Posts for 'AI'

Colin attended the Connected TV World Summit in London this week and shares his observations about the CTV landscape in Europe and some of the challenges. First we discuss new research from Bango detailing strong adoption of Gen AI among younger users, and also new Gracenote research about the burgeoning market for FAST services.

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Last Tuesday was VideoNuze’s CTV x AI virtual conference, bringing together 18 speakers across 5 sessions. On today’s podcast we highlight the top takeaways from the conference from the consumer, advertiser and content provider perspectives. All of the session videos are available for on-demand viewing.

It is still early days for understanding the eventual impact of AI on CTV, but the speakers provided an array of insights of what’s happening already, and what’s likely in the future.

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Last Tuesday was VideoNuze’s CTV x AI PREVIEW: 2025 virtual which featured 18 senior executives on 5 sessions in 1 high-impact afternoon.

 Below are links to each of the sessions along with descriptions of each session and its speakers.


[VIDEO] Understanding Consumers’ Experience with AI and Entertainment

[VIDEO] Exploring How AI is Influencing CTV’s Effectiveness

[VIDEO] AI’s Capabilities Bring Benefits to CTV

[VIDEO] Interview with Paramount Global’s EVP, CTO and Head of Multiplatform Operations Phil Wiser

[VIDEO] How CTV and AI are Creating Breakthrough Experiences

Many thanks to our 3 generous partners FreeWheel, Mediaocean and Wurl!

Enjoy!

The following video was streamed at VideoNuze’s CTV x AI PREVIEW: 2025 virtual on February 25, 2025.

[VIDEO] Understanding Consumers’ Experience with AI and Entertainment
 
New research on consumers’ awareness and experience with AI and entertainment. Plus insights about CTV, advertising and viewership trends.

Jon Giegengack – Founder and Principal, Hub Entertainment Research

The following video was streamed at VideoNuze’s CTV x AI PREVIEW: 2025 virtual on February 25, 2025.

[VIDEO] Exploring How AI is Influencing CTV’s Effectiveness
Learn how AI is influencing CTV advertising’s effectiveness, including audience targeting, planning, optimization and measurement. What are the current opportunities and the long-term potential for AI to drive incremental value in CTV for both advertisers and streaming services?

• Bob Bress – VP, Head of Data Science, FreeWheel
• Brad Epperson – AWS WW Business Development Lead for Monetization (Media, Entertainment, Games and Sports)
• Jordan Greene – Co-founder and Chief Media Officer, Alpha Precision Media
• David Nyurenberg – Director, Digital Video Product Development & Innovation, Rain the Growth agency
• Jason Wiese – EVP, Strategic Insights and Measurement, VAB (moderator)

The following video was streamed at VideoNuze’s CTV x AI PREVIEW: 2025 virtual on February 25, 2025.

[VIDEO] AI’s Capabilities Bring Benefits to CTV
How is AI being implemented to benefit the CTV marketplace and what might be expected going forward? What are the new capabilities AI is enabling that add meaningful value to CTV?
 

• Gerry D'Angelo - Senior Advisor, Marketing & Sales, McKinsey & Company
• Asaf Greiner – GM, Protected by Mediaocean 
• Natasha Potashnik – Head of Data, Research & Measurement, Vevo
• Kevin Weigand - VP, Partnerships, Video & Audio, dentsu Media US Investment Solutions
• Colin Dixon - Founder and Chief Analyst, nScreenMedia (moderator)

The following video was streamed at VideoNuze’s CTV x AI PREVIEW: 2025 virtual on February 25, 2025.

[VIDEO] Interview with Paramount Global’s EVP, CTO and Head of Multiplatform Operations Phil Wiser

Learn how media companies, including Paramount, are approaching AI and its ability to drive CTV and streaming opportunities.

• Phil Wiser – EVP, CTO and Head of Multiplatform Operations, Paramount Global
• Will Richmond – Editor and Publisher, VideoNuze (interviewer)

The following video was streamed at VideoNuze’s CTV x AI PREVIEW: 2025 virtual on February 25, 2025.

[VIDEO] How CTV and AI are Creating Breakthrough Experiences
This session will focus on AI’s transformative impact on content and contextual advertising experiences delivered to connected TVs. What are the key innovations driving breakthrough personalization, relevance and value?

• Peter Crofut – Vice President, Business Development – Agencies & Brands, Wurl
• Albert Lai – Global Strategic Industry Leader, M&E, Google Cloud
• Bharad Ramesh – CEO & Co-Founder, Aqxle AI
• Marilois Snowman – Founding Partner and CEO, Mediastruction
• Peter Csathy – Chairman, Creative Media (moderator)

First up this week we discuss Tubi’s plan to stream the Super Bowl in UHD, a bold move by Fox’s free ad-supported TV service. As we discuss, it’s further evidence of how premium streaming sports experiences are continuing to improve. Next Amazon Prime video set a new viewership record for itself with last weekend’s NFL wild card game. We dive into its ratings gains.

Hub Entertainment Research released new data about consumers sentiments on AI which we dive into. Speaking of AI, complimentary sign up is available for VideoNuze’s next virtual CTV conference on Feb. 25th that will focus on the intersection of CTV and AI.

Last, we discuss VIZIO’s discounted bundle of AMC+ and Starz.

