VideoNuze Posts

Connected TV audiences reflect the diversity and age profiles of the U.S. population, making it a better platform for advertisers to achieve their key performance objectives compared to traditional TV (TV consumed though set-top boxes or over the air), according to Magnite’s new “CTV is for Everyone: U.S. 2021” report.

The percentage of Black viewers (13%) and Hispanic/LatinX viewers (20%) watching CTV match their respective share of the U.S. population. Asian viewers watching CTV slightly over-indexes their share of the U.S. population (8% vs. 7%). White viewers watching CTV slightly under-indexes their share of the U.S. population 59% vs. 60%). Importantly, the research found that traditional TV over-indexes for white viewers (69% vs. 60%) while under-indexing across Black, Hispanic and Asian audiences.

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Welcome to this week’s edition of Inside the Stream, the podcast where nScreenMedia’s Chief Analyst Colin Dixon and I take listeners inside the world of streaming video.

HBO / HBO Max lost 1.8 million subscribers in the U.S. in Q3 2021. On the surface that might seem like a bad thing, especially given how hot the streaming business is these days. But as Colin and I discuss, this week, it’s actually a good thing, as it reflects the rolloff of many millions of subscribers who were acquired via a prior distribution deal with Amazon Channels.

HBO Max has made an intentional decision to focus on a direct-to-consumer strategy, which we think is smart. Back in August, I explained the challenges SVOD services have with third-party distribution, including with Amazon, based on my personal experience subscribing to AMC+ through Amazon.

After talking to industry colleagues since, I’ve become more skeptical about the long-term value to SVOD services in these deals. So a DTV strategy, especially for a big player like HBO Max, seems like the right one. As we also discuss, it’s also a smart move given HBO Max, as part of WarnerMedia, will be merged into Discovery in 2022.

Elsewhere in the podcast we talk about the per subscriber value of the ad-supported vs. ad-free business model, and why I think that in the long-term, the former is far greater in a connected TV dominated world with “full funnel” marketing capabilities. We also dig into HBO Max’s decision to have content parity starting in January between its ad-supported and ad-free tiers. Lots to digest.

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VAB has released a valuable new Stream On report, highlighting 23 case studies across 15 different product categories in which advertisers are using streaming video ad campaigns to achieve key performance indicators (KPIs) including incremental reach, brand favorability, ad recall, web site visits and sales.

The report is very well organized, by eight specific question topics such as “How do I use streaming to extend the reach of my video campaign beyond linear TV?” “How do I use streaming to increase my share of voice?” and “How can I use streaming to build brand love?” among others. Under each question topic there are 1-5 real world case studies.

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I’m really excited to announce the first 15 speakers for the Connected TV Advertising Brand Suitability Summit (virtual) on Nov. 16th and 17th. The speakers include:

• Yale Cohen - EVP, Global Digital Standards, Publicis Media
• Danielle DeLauro - Executive Vice President, VAB
• Karina Dobarro - EVP, Managing Partner, Horizon Media
• Rayna Elliott - SVP, Digital Strategy and Innovation, Horizon Media
• David George - CEO, Pixability
• Asaf Greiner - GM, Verification, Mediaocean
• Larry Harris - Founder and CEO, Alpha Precision Media
• Eric John - VP, Media Center, IAB
• Joshua Lowcock - U.S. Chief Digital & Global Brand Safety Officer, UM
• Pooja Midha - Chief Growth Officer, Comcast Advertising
• Jackie Swansburg Paulino – Chief Product Officer, Pixability
• Will Richmond - Editor and Publisher, VideoNuze
• Mike Richter - VP, Global CTV Revenue Operations, Trusted Media Brands
• Susan Schiekofer - Chief Digital Investment Officer, GroupM North America
• Karen Schuchardt - SVP, Digital Sales & Partnerships, NBCUniversal
• Plus many others to come

I’m honored that these executives are allocating time from their busy schedules to participate in the Summit. I anticipate adding more executives to the program in the coming weeks. The sessions are coming together nicely and I’ll be able to announce them shortly as well.

REGISTER NOW!

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Welcome to this week’s edition of Inside the Stream, the podcast where nScreenMedia’s Chief Analyst Colin Dixon and I take listeners inside the world of streaming video.

