VideoNuze Posts

I'm pleased to present the 336th edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

Like tens of millions of others, Colin and I have been watching our fair share of the Olympics. And like lots of others as well, instead of watching on linear TV, much of our viewing has been via the NBC app. Although linear TV viewing of the Olympics is down this year, NBC has reported that over 2 billion minutes have been streamed.

That reflects a broader shift in viewing behavior over the last few years as consumers move from linear to on-demand viewing using various devices. Colin and discuss the implications of this and what we might see in 2020.

Listen now to learn more!

Click here to listen to the podcast (23 minutes, 44 seconds)

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

Header bidding has been in the news a lot recently as a new technique for content publishers to optimize their ad inventory sold through programmatic exchanges. Header bidding has now come to video advertising as well, but as usual, there are unique new challenges. To better understand the issues and how to address them, I recently did a Q&A with Ron Dick, who is CEO and founder of Cedato, a video technology provider.

VideoNuze: Why has header bidding been so much in the news recently?

Ron Dick:  Last year, header bidding - the new “programmatic kid on the block” arrived. It sounded like a great alternative to the problematic waterfall model that advertisers and publishers had been using. In theory it seemed really promising, offering each impression to multiple demand sources simultaneously and increasing reach by opening the process to as many potential buyers as possible.

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Yesterday Amazon placed pilot episodes for 10 of its of its original programs on YouTube and Facebook. On the surface, this seems like a smart move, allowing these huge communities to get a taste of popular Amazon shows like “Transparent” and “The Man in the High Castle.” Amazon’s larger goal is to hook viewers and convert them to Prime membership. Free access to pilots have long been available at Amazon itself.

Clearly it is still very early in terms of mining the potential of YouTube and Facebook, but a day in, it’s somewhat surprising to see how few views there are. On Amazon’s YouTube channel, which has a cumulative 34 million views to date, “The Man in the High Castle” has done the best of the 10 pilots, but has just 1,583 views (see below). A distant second is “Transparent” with 258 views. Kids show “Tumble Leaf” is last with only 71 views.

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More evidence today of connected TVs’ ascendance as a preferred viewing platform: Pivotal Research’s Brian Wieser released a new report revealing that 8.5% of all TV usage in July 2016 by 18-49 year-olds was through connected TVs (e.g. Roku, Apple TV and Chromecast). That was up from 4.9% in July 2015 and just 1.9% in July 2014 (Wieser didn’t share data prior to then, but it’s no doubt minimal).

Wieser said the share gain by connected TVs was approximately equal to the loss in viewing share of ad-supported cable and English language broadcast TV networks. For all households, connected TVs had a 5.5% TV viewing share, which was up from 3.3% a year ago.

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This morning’s WSJ article, “Google’s High-Speed Web Plans Hit Snags” chronicles how Google Fiber has fallen way short of expectations and has experienced ongoing technology/deployment issues since its initial rollout 4 years ago. None of this surprises me and loyal VideoNuze readers will recall I was deeply skeptical from day 1, when I wrote, back in July, 2012, “Google Fiber is Out of Synch With Realities of Typical Consumer Technology Adoption.”

Google Fiber’s main value proposition and differentiator have always been 1 gigabit per second broadband service. But the problem is that very, very few people wake up in the morning wishing they had 1 gigabit so that, for example, they could stream 4K videos on 10+ devices at the same time, which is one of the key benefits Google Fiber promotes. Even as streaming video usage in the home has soared over the past 4 years, with the proliferation of high-quality video services and connected TV devices, most users have been satisfied with the quality of their broadband connection.

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I'm pleased to present the 335th edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

First up this week, Colin and I dig into Disney’s new $1 billion investment in BAMTech, the technology spin-off of Major League Baseball Advanced Media. We both like the move as it further positions Disney to capitalize on online delivery, while protecting itself from ongoing changes in viewers’ behavior. In this case, Disney’s sheer size gives it the resources to keep its options open.

Next up, Colin and I were both surprised by Hulu’s move earlier this week to jettison its free, ad-supported viewing service to a new partnership with Yahoo. Colin wrote a great piece earlier this week listing the 5 most important reasons why he thinks this was a mistake, which we discuss. Hulu continues evolving away from its roots, as it prepares to launch its skinny bundle next year, which brings its own set of challenges.

Listen now to learn more!

Click here to listen to the podcast (23 minutes, 51 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!

Please save the date - Wednesday, November 30th will be VideoNuze’s SHIFT // 2016 Programmatic Video & TV Advertising Summit at the Westin Times Square in NYC. This will be our 2nd annual SHIFT, and last year’s inaugural event drew over 380 industry executives, 18 sponsors and 50+ speakers, including keynotes by Turner Ad Sales President Donna Speciale and Bank of America SVP Lou Paskalis.

SHIFT // 2016 promises to be just as exciting and will once again be the premier day of learning and networking for anyone focused on programmatic video & TV, both of which have continued to accelerate over the past year. Programmatic has a lot of different dimensions when it comes to video and TV, and at SHIFT we’ll hone in on the most important themes, what’s behind them and what challenges remain.

One big trend we’ll dive into is TV networks’ data initiatives and goals of offering advertisers improved audience targeting in linear TV way beyond traditional age and gender as well as programmatic buying. This has become critical given the proliferation of online video alternatives and the vast scale/targeting of platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat and others. A key part of this conversation is how third-party data sources are being used to augment advertisers’ targeting of TV audiences.

We’ll be digging into lots of other topics such as how programmatic can be leveraged in cross-screen video/TV campaigns, the important role connected TVs are playing in bringing programmatic to the big screen, how programmatic is being used in mobile video and how programmatic is intersecting with emerging ad formats like outstream and native, among others.

As with all VideoNuze conferences, I’m confident that the program at SHIFT // 2016 will be a key differentiator. I spend a lot of time trying to optimize the topics, the flow of the day and the moderators. Most important is curating session speakers to get the best mix of experiences and perspectives.

Early bird tickets are now available as are sponsorships. If you have questions or would like to explore how to get involved please contact me. I hope you’ll join us on November 30th at SHIFT // 2016!

Say this for Disney - in just the past couple of years or so it has moved to cover virtually every bet for how online video might impact the company in the future.

With its Maker Studios acquisition, Disney expanded into YouTube-style content creation for kids and millennials. With DisneyLife, it’s moving into SVOD entertainment beyond its pivotal output deal with Netflix. Now with Hulu, it’s addressing cord-cutting and the potential of skinny bundles (as well as with deals with DirecTV Now, Sling TV and PlayStation Vue).  And finally, with its new $1 billion BAMTech investment, it’s adding platform capabilities for direct-to-consumer live sports streaming. Plus, with the forthcoming ESPN OTT service, it will test its own direct-to-consumer sports offering.

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