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Morgan Spurlock's New Series Premieres on Hulu, With Heavy Monetization
This week Morgan Spurlock's new six-part documentary series "A Day In The Life" premiered on Hulu, which is its exclusive distributor. The premise is that
each episode follows one well-known personality for a full day, giving the viewer an intimate look into their life. The first episode focused on Virgin Group's Richard Branson. Future episodes are set for release on Wednesdays.
I thought the episode was well done and fortunately it doesn't slip into a "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" mode, instead mostly focusing on Branson's promotional tactics in support of Virgin America's new Chicago routes (note "Entourage" fans will enjoy a cameo from actor Adrian Grenier). Perhaps the most interesting thing about "A Day In The Life" wasn't the show itself but how heavily Hulu is monetizing it with ads, illustrating the point I was making just yesterday about online video's potential for heavier ad loads.
Categories: Advertising, Aggregators
Topics: Hulu, Morgan Spurlock
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Video Ads Gain Acceptance; Gap With TV Ad Loads Means Big Opportunity Remains
Yesterday video ad manager FreeWheel released its Q2 '11 Video Monetization Report, chock full of interesting data points gathered across 11.3 billon video views and 6 billion video ad views in the quarter. Among the key findings: long-form content (defined as 20 minutes+) carried an average of nearly 3 ads per view, with an 81% ad completion rate.
I agree with FreeWheel's observation that the implementation of multiple ads in long-form content is akin to the TV model, and the strong ad completion rates (especially for mid-rolls which were the highest at 94-96%) indicate that consumers are becoming more accepting of the fact that premium online video content will be accompanied by ads, just as it is on TV. The data suggested two additional things to me: first, while long-form monetization is improving, a huge opportunity exists in the ad load gap between online delivery and TV and second, online video completion rates could become the basis to offset DVR-driven ad-skipping.
Categories: Advertising
Topics: FreeWheel
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Vid.ly Pro is Unveiled, Fits Between YouTube/Vimeo and OVPs
Encoding.com has released Vid.ly Pro today, which as company president Jeff Malkin explained to me, is targeted to the tens of thousands of video producers who need a solution that's more robust than YouTube or Vimeo but doesn't have all the bells and whistles (and cost) of a full-blown online video platforms.
As I explained in my original coverage of Vid.ly's beta launch in January, Vid.ly is a clever service that allows video producers to upload or point to
their source video file and then have Vid.ly return a single URL and embed code with 20+ output formats that will work across all devices and browsers. Vid.ly's goal is enticingly simple: to eliminate the operational complexity and cost of increasingly heterogeneous playback environments for video producers while letting users just click play and begin viewing.
Categories: Devices, Technology
Topics: Encoding.com, Vid.ly
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Here's the Real Story Behind Pay-TV's Record Q2 '11 Subscriber Losses and the Role of Cord-Cutting
Today I'm pleased to present a special 2-part VideoNuze Report podcast with guest Bruce Leichtman, who is president and principal analyst of Leichtman Research Group. Bruce has been doing primary consumer research on the pay-TV industry for 15 years and is one of the foremost industry authorities.
In part 1 of the podcast, Bruce gives a detailed analysis of the industry's record Q2 '11 loss of over 300K subscribers among its 14 largest providers. Bruce explains the industry's historical context, drills down on which companies had the biggest year-over-year change and what accounted for this. Importantly, Bruce focuses on larger macro and micro-economic factors that are influencing the industry's results in a bigger way than new technologies and innovation which often take center stage.
Then in part 2 we turn our attention to the role of cord-cutting on the industry and the influence of Netflix specifically. First, Bruce clarifies the difference between non-video subscribers and "cord-cutters," a crucial distinction which he believes has recently been overlooked by many. Bruce shares his research on how many actual cord-cutters there are, which types of pay-TV subscribers are most vulnerable to cord-cutting and what role Netflix is playing. We wrap up by discussing what's ahead and how concerned industry CEOs should be about the threat of cord-cutting.
