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Digitalsmiths Acquires Gotuit in Bid to Become Video Metadata Powerhouse
Video metadata solution provider Digitalsmiths has acquired Gotuit Media, another player in the video metadata space. Digitalsmiths' CEO Ben Weinberger explained to me over the weekend that the combined company will have the most comprehensive solution for video indexing and metadata management/monetization for multi-platform distribution of various content types. To date Digitalsmiths has been mainly focused on library TV and movie content while Gotuit has concentrated on live sports and news.
Metadata is crucial to online and mobile video because it's what enables search, recommendations and higher-value monetization. It's especially important given the proliferation of short-form clips created out of longer-form content which need to be indexed and easily searchable. Accurate metadata is hard to produce and Digitalsmiths and Gotuit have used different approaches that will be complimentary as part of the new solution. Ben said that the goal is to introduce the comprehensive solution to each customer set to deepen existing relationships, while developing new opportunities based on the comprehensive approach.
Categories: Deals & Financings, Technology
Topics: Digitalsmiths, Gotuit Media
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6 Thoughts on Netflix's New Streaming-Only Plan and DVD Plan Price Hikes
In rolling out a streaming-only service tier this morning, priced at $7.99/mo, Netflix made good on what it has said it would do for months. It's also a logical step given the streaming-only service it introduced 2 months ago in Canada. What was more surprising in today's announcement was the price hikes Netflix is implementing on all of its DVD rental plans, which of course include unlimited streaming. Here are 6 thoughts on today's news:
Categories: Aggregators
Topics: Netflix
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Are Live Sports Pay-TV's Firewall or Its Albatross?
I've long assumed that live sports carried on cable TV networks (e.g. ESPN, Fox Sports, TNT, TBS, NFL Network, regional sports networks, etc.) would be a key firewall against cord-cutting since the games they air are unavailable online. In other words, if you're a sports fan, dropping your pay-TV subscription would be unthinkable. While I still believe that's mostly true, recently I've started wondering if it's possible that sports actually may also be an albatross for pay-TV operators, limiting their ability to effectively compete with online-only alternatives.
I use the word albatross because pay-TV providers actually have very little flexibility to offer non-sports fans lower-priced packages that don't include sports-oriented channels. In fact, the most surprising aspect of last week's announcement by Time Warner Cable of a new lower-priced tier called "TV Essentials" it's testing is that it will exclude ESPN, which is virtually unheard-of in pay-TV packaging. Because the underlying deals that cable networks have with sports leagues and rights-holders are so expensive, the networks try to get carried on the most popular pay-TV service tiers, thereby ensuring the highest number of subscriber homes (basic cable networks are paid by distributors on a per subscriber basis, so the more subscriber homes, the higher their revenue).
Categories: Cable Networks, Cable TV Operators, Satellite, Sports, Telcos
Topics: ESPN, Fox Sports, NFL Network, TBS, Time Warner Cable, TNT
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5 Items of Interest for the Week of Nov. 15th
After a short break, VideoNuze's Friday feature of curating 5-6 interesting online/mobile video industry news items that we weren't able to cover this week, returns today. Read them now or take them with you this weekend!
Time Warner Cable Experiments With Lower Tier Video Package
It's a rare day when a cable operator announces a lower-priced offering, but that's what Time Warner Cable did yesterday, unveiling a test of what it's calling "TV Essentials." The new tier, priced between $30-$40, will most notably exclude ESPN, the most expensive channel in the cable universe, meaning right away TV Essentials isn't targeted to sports fans. I've argued for a while now that pay-TV operators have ceded the low-priced/value-oriented end of the video market to Netflix (and others), which given the ongoing recession is a mistake. It will be interesting to see how the new bargain service fares; 2 things that will limit its appeal though are that no channels will be offered in HD, and that it appears those with broadband Internet and telephone services won't benefit from typical package discounts.
