VideoNuze Posts

Don't wait any longer - early bird discounted tickets for the next VideoSchmooze: Online Video Leadership Forum on Dec. 3rd, in NYC are available for $95 apiece. This is a fabulous value including the full morning program, networking, continental breakfast, and perhaps most importantly - a chance to win the drawing for an iPad, the complete "Breaking Bad" series on Blu-ray/UltraViolet and several Chromecasts, all generously provided by Unicorn Media.  Bring your colleagues and save even more with 5-pack tickets for $430 and 10-packs for $760.

I'm fired up for this VideoSchmooze because we'll be diving deeply into so many of the hottest industry topics that VideoNuze covers each day such as the rise of OTT video, the threat of cord-cutting, TV Everywhere, mobile video's explosion, changing viewership behaviors, online video advertising, devices and much more. Keeping things grounded, for the first time we'll have 2 short research presentations, from FreeWheel and Videology, with each premiering brand-new market data.  

The lead sponsors for this 10th VideoSchmooze are FreeWheel, Synacor, thePlatform and Undertone, with branding sponsors Clearleap, Unicorn Media and VideoHub. If you need to be up-to-date on what's really going on in video, and want a premier networking opportunity, make sure VideoSchmooze is on your calendar for  Dec. 3rd!

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When your flagship product's name becomes far better known than your company's name, it's likely time for a corporate identity makeover. That's the logic behind LongTail Video's official name change today to "JW Player" as company CEO Dave Otten told me last week. JW Player is the company's hugely successful video player, now used by over 2 million sites. The company has also changed the name of its online video platform, Bits on the Run, to "JW Platform."

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When we last left Aereo in its battles with the broadcast TV networks, our trusty (or not so trusty - it's complicated) over-the-top service was in the midst of a maelstrom of litigation and new market rollouts.  The dynamic has only gotten more heated, highlighted by the broadcasters' petition for relief from the U.S. Supreme Court filed just over a week ago.

For all of the attention of the broadcasters petition to the Court, the finish line here is far from in sight. The Court is not obligated to take this case, and in fact grants less than 2% of all 'cert' petitions.  The broadcasters are seeking resolution of what they say is a 'split' among Circuit Courts, which is certainly a well-established basis for the Court to step in. Yet to date no other appellate court has ruled in opposition to the 2d Circuit - only other lower district courts.  So while I would fully expect the Court to eventually take this case, the timing may not be ripe in their eyes. So we may well be back to sorting through the continuing morass for some time.  So what is happening in the hinterlands?

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Video-on-demand and pay-per-view provider iN DEMAND has chosen software platform Clearleap to help it move to an all IP terrestrial distribution network for multi-screen delivery. Under the deal, Clearleap will handle 4,000 hours of HD and SD movies per month that iN DEMAND distributes to its cable operator affiliates for their transactional, subscription and free VOD offerings.

Clearleap's CEO Braxton Jarratt told me  that iN DEMAND will be able to now limit its use of satellite delivery mainly for live events. Clearleap's management platform is layered on top of iN DEMAND's IP infrastructure, giving the company a single user interface to manage all of its content for quick delivery in multiple formats to cable operators. This is critical to support VOD viewing by subscribers on TVs and other connected devices.

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A new academic research paper on video advertising effectiveness, written in partnership with Akamai, shows among other things that mid-roll video ads have the highest average completion rate at 96.8%, followed by pre-rolls with 74.3% and post-rolls at 44.7%.

Even when controlling for other factors like an ad's length or the video itself, mid-rolls continued to have the highest completion rate. The data underscores the value of an already engaged viewer. The new research aligns with prior research from FreeWheel which also showed mid-rolls with the highest completion rates of 97% for 15-second ads and 91% for 30-second ads.

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Teads.tv, a provider of innovative video ad units, has raised $5.2 million in a Series A round by Partech Venture and Elaia Partners. As I wrote several months ago, Teads' big differentiator is that it enables premium text-based web pages to carry video ads as well. So in other words, rather than a premium publisher having to create expensive video in order to tap into the booming demand for online video ads, it can monetize existing web pages this way. the video ads only become visible when a pre-determined about of content has been consumed. Teads ads can also run in slideshows, music, video and social media.

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Adap.tv and Digiday have released their Q4 2013 state of the video industry survey results, which found strong interest in online and mobile video advertising. In particular, 86% of brands anticipate increasing their online video ad spending in 2014, by an average of 65% vs. what they spent in 2012. In addition, 91% of agencies see an increase averaging 28% vs. 2012 spending.

However, there's disagreement on how these online video ad spending increases will be funded. 42% of  agency and brand executives believe that budgets currently used for out-of-home advertising will be tapped, followed by Search (26%) and broadcast TV (21%). But when brands alone are broken out, 33% said "no other category" (implication is video spending is incremental), with broadcast TV in second (cited by 31%), display (30%) and print (19%). In a sign that plans to poach broadcast TV dollars may be over-estimated, 42% of buyers said there hasn't been any change in their spending on that media.

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Netflix now has over 40 million global subscribers, including over 31 million is the U.S. alone, after reporting strong Q3 2013 results. Domestically, Netflix now has more subscribers than the biggest pay-TV operator (Comcast) and the biggest premium cable network (HBO).

Every research report I've seen continues to verify that to date Netflix is NOT driving cord-cutting (which is relatively small anyway). Still I can't help but ask the question in light of the company's renewed momentum: though it's fully justifiable to consider Netflix as an augment to pay-TV service today, is it fair to continue thinking of it that way forever? In other words, could a very different Netflix - as it might look, say, 3 years from now - become more of a substitute for pay-TV service for certain people?

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