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Undertone Acquires Video Syndicator Jambo Media
Undertone, a large display ad network has acquired video syndication and technology provider Jambo Media. Both companies are private and terms were not disclosed. The deal comes on the heels of ad network Specific Media acquiring video manager/network BBE, and AOL acquiring video syndicator 5Min. All three deals - and no doubt others to follow - illustrate the consolidation underway between video advertising and other forms of online advertising plus the interplay between video syndication, branded content and advertising.
Undertone's CEO Mike Cassidy told me that Undertone has been fielding more calls from the agencies and Fortune 500 brands it serves who are interested in online video advertising as well. Mike believes that offering them an integrated approach between display and video so that they can buy, manage and measure their returns across formats will only become more important over time. So a key goal of the acquisition is to meld their publisher networks and and offer high quality reach for both display and video. Since display is more mature than video advertising, Mike also sees opportunities to leverage its underlying technology in areas like targeting.
Categories: Advertising, Deals & Financings
Topics: Jambo Media, Undertone
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Netflix Has Added 8 Times As Many Subscribers in 2010 As Top Pay-TV Operators, Combined
Here's a pretty amazing factoid to end your week: in 2010 Netflix has added nearly 8 times as many subscribers as 8 of the top 9 pay-TV operators have, combined (#3 cable operator Cox is private and doesn't report). In the first 3 quarters of 2010, Netflix has added nearly 4.7 million subscribers while the top pay-TV operators have gained 609K.
Breaking down the pay-TV industry net gain further, the 2 main telcos (Verizon and AT&T) have added over 1.2 million subscribers and the 2 main satellite providers (DirecTV and DISH) have added 563K, while the top 4 reporting cable operators (Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter and Cablevision) have lost over 1.1 million.
Categories: Aggregators, Cable TV Operators, Satellite, Telcos
Topics: AT&T, Cablevision, Charter, Comcast, Cox, DirecTV, DISH, Netflix, Time Warner Cable, Verizon
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Top U.S. Pay-TV Operators Post Narrow Subscriber Gains in Q3, Rebounding From Q2 Loss
Eight out of the nine largest U.S. pay-TV operators have reported their Q3 '10 results, gaining a slim 66,700 video subscribers, a rebound from a loss of 47,600 subscribers in Q2 '10. The Q2 loss was the first on record for the industry and fueled speculation that "cord-cutting" due to adoption of Internet-delivered video alternatives was rising. With only mildly positive subscriber adds - and 5 of the top 8 operators actually losing subscribers in Q3 - fears that cord-cutting is rising will surely accelerate.
The 8 operators (privately-held Cox Cable, the 3rd-largest cable operator does not disclose its results) represent more than 85% of all U.S. pay-TV households. Though they collectively showed a quarterly gain, if Cox and other cable operators lost subscribers at a comparable rate as the 4 large cable operators in the top 8 (Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter and Cablevision), the industry as a whole would have actually lost about 97K subscribers in the 3rd quarter.
Categories: Cable TV Operators, Satellite, Telcos
Topics: AT&T, Cablevision, Charter, Comcast, Cox, DirecTV, DISH, Netflix, Time Warner Cable, Verizon
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FreeWheel Unveils Version 3.5 of Its Ad Management Platform
Ad manager FreeWheel announced the 3.5 version of its Monetization Rights Management platform this morning, continuing to help drive online and mobile
video monetization for major media companies.
Included in the new features are an Android SDK, which allows great ad control within their Android apps, geo-based ad targeting to mobile devices based on current GPS coordinates, user targeting by mobile operating system, integration with 3rd party mobile ad networks AdMob and iAd and mid-roll/companion ads in HTML5 for iPhones and iPads. If you're interested in learning more about FreeWheel's online and mobile video monetization, come to the VideoSchmooze breakfast on Dec. 1st, where company co-CEO and co-founder Doug Knopper will be on the panel.Categories: Advertising, Mobile Video
Topics: FreeWheel
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VideoSchmooze:NYC Early Bird Discount Expires Next Friday
A quick reminder that the early bird discount for the next VideoSchmooze breakfast/panel expires next Friday, Nov. 12th. The event will be in New York, on Wednesday, Dec. 1st at The Samsung Experience, located in the
Time Warner Center, 10 Columbus Circle. As an added incentive, early bird ticket holders only will be entered to win a new Samsung connected Blu-ray DVD player (model BD-C6500; I have one and it's awesome).
