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VideoNuze Report Podcast #60 - May 7, 2010
Daisy Whitney and I are pleased to present the 60th edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for May 7, 2010.
In today's podcast Daisy and I discuss research that Brightcove and TubeMogul released yesterday on online video consumption and engagement in the media industry. Though the data isn't statistically significant, the report caught our eye because it offers a great assortment of insights based on actual platform data plus survey responses. It's freely downloadable here. Listen in to hear our reactions.
Click here to listen to the podcast (13 minutes, 47 seconds)
Click here for previous podcasts
The VideoNuze Report is available in iTunes...subscribe today!Categories: Podcasts
Topics: Brightcove, Podcast, TubeMogul
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Reminder: VideoSchmooze Breakfast in LA on June 15th
Please join me on June 15th for a VideoSchmooze breakfast at the gorgeous SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills - one of the hottest spots in LA. Our panel is going to tackle the important topic of "How Hollywood Succeeds in the Digital Distribution Era."
Our discussion couldn't be more timely; we are reminded on a daily basis of the changes swirling around Hollywood, which have significant long-term distribution and viewership implications.
Examples include the strong early adoption of tablet computers like the iPad which has sold 1 million units in its first 4 weeks of availability; the shift to subscription services like Netflix, which added almost 3 million subscribers in just in the last 6 months, growing its subscriber base by 26% to 14 million subs; the decision by Hollywood Video to close the last of its rental stores, which once totaled over 2,400; YouTube's nascent move into movie rentals and Google's planned launch of "Google TV;" the rise of TV and movie viewership on smartphones; the proliferation of HD video delivery online by CDNs like Akamai; the massive investments being made in online video advertising, which will help long-form monetization, and the list goes on.
These kinds of technology-driven changes are occurring all around Hollywood and are only going to accelerate. That means the future landscape is certain
to be very different from the past. Our outstanding panel will help us understand what all this and more means:- Darcy Antonellis - President, Technology Operations, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
- Albert Cheng - EVP, Digital Media, Disney/ABC Television Group
- Gannon Hall - Chief Operating Officer, Kyte (co-lead sponsor of the breakfast)
- Ted Sarandos - Chief Content Officer - Netflix
- Ben Weinberger - CEO and Co-Founder, Digitalsmiths (co-lead sponsor of the breakfast)
Our panelists will share their experiences and best practices learned to date, plus forecasts for the future. There will be ample time for audience Q&A and for networking. It promises to be a special event and I hope you're able to join us! Early bird individual and table rates are now available.
Click here to learn more and register for early bird discountCategories: Events
Topics: VideoSchmooze
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Roku To Add Netflix Browse, Search and Queue Features
Roku just announced that by June it will soon be introducing a handful of features that improve the Netflix streaming experience when using Roku, including the ability to do the following all within its channel UI: search the Netflix Watch Instantly library, browse and play content and add content to your Watch Instantly queue (here's a short company-produced demo video).
Currently users are first required to do all of these things online in their Netflix account, and then go to the Roku when ready to play their selections. This 2-step process has always felt a bit clunky to me and the new features obviously simplify the experience a lot. Roku spokesman Brian Jaquet told me he believes Roku is the first to offer the search function of the many CE devices Netflix is integrated with. I know Xbox introduced the browsing function last fall and I believe that at least PS3 and Wii (and possibly others) offer this as well.
Netflix has been hitting it out of the park recently with subscriber additions, with streaming an increasingly important drawing card. Things that Roku and others do that improve the TV-based experience are valuable, especially for more mainstream users.
What do you think? Post a comment now (no sign-in required).Categories: Aggregators, Devices
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Digging into Adap.tv's New Real Time Bidding Interface for Online Video Ads
Yesterday video ad management provider Adap.tv introduced a "real-time bidding" (RTB) interface for users of its video ad marketplace, which itself was launched this past February. I'm a big believer that innovations in online video
advertising, plus massive online video viewership growth and adoption of convergence devices are together causing big future shifts in brands' ad budgets. RTB is another innovation that over time will help shift budgets. To learn more I spoke to Teg Grenager, Adap.tv's founder and VP of Product last night and have also spent some time reading up on how RTB is working in the display ad sector.
