VideoNuze Posts

NeuLion is powering a 4K streaming option for tomorrow night’s UFC 200 pay-per-view event to viewers with Sony HDR Ultra HD TV sets in the U.S. and Canada. The stream is enabled by viewers who download the UFC app from Google Play and pay a $10 additional fee on top of the standard $59.99 PPV pass. All of the 4K encoding and delivery is done by the NeuLion Digital Platform. A parallel 4K telecast is also available to DirecTV viewers using their set-top boxes.

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Three-quarters of Amazon Prime members are watching the service’s video offerings, according to new survey data released by IBM Cloud Video. 61% of Prime members surveyed said they signed up for the service for the shopping benefits, but also watch the video, while another 14% said they signed up specifically for the video. Just 7% of members surveyed said they didn’t know about the video offerings, with another 18% saying they were aware, but didn’t watch.

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Yesterday, Recode reported that Comcast will integrate Netflix into its X1 set-top box. Loyal VideoNuze readers know that I’ve been advocating for this type of partnership for almost two years, back to when I articulated the benefits in “Why the Timing is Now Perfect for a Netflix-Comcast Partner Deal” in October, 2014. There are lots of benefits to Comcast and Netflix by partnering (as I’ll further explain below), but the biggest winners once the integration is complete later this year, are the companies’ mutual viewers.

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The convergence of TV and online video advertising is happening, but there are still many operational challenges to realizing its full potential. At the recent Video Ad Summit, we zeroed in what still needs to be done in a session titled “How to Move Ads at the Speed of Today,” which included Melinda McLaughlin (CMO, Extreme Reach), Peter Olsen (EVP, National Ad Sales, A+E Networks) and Mitch Weinstein (SVP, Director of Ad Operations, IPG Mediabrands), with Steve Grubbs of Prohaska Consulting serving as moderator.

The panelists dug into issues including the diverse ad operations workflows for TV vs. online video, the confusion caused by today’s metrics, the huge amount of time industry executives currently waste just trying to sync up on common standards and terminology, why reach is so important, yet so elusive across TV and digital, plus lots more.

It’s a fascinating, well-grounded discussion of the practicalities required to make converged campaigns and spending really take off.

Watch the video (33 minutes, 5 seconds).

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The opening session of our recent Video Ad Summit, “Convergence Realized: Why TV and Video are Now Inseparable,” featured panelists David Bickford (Head of TV Sales & Multi-Platform Group Director, Bloomberg Media), Jon Heller (Co-founder and Co-CEO, FreeWheel), Nick Johnson (SVP, Digital Ad Sales Strategy, Turner Ad Sales) and Paul Williamson (Chief Investment Officer, Publicis Media Exchange U.S.).

Tim Castree (Managing Director, North America, Videology) moderated the session and also shared a 10-minute presentation at the beginning providing some of the key contextual drivers for why TV and video are converging for advertisers and publishers (Tim’s slides are posted here).

Topics of discussion included changing viewers’ behaviors leading to fragmentation, the resulting measurement challenges and what’s being done to overcome them, how advertisers are coping with “patchwork” metrics, how content providers should think about cross-screen distribution, how advertisers are planning campaigns across different and much more.

Watch the video (52 minutes, 43 seconds).

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I'm pleased to present the 329th edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

There was lots of data this week showing the continued evolution of TV and video, with viewers taking further control of their experiences. On this week’s podcast we discuss some of the most relevant findings. We start with Nielsen’s Total Audience Report, which among other things highlighted a 13% year-over-year decline in linear viewing by 12-17 year-olds and SVOD pulling even with DVRs in U.S. household penetration. Separate, Nielsen also gave a glimpse of its ability to track viewership in SVOD services this week, citing Netflix's season 4 premiere of "Orange is the New Black" as attracting 6.7 million viewers, which would make it the second-most watched show on cable.

Nielsen also noted the increasing role of connected TV devices, a point that new Magid research also emphasized. Colin and I agree that the virtuous cycle of proliferating connected TVs, strong SVOD content and robust broadband infrastructure are contributing to a leveling of the playing field in the living room between OTT and pay-TV.

A key ingredient in OTT’s rise is delivery quality, and Colin also touches on new research he did for Verizon Digital Media Services that reinforces viewers’ intolerance for lower-quality experiences. Colin will be doing a webinar next Wednesday, further digging into his findings.

Listen now to learn more!

Click here to listen to the podcast (24 minutes, 12 seconds)

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In his keynote interview at the recent Video Ad Summit, Charlie Chappell, Hershey’s head of global integrated media, shared lots of great insights on how the company is adapting to the fast-changing video landscape. Interviewed by MediaLink’s Matt Spiegel, Charlie explained that until just a few years ago, Hershey’s spend virtually all of its ad dollars on TV, but now it is diversifying to capitalize on new opportunities.

Charlie talks about how reach is still the most important objective and ROI is measured by actual product sales. But that metric isn’t fully formed yet for many digital outlets, so the company is improvising, for now, how to measure success with video and social platforms as it moves beyond basic age and gender.

Importantly, Charlie discusses the impact of video and social on the company’s brand leaders and how the company is organizing itself to succeed. Charlie also describes how creative isn’t optimized solely for TV ads any longer, but needs to work across all platforms.

These are just a few of the highlights of the wide-ranging interview. Watch the interview (32 minutes, 15 seconds) for lots more.

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There are more scripted TV shows being made than ever, by one recent count over 400 in 2015, up 10x in the past 10 years. In this sea of choices, how can networks attract viewers and keep them watching? Well, a new study by Canvs suggests that eliciting feelings of hate toward certain characters is the most likely predictor of increased viewership for the show’s subsequent episode.

Canvs said the study is the largest one ever analyzing the correlation between viewership and Twitter data. Canvs is a startup that uses language analytics to detect a range emotions contained in social media, which it then sorts into 56 different categories, such as “hate,” “excited,” “love,” “happy,” etc.). In the study, Canvs looked at tweets related to 5,709 episodes of 432 comedy, reality and drama shows that aired between January, 2014 and June, 2015 across broadcast, ad-supported cable and premium cable networks.

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