The topic of our panel, which I'll moderate, is "How Connected and Mobile Devices are Transforming the Video Landscape." Panelists include:
- Charlie Herrin - SVP, Products and Technology, Comcast Interactive Media
- Doug Knopper - Co-CEO and Co-Founder, FreeWheel
- Olivier Manuel - Director of Content, Samsung Electronics
- Steve Robinson - CEO and Founder, Panache
- Jeremiah Zinn - SVP, Digital Products, MTV
Our panelists bring a range of perspectives to the connected/mobile debate which will be invaluable for helping understand the issues. As with past VideoSchmooze events, attendees can expect a high-impact, interactive, educational session.
The timing of our discussion couldn't be better, right in the middle of a holiday season where connected and mobile devices will be highly sought-after gifts. As these devices proliferate they are expanding the audience of users able to access video in fundamentally new ways, further fueling transformation of the industry.
There will be plenty of time for networking and audience Q&A. Samsung will also be hosting technology demonstrations of its connected devices for those interested. This VideoSchmooze breakfast is generously sponsored by Akamai Technologies, FreeWheel and Panache. It is being held in association with CTAM's New York chapter. The Fortex Group is providing marketing support.
I hope you'll be able to join us at this special event! Early bird individual and group rates are now available.
Click here to learn more and register for early bird discountCategories: Events
Topics: VideoSchmooze
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As DVD Sales Wane, Experiments With Movies' Digital Delivery Windows Rise
Yesterday brought more evidence of how digital distribution release windows and promotions are rising as DVD sales wane. First there was news that Disney had teamed up with Wal-mart to allow buyers of the Toy Story 3 DVD to get a bonus digital version of the film playable through the company's recently acquired Vudu digital outlet. That offer was quickly one-upped by Amazon which announced an increase from 300 to 10,000 movies in its "Disc+" program, which provides a digital copy to the user's Amazon VOD account when they purchase a qualifying DVD.
Meanwhile at the Blu-con conference in Beverly Hills, studio executives debated how to best calibrate digital, VOD and DVD distribution. Even emerging practices come with exceptions and debates about results. For example, while VOD has largely gained day-and-date release with DVD, exceptions are still made on a case-by-case basis, such as with Universal's "Despicable Me" which will have its DVD go on sale on Dec 14, but its VOD release not until after Christmas.
Topics: Amazon, Apple, Best Buy, Disney, EPIX, FOX, Netflix, Sony, Starz, Universal, VUDU, Wal-Mart, Warner Bros.
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Entone Introduces FusionTV To Help Telcos Blend OTT With Linear TV
IPTV vendor Entone jumped into the connected device fray today with a new managed service called "FusionTV" for telcos looking to offer a hybrid linear TV/broadband/online video package. Entone's CEO Steve McKay briefed me on the company's plans last week.
For consumers, FusionTV's appeal is that it brings together several value propositions into one user experience: linear HDTV, whole home DVR, online video and media sharing. As a result consumers don't need to buy and wire
together a DVR or connected device (or multiple of these for additional rooms), and also don't need to disrupt their existing video source, whether that be telco, satellite, over-the-air, etc. For the telcos (primarily tier 2), FusionTV is a new value added service to improve the competitiveness of their broadband service, while also helping bring online video under their roof, thus preempting over-the-top cord-cutting.
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Brightcove 5 Launches
Brightcove is launching the next version of its online video platform today, dubbed Brightcove 5. It is a free upgrade to existing customers and will be fully rolled out by mid-January 2011. Brightcove 5 expands on the themes of Brightcove 4 (released in Nov. '09): delivering video to more devices/places, enhancing the financial return of online video and improving publishing productivity. Brightcove's president and COO David Mendels walked me through the key highlights last week:
- YouTube distribution - publish video and metadata simultaneously to YouTube channels so that content on both owned properties and on YouTube remain in synch.
- Streaming support for Apple iOS devices - integrated multi-bit rate delivery for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
- Updated mobile app SDKs for iPhone and Android - enhancements to those released in Brightcove 4, plus a new reference app for the iPad.
- Improved analytics - over a dozen new reports for tracking video playback.
- Integrated HTML5 and Flash analytics - in partnership with TubeMogul, reports now aggregate HTML5 and Flash video metrics into one view.
- High-quality live-streaming and DVR functionality - using Akamai's HD network, multi-bit rate HD live-streaming plus DVR rewind in live events and ad insertion.
- New "Smart Players" - single video player design for HTML5 and Flash video with browser auto-detection feature serving the right format to each user.
- Accelerated file upload - integration with Aspera for faster video uploads.
- Mobile video upload from iPhones - app that allows remote users to edit and upload video to their Brightcove accounts.
Brightcove separately announced that it will hold its first customer conference, Brightcove PLAY, May 23-25 in Boston.
Categories: Technology
Topics: Brightcove
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