VideoNuze Posts

Quibi and Snap appear to be two companies moving in opposite directions in mobile video. Quibi, the high-profile, well-funded startup, has belatedly broadened its scope beyond mobile, enabling its app on Fire TV, Apple TV and Android TV, a recognition that a pure-play mobile video offering from scratch is unsustainable, especially during Covid.

The Information also reported yesterday that Quibi has unsuccessfully shopped its content catalog to NBCU and Facebook and that founder Jeffrey Katzenberg has told people he may have to shut down the company. This follows a WSJ report from late September that Quibi was seeking a buyer for the whole company. Previous reports revealed that initial advertisers were seeking to revamp their deals, due to smaller audiences and lagging app downloads.

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Bloomberg reported Friday that Disney has curtailed Hulu’s international expansion because Disney does not want to significantly increase Hulu’s valuation which would trigger a higher eventual payout to minority owner Comcast. Hulu’s valuation in early 2024 will set the payout Disney owes Comcast for its one-third share in Hulu under a deal struck in May, 2019. Comcast’s Hulu stake is worth at least $5.8 billion under the deal.

Bloomberg said that Hulu’s late 2019 proposal to Disney to expand internationally was initially supported, but then in August 2020 Disney switched gears and decided to embrace Star as the international brand for its non-U.S. entertainment service. Disney acquired Star, the India media company, as part of its $71 billion Fox deal. Bloomberg also cited Disney’s concerns about extending Hulu’s losses, Covid’s negative impact on Disney’s various businesses, and its commitment of resources to Disney+’s international expansion as other reasons it decided not to support Hulu’s international expansion.

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I’m pleased to present the 534th edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.  

This week Colin and I discuss a number of data points that have hit our radar this week highlighting the growth of online video and live streaming. Among the sources we cite are Limelight, Akamai, FreeWheel, Disney and Ring Digital. Online video continues to supplant traditional TV viewing and this will be on display in ’21 with a series of marquee sporting events that will have huge streaming viewership. Listen in to learn more!
 
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FreeWheel has released its U.S. Video Marketplace Report (VMR) for first half 2020, adding to the evidence that Americans staying at home due to Covid-19 are gravitating toward the big screen. Specifically, FreeWheel found that 73% of total ad views occurred on set-top box VOD and connected TVs. FreeWheel views Covid-19 “not as an agent of change, but rather an accelerant for audiences and advertisers.”

CTV share was 50% (up 42% year over year) with STB’s share 23% (up 13% YOY). Mobile had a 15% share of ad views (up 17% YOY) and desktop had 11% (down 2% YOY). FreeWheel said CTV usage was driven by higher consumption of premium video from virtual pay-TV operators (e.g. YouTube TV, Hulu Live, etc.) and direct-to-consumer apps.

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In August, hours spent watching online video per week edged out hours spent watching traditional TV on broadcast, cable, or satellite in the U.S., according to a new report from Limelight Networks. Respondents in the U.S. said they watched a record 9.3 hours of online video per week vs. 8.9 hours of traditional TV. Respondents in India, Singapore, Indonesia and France also watched more online video weekly, while those in Germany, U.K. and South Korea continue to watch more traditional TV.

Only viewers in India (10.9 hours per week) and Indonesia (9.5 hours per week) watch more online video that U.S. viewers. Globally, online video consumption reached 7.9 hours per week in August, up 16% vs. 6.8 hours per week a year ago and 4.3 hours per week in 2016. 27% of respondents said they watch 10 hours or more of online video per week while 39% said they watch 4 hours per week or less.

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Akamai has announced a set of new live streaming features for its platform in anticipation of a viewership surge in late 2020 and into 2021. Akamai forecasts that a single event could have 50 million concurrent streamers, approximately double what events have seen in the past. The company cited the Summer Olympics which have been pushed to 2021 and UEFA EURO as sporting events expected to drive record live streaming in narrow time windows.

Akamai said the pandemic generated peak traffic on its platform exceeding 100 terabits per second every day during Q2 ’20; for context, the 100 terabit per second threshold was broken for the first time in October ’19. Akamai cited video games, in-game live events and esports tournaments, in addition to SVOD/AVOD consumption, as key traffic drivers.

To support the expected surge in live streaming, Akamai announced the following platform enhancements:

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I’m pleased to present the 533rd edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.  

Are AVOD and SVOD services in competition with each other for time and attention, or is there more of a continuum between them? For now at least, with viewership of both exploding, it seems like more of a continuum according to data Colin shares this week.

However, AVOD/SVOD viewership is coming at the expense of linear TV/pay-TV. This was substantiated again this week by Roku and The Harris Poll’s Consumer Holiday Shopping Report, which found a 19% YOY increase in streaming and a 13% YOY decline in pay-TV viewing. We discuss the details.

Click here to listen to the podcast (21 minutes, 53 seconds)

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People who stream video to their connected TVs say they plan to spend hundreds of dollars more per person this holiday season vs. those that don’t stream, according to the new Consumer Holiday Shopping Report from Roku and The Harris Poll which surveyed approximately 2,000 American adults.

Streamers plan to spend $921 compared with non-streamers who say they plan to spend $673. Overall, 1 in 4 respondents said they plan to spend more this holiday season and 47% plan to spend the same.

79% of streamers said they will do most of their holiday shopping online vs. 55% of non-streamers saying they’ll do so. The primary benefits of online shopping were free/cheap shipping (55%), fast shipping (47%) and tangible discounts and coupons (42%).

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