VideoNuze Posts

Ooyala has released its Q4 '14 Global Video Index, once again showing the powerful rise in mobile as a preferred viewing platform for online video. A record 38% of video views in December, 2014 occurred on mobile devices, up from less than 18% in December, 2013. For the full fourth quarter of '14, mobile accounted for 34% of video views.

When it released its Q3 Global Video Index in December, '14, Ooyala forecasted that mobile video's share will cross 50% industry-wide by Q3 '15. Since 2011, mobile's share of video plays has increased 16-fold.

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Adobe Primetime has added two important features that help content providers better monetize their video ad inventory and improve the user's experience.Primetime now allows content providers to import first, second and third-party audience data into Audience Manager, the company's data management platform. The result is better targeting to specific audience segments.

And second, Primetime has enabled cross-device frequency capping for ads in authenticated content. This means that a viewer who switches from using, say, an Android tablet, to an iPhone, to watch TV Everywhere programming won't be served the same ad (note the capping is still at the household-level for now).

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HBO's upcoming launch of its "HBO Now" OTT service is unquestionably one of the biggest variables for the future of the pay-TV ecosystem. Because of its marquee original content and ubiquitous brand, HBO is unique among all entertainment-oriented cable networks in having the power to attract millions of OTT subscribers.

While that's an opportunity for HBO, it's also a massive threat to the larger pay-TV industry. The ability to subscribe to HBO standalone will almost certainly make cord-cutting and cord-nevering a more appealing option for some viewers. HBO Now, coupled with other OTT options, like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, or even Sling TV (for ESPN fans in particular) would be very enticing.

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I'm pleased to present the 263rd edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

Today we return to the cord-cutting debate, discussing fresh data showing that the largest pay-TV operators lost approximately 125K subscribers in 2014, slightly worse than the 95K subscribers they lost in 2013. There's both a "glass half-full" and a "glass half-empty" way of looking at the results, and we explore both positions. You decide!

We then turn from pay-TV to broadband, where the trend was quite different. The largest broadband ISPs added 3 million subscribers in 2014, up 15% from 2.6 million in 2013, with cable operators accounting for a remarkable 89% of all additions.

With 87.3 million broadband homes in the U.S.at the end of 2014, there is no question that broadband is the foundation on which all online services now stand (a key reason why the FCC's intervention is a risky proposition, as I explained last week).

Listen in to learn more!

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Early bird discounted registration is now open for the 5th annual VideoNuze Online Video Advertising Summit on Tuesday, June 16th in NYC. As an extra incentive, one early bird registrant will win a 55-inch TCL Roku TV, graciously provided by Roku.

The Ad Summit will once again be a premier day of learning and networking with industry leaders from brands, agencies, content providers, technology companies and others in the ecosystem. Last year's Ad Summit drew over 420 attendees, featuring 40+ speakers. This year's event will be at a new venue, the Time-Life Building's spacious 8th floor conference center. Detailed program info will be posted soon.

I'm thrilled to have 9 fantastic companies on board as initial sponsors, including Premier Partners FreeWheel and Pixability, Headline Partners Altitude Digital, LiveRail/Facebook, Ooyala, Teads.tv and TubeMogul plus Branding Partners Brightcove and Roku. All of these companies are key players in the online video advertising ecosystem and I'm honored they've decided to be a part of the Ad Summit.

If you'd like to learn more about speaking and sponsorship opportunities, please contact me.

Learn more and register now!

Integral Ad Science, which specializes in evaluating media quality for online advertisers, has acquired Veenome, a highly complimentary startup that measures specific contextual attributes of video ads. Veenome looks at web pages to determine things like whether ads are played in-banner or in-stream, how many players are on a page, what kinds of content is displayed, where the player was positioned, and more. Veenome builds on Integral's existing video ad evaluation technologies.

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Mobile lifestyles are becoming more prevalent, mobile devices are getting better and mobile video content choices are exploding. No surprise then, that with lots more mobile video viewing happening, mobile video advertising is booming. A recent check-in call with Frank Sinton, CEO of Beachfront Media, confirmed this, and he also shared insights on key challenges that remain.

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