VideoNuze Posts

Today I'm pleased to share a video interview I did with Yahoo's EVP, Americas, Ross Levinsohn at the recent NATPE Market conference in Miami, FL. Among the topics Ross addresses are::

How Yahoo is breaking through given the proliferation of online video choices?

How did the new Tom Hanks project "Electric City" for Yahoo come about?

Why is Yahoo's user data so important to developing original programming?

What's the timetable for shifting TV spending to online video and what are the key challenges?

Are there non ad-based revenue streams Yahoo envisions for its video?

What's the big surprise he foresees for 2012?

The interview runs 12 1/2 minutes. (Note, I'm off camera and my audio isn't great, so the questions are overlaid in text.)

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London-based Videoplaza has rolled out "Karbon," its new flagship ad management platform, to serve ads to all imaginable connected and mobile devices. Katy Turner, Videoplaza's VP of Marketing, told me that Karbon is the direct result of broadcast and publishing customers demanding simplified ways of monetizing content on the variety of devices now being used.

Karbon includes The Device Library, with profiles of over 7,000 different devices' supported codecs, bit rates and resolutions and The Asset Factory, which transcodes ads for the requisite devices and delivers them appropriately. The idea is that an ad can be uploaded to Karbon once with target devices selected. The ads are transcoded so that when an ad call is made the device is detected, its profile understood, and the proper ad delivered - all in real-time.

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Not that long ago, when only authorized set-top boxes could receive video service, life was relatively simple for cable operators. But now, as cable operators and TV networks have begun deploying TV Everywhere, one of the key hurdles has become the time and expense involved with integrating and maintaining these services with the ever-expanding array of connected and mobile devices that consumers prefer. To address this pain point, mPortal, a provider of mobile service delivery solutions, is announcing this morning its SPRINGBOARD Media product, a cloud-based approach to help accelerate TV Everywhere rollouts.

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Real-time video ad technology platform LiveRail is unveiling the "Video Brand Safety Alliance" this morning in partnership with AdSafe Media, Affine, comScore validated Campaign Essentials, DoubleVerify, Proximic and TRUSTe. As Mark Trefgarne, LiveRail's CEO and co-founder explained to me last week, the goal of the alliance is to offer advertisers, agencies, publishers and video ad networks a higher degree of insight and safety for their in-stream video ads.

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I'm pleased to be joined once again by Colin Dixon, senior partner at The Diffusion Group, for the 123rd edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for Mar. 2, 2012. This week's podcast has a different format; instead of discussing one topic in depth, we touch on three areas - the new lawsuit against Aereo, Netflix's deal with Starz ending (and whether the "flix" is coming out of Netflix) and UltraViolet's strategy of using discs to drive adoption.

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I've been fascinated for years with how newspapers have embraced online video to expand the scope of their businesses, redefine their identities and engage with their audiences. Yesterday I stumbled upon the latest example of how far from their print-only roots some newspapers are now moving: the NY Times has unveiled "Make Your Pitch," a contest for entrepreneurs to submit video "pitches" about their businesses to gain exposure on the paper's small-business Facebook page and to win a contributing role for its You're the Boss small business blog.

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Today I'm pleased to share a video interview I did with Netflix's Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos at the recent NATPE Market conference in Miami, FL. Among the topics Ted addresses are:

- How the business is doing since the Qwikster reversal, and what lessons were learned?

- Is there a chance the Starz deal could be renewed at some point?

- What is the role of TV series vs. movies on Netflix (and is the "flix" coming out of Netflix since Ted told me separately that 60% of the 2 billion hours watched in Q4 '11 was TV, and that the percentage is rising)?

- Why are the after-market economics for serialized dramas so challenging, in turn making Netflix a valued partner?

- Which competitors make him most nervous?

- How are international rollouts going?

- Which connected device is most critical to Netflix long-term?

- Is Netflix having any impact on cord-cutting and cord-shaving?

The interview runs 18 1/2 minutes. (Note, I'm off camera and my audio isn't great, so the questions are overlaid in text.)

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Mediamorph, a cloud-based service which tracks and measures all digital assets across all digital platforms, has raised an additional $8 million, from Smedvig Capital and Motorola Mobility. Co-founder and Chairman Shahid Khan told me that the funding will be used primarily to expand into Europe and to strengthen its range of service offerings. Total funding raised to date is $11 million.

Mediamorph addresses a key pain point for content providers: as digital distribution platforms multiply, there is massive complexity in cohesively tracking and measuring viewership by platform and then determining the compensation due per contractual terms. Shahid said the company now has relationships with 350 different distributors from which it receives usage data on behalf of content provider clients such as Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, HBO, Starz and others. Mediamorph accepts either structured or unstructured data, crunches it, and then provides a cloud-based, customizable dashboard so that clients can see exactly how their assets are performing either as a whole, or with specific outlets like iTunes, Hulu, Netflix, etc.

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