VideoNuze Posts

Pay-TV Industry Loses Subscribers in Q2 '10 For First Time Ever; Cable Bears Brunt

Monday, August 23, 2010, 2:48 PM ET

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Posted by Will Richmond

Research firm SNL Kagan is reporting today that the U.S. pay-TV industry (cable/satellite/telco) lost 216,000 multichannel TV subscribers in Q2 '10, the first time the industry as a whole has lost subscribers. Cable operators bore the brunt of the losses, dropping 711,000 subscribers, with Kagan saying 6 of the 8 operators reporting suffered record quarterly losses. By contrast, telcos added 414,000 subs in the quarter and satellite providers gained 81,000. The losses leave cable's industry share at 61%, down from 63.6% a year ago.

Kagan analyst Mariam Rondeli ascribed the quarterly losses to low housing formation and high unemployment due to the ongoing recession, coupled with churn due to promotions from last year's broadcast digital transitions expiring. Rondeli pointed out that over-the-top video alternatives were not the cause. By comparison, the pay-TV gained 378,000 subscribers in Q2 '09, meaning there was a swing of 594,000 subscribers year-over-year. U.S. Pay-TV providers as a whole ended Q2 '10 with 100.1 million subscribers.

Looking ahead, I've heard some murmurs that Q3 '10 could be softer than in prior years, again partially due to the recession, but also because seasonal college students' subscriptions may be reduced due to over-the-top alternatives. While we've yet to see any tangible evidence of cord-cutting, the first impact may simply be slower multichannel sign-ups from younger users more accustomed to watching online. We'll see.

What do you think? Post a comment now (no sign-in required).

Categories: Cable TV Operators, Satellite, Telcos

Topics: SNL Kagan
TV Everywhere On Track for 30-50 Million Homes By End of 2010: Turner Exec

Monday, August 23, 2010, 10:56 AM ET

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Posted by Will Richmond

TV Everywhere services will be available to 30-50 million U.S. homes by the end of this year, according to Jeremy Legg, SVP of Business Development and Multi-Platform Distribution at Turner Broadcasting whom I spoke to last week. Jeremy characterized the 30 million number as "realistic" and 50 million as "plausible." Turner is part of Time Warner, which has been the most significant proponent among content providers of TV Everywhere services; Jeremy is the point person at Turner for its efforts.

I've thought TV Everywhere was a smart concept since it was unveiled last summer, in a high-profile news conference with Time Warner's CEO Jeff Bewkes and Comcast's CEO Brian Roberts. Since then though, pay-TV distributors in the U.S. have been relatively quiet about their TV Everywhere rollout milestones, leading me to grow skeptical about whether they're putting enough muscle behind their efforts. As I argued recently, the stakes for TV Everywhere success have grown considerably as Netflix in particular has ramped up its online offerings, getting closer and closer to pay-TV players' traditional turf.
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Categories: Cable Networks, Cable TV Operators, Satellite, Telcos
NY Times Gives Online Video High-Profile Coverage With Today's "Sofa Wars" Series

Monday, August 23, 2010, 10:36 AM ET

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Posted by Will Richmond

More evidence that online video has gone mainstream, as the NY Times is running a series today, dubbed "The Sofa Wars," includes half a dozen articles looking at online video's incursion into the living room. Included in the series are articles on cord-cutting (or the lack thereof), Sony's bet on Crackle, the range of connected devices vying for market share, the role of 3D in selling TVs and Dish Network's new online initiatives.

The Times' coverage further underscores how online video has burst into the public consciousness in the past few years. In the pre-YouTube era (before 2005), online video was still a fringe activity for people willing to hunt around for valuable video and suffer through often sub-optimal delivery quality. Now, as comScore reports each month, online video is watched by the vast majority of Internet users. It's becoming as common as sending an email. With connected devices proliferating to bring online video to TVs, what additional consumer behavior changes can we expect over the next 5 years?

What do you think? Post a comment now (no sign-in required).

Categories: Devices, Indie Video, Satellite

Topics: NY Times
5 News Items of Interest for the Week of Aug 16th

Friday, August 20, 2010, 10:14 AM ET

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Posted by Will Richmond

I've received positive feedback on the Friday feature I introduced 2 weeks ago, highlighting 5-6 of the most intriguing online and mobile video industry news items that I noticed during the week. As a result, I'm continuing on today and look forward to your further reactions.

As a reminder, each day in the right column of both the VideoNuze web site and email you'll find the "Exclusive News Roundup" which includes the most relevant online and mobile video industry articles that I've curated from numerous sources around the web. Typically there are 35-40 links rounded up each week, which means VideoNuze now has thousands of links available, all fully searchable. This is an invaluable resource when doing research and I encourage you to take a look next time you're hunting for a specific piece of online/mobile video information.

Now on to this week's most intriguing news:

Hulu is Said to Be Ready for an I.P.O.
The big news leading off the week was that Hulu is testing the waters for a public offering valuing the company at $2 billion. Investors beware: while ad sales are up, exclusive deals with key TV networks are short-term, subscription service Hulu Plus is still unproven and competition from Netflix and others is intensifying. If the deal works, it will be a huge milestone for the company.

Rumored $99 iTV Could Pave Way for $2,000 Apple-Connected Television
A Wall Street analyst conjectures that Apple is well-positioned to offer a high-end, connected TV. Apple has been on the sidelines as online video makes its way to the TV, surely this won't remain the case forever.

