VideoNuze Posts

I'm excited to share information about several sessions and speakers at the VideoNuze 2012 Online Video Advertising Summit on June 19th in NYC. The Video Ad Summit will bring together executives from brands, agencies, technology providers and other stakeholders for a highly-focused day of learning and networking. Lots more to come over the next few weeks!

Early-bird, discounted registration is now available (note, the VideoNuze Online Video Advertising Summit takes the place of last year's "ELEVATE" event).

How Multi-Platform Video is Leveling the Playing Field for All Content Publishers
- Alisa Bowen - GM, The Wall Street Journal Digital Network
- Baba Shetty - Chief Strategy Officer & Chief Media Officer, Hill Holliday (moderator)

Description:
With its recently unveiled WSJ Live video app, the Wall Street Journal has become a perfect example of how a traditional media company can expand into video, leveraging its assets to engage its audience and create new revenue streams. In this session, learn the secrets to WSJ's multi-platform video success and how new opportunities are opening up for all content publishers.

Connected TVs: Game-Changer Coming to the Living Room
- Sam Chang - VP/GM, LG Electronics
- Ed Haslam - SVP, Marketing, YuMe
- Colin Dixon - Senior Partner, The Diffusion Group (moderator)

Description:
Connected TVs are bringing high-quality online video directly into the living room, with the potential for massive new viewership, behaviors and video ad inventory. This session will explore the timeline for connected TV adoption, new ad formats that are already being deployed and how connected TV are going to change the video landscape, again.

Case Study - When Brands and Content Connect
- Mike Henry -  CEO, Outrigger Media

Description:
High-quality original online video series allow advertisers to connect their brand objectives with their target audiences better than ever before possible. In this case study, learn how Tumi, a premium lifestyle travel company, has benefited from exclusively sponsoring the original series "Bourdain's TV Crew" and how Outrigger's video content marketplace, OpenSlate, is helping develop the market for brand-supported video series.

Early-bird, discounted registration is now available.

If your business success depends on online video advertising in one way or another, the Video Ad Summit is a must-attend day of learning and networking. I hope to see you on June 19th!

An interesting new company named Brevity came out of stealth mode here at the NABShow this week. Its V3 technology transcodes large video files during highly accelerated transport from one location to another without any degradation of quality. The company is aiming to disrupt traditional production workflows which it considers expensive and inefficient.

Given the push to higher resolution and longer-form video, along with multi-screen delivery, Brevity's time savings and simplification is an exciting prospect for content creators. V3 will be available at the end of Q2.

Brevity's COO, Timothy O'Brien explains Brevity's approach in detail in the following video.

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Adobe's VP, Monetization (and former CEO of Auditude) stopped by the VideoNuze booth at the NABShow yesterday for a video interview (see below) in which he shares highlights from the company's newly-released 2012 Digital Video Ad report. The data is based on over 2.5 billion video ads that Adobe served in the second half of 2011 across customers like MLB, Comcast, Fox News and other premium video providers.

Key findings included:

- Mid-rolls have an 87% completion rate, 30% higher than pre-rolls

- Ad completion rates of 94% on mobile devices (tablets and smartphones) are the highest of any viewing environment

- Ad completion rates for live content are 85%, which is 23% than for VOD

All in all, the report concludes that advertising in online video is becoming more similar to broadcast TV as the ad loads are increasing and viewers become more tolerant.

The full report is located here.

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VideoNuze's first-ever booth, at NABShow, is up and running (see below)! True, it's not nearly as elaborate as the booths from the big guys, but it's doing the job for us. We've been recording video interviews all morning with online video industry executives, which we'll begin posting tomorrow!

I'm pleased to be joined once again by Colin Dixon, senior partner at The Diffusion Group, for the 129th edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for April 13, 2012. These days it can be overwhelming to keep up with the amount of data concerning change in the video landscape. In an effort to demystify things a bit, today Colin and I discuss several interesting data points that have recently hit our radar, which tangibly underscore how viewers' behaviors and expectations are shifting. We see a narrative forming from the data and discuss its implications for the video and pay-TV industries.

Listen in to learn more!

Click here to listen to the podcast (19 minutes, 27 seconds)

Click here for previous podcasts

The VideoNuze Report is available in iTunes...subscribe today!

HBO announced yesterday that it will offer online access to premiere episodes of its two newest shows, "Girls" and "Veep" to non-subscribers on HBO.com, YouTube, Dailymotion, TV.com, and via distributors' free VOD platforms. "Veep" will also be offered as a free download on iTunes. Access will begin the day after the shows launch on HBO and run for a month. The initiative is savvy on a number of different levels, and continues to show how HBO is tapping new online video opportunities while cautiously adhering to its traditional distribution model.

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I'm constantly on the lookout for data points that provide insights into how viewer behavior may be changing, particularly with respect to possible shifts from traditional pay-TV offerings to new over-the-top (OTT) alternatives.

That's why a client note from the media analysts at Citigroup this week, which highlighted the ratings drop-off that cable TV networks as a group are experiencing, caught my eye. The Citigroup note follows a recent WSJ report explaining that 11 of the top 15 cable networks have lost audience this year, including a whopping 25% decline at Nickelodeon among its kids 2-11. Citigroup said that for each of the last 6 months, cable's total day ratings decline has actually accelerated, from 2.3% last October to 7.8% in March.

Citigroup's main concern about this ratings drop-off is that cable networks' ad revenue growth is slowing as well, in turn pressuring their media company owners' valuations. While that is surely a worry for investors, an even broader issue to consider is whether the drop-off in cable's ratings is the tip of the OTT iceberg, signaling that the explosion of online-delivered alternatives is beginning to impact viewership patterns. While it's too early to conclude this, all of the elements that would drive OTT's rise - at cable's expense - appear to be falling into place.

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At yesterday's IAB Digital Video conference, 10 industry executives (see list at bottom of this page), debated how best to define "premium video." It's not an academic question, because for many brands and agencies, the concept of "premium" determines whether the video will qualify for ad spending at all. And of course, the more "premium" the video is, the higher the pricing its ad inventory will command, which in turn drives the video's profitability. At a time when more original online video is being produced than ever (much of it deficit-financed), understanding in advance what is premium - and therefore monetizable - is critical to achieving success.

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