VideoNuze Posts

VideoAmp, a startup focused on optimizing cross-screen video ad campaigns, has raised a $15 million Series A round led by RTL Group, with participation from existing investors. The new funds will be used for product and business development. VideoAmp has raised $17.2 million to date. RTL is already active in the video space, having invested in both SpotX and clypd.

A video ad tech financing like this would have happened on a near-weekly basis just a few years ago, but with investor confusion about the space due to fragmentation (see the LumaScape), as well as uncertain market conditions, VideoAmp’s raise is quite unusual. Yesterday I spoke to VideoAmp’s CEO Ross McCray and its chief business officer, Jay Prasad, to learn more about company differentiators and how it succeeded with the financing.

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Beachfront Media has launched RISE, a full-service OTT platform for independent video creators to deliver their apps to connected TVs and mobile devices. Beachfront’s CEO and founder Frank Sinton told me that RISE is meant primarily for popular video creators who are becoming their own brands to reach audiences seamlessly across multiple devices.

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In-home WiFi networks are getting clogged up as more people turn to their connected TV and mobile devices to stream video. To solve this problem, AirTies, a 10 year-old company specializing in whole home wireless networking with significant success in Europe, has announced its entry into the North American market and its first customer Midcontinent Communications, a mid-sized pay-TV operator.

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Reminder that there’s just 1 week left to take advantage of discounted early bird tickets for the SHIFT // 2015 Programmatic Video & TV Advertising Summit on Tuesday, December 1st in NYC. Early bird registrants save $100 on regular tickets and will be entered to win a 50-inch Sharp Roku TV, generously provided by Roku. Further discounts are available on 5-packs and 10-packs. And, startups and students can register for the reduced $195 ticket (contact me for the code).

There are now over 40 industry leaders scheduled to speak at SHIFT from ABC, Altitude Digital, Assembly, Bloomberg Digital, comScore, Fox, Havas Media, Hill Holliday, Horizon Media, Magna Global, MediaVest, Meredith, Operative, Razorfish, Roku, SpotX, The Weather Company, TubeMogul, Viacom, Videology VivaKi and Xaxis, with others to be announced shortly. We’re privileged to have Donna Speciale, President of Turner Broadcasting Ad Sales, as our keynote guest, discussing the company’s data and audience-based buying initiatives.

I hope you’ll join us for this must-attend day of learning and networking!

Learn more and register now!

I'm pleased to present the 297th edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia. For a change, this week Colin and I recorded together in NYC after we spoke at a CTAM Think event.

First up this week we dig into CBS’ decision to create a new “Star Trek” series and include it in its CBS All Access SVOD service rather than on its TV network. Colin astutely points out the various risks in this approach. Yet the move is not all that surprising as consistent with how SVOD services are using high-profile original content to differentiate themselves. In this light, if CBS wants to get share of wallet vs. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and others, it has no choice but to beef up the originals available exclusively in CBS All Access.

The CBS “Star Trek” move came during a week when public media companies reported mixed results, reduced guidance and a strong emphasis on launching their own direct-to-consumer video services. Importantly, Time Warner messaged that it is going to pull back on its SVOD licensing. As we note, all of this clouds the access that the big SVOD services will get to well-known TV programs as networks and studios strive to preserve long-term value in the pay-TV ecosystem.

Listen now to learn more!

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Brightcove is evolving from helping companies play their videos to helping them make money from those videos; that’s the main theme CEO David Mendels highlighted to me in a briefing yesterday. Brightcove, one of the original online video platform companies, is capitalizing on what David describes as a still highly fragmented video technology landscape that creates a lot of complexity for content providers and marketers.

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