel.

Last fall, You.i TV raised a $12 million Series B round led by Time Warner Investments, a sister entity to Turner.

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TV data provider Alphonso has raised $5.6 million, led by Manifest Investment Partners and including individual investors such as former TV executive Jeff Sagansky. Alphonso plans to use the funds to increase domestic and global distribution and ramp up hiring. Alphonso said it’s been profitable since 2014 and has been customer-funded.

Alphonso is among the companies that is using data to improve the impact and efficiency of TV advertising. The company has built its Alphonso TV Data Cloud by tracking all of the programming and ads that appear on 200+ broadcast and cable TV networks in the U.S. plus top OTT services. In addition, Alphonso has its automated content recognition (ACR) embedded in 40 million+ set-top boxes, smart TVs and smartphones that monitor and record what viewers are watching in real time.

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I’m pleased to present the 373rd edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

First up this week, Colin shares his thoughts on the BBC’s new partnership with Twitter to stream coverage of the upcoming U.K. election. We agree this seems strategic for both companies and picks up on Twitter’s work in the U.S. election. As Colin points it, Twitter gives BBC access to critical younger audiences. For Twitter, the BBC deal also follows its recently announced partnership with Bloomberg.

Then we turn our attention back to Facebook video, which we discussed on last week’s podcast. News that A&E, MTV and WGN are all cutting back on scripted originals in the face of SVOD companies’ mounting investments got us wondering exactly what Facebook will get for its $250K per episode (which Mike Shields at BI also raised). Given the middling success AOL, YouTube and others have had with originals, the question of how Facebook will differentiate is intriguing.

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I’m excited to share that FreeWheel will release its Q1 ’17 Video Monetization Report (VMR) at the 7th annual VideoNuze Online Video Advertising Summit on Wednesday, June 14th in NYC.

FreeWheel’s GM, Publisher Platform, James Rooke will kick off the morning by presenting key data from the new VMR. He will then moderate a session “Exploring Premium Video’s Winning Formula,” including Maureen Bosetti (Chief Partnerships Officer, Initiative), Pooja Midha (SVP, Digital Ad Sales & Operations, Disney ABC Television Group) and Scott Rosenberg (SVP/GM, Advertising Roku).

FreeWheel’s VMR has become the gold standard for understanding how ad-supported premium video is consumed across connected and mobile devices. The VMR includes critical data on ad growth by duration, by type of content provider and by ad breaks. The VMR also provides insights into the adoption of programmatic video buying as well as international and TV Everywhere adoption.

All Ad Summit attendees will receive a hard copy of the Q1 ’17 VMR as well. FreeWheel is the Title partner for this year’s Ad Summit.

The Ad Summit program now includes over 40 industry executives are confirmed to speak on 13 different sessions. Highlights of the program include keynote discussions with Troy Young, Global President of Hearst Digital Media and Brian Lesser, CEO of GroupM North America plus a Spotlight Fireside Chat with Jonathan Carson, President of Mic, fast-growing millennial-focused publisher.

Other industry executives from Bloomberg Media, Bonnier, Dentsu Aegis Network U.S., Disney ABC Television, Edelman, ESPN, Hill Holliday, Hulu, IAB, Initiative, MDC Media Partners, NBCU, Publicis Media, Roku, Trusted Media Brands, Turner Broadcasting, The Washington Post, Pfizer, Reuters, USA Today Network, VEVO, Viacom and others.

Don’t miss out - learn more and register now!

Broadband connections keep getting better, enabling video and other high-bandwidth applications, according to Akamai’s Q1 ’17 State of the Internet Report. Global average connection speed was up 15% vs. a year ago, to 7.2 mbps, with 96 of the 149 countries/regions that Akamai tracks seeing an increase.

Perennial leader South Korea had the fastest connection speed, at 28.6 mbps, followed by Norway (23.5 mbps), Sweden (22.5 mbps) and Hong Kong (21.9 mbps). All of the top 10 countries has an increase vs. last year’s Q1 except South Korea, with dropped modestly. The U.S. broke into the top 10 in the number 10 position at 18.7 mbps, up 22% vs. a year ago, the biggest change among the group. A total of 25 countries/regions had an average speed of at least 15 mbps, up from 23 in Q4 ’16.

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Startup Vinyl Trading Desk, founded by longtime Altitude Digital COO Devin Yeager, has raised an initial round of $750K from FastPay. Devin told me in a briefing that Vinyl’s platform unifies and simplifies ad buying across video, search and social for clients starting with budgets as little as $1,500. The new funds will be used mainly for product development and building sales and marketing staff.

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I’m pleased to present the 372nd edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

This week we discuss 4 stories that caught our attention in recent days. First, Viacom’s plan to anchor an entertainment-only skinny bundle without sports or news networks. Colin and I are intrigued, but for a variety of reasons are skeptical Viacom is the right company to lead this.

Next we turn to Facebook, which has made no secret of its interest in pursuing longer-form video. This week brought news of its initial partnerships and potential business models.

We then discuss Amazon Channels expansion into the UK and Germany this week, building on the US model for Prime users to easily subscribe to various SVOD services. Both of us have been very bullish on Channels for a while and see lots of potential for it in other geographies.

Finally we dig into Snapchat Shows, the fast-growing social network’s plan to enlist multiple media companies to make vertical videos. Variety did a really good roundup of all the activity earlier this week, which suggests substantial progress.

Listen in to learn more!
 
Click here to listen to the podcast (21 minutes, 48 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!