VideoNuze Posts

Video ad management platform Beachfront has announced that ad buyers can now use its technology to access Canoe’s premium VOD ad inventory. Canoe powers VOD and linear addressable advertising in 38 million U.S. households that subscribe to pay-TV from Comcast, Charter and Cox, which are Canoe investors.

In a briefing, Chris Maccaro, CEO of Beachfront, told me that the company has been investing in the solution for several years and sees an opportunity to improve VOD yield by exposing digital-centric buyers to premium VOD inventory. Chris believes that as VOD inventory is made available to agencies, brands, demand side platforms and others for automated programmatic buying, yield will improve and prices will increase.

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Connected TVs are pervasive in American homes and the pandemic has further accelerated their use. As linear TV viewing has declined, traditional TV advertisers have been shifting their spending to AVOD services, where long-form content is largely viewed on CTVs. Top of the funnel linear TV advertisers, driven by reach and frequency goals, will continue to be drawn by CTV’s and OTT’s expanding audience, especially as major TV networks move more of their premium programming online, in turn growing ad inventory.

In the long term, equally exciting for CTV and OTT is appealing to bottom of the funnel, or performance-oriented, advertisers, which have focused on digital opportunities like search, social and display. These advertisers are ROI-driven and are constantly optimizing for desired actions and outcomes like clicks, follows, buys, etc. Because CTV enables digitally-delivered TV ads with rich viewer data, performance advertisers can measure and adjust their CTV campaigns as they always have in digital.

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Bloomberg Media has launched Bloomberg Quicktake, the latest in a series of free, ad-supported, connected TV-first initiatives by big media companies. The streaming news network is launching with 10 1/2 hours of daily programming, including 10 original series and 4 daily news shows. The editorial focus will be broad, including business, technology, culture, society, personal finance, politics, climate and the business of sports, food, travel and entertainment.

Importantly, from a distribution standpoint, Bloomberg Quicktake will be available on all the major CTV platforms, including Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV and Samsung TV. It will also be available within streaming services like Samsung TV Plus, Tubi and Xumo in the upcoming weeks. Launch sponsors include American Express and AT&T Business.

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I’m pleased to present the 537th edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.  

On this week’s podcast, Colin and I return to sports, one of our favorite topics over the years. This week we focus on Sinclair Broadcast Group’s $4.2 billion write-down of the value of its regional sports networks (RSN) group, which was acquired in May, 2019. Sinclair has specifically been adversely affected by virtual pay-TV operators dropping its RSNs, Covid, cord-cutting and other industry trends that are being felt throughout sports TV.

One of the beneficiaries of the industry’s restructuring is Roku, which reported a very strong Q3 ’20 yesterday. We wrap up the podcast touching on the highlights.


Click here to listen to the podcast (24 minutes, 42 seconds)

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Sinclair Broadcast Group reported its Q3 ’20 results this morning, including a $4.2 billion write-down on goodwill associated with its regional sports networks (RSNs), which a Sinclair subsidiary acquired just 18 months ago, at a valuation of $10.6 billion. $8.2 billion, or 85% of the $9.6 billion RSNs’ purchase, was financed with debt.

The move means a stunning 40% of the deal’s value has been erased in very short order. The 21 RSNs were originally owned by Fox, but were assumed by Disney as part of the larger Disney-Fox takeover deal. Sinclair’s RSN devaluation is further proof of the shifting of the pay-TV industry and audience preferences.

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Alphabet announced strong Q3 ’20 results last week, which included several YouTube metrics: $5 billion in quarterly revenue (up 32% vs. a year ago), 30 million music and premium paid subscribers, and 3 million paid YouTube TV subscribers. For YouTube TV, that’s a  jump of 50% from the 2 million subscriber level that Alphabet reported earlier this year in February.

That’s surprisingly growth from my perspective for a number of reasons. First, YouTube TV raised its rate to $65 per month in June, an aggressive 30% hike from $50 per month. The primary justification YouTube TV offered for the increase was the addition of 8 ViacomCBS cable TV networks, BET, CMT, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Network, TV Land and VH1. But of the group, only Nickelodeon was among the top 25 most viewed networks in 2019 and it was number 25.

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I’m pleased to present the 536th edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.  

Smart TVs have been a big beneficiary of the pandemic-driven viewership shifts as Conviva’s Q3 State of Streaming report showed this week. Colin and I explore what’s driving smart TVs and connected TVs and what’s ahead.

NBCUniversal announced continued growth for its Peacock streaming service this week, now with 22 million signups. We’re both impressed and in the wake of Quibi’s demise, are reminded how important free is for attracting initial users.

Finally T-Mobile announced its TVision pay-TV service this week. Colin is skeptical and summarizes all the reasons why.
 
Click here to listen to the podcast (23 minutes, 49 seconds)

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The VideoNuze podcast is also available in Apple podcasts, subscribe today!

Smart TVs accounted for 14.8% of streaming viewership time globally in Q3 ’20, double their 7.7% share in Q3 ’19, according to Conviva’s new State of Streaming report. Smart TVs’ share was approximately even with Q2 ’20.

Thought smart TVs’ growth was the fastest of all devices Conviva tracked, connected TVs (e.g. Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast, etc.) still maintained 50% share of viewership in Q3 ’20, roughly flat from a year ago. Mobile and desktop each declined from 13% to 10% share with tablets and gaming consoles holding steady at 5% and 10% respectively.

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