VideoNuze Posts

Industry research firm The Diffusion Group has found that, contrary to conventional wisdom, authentication is not blocking broader consumer acceptance of TV Everywhere services. TDG found that just 7% of TVE users perceive the TVE authentication process as "difficult" to "very difficult" while over two-thirds (68.4%) said it was "easy" to "very easy." Nonetheless, 82% of TVE users said eliminating TVE log-in entirely would be an important enhancement.

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JW Player has raised a $20 million Series C round, led by existing investor Greycroft Capital and Greenspring Associates, with participation from Cueball Capital and e.ventures. The company intends to use the proceeds to drive global growth, expand sales, marketing, product and engineering, and further develop its SAS platform.

The company said its player delivers almost 5% of all streamed video, with 900 million people per month using JW Player to watch video on over 2 million web and mobile sites. An enterprise side of the business now serves 200 companies in the Fortune 1000. Sample customers include POPSUGAR, Zynga, Fujitsu, Thomson Reuters, Philips and many others.

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Video ad platform provider Videology has shared financial information including that it is on track to generate nearly $300 million in revenue in 2014, up from $135.5 million in 2012. In the past 12 months over 1,330 advertisers generated 17.7 billion  video ad impressions on Videology's platform across all devices.

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Roku has announced that it has sold over 10 million of its players in the U.S. cumulatively since it shipped its first one in 2008. Roku last reported sales of 8 million units in January '14, which means the company has sold approximately 2 million units year-to-date (Roku has previously said it sold around 3 million units for all of 2013).

Roku was an early entrant in what has developed into an intensely competitive connected TV space. Apple, whose Apple TV device was famously referred to as a "hobby" by the company (though no longer) has over 20 million users. Google hasn't released any numbers for Chromecast yet, but undoubtedly its sales are well into the millions also (Google is also launching Android TV). And Amazon launched Fire TV this past spring.

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Extreme Reach has announced a single workflow solution to execute and measure TV and online/mobile video ad campaigns. The solution unifies traditionally disparate buying and operational functions, as advertisers seek to reach consumers across multiple screens. Extreme Reach asserted the new solution could reduce workflow by up to 50%.

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In another sign of programmatic video advertising's rising popularity among brand advertisers, Adap.tv's newly released 2014 State of the Video Industry report has found that 60% of brands' video ad spending is now allocated to programmatic channels. That compares with 44% for ad networks and 38% for agencies and trading desks.

However, when it comes to premium video, brands said just 23% of ad spending was done programmatically, reflecting how important publisher direct sales remains for the most coveted ad inventory. In fact, 51% of publishers said they're making premium ad inventory available for sale programmatically, up just slightly from 49% in 2013. Still, private marketplaces continue to gain, with 32% of publishers running one in 2014, up from 20% in 2013.

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Elemental Technologies, which has been known for its software encoding solutions, has broadened its product portfolio with the introduction of Elemental Delta, a comprehensive video delivery platform. Elemental Delta is for telco, OTT, broadcast, satellite and mobile operators seeking to deliver time-shifted TV including VOD, start-over TV and nPVR, across multiple devices.

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I'm pleased to present the 241st edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

This week Colin and I debate Apple's priorities, as the company has chosen a major push into the smart watch category instead of pursuing smart TVs and more robust connected TV devices.

Earlier this week I wrote how I find it confounding that Apple hasn't been more proactive about staking a claim in the digital living room, even as Roku, TiVo, Google, Amazon and many others have. To me, it's a big missed opportunity for Apple that the company hasn't laid down as big a bet on the digital living room as it now has on watches.

Conversely, Colin thinks Apple has its priorities right. He articulates numerous reasons why the watch play is savvy and why Apple hasn't yet pursued the living room more aggressively. It's a solid debate with no clear right or wrong answers. Listen in and let us know what you think!

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