VideoNuze Posts

Nielsen has released its Q3 '14 Total Audience report (which is the new name for the previous quarterly Cross-Platform report), the highlight of which is the marked reduction in linear TV viewing across every age group except 65+, with an accompanying surge in online video. I charted the new Q3 '14 data vs. Q3 '13 data below.

The big quarter-vs-quarter change that pops out is the 19.2% reduction in linear viewing per week by adults 18-24. This age group is now watching 17 hours, 34 minutes per week, which is 4h, 11m less than the 21h, 45m a year ago. While this group increased its online video usage by 20.7%, that only accounted for 25 incremental minutes per week.

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Cognitive Networks has raised $14.5 million from new investor Hearst Ventures, existing investors DCM Ventures and Rogers Venture Partners plus two undisclosed strategic partners, to bolster its mission of "making smart TVs smarter." Cognitive's Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) on smart TVs detects in real-time what content is playing and then, via Cognitive's ENGAGE API, triggers a message back to the content provider or advertiser so that an interactive HTML5 app can be displayed to the viewer. The apps can be synched with either live or on-demand content and are fully opt-out by smart TV owners. The new funds will be used to further expand Cognitive's ACR platform.

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Video ad technology provider BlackArrow has announced Virgin Media as its first European customer, signaling a broader international expansion starting in 2015. BlackArrow will be powering dynamic ad insertion on Virgin's VOD TV platform and its Virgin Anywhere multi-screen service. Virgin, which was acquired by Liberty Global last year for approximately $16 billion, has deployed its digital TV service to 5.3 million screens in the UK.

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This Thursday, December 4th is the next VideoSchmooze: Online Video Leadership Forum in NYC. Continental breakfast will be available at 7:30am, with the program running from 8:30am to 12:30pm. There's still time to register and join 200+ colleagues from around the industry for this special morning of learning and networking.

As always, I've worked hard to focus the sessions on the most important industry trends, with participating executives from Assembly, BRaVe Ventures, Brightcove, Comcast, comScore, DEFY Media, Digitalsmiths, FreeWheel, FOX Sports, Fullscreen, Kaltura, Leichtman Research Group, NBCU, Nielsen, nScreenMedia, Tremor Video, Tubefilter and Vimeo.

As with all VideoNuze events, we'll maintain a hype-free atmosphere, where hard data and real-world experiences drive the on-stage discussions. I'm confident you'll come away with critical insights and data that will help you be more effective in your professional roles.

We are all living through immense changes in the video industry, which, in the long-run, will be considered no less historic than the advent of broadcast/cable TV, satellite delivery, color TVs, HDTV, VHS and DVD. Everyone involved in video - studios, advertisers, agencies, networks, talent, device-makers, technologists and others, will be affected in critical ways. The goal for these VideoSchmooze events is to help each of us better navigate these chaotic changes.

VideoSchmooze individual tickets are $135, with 5-packs for $575 and 10-packs for $1,000.

I look forward to seeing you on Thursday morning!

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Late last week, Thomas Owadenko, CEO of Octoly, a marketing software company that released a report on YouTube and video games last June, noted that all-time YouTube views of fan-created Minecraft videos are now up to 47 billion, an increase of 16 billion just since the report was released. Underscoring how robust Minecraft's fan community is, just 228 million of these views occurred on Minecraft creator Mojang's own YouTube channel.

Minecraft is a true "unicorn," a one-of-a-kind video game empire built with virtually no paid marketing, which partly explains why Microsoft was willing to pony up $2.5 billion for the company in September. But while Minecraft itself may be a unicorn, its success on YouTube says a lot more generally about the video industry's new rules - including serious challenges for industry incumbents.

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Bernstein Research has introduced a new weekly tracking report analyzing ad-supported U.S. TV networks' viewership on a year-over-year basis. The first version, released today, shows that for the week of November 10-16, audiences fell again across the board: down 8% for cable networks, 9% for broadcast and 17% for kids-oriented networks specifically. The declines were similar on a quarter-to-date basis as well.

Bernstein has previously calculated that ad-supported TV networks' audiences declined by around 13 minutes per day in Q3, while SVOD viewership increased by around 12 minutes per day, making SVOD the dominant driver of the TV networks' audience erosion.

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There's no doubt connected TV devices will be one of the hottest gifts this holiday season, as online video continues to evolve from an early adopter desktop behavior to a mainstream living room experience. But even the prices of connected TV devices plunge and consumers' enthusiasm builds, the space continues to be marked by the drip, drip, drip inefficient process of one-off additions of video apps to specific connected TV devices.

In fact, if you follow the market closely, you'll notice that seemingly each week there are a handful of announcements regarding a specific video app (or group of them) becoming available on a certain connected TV device(s). For example, in last week's news, Amazon Instant Video became available on TiVo Roamio/Mini devices, and HBO Go became available on Xbox One.

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Early bird discounted registration for the Dec. 4th VideoSchmooze: Online Video Leadership Forum in NYC expires today. If you've been waiting to see how your schedule is shaping up, now's the time to have another quick look and act. Early bird tickets are $95, with 5-packs for $430 and 10-packs for $760. And remember, one lucky early bird registrant will win a TiVo Roamio Plus DVR with Lifetime service, a $1,000 value (thanks to TiVo).

VideoSchmooze will be a full morning of learning and schmoozing with over 200 industry executives. We're covering a range of compelling topics across 6 sessions, with 18 speakers. These days there's no shortage of interesting stuff to dig into!

Special thanks to the Lead sponsors of this VideoSchmooze, Brightcove and Kaltura plus Branding sponsors Digitalsmiths, FreeWheel and Tremor Video.

I hope you can join us on Dec. 4th!

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