VideoNuze Posts

Watching online video on connected TVs is now completely mainstream, as evidenced by Hulu noting that 62% of its views are on connected TVs. This powerful trend makes delivering immersive HTML5 video ad experiences to connected TVs and pay-TV set-top boxes an imperative for advertisers to accomplish their reach and frequency goals.

At the recent Video Ad Summit, Active Video demo'd how they're solving this problem, by rendering ads in the cloud and then delivering them - with full interactivity - to any type of set-top box. In the demo, ads from American Express and L'Oreal illustrate how it works. The Active Video presentation followed one by Quiznos, showcasing their "Toasty.TV" campaign, which would be a perfect fit for a living room experience.

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Sling Media has introduced 2 new boxes, the "M1" (which replaces the prior 350 model) and the "SlingTV" (which replaces the prior 500 model). In my opinion, the former, priced at $150, is the more intriguing of the two, as it represents a renewed push by Sling to establish a market for a dedicated TV Everywhere appliance (i.e. a device dedicated solely to extending a pay-TV subscriber's access to live and recorded content).

I don't believe there's any other product in the market that is as narrowly focused on this opportunity as the M1 is. With the M1, Sling is basically echoing the pay-TV industry's strategy for giving subscribers remote, mobile device-based access to their programming. But with pay-TV operators and networks themselves rolling out TV Everywhere apps themselves (e.g. HBO GO, WatchESPN, etc.), it's logical to ask why anyone would feel compelled to buy an M1.

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Nielsen is touting momentum for its mobile Online Campaign Ratings (OCR), citing adoption by over 20 different agencies, content providers and video ad platforms including Adap.tv, AdColony, BrightRoll, Collective, Defy Media, Digitas LBi, Drawbridge, Evolve Media, Freewheel, GroupM, Innovid, LiveRail, Lotame, Rocket Fuel, Rhythm NewMedia, Torrential, Tremor Video, TubeMogul, Twitch, Vdopia, Verve, Videology and YuMe.

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At the recent Video Ad Summit, I sat down with Rahul Chopra, News Corp's SVP/global head of video and Chief Revenue Officer of Storyful, which was recently acquired. Rahul has been a key executive behind the Wall Street Journal's highly successful online video strategy and implementation.

As Rahul explains, the Journal is now producing 150 hours of video per month, delivering 50 million streams across 35 different platforms. Content is created from every one of its international bureaus, which is released and promoted on a 24-hour cycle to match audience interests.

From an ad sales perspective, Rahul details how video is now part of a holistic go-to-market approach which advertisers are responding to. Inventory has been sold out for a long time and CPM are still rising and are very strong (Rahul would only share the numbers with me privately, but they are eye-popping).

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Get beyond the standard headlines by attending the 2014 Reel Video Summit, which will be held July 24-25 at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco.

The ReelSummit brings together hundreds of executives from brands, agencies, content providers and technology companies. For example, this year’s keynote speakers include:

Jim Louderback, General Manager of Discovery Digital Networks;

Jeroen “JW” Wijering, creator of the incredibly successful JW Media Players;

Jonathan Perelman, GM of Video & VP Agency Strategy at BuzzFeed;

Jon Klaff, Head of Media Solutions, Brand Activation Team at Google/YouTube.

This year’s Reel Video Summit schedule has been expanded to a two-day summit featuring insights from the foremost influencers in video marketing, video advertising, and video analytics/results. Attendees can expect candid discussion from leading experts about how they’re succeeding and the key challenges that remain.

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One of our early sessions at the recent Video Ad Summit was "TV is Video, But is Video TV?" which included Doug Knopper (Co-CEO, FreeWheel), Peter Naylor (SVP, Ad Sales, Hulu), Fred Santarpia (EVP, Chief Digital Officer, Conde Nast Entertainment) and Dan Suratt (EVP, Digital Media and Business Development, A+E Networks), with me moderating.

The question is highly relevant as it influences how ad spending will evolve and how pay-TV's value proposition will be perceived given the proliferation of online originals. Our panelists offer a range of perspectives, with some consensus that if it's long-form, high-quality, rights-managed and brand-safe online video, there's no practical difference vs. TV. One data point that Peter shares - that 62% of Hulu's content is now viewed on connected TV devices - underscores how mainstream online video viewing has become.

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After a short medical leave last week, I'm back in the saddle and have many new videos to share of last month's Video Ad Summit. One of our morning case studies focused on Land Rover and how online video advertising can be used for "mid-funnel" success - combining the best of video's branding reach with the potential of direct-response advertising's lead generation.

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Last week's acquisition of LiveRail by Facebook was the latest in a busy year of M&A deals and financings in the video industry. Across the spectrum of advertising, content, distribution, mobile and management/publishing, bigger industry players continue positioning themselves for the online/mobile video future, while innovative startups filling key needs continue getting lots of attention from investors.

I keep pretty close track of all the activity on VideoNuze and below is a summary of the 2014 video industry M&A and financings that I'm aware of (apologies in advance, I'm sure I've missed a few; if so, send over and I'll update). I've included links to appropriate coverage or press releases.

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