Posts for 'Devices'

I’m pleased to present the 387th edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

Earlier this week Apple introduced Apple TV 4K, but as Colin notes, it’s really a catch-up product, as Roku, for example has had this capability in its top of the line Ultra since last year. More important to Colin is that Apple’s decision to raise the price of the Apple TV 4K to $179 for the 32GB version means its $80 more than the Ultra and $120 more than the Roku Premiere, which also delivers 4K, but not HDR.

All of this has Colin wondering whether Apple’s strategy is really just to target its loyalists with the Apple TV 4K, rather than aggressively seeking market share, as Roku, Amazon and Google have all done with their devices. Widespread adoption has clear advantages as we discuss.

Staying with the connected TV theme, we then transition to other news this week that Comcast has added YouTube to its X1 set-top box as it continues its “aggregator of aggregators” strategy. I’ve given it a spin and share a quick review of how it adds value to the X1 experience.

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Comcast announced this morning that YouTube has been launched on its X1 set-top boxes, further supporting Comcast’s strategy of becoming an “aggregator of aggregators.” Comcast integrated Netflix into X1 last November, the first major milestone of wrapping popular online video services into X1, which vastly simplifies viewers’ experiences.

Billions of YouTube videos will now be available to X1 subscribers, equally accessible as Comcast’s own live, on-demand and DVR programming as well as online sources like Netflix. YouTube video will also be filtered into the Xfinity On Demand menu, and be available via the X1 voice remote. X1 users can search YouTube by voice or text by topic (beauty, cooking, music, etc.), by specific names of talent, shows and by live-streams.

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I’m pleased to present the 386th edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

After taking a couple weeks off from the podcast, Colin and I are back, and today we discuss 4 different industry stories that have caught our attention. First up, just before Labor Day, Roku filed its S-1 IPO document, sharing financial details for the first time. Colin and I are both struck by the strength of Roku’s “platform revenues” and believe the company’s strategy of innovating with low-priced streaming devices to gain market share has opened up many revenue options (though Colin’s a bit worried about Roku losing its valuable neutrality position in the wake of launching the Roku Channel this week).

We then move on to T-Mobile’s plan to give away Netflix to its unlimited family plan subscribers. It’s the latest “video as bait” play by a wireless carrier, and we both see this trend accelerating. Another interesting bundle play this week was the $5/mo promotion from Hulu and Spotify. We discuss its potential to extend beyond the initial college student target.

Finally, Colin and I were both intrigued by a plan unveiled by Newsy, a popular millennial-focused news app, to create a linear TV channel by taking over Retirement Living TV’s pay-TV subscribers. It’s a relatively unusual move given most TV networks are launching OTT apps these days.

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Roku’s share of the connected device market grew to 37% of U.S. broadband households in Q1 ’17, up from 30% in Q1 ’16, according to new research from Parks Associates. Roku has shown amazing staying power considering it has been up against some of the biggest tech/device companies in the world. Clearly looking to capitalize on its market momentum, Roku is reportedly planning to go public by the end of 2017.

Amazon’s Fire TV also expanded its market share, to 24% of U.S. broadband homes from 16% in Q1 ’16. Conversely, Chromecast fell from 22% to 18% during the period and Apple fell from 20% to 15%. Other devices accounted for the remainder in both quarters.

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FreeWheel has released a new report titled “The Power of OTT: Audiences and Engagement,” which highlights data on OTT devices’ (which I’ve typically called connected TVs) soaring popularity, but also acknowledges ongoing challenges. The report is part of new semi-annual research series from FreeWheel called Signature Insights, which incorporates research from its own Video Monetization Report (VMR), as well as 3rd party sources such as Nielsen, eMarketer, Hulu and Millward Brown.

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I’m pleased to present the 379th edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

On this week’s podcast Colin and I discuss recently released data from Nielsen, Parks Associates and Roku, which all underscore the growing momentum of connected TVs.

Colin’s analysis of Nielsen’s data shows that across all viewers, connected TV device viewing has increased from .4 hours per week in Q1 ’14 to 2 hours 30 minutes per week in Q1 ’17. Zeroing in specifically on users with connected TVs, the view time nearly quadruples.

The Parks data reinforces these trends, finding that 50% of U.S. broadband users are watching video on TV, using their connected TV devices (separate industry data has indicated over 70% of U.S. homes actually have at least one connected TV). The big 3 services (Netflix, Amazon and Hulu) continue to dominate, but Parks noted that certain niche SVOD services are gaining real traction.

Finally, Colin shares his analysis of Roku’s new data on times spent with the device. Roku’s numbers are noteworthy because they’re the only connected TV device that self-reports any usage data.

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Screens are now omnipresent with viewers fluidly shifting their consumption depending on their circumstances. At our recent Online Video Ad Summit session, “Best Practices in a Multiscreen World,” panelists discussed what’s worked well for them in multiscreen, including workflows, measurement, monetization, quality of experience, storytelling, brand safety and much more.

The session included Josh Arensberg (VP, Head of Corporate Development and Strategy, Comcast Technology Solutions), Patricia Betron (SVP, Multimedia Sales, ESPN), Scott Doyne (SVP, Product Strategy, Turner), Julie DeTraglia (VP, Ad Sales Research, Hulu), with Dan Punt (Managing Director, FTI Consulting) moderating.

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I’m pleased to present the 376th edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

This week we start by discussing research Akamai released this week with Sensum, proving in how streaming video delivered in high quality results in improved satisfaction. Colin and I wrote about it here and here. It’s further evidence of how viewers’ expectations have been set by TV’s quality. Viewers clearly react to quality deficiencies.

