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Amazon Planning to Give Away Its Instant Videos With the New Kindle Tablet? Uh Oh.
Catching up on my reading last night, I noticed toward the end of the first hands-on review I've seen about Amazon's forthcoming Kindle tablet
something that could be very disruptive. According to the writer (so this is opinion, not fact), to support the Kindle tablet, Amazon plans to give buyers a free subscription to Amazon Prime.
Of course, since last February Amazon Prime subscribers also gain access to Amazon's growing streaming Instant Videos catalog. So this would mean that Kindle tablet buyers would be getting lots of great video (and more to come) for no charge and presumably no ads either. If Amazon were to begin giving away high-value content as a marketing tactic supporting its devices, it could fundamentally change the game for everyone.
Categories: Aggregators, Devices
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Startup Veedios Bridges Video to Connected Devices
Connected devices that enable viewing of online-delivered video on TVs are proliferating. As this new addressable universe of viewers expands, content
providers naturally want to deliver to it. This is especially true for content providers who haven't gained valuable distribution agreements with pay-TV providers, and therefore have been shut out of the living room to date.
The problem is that each connected device manufacturer has its own publishing environment and approval process. That's where startup Veedios comes in. Veedios has developed a tool that allows it to publish native apps to 5 different platforms today (boxee, Roku, Popbox, Plex and Yahoo Connected TV, which includes Samsung, Sony, Vizio, Toshiba and LG), with more coming soon including iOS and Android.
Categories: Devices, Indie Video, Technology
Topics: Veedios
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Synacor and Grab Networks Partner to Increase TV Everywhere Content
Synacor, which provides technology that powers over 40 pay-TV operators' online portals and TV Everywhere initiatives, has partnered with Grab Networks, a syndicator of online video with over 200 different video publishers. With the deal, Synacor's customers will be able to augment their content lineups from Grab's verticals such as Food and Drink, Home and Family, Travel, Health and Relationships. In addition to being available online, Grab's content is also compatible with mobile devices running iOS and Android.
Categories: Cable TV Operators, Partnerships, Technology
Topics: Grab Networks, Synacor
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Inside Starz's Netflix Quandary
Here's a thought experiment: Imagine you're running a major cable TV network and your fastest-growing distributor (and largest, by number of subscribers) offers to license your content for approximately $300 million each year, a sum that is about 10 times the amount it has been paying under the current deal struck less than 3 years ago. The new deal would have a very material impact on your P&L as your company's operating income last year was about $400 million. Seems like a pretty tough offer to turn down, right?
However, there are certain catches. First, this distributor is considered a disruptive competitor by all of your other long-time distributors (who collectively paid you about $1.3 billion last year). If you proceed with this new deal, you're concerned that these other distributors may retaliate by paying you less when they renew their deals in the future. Second, this distributor wants a degree of exclusivity that limits your ability to make incremental deals with companies it deems as competitive. Third, key suppliers of your content have escalation clauses that entitle them to incremental payments if you proceed with this new deal, which would in turn erode your margins. And last, but not least, the manner in which this distributor wants to compensate you would alter the way you are positioned in the market - from a "premium" to a "basic" channel - consequently risking a perception that your content will be irreparably devalued by consumers and other distributors.
Got all that? If so, then you grasp the quandary that Starz's executive team found itself in as it evaluated a huge license renewal offer from Netflix. Last Thursday Starz announced its decision, choosing to rebuff Netflix's rich offer, at least for now. But as the math below shows, combined with what I've learned from individuals familiar with Starz's economics, Netflix's putative $300 million/year offer was far more than Starz could generate otherwise, making its decision to walk away all the more difficult.
Categories: Aggregators, Cable Networks
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Happy Labor Day and End of Summer
Happy Labor Day to VideoNuze readers here in the U.S. and to all, a happy end of summer. Many of us are getting in some time off before back-to-school and back-to-work realities kick in next week, and so no there's no new VideoNuze content today. However, I'll be back on Tuesday, with regular VideoNuze coverage.
Kicking off next week, I'll provide analysis of the Starz-Netflix non-renewal, and what the implications are for each party. As VideoNuze readers know, I've been a keen Netflix observer and this latest turn of events is part of the larger story of Netflix reckoning with its own massive success, as TDG's Colin Dixon and I forecast would happen this year. The Starz situation is illustrative of Hollywood's wariness in dealing with a far bigger and more influential Netflix.
See you on Tuesday, and enjoy your holiday weekends!Categories: Miscellaneous
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Hulu Japan Subscription Service Goes Live
Hulu Japan has gone live, marking Hulu's first international expansion. Hulu Japan runs 1,480 yen per month, or about $19, which is more than double the $8 per month that Hulu Plus in the U.S. runs. However, Hulu Japan is ad-free, whereas Hulu Plus includes the same ad load as the free Hulu.com site. The initial content line-up includes films and TV shows from CBS, NBCUniversal International Television Distribution, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, The Walt Disney Company (Japan) which includes content from Disney/ABC Television Group and The Walt Disney Studios, and Warner Bros. Hulu indicated that additional content is forthcoming, including Japanese-produced plus other Asian content.
Categories: Aggregators, International
Topics: Hulu Japan
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Who Are Video Ad Networks Really Working For?
Following is a guest post from Erik Swain, Vice President of Operations of SpotXchange, a leading online video ad network and marketplace.
Who Are Video Ad Networks Really Working For?
by Erik Swain
According to a recent eMarketer report online video ad spending will grow 52% this year. This $2.2 billion industry has caused a surge of ad networks to sprout up to meet customer demand. But beware. In order to leverage this gold rush of video ad spending, ad networks are striking deals with publishers that may not be in the advertiser’s best interest. And that’s bad for everyone.
How Online Video Advertising Works Today
Buying media for online video ads is similar to display media. Advertisers can purchase impressions from a video ad network to reach their ideal audiences across a variety of publishers. Some of these networks are blind, meaning they provide assurances that the ads are reaching the right audiences but no insight into on which sites the ads appear. Other networks are transparent, meaning they give the advertiser full visibility into the publishers where ads run. And there’s the most common middle ground, often referred to as opaque, where ad networks provide a list of the publishers it works with and sites where ads are likely to run.
Categories: Advertising
Topics: SpotXchange
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NDS Unveils VideoGuard Connect DRM; Sky Go and DirecTV As Initial Customers
NDS has unveiled VideoGuard Connect, a DRM solution for pay-TV operators looking to securely distribute linear and on-demand content to connected
devices. In addition, NDS is announcing that U.S. satellite operator DirecTV has adopted VideoGuard Connect to deliver video online and to iOS and Android devices, while the U.K.'s BSkyB has adopted it to deliver video for its Sky Go service to iOS devices. NDS's Nigel Smith, VP/Chief Marketing Officer and Leonid Sandler, CTO of its DRM group briefed me on the new DRM solution.
Categories: Cable TV Operators, Devices, DRM, Satellite
Topics: NDS
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