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Audio Interview With Netflix's Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos
I'm pleased to provide an audio recording of an on-stage one-on-one interview I did with Netflix's chief content officer Ted Sarandos, at the NATPE Market conference on January 25th. I've been meaning to post this for a while, but experienced a few technical issues in getting it done. The interview is particularly timely given news this week that Netflix may be looking to distribute its first original TV series, "House of Cards," directed by David Fincher and starring Kevin Spacey.
In this wide-ranging interview, Ted and I discuss topics such as Netflix's content acquisition strategy, how it decides how much to spend on licensing, the critical role that data plays in informing Netflix's decision-making, the future of the DVD business and lots more. Of note, this is the interview in which Ted said that Netflix would bid against HBO for Warner Bros. films when those parties' distribution deal comes up for renewal in a couple of years and that Netflix had the resources to fully compete. That declaration was a departure from Netflix's traditional public posture about working closely with premium cable networks rather than disrupting them, and set off a raft of media coverage.
Categories: Aggregators, People
Topics: HBO, Netflix, Warner Bros.
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Will Cable TV Networks Kill Their Golden Goose?
I've been dismayed, though not entirely surprised, by reactions from cable TV networks over the launch of Time Warner Cable's new iPad app earlier this week. A pair of articles, in Adweek and the WSJ summarize various networks' protestations about the new iPad app, namely that it is an unauthorized use of their content by Time Warner Cable, per their interpretations of their affiliation agreements with TWC.
That may well be the case, and TWC may well be pushing the edge of the envelope in this implementation of its larger TV Everywhere goals. However, in my opinion the bigger question that cable network heads should be asking themselves is whether, by resisting initiatives such as these, they want to risk contributing to killing their golden goose, or whether they want to do their part in helping usher in the future? What they decide to do is at the heart of what role the pay-TV industry will play in the online video era.
Categories: Cable Networks, Cable TV Operators, Devices
Topics: iPad, Time Warner Cable
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Advanced Advertising Media Project Looks to Kickstart VOD Revenues
A new research initiative aimed at measuring the impact of advertising in free VOD streams and hastening its deployment is being unveiled today. The
Advanced Advertising Media Project ("AAMP") is being spearheaded by the 4A's and BlackArrow, an advertising technology provider, with participation from A&E, CBS, Comcast, Digitas, Discovery, Horizon Media, NDS, Rainbow Media and others. Last week Nick Troiano, president of BlackArrow gave me an overview of AAMP and its progress so far.
AAMP's key objective is to discern what kinds of ads will be acceptable in VOD streams, and how these can be the basis for viable business models for content providers. While VOD has grown to approximately 7 billion views per year, with 4 billion delivered by Comcast alone, advertising has been severely under-optimized. As I recently wrote, online video advertising has lapped addressable TV advertising and then some. Whereas online video advertising has benefited from web-based standards to drive massive innovation and investment, addressable TV advertising on the other hand, including VOD, has been held back by a lack of robust infrastructure, under-investment by key players and anemic advertiser interest. Tune into VOD on any given night, and the lack of targeted ads, running repeatedly, demonstrates VOD's current lack of dynamic insertion, which is common in online video.
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A Netflix Deal For "House of Cards" Would Be a Big Shift In Its Strategy
A report late yesterday by Deadline.com, that Netflix is potentially going to bid $100 million to stream/broadcast the new David Fincher/Kevin Spacey TV series "House of Cards" has been ricocheting around the Internet like a pinball since. Deadline also reported that Netflix is bidding against HBO and AMC and could take the unusual step of not even piloting the series before making this huge financial commitment. As a close observer of Netflix's rise over the past several years, the move would break with several key tenets of the company's success formula. Though I've learned to never say never, following are a few Netflix strategies that would be changed with a deal for "House of Cards":
Categories: Aggregators
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HealthiNation Launches Video Series to Address Americans' Wellness
HealthiNation, an independent provider of medical and health related online programming, is unveiling a number of new series today, focusing on the adjacent category of wellness. The new videos come on the heels of research which HealthiNation fielded showing a discrepancy between how nutritional Americans thought their dietary habits are vs. what they actually are. With the new video series, HealthiNation is aiming to educate Americans in a fun, accessible way. Raj Amin, HealthiNation's CEO, brought me up to speed on the new initiatives last week.
HealthiNation engaged ORC International: Caravan to conduct a phone survey of 1,000 American adults, and found that 52% thought they're doing all they can do to achieve a balanced nutritional diet and 63% who think they have a solid understanding of nutrition's basics. However, it also turns out that 76% of adults eat fewer than three servings of fruits and vegetables each day, which is the USDA's recommended minimum.
Categories: Indie Video
Topics: HealthiNation
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Six Ways to Increase Digital Video Revenue
Following is a contributed post by Steve Robinson, CEO of Panache, a digital video ad fulfillment provider. For all content providers looking to optimize revenues from their online video streams, it's timely and thoughtful advice, particularly in the lead-up to the new ELEVATE: Online Video Advertising Summit, coming up on Tuesday, June 7th.
Six Ways to Increase Digital Video Revenue
by Steve Robinson
With demand for streaming content clearly established, publishers have shifted from testing digital video advertising to bringing ad revenues toward parity with broadcast. Most publishers face two big hurdles to expanding revenues: Providing enough inventory to meet growing demand and fulfilling sold campaigns efficiently.
Both of these challenges result from an imbalance in the digital video ad market supply and demand. When it comes to inventory, premium publishers are typically only selling three to four pre-roll ads per show in digital video, compared to seven or eight in TV, and as such are only making a fraction of the revenues.
Categories: Advertising
Topics: Panache
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CBSSports.com College Network To Mine Value of Universities' Sports Video Archives
Sports continues its role as a leading online video innovator, as this morning CBSSports.com College Network, a division of CBS Interactive, is announcing an initiative to enable its 175 university partners to mine the value of their
extensive sports video libraries, in a new partnership with technology provider Thought Equity Motion. Last week Rob Schupler, CBSSports.com College Network's SVP of University Relations and Dan Weiner, VP of Marketing and Products at Thought Equity Motion briefed me on their plans.
Rob explained that CBSSports.com College Network has a broad mandate with its university partners - to create their web sites, manage content, help build their fan bases, protect their brands and monetize through different business models. A key area of fan interest has been audio and video content, which is often available through premium subscriptions. However, when it comes to archived video content, the sites have mainly only offered a tiny fraction of what's in their vaults, usually just highlights from the past season. Rob said that the traditionally manual process of producers accessing archived content made providing a richer assortment operationally and economically unviable.
Categories: Sports, Technology
Topics: CBSSports.com College Network, Thought Equity Motion
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5 Items of Interest for the Week of March 7th
Happy Friday! Below is VideoNuze's end-of-week feature, recapping 5-6 interesting online/mobile video industry news items that we weren't able to cover this week. Enjoy!Categories: Miscellaneous
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