Posts for 'Advertising'

Video advertising platform SpotX has released a new report detailing seven global video ad trends and predictions for 2021. Overall, the report points to a continued shift in video ad spending to data-centric, highly-measurable campaigns reaching viewers through connected devices. SpotX considers 2020 to have been the start of the “connected decade.” SpotX included insights from executives at Acxiom, AMC Networks, CCI, Discovery, DISH Media, GroupM, Samsung Ads, The Trade Desk and TransUnion in its report.

Following is a summary of SpotX’s seven predictions:

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Peer39 is introducing a set of pre-bid cookie-free contextual planning and targeting tools for connected TV ad buyers. This means that CTV ad buyers will gain insights into the programming where CTV ads run, so that they can better target and manage their campaigns.

In a briefing, Alex White, Peer39’s COO, told me that the tools address two industry challenges: demand side platforms have been limited in their ability to surface information about programming causing fragmentation and a lack of contextual categorization about the programming. Alex believes this is the first time contextual data on CTV programming has been offered.

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Video ad management platform Beachfront has announced that ad buyers can now use its technology to access Canoe’s premium VOD ad inventory. Canoe powers VOD and linear addressable advertising in 38 million U.S. households that subscribe to pay-TV from Comcast, Charter and Cox, which are Canoe investors.

In a briefing, Chris Maccaro, CEO of Beachfront, told me that the company has been investing in the solution for several years and sees an opportunity to improve VOD yield by exposing digital-centric buyers to premium VOD inventory. Chris believes that as VOD inventory is made available to agencies, brands, demand side platforms and others for automated programmatic buying, yield will improve and prices will increase.

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Connected TVs are pervasive in American homes and the pandemic has further accelerated their use. As linear TV viewing has declined, traditional TV advertisers have been shifting their spending to AVOD services, where long-form content is largely viewed on CTVs. Top of the funnel linear TV advertisers, driven by reach and frequency goals, will continue to be drawn by CTV’s and OTT’s expanding audience, especially as major TV networks move more of their premium programming online, in turn growing ad inventory.

In the long term, equally exciting for CTV and OTT is appealing to bottom of the funnel, or performance-oriented, advertisers, which have focused on digital opportunities like search, social and display. These advertisers are ROI-driven and are constantly optimizing for desired actions and outcomes like clicks, follows, buys, etc. Because CTV enables digitally-delivered TV ads with rich viewer data, performance advertisers can measure and adjust their CTV campaigns as they always have in digital.

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Bloomberg Media has launched Bloomberg Quicktake, the latest in a series of free, ad-supported, connected TV-first initiatives by big media companies. The streaming news network is launching with 10 1/2 hours of daily programming, including 10 original series and 4 daily news shows. The editorial focus will be broad, including business, technology, culture, society, personal finance, politics, climate and the business of sports, food, travel and entertainment.

Importantly, from a distribution standpoint, Bloomberg Quicktake will be available on all the major CTV platforms, including Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV and Samsung TV. It will also be available within streaming services like Samsung TV Plus, Tubi and Xumo in the upcoming weeks. Launch sponsors include American Express and AT&T Business.

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Bloomberg reported Friday that Disney has curtailed Hulu’s international expansion because Disney does not want to significantly increase Hulu’s valuation which would trigger a higher eventual payout to minority owner Comcast. Hulu’s valuation in early 2024 will set the payout Disney owes Comcast for its one-third share in Hulu under a deal struck in May, 2019. Comcast’s Hulu stake is worth at least $5.8 billion under the deal.

Bloomberg said that Hulu’s late 2019 proposal to Disney to expand internationally was initially supported, but then in August 2020 Disney switched gears and decided to embrace Star as the international brand for its non-U.S. entertainment service. Disney acquired Star, the India media company, as part of its $71 billion Fox deal. Bloomberg also cited Disney’s concerns about extending Hulu’s losses, Covid’s negative impact on Disney’s various businesses, and its commitment of resources to Disney+’s international expansion as other reasons it decided not to support Hulu’s international expansion.

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FreeWheel has released its U.S. Video Marketplace Report (VMR) for first half 2020, adding to the evidence that Americans staying at home due to Covid-19 are gravitating toward the big screen. Specifically, FreeWheel found that 73% of total ad views occurred on set-top box VOD and connected TVs. FreeWheel views Covid-19 “not as an agent of change, but rather an accelerant for audiences and advertisers.”

CTV share was 50% (up 42% year over year) with STB’s share 23% (up 13% YOY). Mobile had a 15% share of ad views (up 17% YOY) and desktop had 11% (down 2% YOY). FreeWheel said CTV usage was driven by higher consumption of premium video from virtual pay-TV operators (e.g. YouTube TV, Hulu Live, etc.) and direct-to-consumer apps.

