VideoNuze Posts

  • Quick Thoughts On Oscar Backstage App

    During last night's Oscar broadcast, I was in full "second-screening" mode, flipping around the Oscar Backstage App from ABC, which I had downloaded for $.99 to my iPad. The big question for me was whether the 8 video feeds from various camera angles would hold up under heavy usage and also what the experience of switching back-and-forth among the feeds would be like. The good news is that the video all performed well, and newly chosen feeds came up quickly.

    The bad news is that during most of the broadcast, there wasn't much actually happening in those 8 video feeds. The most active feed was from the Press Room cam, where winners would come to answer un-rehearsed questions from the Hollywood press. Some sessions, like with Christian Bale, seemed to go on and on, while other winners like Natalie Portman never appeared during the actual broadcast. In fact, this is the biggest area I think Oscar Backstage Pass app could improve - adding some simple schedule or navigation so users have an idea of what to expect next. I know the experience is supposed to be sort of impromptu, but the randomness and waiting started detracting after a while.

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  • 5 Items of Interest for the Week of Feb. 25th

    Happy Friday! Below is VideoNuze's end-of-week feature, analyzing 5-6 interesting online/mobile video industry news items that we weren't able to cover this week. Enjoy!
     
  • Looking Forward to Going Backstage At the Oscars

    This Sunday night's Oscars broadcast promises to be like no other, as the show gets the full online video treatment. The NY Times had a rundown this week of all the various apps that are available and will be streaming supplementary video. I've downloaded ABC's Oscar Backstage Pass app to my iPad and my wife and I will be in full "second-screening" mode (for my wife, as for many others, the Oscars is like Super Bowl Sunday).

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  • NBC Testing Super Bowl Ad Rates of $3.5M Per 30-Second Spot

    A report this week in AdAge indicated that NBC, which has the broadcast rights to next year's Super Bowl XLVI, is testing advertiser reaction to a rates of up to $3.5 million per certain 30-second ads. This would be a bump from this past year's rates of $2.8-$3.0 million and would easily be the most expensive ad time in history. However, the potential increase was not only predictable, I think it's actually just the start of a significant run up yet to come.

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  • CBS Sees $3 Billion In New Distribution Revenue Ahead

    CBS hosted an "Upfront for Investors" yesterday, and as The Hollywood Reporter noted, its executives envision potentially $3 billion in new, high-margin revenue coming from retransmission consent payments, reverse compensation from TV affiliates, international TV syndication and emerging digital distributors. It was no coincidence that just this week CBS announced a 2-year distribution deal with Netflix for mainly library programs, that one analyst valued at $200 million.

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  • Android Market to Roll Out Movies?

    Engadget had an intriguing blurb this week regarding the availability of book downloads now being available in the Android Market. More interesting is the existence of a new movie-related URL in Android Market, along with one for music. With the surging popularity of Android devices, including the new Xoom tablet from Motorola plus lots of others, some type of movie service would seem inevitable.

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  • No Surprise, Ivi is Shut Down

    Broadcasters got a win this week as a U.S. District Court judge issued a preliminary injunction against Ivi, requiring the service be shut down. The decision comes as little surprise, as Ivi's claim to being a cable system, and therefore entitled to a compulsory license to rebroadcast TV networks, seemed specious from the start. Though Ivi vows to appeal the decision, casting itself as consumers' savior, there's little reason to believe we'll see Ivi - at least in its current form - back any time soon. Moral here: just because the Internet makes it possible to rebroadcast networks, that still doesn't make it legal.
     
  • VideoNuze Report Podcast #89 - Feb. 25, 2011

    I'm pleased to present the 89th edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for February 25, 2011.

    In this week's podcast, Harold Geller, the SVP of Cross-Industry Workflow at the 4As (American Association of Advertising Agencies) joins me, sitting in for Daisy Whitney. Harold and I discuss the busy week online video platforms have had, including Ooyala's deal with Yahoo! Japan, thePlatform's with Telstra's BigPond TV, Brightcove's integration with LG's Smart TVs, and VBrick's acquisition of Fliqz.

    One of the takeaways we see from this activity is that online video platforms and video delivery to connected TVs (and other devices) are starting to converge. Harold also notes a couple of recent conversations he's had which further suggest that OVPs and online video advertising players will be playing a greater role in ad insertion in video-on-demand offered by traditional pay-TV operators. That would be a pretty interesting new twist in the VOD story. More on this next week.

    Click here to listen to the podcast (14 minutes, 55 seconds)


    Click here for previous podcasts

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