As background, ad exchanges give publishers the ability to expose their content and inventory to interested buyers who can use analytical tools in conjunction to allocate their budgets to better reach their targeted audiences. Exchanges are able to offer more pricing transparency to both publishers and advertisers, with the goal of improving ad performance and ROI. With exchanges, buys are placed in thousands of impressions sizes and in advance, based on anticipated targeting parameters.
As Teg explained, Adap.tv's new RTB feature improves its recently-launched marketplace by allowing ad buying at the impression level with dynamic pricing. The goal is to drive ad effectiveness even higher for advertisers, while still allowing publishers to retain control over their inventory. Teg likened RTB in the marketplace to a next-generation spot market. To use Adap.tv's RTB, the buyer (typically an agency) needs to integrate Adap.tv's API into their own trading desk technology, which as this article suggests are well underway at large firms like Publicis, Havas, The Media Kitchen and others. Once the Adap.tv API is integrated the buyer makes requests to connect with desired publishers for RTB, who in turn can accept or deny access. If accepted the buyer is then able to start bidding on available inventory, alongside other accepted buyers, creating the dynamic pricing environment.
Obviously all of the above is only worthwhile if a large number of publishers are offering inventory to the exchange in the first place and are subsequently willing to allow RTB. Teg said that 700 different properties are currently offering in-stream ad inventory to Adap.tv's marketplace, with hundreds of millions of available in-stream video impressions per month. Though this is only a fraction of the online video market, it seems like a solid start with lots of room to grow ahead. Teg noted that the buy side is in flux, with increasing pressure to be accountable to clients for targeting and ROI (things search marketing has excelled at). RTB caters to these needs.
Longer term the idea of both exchanges and RTB seem like very useful tools to further unlock online video ad spending and shift dollars over from TV. Still, with estimated total online video ad revenue around $1 billion/year, it is clearly early days for many agencies and brands. Many are still just dipping their toes into online video advertising to learn how it performs and will not yet be ready for such hands-on granular bidding. But as these brands and their agencies get more sophisticated, and for others who are already deeply immersed in the market, the idea of a robust ad exchange with RTB will likely be intriguing.
What do you think? Post a comment now (no sign-in required).Categories: Advertising, Technology
Topics: Adap.TV
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ABC Unveils "The VIEWer's Choice," Powered by Gotuit
Late yesterday, ABC unveiled "The VIEWer's Choice" an online library of video clips of every single topic, co-host, guest and segment from the popular daytime talk show "The View." Clips can be searched, and are also organized by playlist topics such as Celebs & Entertainment, Sex & Relationships, Mom's View, etc.
For fans of The View, the clips offer unparalleled access to the show's most memorable moments, which can also be shared easily through a dozen social media sites. For example, here you can see last Friday's episode featuring guest Melissa Etheridge. I played around with it a bit and was quickly able to find all the relevant clips with Tiger Woods and discussions about American Idol.
The VIEWer's Choice is powered by Gotuit Media Corp, a company I've written about in the past. Producers use Gotuit's Video Metadata Management System to set up the "virtual clips" from the source broadcast, based on time-based metadata. The metadata is used to both categorize the video clips into the playlists, to power search and to define ad inventory. Gotuit is used in other key sites like NBA.com's "Inside the NBA," ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption" and SI's "The Dan Patrick Show."
Almost 2 years ago I wrote a post "Non-Linear Presentation + Long-form Premium Video = Big Opportunity," in which I explained how deconstructing full-length programs into searchable clips offers big opportunities to drive fan engagement and new ad inventory. With the explosion of social media like Twitter and Facebook since, the opportunity to leverage clips to promote specific moments in programs is even higher now. Looking around the web though, I'm still surprised at how many full-length programs don't take advantage of this. As "The VIEWer's Choice" demonstrates, talk shows, news and sports programming are probably the most natural fit.
Engagement is the big idea behind The VIEWer's Choice; it is exactly the kind of initiative that bridges broadcast to the Internet, where more interactivity, choice and personalization are expected. As a side-note, I think it picks up nicely on what Martin Nisenholtz, SVP of The NYT's digital operations said in a recent speech at Wharton: "we've begun to view (engagement) as the essential moat around which our defenses are based; it is the emotional connection that our users have with us."
