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Inside the Stream: 3 Key Themes from This Week’s NewFronts
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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Inside the Stream: Interview With Wurl’s CEO On AI’s Role in CTV Ads
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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Inside the Stream: NAB 2024 Showcases AI, Blockchain and More
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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Categories: AI, Blockchain, Podcasts
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Inside the Stream: AI Drives New Value for Cineverse-Gracenote and Others
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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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Amazon Music RSSTopics: Adobe, Cineverse, Gracenote, Podcast, Weather
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Inside the Stream: TiVo’s Q4 ’23 VTR: Service Declines, Discovery Challenges and More
On the podcast this week Colin and I dig into Tivo’s Q4 2023 Video Trends Report, released earlier this week and available here. Among other things, TiVo’s research found that in the past 2 years the number of paid video services used per respondent has leveled off while non-paid services has increased, indicating higher levels of ad tolerance.
Meanwhile, TiVo found that the gap between people signing up for a new streaming service and dropping one is at an all-time low, highlighting how churn remains an issue.
In addition, nearly half of respondents typically go to 2 or 3 streaming apps before deciding on something to watch. Just 19% of respondents said they know what they want to watch, once again revealing how important discovery remains.
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Inside the Stream: Disney+/Hulu UX Lags, ESPN and RSNs, NFL Skeptical of Sports JV
As has been promised for a while, Hulu has been integrated into Disney+ in a bid to present more content seamlessly to viewers. No doubt the move was a significant undertaking, yet Colin’s early review shows a few key UX features lagging, notably his viewing history. We expect that in time these will be updated.
Elsewhere at Disney, ESPN has taken initial steps toward being a sports hub by incorporating links in its app and web site to regional sports networks’ streams. NESN, Monumental Sports Network and SportsNet Pittsburgh are already available. ESPN could play a vital role in addressing the problem of sports streaming fragmentation.
Finally, Colin and I both noticed the NFL’s chief media/business officer Brian Rolapp’s skepticism about how the sports JV (or “Spulu”) will be priced. Rolapp observes that if it’s priced in the $40-$50 per month range, then subscribing to YouTube TV (for example) would only be another $20 or so per month - and would include more NFL games, plus scripted and unscripted programming. This is exactly the point Colin and I have been making - the JV’s pricing window seems awfully narrow.
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Topics: Disney+, ESPN, Hulu, NFL, Podcast
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Inside the Stream: New Data Shows Streaming’s Dominance Over Traditional Media
This week we discuss new data from Inscape, Deloitte and HarrisX, which all illustrate how streaming is continuing to build its dominance over traditional media. To highlight a few key points:
Inscape found that among its VIZIO panel of users, 55% are streaming-only (i.e. no pay-TV), up from 49% in 2022. Deloitte reported that the average U.S. household is now spending $61 per month on 4 SVOD services, up 27% from $48 per month in 2023. And HarrisX found in its poll that just 34% of American adults prefer to watch a movie in a theater.
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Topics: Deloitte, Inscape, Podcast
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Inside the Stream: FAST Euro Limits, TV OS Wars, Broadcaster Super Apps
Colin has been in London participating in a CTV conference, and this week he shares some of his observations about how the competitive landscape in Europe compares with the U.S. Among the topics we discuss are why FASTs are unlikely to grow as quickly as in the U.S., the burgeoning market for TV OS’s, and the introduction of broadcasters’ “super apps.”
The discussion is a great reminder that while CTV has taken the U.S. by storm, it is evolving differently in other parts of the world.
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Topics: Podcast