VideoNuze Posts

Today contributor Alan Wolk provides a hands-on review of Aereo. Alan is Global Lead Analyst at KIT digital. He frequently speaks about the television industry in general and second screen interactions in particular, both at conferences and to anyone who'll listen. Recently named as one of the "Top 20 Thinkers In Social TV and Second Screen" Alan is one of the main architects behind the award-winning KIT Social Program Guide and writes about the television industry at the Toad Stool blog. You can find him on Twitter at @awolk

If you are interested in contributing to VideoNuze, please contact me!

Aereo: The Hands-On Review
by Alan Wolk

I’ve been testing out Aereo for the past two weeks (see video below), ever since they expanded their service area to include the entire New York metropolitan area. I tested it at home where I have a blazing fast 50 Mbps FIOS connection using both their new Roku app and my iPad 3, and outside the house, where I rely on a Verizon Wireless iPhone 5 with 4G service. (Well, when 4G is available, that is.)

Interface: The interface on the iPad and iPhone are fairly similar. There aren’t that many channels:  Aereo has fleshed out the over-the-air offering with iON and a couple of foreign-language offerings, but most users are going to be looking for content from the Big 4 networks and PBS.

On the Roku app, the channels are arranged in Roku’s linear filmstrip layout, so that getting from one end to the other is quite a hassle.

continue reading

Video management platform provider Ooyala is introducing several new features today to make online and mobile video more accessible and pervasive across devices. The new features include Hook (a mobile video playback app for Android), XTV Connect (to bridge mobile video to any connected TV) and Ooyala Discovery Guide (to create live/VOD program guides). Below I describe each in more detail and explain their respective importance.

continue reading

U.K. based online video ad technology provider Videoplaza is unveiling Karbon 2, the next generation of its sell side ad management platform today. In addition, the company is launching Karbon Data Alliance, a network of data partners that enable Videoplaza content publisher customers to better analyze their audiences and create targeted monetizable segments. Karbon Data Alliance includes data management partners Nugg.Ad, Meetrics, Enreach, Eyota, Bluekai and others TBD.

continue reading

Flipping through yesterday's Best Buy circular, I noticed an ad (see below), which I believe is indicative of the type of pitches that are going to become increasingly prevalent to prospective cord-cutters and cord-nevers. The ad offers a packaged discount to an over-the-air ClearStream HD antenna from Antennas Direct with a TiVo Premiere and highlights logos from Netflix, Hulu Plus and Pandora. While the ad doesn't explicitly say "Dump your expensive pay-TV service now!," it has several key messages that might as well.

continue reading

Late last week, VINDICO, the big online video ad serving company, launched a new product called Adtricity, which is meant to standardize quality rankings for both video advertisers and content publishers. Matt Timothy, VINDICO's president, explained to me his belief that in order for online video advertising to continue scaling, both the buy and the sell sides of the ecosystem need stronger measurement of both viewability and verification.

Matt cites the explosion of ad networks that VINDICO works with, numbering 128 in 2012 (up from 50 in 2010) as a key reason for Adtricity's development. Because networks can be under pressure to deliver on their commitments, this can lead to ad placements that aren't quite what the advertiser thought it was getting, though they still contribute to delivery goals. Matt thinks of Adtricity as turning a "flood light" on the market, which will help all sides achieve better quality.

continue reading

I'm pleased to present the 172nd edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia. This week we first discuss Google Fiber, which Google announced this past Tuesday would roll out to a second city, Olathe, KS. Nonetheless, as we discuss, it still feels like Google Fiber is a hobby for Google, though its executives recently asserted otherwise. Neither Colin nor I quite understand what Google Fiber's actual market impact or game plan is, and we are skeptical that there's a business case to support its broader rollout.

We then turn our attention to another Google-related item, which is that YouTube announced this week it is now attracting 1 billion visitors/month, even as (according to my analysis), its U.S. online-only traffic has dropped by 32% year-over-year. But, because comScore doesn't measure mobile access, this isn't an accurate portrayal of YouTube's reach, which is clearly expanding. Colin has further data that adds color to the situation.

Separate, Colin has released his excellent new white paper, "Second-Screen Apps for TV" (free download here)

And a reminder to sign up for "Sizing Up Apple TV" a free video webinar on April 2nd featuring Brightcove's Jeremy Allaire and me.
    
Listen in to learn more!

(update - the correct pronunciation of Olathe, KS is "O lay the" (thanks Frank Hughes!).

Click here to listen to the podcast (18 minutes, 57 seconds)

Click here for previous podcasts

Click here to add the podcast feed to your RSS reader.

The VideoNuze podcast is also available in iTunes...subscribe today!

Native advertising, which refers to branded content or ad messages that are cohesively integrated directly into web sites, are getting lots of attention these days as an alternative to pre-roll video advertising. A study released by Sharethrough and Nielsen today is putting some brand lift performance numbers behind the debate.

Using Nielsen's Online Brand Effect tool to measure viewer response, the native advertising technology specialist found that five campaigns it studied produced higher brand lift from native advertising exposure than from pre-roll video impressions. In a campaign for the soft drink brand Jarritos, exposure to native ad content elevated favorable brand perceptions by 82%, compared with 2.1% lift among those who saw pre-roll ads. In another for a CPG brand, native ads drove a 42.2% brand lift vs. none for pre-roll ads. (see infographic below)

continue reading

Google announced late yesterday plans to extend its Google Fiber service to a second city, Olathe, KS (population 125,000), in Johnson County, about 30 minutes from Kansas City, where Google Fiber has been initially deployed. With the news, the question once again arises, if Google Fiber isn't a "hobby" (as Google executives recently stated), then what is it exactly? And by extension, what are its real implications for broadband ISPs, consumers and over-the-top video?

continue reading