VideoNuze Posts

Akamai has announced a set of new live streaming features for its platform in anticipation of a viewership surge in late 2020 and into 2021. Akamai forecasts that a single event could have 50 million concurrent streamers, approximately double what events have seen in the past. The company cited the Summer Olympics which have been pushed to 2021 and UEFA EURO as sporting events expected to drive record live streaming in narrow time windows.

Akamai said the pandemic generated peak traffic on its platform exceeding 100 terabits per second every day during Q2 ’20; for context, the 100 terabit per second threshold was broken for the first time in October ’19. Akamai cited video games, in-game live events and esports tournaments, in addition to SVOD/AVOD consumption, as key traffic drivers.

To support the expected surge in live streaming, Akamai announced the following platform enhancements:

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I’m pleased to present the 533rd edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.  

Are AVOD and SVOD services in competition with each other for time and attention, or is there more of a continuum between them? For now at least, with viewership of both exploding, it seems like more of a continuum according to data Colin shares this week.

However, AVOD/SVOD viewership is coming at the expense of linear TV/pay-TV. This was substantiated again this week by Roku and The Harris Poll’s Consumer Holiday Shopping Report, which found a 19% YOY increase in streaming and a 13% YOY decline in pay-TV viewing. We discuss the details.

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People who stream video to their connected TVs say they plan to spend hundreds of dollars more per person this holiday season vs. those that don’t stream, according to the new Consumer Holiday Shopping Report from Roku and The Harris Poll which surveyed approximately 2,000 American adults.

Streamers plan to spend $921 compared with non-streamers who say they plan to spend $673. Overall, 1 in 4 respondents said they plan to spend more this holiday season and 47% plan to spend the same.

79% of streamers said they will do most of their holiday shopping online vs. 55% of non-streamers saying they’ll do so. The primary benefits of online shopping were free/cheap shipping (55%), fast shipping (47%) and tangible discounts and coupons (42%).

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I’m pleased to present the 532nd edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.  

This week we dive into some of the key data from NBCUniversal’s new Cross-Platform Consumption Report, which revealed that for its entertainment programming, 76% of viewing by 18-34 year olds is now done on-demand. For 35-49 year olds it’s 69% and even for 50 year-olds it’s 50%.

The report points out that connected TVs have become the fastest growing device for consuming on-demand content. Colin and I see this only accelerating and we also discuss new CTVs that have been unveiled in the past week by Amazon, Roku and Google (Chromecast). The consumer experience keeps getting better and for $50 there are multiple solid choices.
 
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Last week’s Connected TV Advertising Summit Virtual Event featured 40 industry executives on 14 different sessions, including research presentations, interviews and panel discussions, both live and pre-recorded.

As Colin and I talked about on last Friday’s podcast, the CTV Ad Summit illuminated how widespread CTVs already are and why they’ve created such significant opportunity for advertisers and content providers as linear TV and pay-TV continue to decline.

Several speakers noted CTV is now their company’s number one strategic priority. Over time CTV will capture the best of TV advertising’s reach and impact with the best of digital advertising’s targeting and ROI. CTV is still a work in progress though and many speakers highlighted key ongoing challenges in the areas of measurement, transparency and inventory management.

Below I have included the program and all of the session videos in one playlist. The thumbnail for each session includes the title slide and list of speakers. Enjoy!

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I’m pleased to present the 531st edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.  

VideoNuze’s Connected TV Advertising Summit was earlier this week, and we spend the first half of this week’s podcast reviewing our key takeaways. Many speakers highlighted how central CTV is to their companies’ strategies and how a key goal is attracting TV ad budgets as linear TV declines. We also reflect on challenges that speakers raised and how they’re being addressed.

TV networks continue to aggressively pursue direct-to-consumer OTT services, and the latest example is Discovery+ which is planned for launch in early 2021. We discuss how, with an ad-supported version of HBO Max also on the horizon, plus other services, CTV viewing will continue to grow strongly.
 
Click here to listen to the podcast (24 minutes, 1 second)

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I’m pleased to present the 530th edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.  

This week Colin and I discuss how both Comcast and AT&T, the 2 biggest pay-TV operators, are capitalizing on broadband’s rising tide to evolve their video businesses. Both companies’ CEOs spoke publicly this week about their strategies as consumers continue to shift to SVOD and AVOD services. We share our thoughts on their plans and what it means for the broader industry.
 
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Coming up next week on September 21 and 22 afternoons is VideoNuze’s Connected TV Advertising Summit Virtual, which will feature 40 industry leaders. Hear from NBCUniversal, ViacomCBS, GroupM, Bloomberg Media, Comcast, Amplifi, Roku, Publicis, VEVO and many others. Registration is complimentary.

In addition to interviews and panel discussions, the conference also features research presentations from Deloitte, eMarketer, Leichtman Research Group, Hub Entertainment Research and Xandr.

In short, over the course of 2 afternoons, attendees will get invaluable perspectives and data that will help them succeed in CTV advertising, the fastest-growing part of the ad business.  If your business depends on the growth and success of CTV, join us for the premier conference of the year focused on CTV advertising.

Reminder that registration is complimentary and one attendee will win a Roku living room makeover including a Roku TV, wireless speakers, wireless sub-woofer and one year Netflix subscription, all generously provided by Roku.

Many thanks to our incredible 8 partners: Presenting partner Deloitte; Gold partners Extreme Reach and SpringServe; Silver partners Beachfront, SpotX, Roku and Xandr and Branding partner Verizon Media.

Complimentary sign up now!

(If you’ve already signed up, please disregard this message and check your inbox for important Zoom links for the conference.)