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With Google-Verizon Deal, Net Neutrality Uncertainty for Video Providers Rises
A possible private deal between Google and Verizon, for how the latter will handle traffic on its wired and wireless networks, means the prospect of the FCC brokering a net neutrality consensus among key stakeholders just got less certain. The inconsistency that could result isn't good news for online and mobile video content providers seeking assurance that delivery of their content won't be affected by network operators either technically or financially.
To put this possible deal in context, the FCC has been trying to forge a net neutrality agreement among key parties in the wake of a recent court decision that severely curtailed its regulatory authority. The talks have been conducted in secret and the parties have pledged not to disclose their progress. The policy goal is to ensure network owners don't bias for or against any kind of traffic, so that the Internet's longstanding openness will be perpetuated.
Categories: Broadband ISPs, Regulation, Telcos
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Stallone's YouTube Video Ad for "The Expendables" Breaks the Mold
If you haven't seen Sylvester Stallone's new video ad now running on YouTube's home page for his upcoming movie The Expendables, take time to check it out it as it completely breaks the mold. It begins as a large banner on YouTube.com (see below). When you click, a standard-looking sit-down video interview between Stallone and TV personality Shira Lazar starts rolling. Pretty quickly the effects begin and you realize this is anything but a standard interview. I won't spoil the fun for you.
The Expendables ad is yet another example of how dramatically online video advertising is opening up the creative palette, allowing brands to do totally unconventional things that get shared and noticed. Another recent example was the Old Spice man ad, which itself became an online video/social media phenomenon. No doubt others will follow. For brands accustomed to operating within the narrow confines of 30-second TV ads, the world is changing fast, and for the better.
What do you think? Post a comment now (no sign-in required).Categories: Advertising
Topics: Sylvester Stallone, The Expendables, YouTube
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BrightRoll Launches BRX Online Video Advertising Exchange
Online video ad network BrightRoll is launching the BrightRoll Exchange ("BRX") this morning, a self-service online video ad exchange intended to catalyze large-scale, efficient pre-roll video ad buying. BrightRoll CEO Tod Sacerdoti told me yesterday that BRX has been in the works for over a year
and began a quiet beta test in April, initially with BrightRoll itself as the primary buyer, and in June with the first 3rd party buyers added. Tod said BRX now has hundreds of publishers participating and thousands of targetable URLs.
Exchanges have long been important parts of the display ad buying ecosystem and Tod sees online video advertising following the same cycle. Over the past several years more and more brands and agencies have begun buying online video ads, learning about the new medium and its ROIs. Some bigger buyers are already looking to buy at scale, and others will surely follow. However, BrightRoll research suggests that key obstacles remain, with half of publishers it surveyed unable to sell 20% of their online video ad inventory. BrightRoll believes this is primarily due to buying inefficiencies.
Categories: Advertising
Topics: BrightRoll
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Roku Brings Flixster Trailers to the Big Screen
I've become a bigger fan of Flixster since downloading its Android app a couple of weeks ago to my new Droid X. It offers basically everything you
need to know about movies already released and those upcoming. So I welcomed the news late yesterday that Flixster had launched a free channel to watch movie trailers on Roku.
I've played around with the Flixster channel and though there are still some quality and formatting issues (especially for older movies), for the most part, it's a welcome addition to the Roku channel store. You can browse trailers in categories including, "Now in Theaters," "Coming Soon," "New on DVD" and "Certified Fresh" (which offers ratings by Rotten Tomatoes). You can also use your remote control to search the full database of trailers.
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CBS-Comcast Deal Underscores Importance of Subscriptions
Yesterday's 10-year retransmission consent deal between Comcast and CBS further underscores the importance of subscription revenue streams in addition to advertising. Under the deal, CBS is rumored to receive between $.50-$1.00 per subscriber per month from the biggest cable operator in the U.S., putting it in the top tier of cable network compensation. When combined with other deals CBS has previously struck, plus additional ones it will likely conclude in the future, CBS has laid firm claim to the same "dual revenue" (monthly payments + advertising) business model as cable TV networks have long enjoyed.