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In August Google announced its new Google TV Streamer device along with feature updates for all Google TV devices. To learn more about all of this, Rob Caruso, who leads product management and user experience for Google TV, joins us for an in-depth Q&A.

Rob is especially excited about two features: smart home integration and deeper integration with Google Photos. The former is an extension of the controls in the Google Home app. The latter is part of a trend Rob describes as “ambient computing” with the opportunity to use Gen AI to create new imagery and collections of images on Google TVs.

In addition to these features, we also discussed Freeplay, its newly-named its FAST service, how AI is being used for personalized content recommendations and much more. As Rob describes, Google is in a position to both address mainstream user needs with smart TVs, while also pushing the boundaries to introduce new features and see what new use cases emerge.

It will be interesting to follow how these new features impact Google TV’s market share in smart TVs.

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In concert with its Made on YouTube event, YouTube unveiled a slew of innovations aimed at enhancing creators’, viewers’ and advertisers’ experiences. Potentially the most high impact is a revamp of its CTV app which will offer “immersive previews” of creator content, modeled on best practices of SVOD apps like Netflix. Creators will also be able to customize how they categorize and organize their episodes in the app. With CTV accounting for at least 40% of YouTube’s views, optimizing the CTV app is critical.

YouTube also updated a number of relatively new AI-powered tools, including “Dream Screen,” which generates backgrounds in YouTube Shorts and a 6-second clip generator, both using Veo, which is DeepMind’s video AI technology, plus a refreshed Inspiration Tab to help brainstorm new video ideas.

Also new is the launch of Communities which allows engagment within the creator’s channel, pulling into YouTube discussions already happening in other social platforms. The feature builds on commenting, which has long been available in YouTube.

YouTube also confirmed broad availability of Pause ads, long in use by others like Hulu, which are likely to get a strong reception.

Many of the features are described in this post.   

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We’re excited to have top Wall Street media analyst Michael Nathanson join us this week. Michael and his partner Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson are the “one-two punch” of the TV, streaming and broadband industries. Their analyses and insights are widely considered best in class. Michael is an old friend, and we’re so pleased to have him join us in this exclusive, must-listen interview.

Among the many topics we cover: the recent decline in CTV CPMs due to Amazon’s market entry and why the new inventory will be digested, the competitive dynamics in the broader CTV/AVOD market, YouTube’s massive scale and Michael’s prediction that YouTube TV will be the pay-TV market leader in two years with 10 million subscribers, FAST’s potential, legacy media’s abysmal $30B cumulative loss on DTC services in the past 5 years, why streaming’s future will be driven by advertising and why the “unit value” of advertising is poised to soar due to AI and finally, the biggest potential surprise in the next year.

Anyone who wants to understand what’s really happening in the TV/streaming industries will find this exclusive interview invaluable.

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This week’s NewFronts highlighted three key and interlocking themes: TV OEMs’ emphasis on FASTs, AI’s role in driving video ads’ value, and CTV evolving to full funnel. We discuss each of these and how specific NewFront presentations addressed these points.

All of these feed a broader belief I’ve had for while: the value of a CTV ad - as measured by the financial return derived from gaining a unit of the viewer’s time - is only going to increase in the years ahead. Ads will continue to be more targeted and personalized, and also drive KPIs across the full funnel as viewers’ opportunities to engage soar.

Separate from video ads, I share highlights from IAB’s three-part session on Monday afternoon called “Spotlight On: News” which focused on the value of news media for brands and society. Huge credit to IAB for convening numerous C-level news executives to discuss the important role of trusted news in democracy and why it is good business for advertisers to be involved.

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This week we’re delighted to interview Wurl’s CEO Ron Gutman who discusses the company’s new AI-powered BrandDiscovery product that allows ads to be aligned with content in real time.

Ron explains the eight key emotional reactions to specific scenes in entertainment programming, and how ads that are consistent with these emotions deliver far higher conversion. He also details the critical role AI plays in enabling improved personalization and targeting. The discussion further demonstrates how units of advertising are going to become ever more valuable as technology enriches them.

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Colin was at NABShow for a couple days and on this week’s Inside the Stream we discuss some of his top takeaways. No surprise AI was everywhere at NAB, as was blockchain. We discuss companies including Moments Lab, Obvious Future, LivePeer and others. Finally Colin learned some neat tricks for all of us to be greener with our big screen TVs, which he shares.  

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AI has taken the world by storm and the TV/video industries are no exception. AI is revolutionizing the value chain of video creation, delivery and discovery. On this week’s podcast we discuss several examples, including a new partnership between Cineverse and Nielsen’s Gracenote. The role that Cineverse’s AI chatbot “Ava” - and others - could eventually play in viewers’ discovery experience is early stage, yet quite exciting.

Also part of our AI discussion is new survey data showing 70% of newsroom members are using AI to create content, The Weather Company’s use of AI to enable hyperlocal weather videos and Adobe’s forthcoming AI text-to-video product.

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Colin is back from a busy IBC in Amsterdam, and today we discuss a number of generative AI innovations for video that he learned about. These include Newsbridge’s news clip metadata enhancement capability, Backlight’s StoryBot tool to create stories from Wildmoka clips and Katch Data’s ability to customize movie marketing by geographic preferences. All this, and more on this week’s podcast.

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