Wednesday, October 4
Showtime, Yahoo Partner to Stream Series Online
Partnering with Yahoo, premium cable network Showtime will stream select episodes of some of its series online, hoping to add new subscribers by exposing viewers to the series in a new medium.
Media M&A Activity Headed for Record Year
Despite some economic concerns, media and information industry mergers and acquisitions activity remained vibrant through the third quarter, according to the The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc.
UGC Video Update - How It Will Be Safe For Advertisers
From the latest OnlineSpin:
"(...) There are three primary ways in which I've heard of companies developing tools to ensure the safety of advertisers in this space. The first methodology is based on peer review. In this model, a set of meta-data for the content--primarily video content--can be created based on the reviews or any set of review information posted and maintained by the viewer. It relies on the engagement of the audience, but has proven successful for other sites, especially those that are in the form of the Wikipedia. This model requires ongoing maintenance by the audience, which can be viewed as a pro or a con--but is certainly useful, because as the environment changes the meta-data can be updated to reflect audience tolerance.
The second model I've come across is when a technology catalogues the content on the page surrounding the UGC and hypothesizes that the content of the video is related to the content surrounding it. This model would seem to be relatively easy to build, and its logic is clear, but the problem is that it needs to cross-reference the data for the multiple of pages where the content is located and then merge the data to ensure proper classification. This process is extremely important when cataloguing for search. This model would appear to be sound, even if it requires that a fairly robust database be maintained to ensure its effectiveness.
The third model I've heard about is similar to the second, but rather than the content surrounding the video being catalogued, it's the pages linking to the video. This seems to be most applicable to YouTube and the other sites where other viewers consistently link to the video content from other sites, but do not host the videos themselves. This model also appears to be the most scalable--although once again it requires that the spiders be in place on a consistent basis to ensure that the content is updated regularly. (...)"
"(...) There are three primary ways in which I've heard of companies developing tools to ensure the safety of advertisers in this space. The first methodology is based on peer review. In this model, a set of meta-data for the content--primarily video content--can be created based on the reviews or any set of review information posted and maintained by the viewer. It relies on the engagement of the audience, but has proven successful for other sites, especially those that are in the form of the Wikipedia. This model requires ongoing maintenance by the audience, which can be viewed as a pro or a con--but is certainly useful, because as the environment changes the meta-data can be updated to reflect audience tolerance.
The second model I've come across is when a technology catalogues the content on the page surrounding the UGC and hypothesizes that the content of the video is related to the content surrounding it. This model would seem to be relatively easy to build, and its logic is clear, but the problem is that it needs to cross-reference the data for the multiple of pages where the content is located and then merge the data to ensure proper classification. This process is extremely important when cataloguing for search. This model would appear to be sound, even if it requires that a fairly robust database be maintained to ensure its effectiveness.
The third model I've heard about is similar to the second, but rather than the content surrounding the video being catalogued, it's the pages linking to the video. This seems to be most applicable to YouTube and the other sites where other viewers consistently link to the video content from other sites, but do not host the videos themselves. This model also appears to be the most scalable--although once again it requires that the spiders be in place on a consistent basis to ensure that the content is updated regularly. (...)"
Fox Streams Prime-time Shows On MySpace.com
MediaPost reports:
"Fox Tuesday placed already-aired episodes from the current season of "Bones," "Prison Break," "Standoff," "Vanished," "Justice," "Talk Show With Spike Feresten," "'Til Death," and "The Loop" on MySpace.com and Web sites of 24 local affiliates. Many of these shows currently are in re-runs this month, or will be preempted for the Major League Baseball post-season games.
"Fox Tuesday placed already-aired episodes from the current season of "Bones," "Prison Break," "Standoff," "Vanished," "Justice," "Talk Show With Spike Feresten," "'Til Death," and "The Loop" on MySpace.com and Web sites of 24 local affiliates. Many of these shows currently are in re-runs this month, or will be preempted for the Major League Baseball post-season games.
Toyota, Burger King and Lionsgate Films are sponsoring the free streams, with Toyota's Yaris the exclusive sponsor for the local affiliates' "Prison Break" streams. Shows will have pre-roll ads as well as ads that run between acts of the shows--although total ad time will be much shorter than during TV broadcasts. While the specifics vary by show, generally, each program will be accompanied by one 15-second pre-roll ad, and one-hour shows likely will have three ad breaks with one 30-second spot in each."
Undertone Networks Rolls Out Video Solution
Undertone Networks has launched a new turnkey online video advertising solution that aims to allow brand and direct response customers to improve their online advertising effectiveness. Undertone Video, a pre-roll video solution, increases the level of consumer engagement with clickable video and companion ads for 15 and 30-second spots.