Categories: Cable TV Operators, Podcasts, Satellite, Telcos
Topics: Leichtman Research Group
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Fox's New 8-Day Window Obsoletes Hulu's Simple User Experience
If one of the things you liked most about Hulu has been its simple, straightforward user experience - where TV programs could be quickly found and viewed - then Fox's new 8-day authenticated pay-TV window is going to feel like a big hassle. And if ABC and NBC, Hulu's other broadcast content partners and owners, adopt a similar approach to Fox, then it's really going to feel like going back to the dark ages of user experience.
Fox's authentication window means that during the first 8 days after an episode's air date only current subscribers of certain pay-TV services (DISH Network for now) or Hulu Plus can watch that episode. That in turn means that when searching for a new episode on Hulu, the resulting experience will be quite different than it has been.
Categories: Aggregators, Broadcasters, Cable TV Operators, Satellite, Telcos
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Thought Equity Motion Raises $25 Million For Cloud-Based Video Asset Management
Thought Equity Motion has raised $25 million from Shamrock Capital Advisors to further develop its cloud-based video asset management platform and
expand globally. As Kevin Schaff, CEO and founder of Thought Equity Motion explained to me last week, the company is capitalizing on the media industry's shift from analog to digital work flows which is improving operational reliability, saving capex and opening new revenue opportunities.
Thought Equity Motion has optimized its cloud service for media companies that want to move from storing high-value libraries on tape or on local hard drives to doing so in the cloud. First and foremost, Kevin said the company's focus is on secure, redundant master file storage. Thought Equity Motion's cloud is particularly suited to large video file sizes with high throughput ingest and encoding. The company is now ingesting 1 petabyte of video per month, a dramatic increase from just 6 months ago. Files are kept at a secure, enterprise-class physical storage facility with on-demand encoding and access.
Categories: Deals & Financings, Technology
Topics: ACC, NCAA, Shamrock Capital Advisors, Thought Equity Motion
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Scarcity Breeds Aggregation Opportunities
Following is a guest post from Sam Vasisht, president of 21TechMedia which specializes in advisory services, business and marketing consulting for digital media companies. Sam was previously VP of Marketing at On2 Technologies, now part of Google's WebM initiative. He blogs at www.techmediatalk.com and can be followed on Twitter @21TechMedia.
Scarcity Breeds Aggregation Opportunities
by Sam Vasisht
Based on news from the world of online video over the past few weeks, the dust is starting to settle on a number of topics that had been contentious, if not controversial for some time. Among them is the affirmation of online services as a bona fide monetization model for major media. This was stated by Viacom on its earnings call two weeks ago. Similar signals from other corners of the industry range across Netflix's price increases in its continuing quest for premium content licensing; Amazon stepping up its game in video streaming with a licensing deal with NBC and a few weeks earlier with CBS; and Hulu attaching attractive 5 year content licenses with its rumored sale offer while signing up additional content deals as well.
The race for content aggregation is on.
Categories: Aggregators, Devices
Topics: Apple, Best Buy, Hulu, NBC, Netflix, Viacom
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Google Gets Its Nose Into Pay-TV Operators' Tent With Motorola Deal
A byproduct of today's blockbuster deal by Google to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion is that Google is getting its nose into pay-TV operators' tent via Motorola's huge set-top box business. Set-tops are part of Motorola's Home segment, which in Q2 generated over $900 million in revenue, a little less than a third of Motorola's total.
Google would dearly love to have a bigger presence in the digital living room, but its initial efforts with Google TV have not borne much fruit, despite the fact that Google took an industry-friendly approach by trying to augment
pay-TV services rather than disrupt them. Now however, with Motorola's deep industry relationships, Google will gain much better insight into pay-TV operators' thinking that could help drive partnership opportunities. Importantly, this could translate into improved product integration between Google's software and Motorola's hardware platforms that could give Google its best shot yet at getting into the living room (throw Google potentially acquiring Hulu and the living room fight gets even more interesting).
Categories: Cable TV Operators, Deals & Financings, Technology
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