VideoNuze Posts

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.

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(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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The tone of last week's Cross-Platform Video Measurement Summit in NYC, was set upfront, as first speaker Patti Wakeling, Unilever's Global Media Insights Director, plainly stated that a "measurement crisis" is upon the research industry. Noting the wide diversity of devices that now deliver video, and rapidly changing consumer behaviors, Ms. Wakeling concluded that "consumers are way ahead of the research community."

These simple truths are no doubt what packed 300+ attendees into the Time Life Auditorium for an afternoon of discussion about how confusing the video landscape has become for traditional TV advertising and what the ecosystem - advertisers, agencies, content providers and measurement service providers - should be doing to address the situation.

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I'm pleased to be joined once again by Colin Dixon, senior partner at The Diffusion Group, for the 121st edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for Feb. 17, 2012. In this week's podcast we puzzle through Aereo - a new broadcast TV over IP / DVR-in-the-cloud provider, which this week announced a $20.5 million financing led by IAC's Barry Diller, plus a March 14th launch date in New York City.

I happened to be in NYC this week, and aside from "Linsanity," Aereo seemed to be the hottest topic around. But talk about a lack of consensus on its prospects! Some believe Aereo is going to be a major disruptor to the existing broadcast and pay-TV ecosystem, while others see it as a total non-starter, whether because broadcasters will succeed in shutting it down or because consumers won't be compelled by its proposition.

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Please save the date for the VideoNuze 2012 Online Video Advertising Summit, on Tues., June 19th in NYC. This event takes the place of last year's ELEVATE: Online Video Advertising Summit, which VideoNuze co-hosted and which drew 400+ attendees. Similar to last year, the Video Ad Summit will be an action-packed day of high-impact industry education and networking for executives at brands, agencies, video content providers, technology companies and other stakeholders in the ecosystem.

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Everyone knows that online and mobile video consumption is soaring, as tablets, mobile devices and connected TVs proliferate, but new data from Ooyala helps quantify things. According to its Q4 2011 Video Index report, released this morning, viewership on these devices doubled from Q3 '11 to Q4 '11. This is being driven by users clicking "play" more often when presented with video choices and then watching longer as well.

Tablets led with 22% growth in quarter-over-quarter growth in time watched per play. Connected TV and game consoles led in engagement (as measured by completion rate per video viewed), with viewers completing 47% of videos. Tablets were second with 38%, followed by desktop and mobile. Videos longer than 10 minutes added up to 57% of the viewership time on connected TVs and gaming consoles, while on desktops it was just 25%.

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