I think that point is right on the money - since Internet users are always just 1 quick click from moving on, the need to immerse them in the content experience is stronger than ever. The traditional metrics of ratings points, circulation, box office gross, etc will still be important, but going forward, measuring how solid the bonds are with audiences and users will become a key new currency when measuring a brand's value.
What do you think? Post a comment now (no sign-in required)
(Note - we'll be talking in-depth about engagement at the VideoSchmooze breakfast in LA on June 15th, where our topic is "How Hollywood Succeeds in the Digital Distribution Era." Among our panelists will be Albert Cheng, EVP of Digital Media at Disney/ABC Television and Ben Weinberger, CEO and co-founder of Digitalsmiths which is powering metadata creation and management for many studios. Please join us - early bird discounted registration is now available).Categories: Broadcasters, Technology
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12 Questions for Akamai President and CEO Paul Sagan
Last week, Akamai Technologies reported a very strong first quarter of 2010, with revenue of $240 million, up 14% year-over-year, and net income of
$40.9 million, up 10% year-over-year. The company pointed to 3 main drivers of its accelerated growth: developments in cloud computing, video distribution over the Internet and online advertising. To learn more about what Akamai is seeing specifically among its media & entertainment (M&E) customers and in online video, late last week I spoke to company president and CEO Paul Sagan. Following is an edited transcript of our call.
VideoNuze: Akamai just reported a very strong Q1, which as you explained on the earnings call, included accelerated growth in the company's large M&E business. What are the key trends Akamai is seeing from its M&E customers?
Paul Sagan: The most important thing M&E customers are focused on is how they can build a sustainable business online. For video it's all about engagement - how to get people to stay longer and make the model work. We believe the big driver of that is quality and more specifically HD. A number of recent things have happened that help HD - first is pervasive and consistently strong broadband in the last mile. Second is variable bit rate streaming. Third are all he new convergence devices connecting broadband to the TV. The key for customers is trying to get TV-like quality with interactivity. Just broadcasting an HD signal over the Internet isn't enough because TV works well already. It's the interactivity - things like multiple camera angles and instant DVR - that make the difference.
VN: You said on the earnings call that HD is driving double or higher engagement by viewers. That's an impressive data point.
PS: Yes, with live events where you can do a true A/B test - we're seeing roughly double the viewing time when delivering at 1-2 MB or higher. That's offering a big potential lift in time spent viewing for our customers.
VN: Does that mean Akamai's M&E customers using HD are also doubling their revenue as a result?
PW: I'm not sure they're doubling just yet, but HD delivery is making content into something that can be monetized more strongly - possibly through sponsorships as well as advertising and paid models. So it's not as simple as saying you sell double the number of banners. What HD also does is push people toward longer-form. An issue with some of the shorter-form content like 2-3 minute clips is that you just can't put that many ads in or it will be worse than TV for users. I'm not suggesting we should see 8 minutes of ads in a 30 minute show, but you can certainly do more.
VN: Speaking of business models for high-quality video - what do you hear from your customers as the emerging standard - ads, paid or a mix of both?
PS: It's a mix - some ad-supported, some per event payments or subscriptions, particularly with sports. Some movies will be more subscription-oriented. Online delivery and HD are unlocking a few different models, yet it's still early days for all models. Clearly some have struggled to date which is no surprise when you consider it's taken 15 years to get online viewing to just a 1% share - which is obviously pretty small. But given everything that's going on, I'm sure it won't take 15 more years to double again.
VN: On the customer front, Akamai is announcing Magnify.net as a new customer this morning, which has an interesting "video curation" model. Can you say more about how these kinds of non-traditional distribution models like Magnify's fit into the online video landscape?
PS: What we're seeing across a wide number of sites is a strong desire to add rich media. We're also seeing sites think about programming in a non-traditional way. The goal is how to keep the user experience compelling. That means adding audio and video when users expect it. That in turn drives higher engagement and monetization. We've evolved from a time when there was a "priesthood of 3 networks" who produced video and nobody else could, to today when there are lots of ways to produce video - including millions of hours of UGC. The curated model is so important because it helps sites get relevant content.
VN: How mature is the idea of curating online video from the web and non-traditional distribution models generally?