The new James Bond movie “No Time to Die” reportedly cost $250 million to produce and another $150 million to promote. So MGM, the movie’s studio, would need to make approximately $400 million to break even. Assuming a 50% take on box office sales, that would mean $800 million of overall ticket sales. According to Box Office Mojo, the movie has currently grossed approximately $331 million worldwide. While anything is possible, it is unlikely the movie will ultimately be profitable, at least based on the box office.

On today’s podcast Colin and I discuss the hard realities for Hollywood studios and theaters that even the ever-resourceful James Bond can’t solve. In short, if James Bond can’t turn a profit at the box office, the likelihood that others can - aside from super-hero, animation and sequels - is improbable.

All of that spells big-time trouble for Hollywood and theaters, as I wrote this past summer in “5 Reasons Going to the Movies is Facing an Irreversible Demise” and “Matt Damon Gives a ‘Hollywood 101’ Class on What Ails the Industry.” It also has significant consequences for movie fans and for how streaming is going to become even more central in our lives.

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I’m really pleased to announce that all paid attendees of VideoNuze’s Connected TV Advertising Brand Suitability Summit (virtual) on the afternoons of November 16th and 17th will be entered to win a 50-inch Roku TV and Smart Soundbar, both generously provided by Roku. The drawing is always a fun part of VideoNuze’s events and with the holiday season fast approaching, a couple of attendees will get a jump start on their shopping lists. Thanks to Roku for their longstanding support of VideoNuze events.

A reminder, the CTV Brand Suitability Summit is the first and only connected TV advertising industry event that is 100% focused on all aspects of brand suitability and safety, including the integral role of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

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A new study released by Pixability and GARM (the Global Alliance for Responsible Media) has found that although 99% of YouTube campaign impressions are considered “brand safe,” approximately one-third of these impressions can still be unsuitable for particular advertisers. The new Advertising Insights Study, “What Every Agency Should Know About Brand Safety, Brand Suitability & Performance on YouTube” is based on 20,000+ YouTube campaigns that ran on YouTube in the first six months of 2021. DoubleVerify’s brand safety measurement provided further input to the study.

The study first seeks to distinguish between brand suitability and brand safety, as well their impact on campaign performance. GARM has developed a framework for identifying 11 topics that can be considered objectively harmful. On these dimensions, which align with YouTube’s own monetization policies, GARM reported in April, 2021 that YouTube is 99% safe for advertisers.

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Welcome to this week’s edition of Inside the Stream, the podcast where nScreenMedia’s Chief Analyst Colin Dixon and I take listeners inside the world of streaming video.

Rather than focus on just one story this week as we usually do, today we do segments on 5 different stories that caught our attention. First we pick up on last week’s podcast about the dustup between YouTube TV and NBCUniversal. The companies avoided going over the cliff together and managed to extend their relationship. But it is a harbinger of more fights between networks and virtual (and traditional) pay-TV operators as the size of the pie continues to shrink due to cord-cutting.

Then Colin and I have a spirited debate about Google’s Fiber TV, which is being retired, and the broader question of whether Google Fiber’s 1 gigabit per second broadband service is a worthwhile product offering (Colin thinks it is and I think it isn’t, and I haven’t since it launched way back in February, 2010, see “Google’s Fiber-to-the-Home Experiment Could Cost $750 Million or More.” Also see "Google Fiber is Out of Synch With Realities of Typical Consumer Technology Adoption" from July, 2012 and "No Surprise, Google Fiber is Falling Short of Expectations" from August, 2016.)

From there we discuss the steep drop in L7 TV ratings that has continued in the first week of this Fall season. But even at these depressed levels, I assert that the most popular broadcast TV shows like “NCIS” still draw audiences that may likely be bigger than the first 7 days following the drop of a popular show on a big SVOD service like Netflix. Related, we discuss new Kantar data on SVOD churn in Q2. For more insight, have a look at my post from November, 2019, “Will Spinning Video Subscriptions Become a Thing?”

Finally, there’s a game of musical chairs happening in our industry and this week’s move by Kelly Campbell from president of Hulu to president of Peacock is just the latest example. We discuss why these executives’ shuffling matters to all of us as consumers.

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