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I’m pleased to present the 533rd edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia.  

Are AVOD and SVOD services in competition with each other for time and attention, or is there more of a continuum between them? For now at least, with viewership of both exploding, it seems like more of a continuum according to data Colin shares this week.

However, AVOD/SVOD viewership is coming at the expense of linear TV/pay-TV. This was substantiated again this week by Roku and The Harris Poll’s Consumer Holiday Shopping Report, which found a 19% YOY increase in streaming and a 13% YOY decline in pay-TV viewing. We discuss the details.

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People who stream video to their connected TVs say they plan to spend hundreds of dollars more per person this holiday season vs. those that don’t stream, according to the new Consumer Holiday Shopping Report from Roku and The Harris Poll which surveyed approximately 2,000 American adults.

Streamers plan to spend $921 compared with non-streamers who say they plan to spend $673. Overall, 1 in 4 respondents said they plan to spend more this holiday season and 47% plan to spend the same.

79% of streamers said they will do most of their holiday shopping online vs. 55% of non-streamers saying they’ll do so. The primary benefits of online shopping were free/cheap shipping (55%), fast shipping (47%) and tangible discounts and coupons (42%).

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Last week’s Connected TV Advertising Summit Virtual Event featured 40 industry executives on 14 different sessions, including research presentations, interviews and panel discussions, both live and pre-recorded.

As Colin and I talked about on last Friday’s podcast, the CTV Ad Summit illuminated how widespread CTVs already are and why they’ve created such significant opportunity for advertisers and content providers as linear TV and pay-TV continue to decline.

Several speakers noted CTV is now their company’s number one strategic priority. Over time CTV will capture the best of TV advertising’s reach and impact with the best of digital advertising’s targeting and ROI. CTV is still a work in progress though and many speakers highlighted key ongoing challenges in the areas of measurement, transparency and inventory management.

Below I have included the program and all of the session videos in one playlist. The thumbnail for each session includes the title slide and list of speakers. Enjoy!

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We have an amazing lineup of speakers and sessions for the Connected TV Advertising Summit Virtual Event on September 21 and 22.

Executives from NBCUniversal, ViacomCBS, GroupM, Bloomberg, Amplifi, Roku, Vizio, VEVO, Tubi and many more will be sharing their insights and perspectives on all the hottest CTV topics. If your business depends on the growth and success of CTV, join us for these two afternoons of high-impact learning.

Reminder that registration is complimentary and one attendee will win a Roku living room makeover including a Roku TV, wireless speakers, wireless sub-woofer and one year Netflix subscription, all generously provided by Roku.

Many thanks to our CTV Ad Summit's 8 partners who have been so gracious and supportive. Our Presenting partner is Deloitte; Gold partners are Extreme Reach and SpringServe; Silver partners include Beachfront, SpotX, Roku and Xandr and Branding Partner Verizon Media. Please contact me if you’d like to learn more about sponsorship opportunities.

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Reminder that this year the Connected TV Advertising Summit will be a virtual event, on the afternoons of September 21st and 22nd. Registration is complimentary. One attendee will win a Roku living room makeover including a Roku TV, wireless speakers, wireless sub-woofer and one year Netflix subscription, all generously provided by Roku.

CTV has quickly become a massive market with over 400 million CTVs deployed in the U.S. alone and 80% of U.S. TV households now having at least one CTV. The pandemic has accelerated the shift to streaming on CTVs and rising cord-cutting. Along with the huge opportunities, there are key challenges, especially in measurement, fraud and unified buying. 

The CTV Ad Summit will be a deep dive into all things CTV, with executives from agencies, content providers, technology companies and research firms sharing their diverse perspectives.

Many thanks to our CTV Ad Summit's 8 partners who have been amazingly gracious and supportive. Our Presenting partner is Deloitte; Gold partners are Extreme Reach and SpringServe; Silver partners include Beachfront, SpotX, Roku and Xandr and Branding Partner Verizon Media. Please contact me if you’d like to learn more about sponsorship opportunities.

Complimentary sign up now!

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To help media companies gain additional perspective and become more sophisticated in how they manage video ad revenues and user experiences, FreeWheel has published a new “Tracking Metrics” report. It lays out 4 different ways media companies can measure their OTT video businesses to improve monetization and user experiences. The four metrics focus on Revenue (fill rate), Viewer Experience (repeating ads and audience targeting) and delivering value to advertisers (ad consumption).

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I’m pleased to present the 524th edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia. As always we wish our listeners all the best and hope everyone is staying well.