The CBS-Comcast deal is more evidence of how dynamic the relationships have become between broadcast TV networks, cable TV networks, pay-TV operators and new distributors like Hulu and Netflix. The online/mobile/on-demand era has set off a scramble by premium content providers to lock in payments for their programming, while also remaining nimble enough to gain new distribution opportunities. Likewise, distributors are hungry for exclusive well-branded content.
Consider what's happened in just the last 8 months:
Categories: Aggregators, Broadcasters, Cable Networks, Cable TV Operators
Topics: Cablevision, CBS, Comcast, Hulu, Netflix, Time Warner Cable
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thePlatform Adds More Publishing and Advertising Controls
thePlatform is announcing this morning release 1.3 of its mpx video management system, which gives its customers enhanced publishing and
advertising controls. Marty Roberts, thePlatform's VP of sales and marketing walked me through the updates yesterday, which fall into 3 buckets:
1. Customized playlists - mix's "Feeds" now allows customers to combine both editorially and dynamically-driven playlists. For example, if a couple of videos are really hot, they can be selected to remain persistently at the top of the list rather than being bumped off by recent additions. In addition rules can be created so only users of authorized 3rd party distributors can play the video.
2. Granular geographic restrictions - Content access can now be set by country, region, metro code and area code. Additional settings include expiration date, referring domain and IP address.
3. New ad policies - mpx customers can select primary and secondary ad sources, along with the type of unit to be displayed (pre-roll, mid-roll, etc.). Some of this functionality lightly overlaps with what video ad managers like FreeWheel and Auditude offer, but thePlatform isn't trying to replace anyone in the ad management ecosystem; rather its features are meant for less complex customer situations.
Categories: Technology
Topics: thePlatform
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Howcast is Innovating in Crowded How-to Video Market
Last week I got a heads-up on milestones that Howcast, a player in the how-to video market, has recently achieved, from Sanjay Raman, Chief Product Officer and co-founder. Howcast is now doing about 25 million
playbacks per month, with about 20% of those happening on Howcast.com and 80% through its partners such as Yahoo, YouTube, MSN, Hulu, TiVo, FiOS, boxee and others. Howcast is now producing around 400 videos/month and has over 5,000 videos in its library.
Beyond the web, Howcast is innovating in a number of areas. Mobile has been a big focus, with apps for iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and Android all released this year. Howcast says that to date its iPad app has been downloaded 150,000 times, second-most of all free apps. Howcast videos are also featured on Virgin Air's "Red" on-demand network. In addition, Howcast is also producing custom videos for corporate clients such as GE, Kodak and others where Howcast retains rights to include the video in its library.
Categories: Indie Video
Topics: HowCast
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VideoNuze Report Podcast #70 - July 30, 2010
Daisy Whitney and I are pleased to present the 70th edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for July 30, 2010.
This week Daisy first updates our podcast discussion from last week concerning the social media success of the Old Spice man campaign. Daisy cites Nielsen data that Old Spice Body Wash sales increased by 11% over the last 12 months (remember the campaign started in February around the Super Bowl). In last 3 months sales are up 55% and in the last month alone, when the campaign really caught fire, they're up 107%. Pretty dramatic results.
Daisy adds that no doubt Old Spice's success will spawn many copycats. In fact, Cisco just tried a tongue in check knockoff this week, though it didn't get much traction. Daisy makes a great point that success always starts with great creative.
We then segue to discuss my post from earlier this week, "Apple's New 27-Inch Display: Is a TV Next?" The new display showed once again how tantalizingly close Apple is to having its own high-end connected TV. In the post I suggested that Apple could offer any number of enhancements like integration with its "i" devices, access to apps and iTunes and other multi-platform features that at a minimum would make an "iTV" irresistible to Apple fans. The key issue is how to obtain the kinds of margins Apple's targets in the super-competitive TV industry. Daisy and I discuss the pros and cons. Listen in to learn more.
Click here to listen to the podcast (13 minutes, 28 seconds)
Click here for previous podcasts
The VideoNuze Report is available in iTunes...subscribe today!Categories: Devices, Social Media
Topics: Apple, Cisco, Old Spice
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