Nielsen study: We're still a nation of couch pumpkins
More evidence this week that despite all the deserved enthusiasm over online and mobile delivery, good old-fashioned TV viewing still rules in terms of hours of consumption. Nielsen said that the average person watched 143 hours of TV per month in Q2, essentially flat vs. a year ago. For homes with DVRs, hours of time watched on them nudged up a bit to about 24 1/2 hours. On a related note, this week comScore released its online video viewing data for October, which showed average viewing of 15.1 hours per person. While online video has made huge progress in the last few years, it still has a ton of room to grow to catch up with TV.
More Videos Ads, More User Acceptance
Speaking of the comparison between online video and TV, this week brought some interesting new data on monetization patterns for premium online video. Online video ad manager FreeWheel released data that showed mid-roll ads are the fastest-growing category of ads (up 693% since Q1), and now represent 8% of its ad volume. Completion rates have increased for pre, mid and post-roll ads this year, but notably mid-rolls have the highest completion rate, at 90%. FreeWheel's conclusion is that monetization of premium online video is starting to look a lot like TV, with ad pods inserted throughout. Going a step further, if viewer acceptance of mid-rolls stays high, then this represents a valuable opportunity for TV networks in particular to combat DVR-based ad-skipping.
Startup Claims To Have Set-Top Hulu Can't Block
It was inevitable that Hulu's decision to block access to its programs would set off a game of whack-a-mole, with various devices springing up to do end-arounds. Sure enough, the $99 Orb TV debuted this week, prominently positioning itself as the device that can bring Hulu (among other content) to your TV. One catch is that Orb streams video from your computer and only does so in standard definition. It addresses the "keyboard in the living room" challenge by also including a smartphone app to control the device. It's not a perfect solution, but it does provide a glimpse into the PR-unfriendly dynamic that Hulu, and the broadcast networks, have created for themselves by blocking access to their content by Google TV and others. No doubt there will be plenty more Orb-like devices to come to market in the months ahead, all positioning themselves as solving the blocking problem.
Comcast's Top Digital Exec Amy Banse to Open New Silicon Valley Equity Fund for Cable Giant and NBC
As Comcast enters the final stages of approval for its NBCU deal, the company this week announced a new NBCU management structure. One item that wasn't formally announced yet, but was reported by AllThingsD earlier this week was that Amy Banse, formerly head of Comcast Interactive Media (now headed by Matt Strauss), will be heading to Silicon Valley to run the combined operations of Comcast's current Comcast Interactive Capital venture arm, and NBCU's current Peacock Equity (a JV with GE). With all the distribution, technology and content assets that will be under the Comcast roof, the fund will be at the top of any online/mobile video startup's list of strategic investors. I've known Amy for a while and have enjoyed having her on industry panels; she'll be a huge asset to Comcast in the Valley venture world.Categories: Advertising, Cable Networks, Cable TV Operators, Deals & Financings, Devices
Topics: Comcast, comScore, ESPN, FreeWheel, Hulu, NBCU, Nielsen, Orb, Time Warner Cable
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VideoNuze Report Podcast #80 - Nov. 19, 2010
Daisy Whitney and I are back this week for the 80th edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for November 19, 2010. Before getting started, congratulations to Daisy on the release of "The Mockingbirds," her first fiction book, for young adult readers. It debuted 2 weeks ago and is published by Little Brown. In addition to writing the book, Daisy has put together a clever social media campaign which has lifted the book's visibility. Congrats Daisy!
This week Daisy and I discuss my post from yesterday, "Broadcast TV Networks Are Wrong to Block Google TV - Part 2" in which I laid out the case for why the networks are using a backwards-looking strategy in their decision to block their programs from access by Google TV and other browser-based connected devices.
To their credit, the networks have actually been quite forward-looking in releasing many of their programs for free viewing on their web sites and on Hulu. But now, by creating an artificial distinction between computer-based and TV-based viewing of online-delivered content, they are violating one of the most basic rules of the Internet era: don't create friction between the product and the customer. While that may help them win retransmission consent deals in the short term, I believe that in the long term it will hurt them. Listen in to learn more.