With the pandemic accelerating a shift from linear TV, sports and pay-TV, AVOD is poised for significant growth in both viewership and ad revenues. Earlier this week, MoffettNathanson forecast AVOD growing from $3 billion in 2019 to $14 billion in 2024, compensating for most of the $14 billion decline in traditional TV ad revenues expected over that same time period.

On this week’s podcast Colin and I dig into all the factors behind AVOD’s rise and these coming changes.

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Video ad platform SpotX has made an undisclosed investment in SpringServe, an independent OTT and connected TV ad server, extending an existing partnership. SpotX is owned by RTL Group; it says it reaches 50 million CTV households per month and it acquired server-side ad insertion provider Yospace last year. SpringServe was founded in 2015 and serves publishers and content owners.

The deal underscores how viewership is moving to OTT and CTV, driving publishers and content owners to seek stronger monetization of every view and manage their inventory in more sophisticated ways across programmatic and direct sold. I reached out to both companies for more details on what the deal will mean for them, the broader market and their respective roadmaps going forward as viewership of OTT and CTV accelerates. Below is what they shared with me:

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I’m pleased to present the 523rd edition of the VideoNuze podcast, with my weekly partner Colin Dixon of nScreenMedia. As always we wish our listeners all the best and hope everyone is staying well.

Peacock launched nationally this week and Colin and I are both impressed. The user experience and value proposition to advertisers are both strong. As more library and original content is added, it’s only going to get better. However, Peacock’s distribution is currently limited without deals with Amazon Fire TV and Roku, which is why Comcast’s own Flex device is critical. Peacock is also entering a highly competitive SVOD/AVOD market; it is poised to play a lot of different roles for NBCU and Comcast.

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Click here to listen to the podcast (25 minutes, 59 seconds)

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Peacock launched broadly yesterday, though as a Comcast Xfinity broadband subscriber, I’ve had access to it for several months using my Flex device. I’ve spent a bunch of time with it and have been quite impressed. That the Peacock team put it together during the pandemic is quite a feat.

Some of the highlights to me are the very strong UI, the comfort food of popular programs like ’30 Rock,” “Parks and Rec,” “SNL,” and others, plus plenty of movies, the modest ad load of 5 minutes max per hour and the “Channels” which are about 30 virtual linear networks sorted into a traditional program grid.

As I’ve spent time with Peacock and followed the pre-launch coverage it’s become apparent how many different roles Peacock is poised to play for NBCU and its parent Comcast. Here’s a quick rundown:

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SpotX has released new research highlighting how use of connected TV has become mainstream behavior, with 40% of U.S. adults using CTV, for an estimated reach of 100 million 18+ adults. Among CTV viewers 63% watch daily and 94% watch weekly. CTV users watch an average of 3 hours per day (pre-Covid when SpotX fielded its survey). CTV viewers are quite evenly distributed by age group; 18-24 year-olds represent 21%, 24-34 year-olds (24%), 35-54 year-olds (27%) and 55+ (29%).

These findings and others are included in SpotX’s new paper, “CTV is for Everyone: An In-Depth Look at Connected TV Viewership in the U.S.”

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With the Covid-19 pandemic ongoing, this year the Connected TV Advertising Summit will be a virtual event, on the afternoons of September 21st and 22nd. Registration is complimentary and one lucky attendee will win a drawing for a Roku living room makeover including a Roku TV, wireless speakers, wireless sub-woofer and one year Netflix subscription, all generously provided by Roku.

There will be plenty of opportunities for audience participation and interaction with speakers. My goal for the CTV Ad Summit is to make it a robust learning and networking experience for all participants. Sessions will be a mix of keynotes, research presentations, interviews and panel discussions.  

The pandemic has further accelerated CTVs’ rise, with recent estimates that 80% of U.S. TV households now have at least one CTV, and that there are over 400 million CTVs deployed in the U.S. alone. Distribution on CTVs is critical to all recent SVOD and AVOD service launches and were a key focus of presenters at the recent IAB NewFronts.  As consumption has shifted, CTVs have begun accounting for around 50% of all video ad impressions.

Even as advertisers are moving spending over CTV, many questions still remain, especially around measurement, cross-platform buying, pricing stability, distribution, control/access to user data, business rules and more. CTV has grown quickly but a lot is still being figured out. We’ll dig into all of the critical opportunities and challenges over the 2 afternoons of the CTV Ad Summit.

Many thanks to our CTV Ad Summit's 8 partners who have been amazingly gracious and supportive. Our Presenting partner is Deloitte; Gold partners are Extreme Reach and SpringServe; Silver partners include Beachfront, SpotX, Roku and Xandr and Branding Partner Verizon Media. Please contact me if you’d like to learn more about sponsorship opportunities.

Complimentary sign up now!