VideoNuze Posts

HBO thoroughly dominated at the Emmys last night, riding the big success of “Game of Thrones.” However, Amazon took home 5 Emmys (all for “Transparent”), just behind ABC (6), but ahead of CBS (4) and Netflix (4). The Emmys are a high-profile gauge of Amazon’s early success in video, but to get a fuller picture of the force that the company is poised to become, it’s important to look at the range of video initiatives Amazon is pursuing.

The past month has been a whirlwind of news in video devices, content and how Amazon is differentiating through their integration. Last Thursday brought a flurry of announcements related to Amazon’s Fire tablets and Fire TV connected TV devices. The new Fire HD tablet was “designed from the ground up for entertainment,” with an 8” or 10.1” high-resolution display. Among the innovations Amazon touted was a brand new feature called “On Deck,” which will auto-download popular content from Prime Instant Videos to the Fire HD in a “shadow mode.”

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I'm pleased to present the 290th edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

On this week’s podcast we do an in-depth Q&A with our guest Lee Berke, who runs LHB Sports, Entertainment and Media, Inc. Lee has helped dozens of teams create and implement sports TV networks. He has a wealth of insights into the role of sports in pay-TV and how online and mobile video are causing leagues and teams to adjust their traditional distribution strategies.

Sports are a key driver of increased pay-TV rates and as VideoNuze readers know, I’ve been writing for years (examples here, here, here) about the billions of dollars non-fans pay each year in the form of a “sports tax” - subsidizing expensive sports networks they never watch. With the advent of robust, inexpensive OTT entertainment programming options, the pay-TV multichannel bundle has come under more pressure than ever, with subscriber losses peaking in Q2 ’15.

In our Q&A with Lee we explore these issues and how he sees OTT impacting teams, leagues and sports TV networks. Lee believes TV will remain the most significant revenue source in sports for the foreseeable future, but also sees the leagues more aggressively experimenting online to serve a new generation of fans. Lee also describes how he’s advising teams, particularly on how to maintain flexibility and capitalize on new technologies.      

Listen in to learn more!

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Ten industry-leading companies are on board as the initial sponsors of the inaugural SHIFT // 2015 Programmatic Video & TV Advertising Summit on Tuesday, December 1st in NYC.

The group includes Adobe (Title Partner); Altitude Digital, FreeWheel and Videology (Premier Partners); comScore, Levels Beyond, Ooyala, Operative and SpotX (Headline Partners) and Alphonso (Branding Partner). Each of these companies is making important contributions to the programmatic video and TV advertising ecosystem and I’m gratified that they’ve chosen to support SHIFT // 2015. There are additional charter sponsorship opportunities available; please contact me if you’d like to learn more.

In addition to the sponsors, the program for SHIFT // 2015 is coming together well, focusing on the most important topics in programmatic video and TV advertising. As with all VideoNuze events, we’ll have experienced industry executives sharing actionable insights and data which attendees can use in their own roles. I expect to share more details about the program in the next couple of weeks.

Programmatic video and TV are among the most important trends in the video advertising industry, with billions of dollars of spending already shifting. Going forward, eMarketer forecasts at least $4 billion, or nearly 40%, of U.S. online video ad spending will be done programmatically in 2016. And earlier this week, IHS and SpotX forecast that by 2020, 2 billion euros, or over half of all online video ad spending in Europe, will be done programmatically.

But it’s still early days for programmatic video and TV, with a complicated ecosystem and several key challenges. That’s where SHIFT // 2015 comes in - providing a laser-focused day of learning and networking for buy-side, sell-side and technology providers to help accelerate the adoption and success of programmatic video and TV.  If your company has a stake in programmatic video and TV, then attending SHIFT // 2015 will be time well spent.

Early bird discounted tickets are now available. I hope you’ll join us on December 1st!

REGISTER NOW AND SAVE!

Research firm Magid has released new survey data showing that robust OTT options are by far the most important driver of cord-cutting interest among those who say they’re likely to cut the cord. Magid found that OTT-related reasons were cited by a combined 77% of would-be cord-cutters, up from the 76% that cited OTT reasons in 2014 and 54% in 2013.

Per the chart below, the top 3 reasons cited by would-be cord-cutters were: “I am satisfied with online streaming options like Netflix and Hulu” (50%), “I can watch the TV shows and movies I like on the Internet” (41%) and “I have entertainment options on the Internet” (41%).

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Ooyala has released its Q2 ’15 Global Video Index, once again highlighting the shift toward mobile video viewing. For Q2 ’15, Ooyala found that 44% of online video views occurred on mobile devices, up from 42% in Q1 ’15 and 27% in Q2 ’14. Ooyala forecasts mobile viewing will surpass 50% of online video views by the end of 2015 if not sooner.

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Adobe announced a programmatic ad platform for advertisers and media publishers as part of its Adobe Marketing Cloud. On the publisher side, the programmatic offering, now available in beta, will be part of Adobe Primetime, Adobe’s video management and monetization platform for TV networks and pay-TV operators.

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Innovid has released its Q3 2015 State of Interactivity Report, based on a survey of 200+ U.S. media buyers in August, which provides insights about their priorities and preferences. Per the chart below, over 92% of respondents said they’re currently buying pre-roll video ads, slightly ahead of display. Mobile video was fourth with 85% buying it. Further down in the eighth position was Interactive Video (61%) and in tenth position, connected TV (55%).

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