Then we transition to talking about Apple and its hiring late last week of 2 producers who were formerly presidents of Sony Pictures Television. On Monday I wrote how this is a positive step, but still missing was any sense of Apple’s overall video strategy or business model. We debate what Apple might do, and also wonder about what private assurance may have been given to the producers to induce them to move to Apple.

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There was plenty of industry buzz last Friday after Apple announced that it had hired Sony Pictures Television’s presidents Zach Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht to oversee video programming. After all, Apple has long been spinning its wheels in video, and so the hiring of two high profile producers with a string of TV successes (e.g. “Breaking Bad,” “The Crown,” “The Blacklist,” etc.) would appear to signal that the company has finally, belatedly, realized how strategic video is to its future.

To be sure, it’s almost inconceivable that Van Amburg and Erlicht would take their talents (as LeBron would put it) to Apple without a guarantee from their new boss, and Apple media head, Eddy Cue, that the company was serious, at last, about making high quality TV shows. The problem for Van Amburg, Erlicht and most importantly Apple, is that to actually succeed, the company needs to do far more than just make great shows (which in itself is of course, far from a slam dunk).

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I’m pleased to present the 375th edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

This week we’re excited to have Mike Lawlor, FreeWheel’s SVP of Client Services, join us to dig into the company’s Q1 ’17 Video Monetization Report, which it released on Wednesday at the VideoNuze Ad Summit.

First up, we talk about the meteoric growth in OTT devices, which when coupled with set-top box video, means nearly half of all ad views in premium video now occur on TVs. FreeWheel calls this the “new living room” and Mike describes the drivers of this growth and what it means for programmers and advertisers.

Overall, it was the 25th straight quarter of double digit percentage growth for online video, and we discuss whether this amazing streak will continue. We cover a lot of other ground, including what types of programming viewers are watching, what role programmatic is playing for premium video, the importance of improving the viewers’ ad experiences and much more.

FreeWheel’s VMR continues to be an incredibly valuable piece of research, helping industry analysts and executives better understand how disruption is playing out. The VMR is available as a complimentary download.

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Multi-screen video app platform provider You.i TV announced support for Roku’s SceneGraph 7.6 XML framework for building channels on its connected TV devices. FilmStruck, Turner Classic Movies’ SVOD service, which already used You.i TV, is the first content provider to take advantage of the new capability to power its Roku channel.

Last fall, You.i TV raised a $12 million Series B round led by Time Warner Investments, a sister entity to Turner.

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Samba TV and SpotX have announced a partnership to improve video ad targeting to viewers on the web and in apps and connected TVs. Under the deal, Samba TV’s TV viewership data will become available in SpotX’s ad server, so that custom TV audience segments can be built using combined TV and digital data.

SpotX will become Samba TV’s primary connected TV ad server enabling advertisers to buy connected TV ads either programmatically or direct.

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Ads inserted into programming consumed on connected TVs are being funded equally from linear TV and online video budgets, according to new research released by Videology. In a study the company commissioned Advertiser Perceptions to conduct, 31% of advertiser and agency respondents said their connected TV advertising dollars are coming from linear TV budgets, the exact same percentage that cited online video as the budget source.

These 2 sources were followed by digital (not video specific), cited by 16%, test/experimental (13%) and integrated video budgets (9%).

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comScore has taken the wraps off comScore OTT Intelligence, a new syndicated service that measures U.S. viewership of OTT content like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and others on connected TVs. Subscribers to the comScore service access the data through a dashboard that includes household reach, audience size, demographics and other metrics.

The data is drawn from comScore’s Total Home Panel, which measures viewership in over 12,500 U.S. households with over 150,000 active devices per month.

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Underscoring the continued blurring of OTT and TV, Roku announced that it is now offering TV-style audience guarantees for advertisers using demographic metrics from Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings (DAR). The Nielsen-Roku partnership dates to 2015 when it was announced that DAR would be integrated with Roku’s ad SDK.

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FreeWheel has released its 2016 year-end Video Monetization Report,  revealing, among things, that ad views in live streams grew 36% in 2016, powered by marquee sports events and the U.S. presidential election that were streamed to connected devices. FreeWheel cited the Summer Olympics, Super Bowl 50, Game 7 of the World Series, and the first presidential debate in particular as major contributors.

More broadly, live video helped drive the 24th consecutive quarterly increase in both content views (up 20%) and ad views (up 17%) in Q4 ’16. For the full year 2016, content views increased 26% and ad views increased 24%.

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I’m pleased to present the 362nd edition of the VideoNuze podcast with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.

It’s no secret that we’re all using all kinds of connected devices these days to consume video. To help illustrate just how mainstream a behavior this has become, this week Colin and I review data from a number of recent research reports that have hit our radar. The takeaway is that consumers are taking advantage of the myriad choices they now have. See how your own video consumption aligns with the key trends.

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(Note, we had a little problem with audio quality which we’ll hopefully fix for next week)

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Connected TV device penetration and usage are continuing to grow according to new data from Nielsen as of January 31st. Overall, Nielsen found that 23% of TV homes now own an Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Google Chromecast or Roku, up from 19% in June, 2016. Nielsen didn’t specify the exact share for each device, only saying that Roku and Apple TV have the highest penetration, with Fire TV and Chromecast following.

In addition to the “big 4,” another 11% of TV homes have other brands of connected TV devices or have their computers/tablets/smartphones connected to their TVs.

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