PS: Well, I haven't even figured out the etymology of "curation" - in the old days we used to call it "editing." But that was about journalistic sites. Many of today's sites are not purely "journalistic." So the video added isn't always "news," though it still has to be highly relevant. For example, biking video belongs on biking sites, not on hockey or baseball ones. How do we make those sites more compelling through video? That's what curation does. And Magnify's trying to make that easy. I've know (Magnify CEO) Steve Rosenbaum for 20 years and I'm thrilled that they appreciate how Akamai's quality, scale and reliability can be central to delivering the experience they want to achieve.
VN: Shifting topics to CDN pricing, which is of course widely discussed. Can you say more about Akamai's approach to pricing for its M&E customers - on balance, does Akamai try to keep prices stable or is it continually trying to push them down?
PS: I've gotten a question about CDN pricing every day for the 12 years that I've been here! My view in general is that unit prices in technology always come down and in this area they need to come down a lot because we're trying to enable our customers to deliver a lot more data. So we've been relentlessly driving the unit price of delivery down for years. For us it's not about keeping prices stable and reducing our costs solely for our own benefit. Rather, we've been driving the unit costs down every year and sharing that savings proportionately with our customers. That's worked out well in generating more traffic on our network every year. We plan to continue doing that because it creates a virtuous circle of ever-more traffic and reduced costs.
Categories: CDNs
Topics: Akamai, Magnify.net
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Mark Your Calendars: VideoSchmooze Goes to LA for June 15th Breakfast
We had a huge crowd at this past Monday night's VideoSchmooze in NYC who were treated to an in-depth discussion about whether online video is shifting to the paid model, as well as a high-energy hour and half of networking and drinks.
With the NYC event behind us, I'm very pleased to unveil the first West Coast
VideoSchmooze event - a breakfast in LA on June 15th at the ultra luxurious SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills. We have an incredible group of executives who will discuss "How Hollywood Succeeds in the Digital Distribution Era:"- Darcy Antonellis - President, Technology Operations, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
- Albert Cheng - EVP, Digital Media, Disney/ABC Television Group
- Gannon Hall - Chief Operating Officer, Kyte
- Ted Sarandos - Chief Content Officer, Netflix
- Ben Weinberger - CEO and Co-Founder, Digitalsmiths
Darcy, Albert and Ted are all key leaders driving the digital agenda at their respective companies. Among other things, Warner Bros. has led on day-and-date VOD distribution. Disney/ABC has been the most innovative of the broadcast TV networks in pursuing digital outlets, going back to their original iTunes deal. And of course Netflix, which I've written about often, has completely reinvented its model with Watch Instantly streaming. Meanwhile Ben's and Gannon's companies (which are co-lead sponsors of the breakfast), are each providing digital building block technologies to the industry and have in-depth knowledge of Hollywood's requirements and strategies.
For anyone in or around the Hollywood ecosystem, this is a must-attend breakfast, with ample time for networking included. I look forward to seeing you there!
Click here to learn more and register for early bird discount
Categories: Events
Topics: VideoSchmooze
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Jobs on Flash - There's No Turning Back Now
Definitely make time to read Steve Jobs's blog post from yesterday, "Thoughts on Flash" - no doubt you'll conclude as I did that there's no turning back in this battle. Over the past few weeks the war of words between Adobe and Apple over the latter's lack of Flash support in iPhones, iPods and iPads has flared to new levels. Now Jobs's new post kicks things up another notch. Jobs's argument is mostly a technical/product one - "open" vs. "closed" systems, reliability, performance, security, battery life, touch attributes, etc. (Adobe posted a short response here)
But Jobs's last point is clearly the most important, as he acknowledges. Apple wants to control its own destiny to provide the best products possible and doing so requires eliminating any dependency on 3rd party tools. Lack of dependency on others is a hallmark of Apple's model more generally, but when it comes to the Flash war, the number of penalties Apple is imposing due to its uncompromising position is pretty remarkable: users' inability to view video at some of the web's most popular sites like Hulu, forcing these sites to offer their video in HTML5, marginalizing smaller content providers that don't have the resources to make the change, etc.
However, Apple's products are loved and only Jobs would have the single-mindedness and guts to force a pretty wrenching change in the video ecosystem. Until we see Android or other smartphones emerge as a counter-weight to the iPhone's hegemony, Adobe's role in video is bound to wane.
What do you think? Post a comment now (no sign-in required).Categories: Devices, Technology
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