Netflix Lust for "True Blood" Is Unrequited As HBO Blocks Path
Though Netflix just landed Epix, it is unlikely to get a deal with HBO any time soon, as the big premium network is committed to its current distribution partners, and to its own online extension, HBO Go. Netflix will still find plenty of other willing partners given its strong motivation to acquire streaming content rights.

In Battle of Smartphones, Google Has the Right Answer
With Google's Android phones proliferating, the iPhone's market share is slipping. And with Android tablets coming, the iPad will soon be in the crosshairs from competitors. For mobile video this means more choices and flexibility.

Net Profits for BermanBraun
Big ad agency Starcom MediaVest commits up to a $100 million to upstart Hollywood producer for deeper brand integrations. More evidence that ad spending is moving online and in more creative ways.

Categories: Advertising, Aggregators, Cable Networks, Deals & Financings, Devices, Mobile Video

Topics: Apple, BermanBraun, Google, HBO, Hulu, Netflix, Starcom MediaVest
AlphaBird Spreads Its Wings With Warner Bros./Dailymotion Syndication Deal

Thursday, August 19, 2010, 8:31 AM ET

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Posted by

This morning, AlphaBird, a branded entertainment syndication startup, is announcing that it has syndicated 4 digital series from Warner Bros. Television Group's web content arm, Studio 2.0, to Dailymotion. In addition to distributing and selling advertising around the programs, Dailymotion will promote the various series on its homepage every Monday through the end of the year. Ad revenue will be split between Dailymotion, Warner Bros. and AlphaBird.

The deal is the latest example of premium online video being distributed to a third-party with sizable audience in order to build awareness and viewership (part of what Will has called the "Syndicated Video Economy"). As AlphaBird's CEO Chase Norlin explained yesterday, while it's always challenging to create high-quality content, with the fragmentation and noisiness of the Internet, these days an even bigger challenge is gaining audience.
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Categories: Syndicated Video Economy

Topics: AlphaBird, DailyMotion, Warner Bros.
Brightcove Doubles Global Customers to 1,800, Eyes Asia with New VP

Wednesday, August 18, 2010, 9:35 PM ET

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Posted by

In a show of continued strength, Brightcove is announcing that in the first half of 2010, its customer base doubled to 1,800 media publishers worldwide. This was fueled in part by meeting demand overseas in Europe and Japan. Continuing to look towards Asia as its next major growth area, Brightcove also announced hiring Dennis Rose, a veteran from the software company Citrix, as vice president for the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

On top of expanding sales geographically, Brightcove is benefiting from the mushrooming uses of online video and the changing definition of a "media publisher" (this echoes Will's post about IBM's use of video from last week) For example, its Japanese subsidiary, Brightcove KK, signed a number of marketing and e-commerce companies from many different sectors, including high-end fashion, healthcare, and even Japan's very first Girls Professional Baseball League. Additionally, Brightcove has been making strides into the growing mobile space, adding Android support, HTML5 support, and more importantly working with Freewheel to help monetize that HTML5 video.
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Categories: Technology

Topics: Brightcove
For Broadcast TV Networks, Google TV is Friend, Not Foe

Wednesday, August 18, 2010, 6:35 PM ET

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Posted by Will Richmond

Reading this morning's WSJ story, "Google TV Is a Tough Sell Among Would-Be Partners," you get the impression that broadcast TV networks are viewing Google TV as a potential disruptor of their business models. While the networks should take time to fully understand Google's new product, plus assess additional work being asked of them (e.g. enhanced metadata) and how their programs will be incorporated in Google TV's UI, on the whole, broadcast TV networks should view Google TV as beneficial, not disruptive, to their digital distribution efforts.

Broadcast networks are right to be concerned about what effect viewing on any new digital device will have on their on-air business models. I've written often about my concern that the networks' web sites and Hulu's "ad-lite" approach was threatening to their on-air economics. However, more recently the networks (and likely Hulu) have been increasing their digital ad loads. ABC for one has said that digital delivery profitability is already on a par with "DVR economics" (accounting for ad-skipping by DVR households), and more ads will only further enhance digital's ROI. Certainly ABC's decision to make its programs available on the iPad is evidence that proper monetization, along with a coherent windowing approach, can yield incremental views and profits from distribution to new devices.
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Categories: Broadcasters, Devices

Topics: ABC, CBS, FOX, Google TV, NBC
Kyte Continues Mobile Push With New BlackBerry Features

Wednesday, August 18, 2010, 10:01 AM ET

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Posted by Will Richmond

Online video platform Kyte is expanding its support for mobile devices, announcing this morning Kyte Mobile Producer for BlackBerry. The feature allows owners of certain BlackBerry devices to upload and distribute videos from their handsets to multiple destinations. Supported models include the Bold, Curve 8900 and Storm. The Torch, the latest BlackBerry introduced, which is positioned to compete with the iPhone and Android devices, is not yet supported.

Kyte has previously introduced a similar mobile video feature for both the iPhone and Nokia S60. With the iPhone version, Kyte says that customers like Fox News have incorporated on-the-spot video captures from its field reporters. The "LIVEShots" feature allows for more informal video news coverage.
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Categories: Mobile Video, Technology

Topics: BlackBerry, Kyte