VideoNuze Posts

AppNexus has revealed beta test results of its programmatic video ad buying product, saying that clients using the product found 10x to 100x improvements in audience reach, video engagement/click-through increases of 300% or more and reduction in buying costs of 50%-60%. AppNexus plans to release the video ad buying product to all its customers on September 30th.

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I'm pleased to present the 291st edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

Video is emerging as a top priority for Amazon and its varied investments appear to be paying off as it builds an ecosystem to compete with Apple. On this week’s podcast Colin and I dig into the key device and content announcements Amazon has made recently (see also my post from earlier this week) and why they’re important.

Amazon has clearly concluded that video is a successful driver for its Prime service, which is one of the company’s most important consumer-facing priorities. Colin notes that research released from Digitalsmiths earlier this week showed that Amazon Prime video is now used by over 20% of U.S. households, up from 7.5% 2 years ago (by comparison Netflix increased from 28% to 49.4% and Hulu increased from 6.3% to 11.8%).

Colin and I expect a lot more video-related investments by Amazon as it leverages its deep pockets and multiple lines of business to change the rules of the game in OTT.

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Looking to provide TV networks with a new advertising opportunity when viewers watch programs on their mobile and connected TVs, ad technology provider Watchwith has introduced new in-program ads tied to the context of the shows.

Watchwith’s machine-vision technologies identify a program’s details on a frame-by-frame basis creating metadata so that highly relevant, interactive ads can be overlaid at particular moments. The in-program ads, such as promos, tune-ins, e-commerce and polls, can be IAB standard or Watchwith native formats. The in-program inventory can be sold direct by the TV network or automated via programmatic exchanges.

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New research from Digitalsmiths shows relatively muted interest in switching/dropping pay-TV providers, strong appeal of customized, a la carte pay-TV channel lineups, high awareness and usage of OTT services, and low adoption of TV Everywhere, among other things.

Just 7.7% of respondents said they’d switched pay-TV providers in the last 3 months (up from 6% in Q2 ’14). Less than 15% of respondents said they might either cut their service, switch to pay-TV providers or move to an online app or rental service in the next 6 months, an improvement vs. Q2 ’14.

While 76.6% of pay-TV subscribers are satisfied or very satisfied, 23.4% are unsatisfied, an increase of 6.1 percentage points since Q2 ’13. For those unsatisfied, the top 3 reasons were “increasing fees for cable/satellite service,” “increasing fees for Internet service” and “poor customer service.” Digitalsmiths found the top 3 predictors of satisfaction were monthly bill, ease of finding linear content and ease of finding VOD content.

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HBO thoroughly dominated at the Emmys last night, riding the big success of “Game of Thrones.” However, Amazon took home 5 Emmys (all for “Transparent”), just behind ABC (6), but ahead of CBS (4) and Netflix (4). The Emmys are a high-profile gauge of Amazon’s early success in video, but to get a fuller picture of the force that the company is poised to become, it’s important to look at the range of video initiatives Amazon is pursuing.

The past month has been a whirlwind of news in video devices, content and how Amazon is differentiating through their integration. Last Thursday brought a flurry of announcements related to Amazon’s Fire tablets and Fire TV connected TV devices. The new Fire HD tablet was “designed from the ground up for entertainment,” with an 8” or 10.1” high-resolution display. Among the innovations Amazon touted was a brand new feature called “On Deck,” which will auto-download popular content from Prime Instant Videos to the Fire HD in a “shadow mode.”

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I'm pleased to present the 290th edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

On this week’s podcast we do an in-depth Q&A with our guest Lee Berke, who runs LHB Sports, Entertainment and Media, Inc. Lee has helped dozens of teams create and implement sports TV networks. He has a wealth of insights into the role of sports in pay-TV and how online and mobile video are causing leagues and teams to adjust their traditional distribution strategies.

Sports are a key driver of increased pay-TV rates and as VideoNuze readers know, I’ve been writing for years (examples here, here, here) about the billions of dollars non-fans pay each year in the form of a “sports tax” - subsidizing expensive sports networks they never watch. With the advent of robust, inexpensive OTT entertainment programming options, the pay-TV multichannel bundle has come under more pressure than ever, with subscriber losses peaking in Q2 ’15.

In our Q&A with Lee we explore these issues and how he sees OTT impacting teams, leagues and sports TV networks. Lee believes TV will remain the most significant revenue source in sports for the foreseeable future, but also sees the leagues more aggressively experimenting online to serve a new generation of fans. Lee also describes how he’s advising teams, particularly on how to maintain flexibility and capitalize on new technologies.      

Listen in to learn more!

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!