Click here to listen to the podcast (11 minutes, 43 seconds)
Click here for previous podcasts
The VideoNuze Report is available in iTunes...subscribe today!Categories: Broadcasters, Devices, Podcasts
Topics: ABC, CBS, FOX, Google TV, Hulu, NBC, Podcast
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Broadcast TV Networks Are Wrong to Block Google TV - Part 2
When Fox decided last week to block access to its programs by Google TV, it was no big surprise since its broadcast brethren ABC, CBS, NBC and Hulu had already done so. By speaking in a unanimous voice, the broadcasters have sent a clear signal that viewing their programs on TV, for free, via online delivery, is not to be. While they're happy to make Hulu Plus subscriptions available via connected devices, if you want to watch for free, you'll be restricted to computer, or limited mobile device-based, viewing.
A few weeks ago in the first part of "Broadcast Networks Are Wrong to Block Google TV," I speculated on what was motivating the broadcasters to block Google TV, boxee and other browser-based connected devices. In the case of Google TV, it's tempting to believe they are looking to extract payments from Google to distribute their programs. Another possible explanation is that programs aren't monetized as well in online as they are on-air (the "swapping analog dollars for digital pennies" argument). Yet another explanation is that measurement of online viewing is not yet fully mature, so they're worried that if their audience shifts to connected device-based viewing, it would hurt their ratings points, and consequently their ad revenues. But none of these are broadcasters' main motivation.
Categories: Broadcasters, Devices
Topics: ABC, CBS, FOX, Google TV, Hulu, NBC, Netflix
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How About Some Actual Data in the Cord-Cutting Debate?
No sooner did SNL Kagan's press release, announcing that the U.S. pay-TV industry had lost 119K subscribers in Q3 '10, following a loss of 216K subscribers in Q2, hit the wire today, than the blogosphere was alight with a fresh round of posts that cord-cutting was to blame. This chorus was surely egged on by Kagan senior analyst Ian Olgeirson's remark in the press release that "it is becoming increasingly difficult to dismiss the impact of over-the-top substitution on video subscriber performance." That remark was a notable change of tone from Kagan's Q2 release which ascribed subscriber losses solely to the country's ongoing economic woes.
Note however that Olgeirson only offered his opinion, rather than any actual, hard data from Kagan about cord-cutting's impact. That is characteristic of both sides of the current cord-cutting debate - lots of opining, but little-to-no reliable data. In my own Q3 analysis - in which I suggested that the pay-TV as a whole likely lost around 97K subscribers in Q3 (though the group of 8 of the top 9 pay-TV operators actually gained subscribers) - I noted that nobody truly knows the impact of cord-cutting, yet anyway.
Categories: Cable TV Operators, Satellite, Telcos
Topics: SNL Kagan
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Jivox Launches New Analytics Platform and Interactive Ad Unit
Jivox, an online video ad technology and ad network is announcing a new analytics platform and interactive ad unit this morning that help move online video ad effectiveness beyond traditional ROI metrics like impressions and clicks. The analytics platform, dubbed "BrandGage" lets advertisers measure engagement actions in the ad that measure, in real-time, where the user's purchase intent lies. The new ad unit, Quattro, allows advertisers to include multiple engagement opportunities that tie to the different levels of purchase intent.
Diaz Nesamoney, Jivox's CEO and founder walked me through an example of Quattro yesterday and how engagement is measured in BrandGage. In the mockup below, the user would be prompted to roll over the top of a standard-looking 300x250 rich media ad for the movie Alice in Wonderland and be presented with this panel. A range of interactive widgets is shown, such as watching more video, reading reviews, learning about show times/buying tickets, finding merchandise, downloading assets and sharing with friends. In addition the user can post to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and see a scroll of relevant tweets.
Categories: Advertising
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