VideoNuze Posts

"Content is King." No, wait, "Distribution is King." No, wait, "Content and distribution are equals and need to work together." And on the debate has raged for years about what's at the core of the media and entertainment industry's success. Meanwhile, Netflix keeps proving that data is fast becoming the real king, with profound implications for all players in the industry.

The latest evidence of data's ascendance and Netflix's ability to harness it is the company's new 4 movie deal with Adam Sandler. Opinions about Sandler are all over the board, but in a must-read interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix's content head Ted Sarandos neatly summed up why Netflix made such a big commitment to him:

"The more global we become, the more access we have to global behavior data so we can see what people are watching all around the world. Very uniquely, he (Sandler) stands out for his global appeal to Netflix subscribers. Even movies that were soft in the U.S. outperformed dramatically on Netflix in the U.S. and around the world."

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I'm pleased to present the 244th edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

Netflix kicked up a lot of dust earlier this week, when it announced the sequel of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," produced by The Weinstein Company, will be available simultaneously as part of Netflix monthly subscriptions and in IMAX theaters when it premieres in August, 2015. The so-called "day-and-date" strategy prompted two of the three big U.S. IMAX chains, Regal and Cinemark, to declare they won't show "Crouching Tiger" on their screens.

The core issue here is whether a meaningful percentage of Netflix subscribers will opt to watch the movie as part of their subscription, thereby cannibalizing potential theater sales. Colin and I agree this risk is high, mainly because a family of four would pay at least $60-$80 just for tickets to see the movie in IMAX, a stark premium over their $8 Netflix subscription.

Admittedly, IMAX is a very unique experience, but with the quality of today's HDTVs and home theater, for many, watching at home is quite stellar. As such, theater owners seem well justified in boycotting the movie to preserve their long-term value proposition.

The "Crouching Tiger" move raises a host of other questions Colin and I also dig into: Will it have a positive impact on piracy? Is Netflix signaling a serious push beyond TV into movies (see also its 4-movie Adam Sandler deal this week)? And, is Netflix shifting toward a more exclusive content strategy?

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Late yesterday, the NFL announced it renewed its "Sunday Ticket" deal with DirecTV for a reported 8 years at $1.5 billion per year, a 50% increase over their prior deal. Going back about a year, there were rampant rumors that the Sunday Ticket package could go to an OTT player, with Google being the name most often mentioned.

In reality, though, there was virtually no chance Sunday Ticket was going to go to OTT, and so the DirecTV renewal comes as no surprise. As I wrote over a year ago, there were at least 5 big challenges to a Google-NFL deal in particular. These essentially boil down to a combination of online video not being mature enough yet to exclusively handle marquee sports broadcasts and the incumbent TV ecosystem desperately needing to retain marquee sports broadcasts like Sunday Ticket.

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BrightRoll has released a new study, conducted by Nielsen, which concludes that mobile video advertising provides cost-effective incremental reach to TV advertising. Nielsen found the following incremental reach with mobile video ads in 4 verticals it studied: CPG (12.7%), Auto (11.9%), Telecom (9.5%) and Financial Services (9.9%).

Underlying the incremental reach benefit of mobile video is Nielsen's estimate that once a brand hits 60% or more of its target audience with TV advertising, there's a point of diminishing returns, making incremental reach very expensive.

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Please save the date for the next VideoSchmooze: Online Video Leadership Forum, on Thursday, December 4th, at the Scholastic Auditorium in NYC. This will be the 11th VideoSchmooze and as with all of the previous ones, it will be a top-notch morning of learning and networking with video industry leaders. Continental breakfast will begin at 7:45am and we'll conclude by 12:30pm before lunch.

2014 has been another incredible year of growth for online and mobile video. Viewers continue to dramatically change their behaviors, with content choices exploding and connected devices for video proliferating. Incumbents are scrambling to adapt while startups continue to innovate. All are positioning themselves for billions of dollars of video-related spending by consumers and advertisers that are up for grabs.

As with prior VideoSchmoozes, we'll have an impressive array of sessions and speakers, which I'll announce soon, along with special early-bird registration. Last year we had 250+ attendees and I'm confident we'll have a similarly strong turnout this year too. For industry executives who need to cut through the noise and understand what's really happening in video, VideoSchmooze is a must-attend event.

I'm delighted to have Brightcove, FreeWheel and Tremor Video on board so far as sponsors for this VideoSchmooze. Additional opportunities are available, please contact me if interested.

Altitude Digital, a video supply side platform, has added two new VPs and anticipates more than doubling revenue to $50 million in 2014 as it has continued to expand its programmatic video advertising capabilities. Altitude has its roots in display, but has aggressively invested in programmatic video, now working with over 1,800 publishers.

The new hires include Ryan Abrahams as VP of New Revenue and Max Gideon, VP of Mobile. Abrahams was most recently Director of Publisher Development, East, for Nexage, a premium mobile ad exchange that was acquired last week by Millennial Media. Gideon was previously at Zynga, in business development and ad management positions.

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I'm pleased to present the 243rd edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

Earlier this week both Colin and I were intrigued to see AT&T in the market with a new $39 per month offer putting broadband and OTT front and center, with HBO/HBO Go plus a year of Amazon Prime. Just the low tier of U-verse U-basic TV is included. Colin and I both interpreted this as an aggressive move to attract millennials/cord-nevers.

The offer is also the latest by a pay-TV operator using OTT services as a lure. We've seen several European and smaller U.S. pay-TV operators promote Netflix as well. Colin and I discuss how operators are clearly becoming more flexible with regard to OTT services. We wrap up with a  preview of some of the new OTT pay-TV services coming to market and whether a linear TV style package makes sense and whether they too should incorporate OTT services.

Click here for previous podcasts

Click here to add the podcast feed to your RSS reader.

The VideoNuze podcast is also available in iTunes...subscribe today!