VideoNuze Posts

I've been fascinated for years with how newspapers have embraced online video to expand the scope of their businesses, redefine their identities and engage with their audiences. Yesterday I stumbled upon the latest example of how far from their print-only roots some newspapers are now moving: the NY Times has unveiled "Make Your Pitch," a contest for entrepreneurs to submit video "pitches" about their businesses to gain exposure on the paper's small-business Facebook page and to win a contributing role for its You're the Boss small business blog.

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Today I'm pleased to share a video interview I did with Netflix's Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos at the recent NATPE Market conference in Miami, FL. Among the topics Ted addresses are:

- How the business is doing since the Qwikster reversal, and what lessons were learned?

- Is there a chance the Starz deal could be renewed at some point?

- What is the role of TV series vs. movies on Netflix (and is the "flix" coming out of Netflix since Ted told me separately that 60% of the 2 billion hours watched in Q4 '11 was TV, and that the percentage is rising)?

- Why are the after-market economics for serialized dramas so challenging, in turn making Netflix a valued partner?

- Which competitors make him most nervous?

- How are international rollouts going?

- Which connected device is most critical to Netflix long-term?

- Is Netflix having any impact on cord-cutting and cord-shaving?

The interview runs 18 1/2 minutes. (Note, I'm off camera and my audio isn't great, so the questions are overlaid in text.)

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Mediamorph, a cloud-based service which tracks and measures all digital assets across all digital platforms, has raised an additional $8 million, from Smedvig Capital and Motorola Mobility. Co-founder and Chairman Shahid Khan told me that the funding will be used primarily to expand into Europe and to strengthen its range of service offerings. Total funding raised to date is $11 million.

Mediamorph addresses a key pain point for content providers: as digital distribution platforms multiply, there is massive complexity in cohesively tracking and measuring viewership by platform and then determining the compensation due per contractual terms. Shahid said the company now has relationships with 350 different distributors from which it receives usage data on behalf of content provider clients such as Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, HBO, Starz and others. Mediamorph accepts either structured or unstructured data, crunches it, and then provides a cloud-based, customizable dashboard so that clients can see exactly how their assets are performing either as a whole, or with specific outlets like iTunes, Hulu, Netflix, etc.

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Adobe is raising the curtain on Project "Primetime" this morning, an integrated video platform positioned to be a single workflow for premium video providers deploying across multiple devices. Primetime combines Adobe's traditional streaming and publishing technologies with video ad management from Auditiude (acquired last November) and analytics/optimization from Omniture (acquired in Oct. '09). Primetime will rollout throughout 2012, but today Adobe is making available the first piece - "Primetime Highlights," a web-based video clip editor integrated with Auditude so that media companies can quickly create and publish ad-supported clips from live events.

As Ashley Still, Adobe's director of product management, video solutions, explained to me last week, Primetime's key goal is to enable premium video providers to deliver the highest-quality "TV-like" experiences with seamless, dynamic ad insertion into linear/live/on-demand streams on any connected device. Adobe believes that today's content and ad delivery model, which often requires multiple workflows and products to interoperate, will not allow premium online and mobile video to effectively scale and monetize.

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I'm pleased to be joined once again by Colin Dixon, senior partner at The Diffusion Group, for the 122nd edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for Feb. 24, 2012. In this week's podcast we evaluate Comcast's new subscription video-on-demand service, Xfinity Streampix. Despite many of the headlines this week characterizing Streampix as a "Netflix-killer," neither Colin nor I see it that way (at least for now).

However, we don't necessarily agree on what Streampix's real purpose is. Colin sees it as more of an upsell premium product for Comcast to help drive up its ARPU, while expanding its TV Everywhere capabilities. On the other hand, I see Streampix as helping give Comcast greater packaging and pricing flexibility in order to address existing and prospective subscribers for whom the typical multichannel bundle might not fit.

In truth, Streampix is probably both. But for now, given its paucity of content, we agree that it's unlikely to get a whole lot of traction anyway. That may be ok, as I continue to see it as really more of a placeholder than anything else. Whether it becomes more over time, ultimately challenging Netflix and others, is yet to be seen.

Listen in to learn more!

Click here to listen to the podcast (15 minutes, 36 seconds)


Click here for previous podcasts

The VideoNuze Report is available in iTunes...subscribe today!

(apologies in advance, the connection quality wavers toward the end of the podcast)

Five of the top 10 online video destinations - AOL, Hulu, Microsoft, Yahoo and YouTube - are joining with ad agency Digitas to launch the first-ever "Digital Content NewFronts" (DCNF). The DCNF's goal is to "shape a new and practical marketplace for connecting the wealth of native digital content with brand marketers and their media and marketing agencies." From April 19th to May 2nd, each of the 6 companies will host a day-long event in NYC showcasing their programming and ad opportunities. The DCNF actually builds on the 1-day NewFront event Digitas has been holding for the last 3 years.

I think the combined approach of the DCNF is the right idea at the right time. Given the wealth of premium original online video that each of the 5 destinations is pursuing - all of which is ad-supported - the DCNF could become an important catalyst in educating advertisers and agencies about these new opportunities and therefore why they should shift some of their spending. As I've recently written, a bevy of Hollywood A-listers and others are getting involved in original online video productions, helping create a "virtuous cycle" of anticipated growth.

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Comcast is launching a new subscription video-on-demand service called Xfinity Streampix that will be freely available to most of its higher-paying subscribers, while carrying a $4.99/mo charge for its lower-paying video subscribers. At launch the service will include past season episodes such as "30 Rock," "Grey's Anatomy," and "Married With Children" from NBC, ABC and Sony respectively, as well as movies from Warner Bros. and Universal, plus kids programming from Cookie Jar and Disney Channel. Streampix will be accessible both in and out-of-home and on multiple devices like the Xbox 360 and Android as the year progresses.

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Visible Measures is announcing this morning that the Media Rating Council (MRC), which certifies media measurement services, has accredited a number of the company's metrics, including its "TrueReach Views," a metric that spans paid, owned and earned media. Brian Shin, Visible Measures' founder and CEO, told me last week that it's the first time a metric has been accredited that covers all of the ways a brand's video campaign can now be propagated online.

Brian noted that the accreditation is also unusual for the MRC because it typically audits metrics that are tied to conventional ad serving. Conversely, in the case of TrueReach, MRC took account of social activity for the first time, requiring it to verify that Visible Measures' technology and methodologies accurately reflected viral distribution properly. Brian said that MRC did sample testing and vetted its documentation as part of the accreditation process.

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