Ad Infuse, Mondo Media Introduce Ad Platform for Video Podcasting
Mobile advertising solution provider Ad Infuse has announced a partnership with Mondo Media to create a new advertising platform for podcasting. Using Ad Infuse's technology, advertisers will be able to insert 15-30 second pre-roll video commercials prior to each animated short in the Mondo Mini Shows Podcast Network.
The partnership allows Ad Infuse to sell to a wider range of advertisers while allowing them, in turn, to reach the specific audience they are interested in, pace their buys evenly throughout the campaign, and refresh creative at any time. Ad Infuse and Mondo Media are currently running pre-roll ads for seven clients in categories that range from retail and gaming, to consumer technology.
(Source: Adotas)Tuesday, October 3
100 Leading Media Companies' Revs Reach $268B
Internet and cable helped propel a 6.6 percent increase in U.S. media revenue, which reached $268.48 billion for the 100 leading media companies, as compiled by AdAge's annual report.
Fox Shows to Air on MySpace, Fox TV Sites
News Corp. on Tuesday said it will be offering full episodes of Fox TV shows on MySpace and local Fox TV websites.
ClipBlast! To Distribute Video Search Engine
VIDEO SEARCH ENGINE CLIPBLAST! WILL start distributing its search engine to other Web sites for free, the company is expected to announce today. ClipBlast!, which indexes videos and organizes video libraries, will make a downloadable version of its search box available for free to Web publishers. ClipBlast's move comes several weeks after AOL announced the company would distribute its video search engine for free.
Bengals Kick Off Fan Video Site
THE CINCINNATI BENGALS HAVE BECOME the first NFL team to launch a site where fans can post user-created videos. The new video site, hosted by technology firm ViTrue, which runs user-generated promotional sites for clients, will be part of the Fan Zone section of the Bengals team site ( www.bengals.com).
Web-Video Spots Present Dilemma For Advertisers
the WSJ reports:
"(...) Some Web video sites, such as YouTube and Google, are mindful of consumers(...). Neither runs pre-roll advertising. But that isn't the case at many other popular Web outfits, including Yahoo, AOL, MSN and MTV's Overdrive, where pre-roll ads are plentiful. To pre-roll or not to pre-roll? It is a rising debate on Madison Avenue and in the Internet community. As video Web advertising starts to take off, pre-roll spots are an increasing source of ad dollars for Web sites that accept them. But by running the spots, sites run the risk of losing viewers to pre-roll-free rivals.
"Over time, users might choose to go to sites which don't have these kinds of ads," says Gokul Rajaram, a director of product management at Google. The search giant decided to eschew pre-rolls after discussions with advertisers and online publishers about the potential for pre-roll ads to drive viewers elsewhere, he says. Google doesn't yet sell video ads on Google Video, but it has tested "post-roll" spots that run at the end of a video.
YouTube executives weren't available for comment. The video-sharing site runs banner ads and also gives advertisers the opportunity to run video ads that users can click on if they are interested.
(...) Time Warner's AOL, for instance, believes spots of no longer than 15 seconds work better, and doesn't think its users should have to see several pre-rolls over the course of a single video-watching session, says Kathleen Kayse, an AOL Media Networks executive vice president. Some, such as CBS, run pre-roll ads with short videos but use so-called mid-roll ads -- appearing in the middle of a program -- for longer segments.
General Electric's NBC Universal runs pre-rolls on its Web sites, but also suggests advertisers experiment with various lengths and other formats, says Peter Naylor, the company's senior vice president of digital media ad sales.
Executives at ad agencies and Web concerns say Web video advertising needs to evolve. Pre-rolls may not disappear, says Yahoo's chief sales officer, Wenda Harris Millard, but, "I don't think this will be the majority of video advertising online, by far."
"(...) Some Web video sites, such as YouTube and Google, are mindful of consumers(...). Neither runs pre-roll advertising. But that isn't the case at many other popular Web outfits, including Yahoo, AOL, MSN and MTV's Overdrive, where pre-roll ads are plentiful. To pre-roll or not to pre-roll? It is a rising debate on Madison Avenue and in the Internet community. As video Web advertising starts to take off, pre-roll spots are an increasing source of ad dollars for Web sites that accept them. But by running the spots, sites run the risk of losing viewers to pre-roll-free rivals.
"Over time, users might choose to go to sites which don't have these kinds of ads," says Gokul Rajaram, a director of product management at Google. The search giant decided to eschew pre-rolls after discussions with advertisers and online publishers about the potential for pre-roll ads to drive viewers elsewhere, he says. Google doesn't yet sell video ads on Google Video, but it has tested "post-roll" spots that run at the end of a video.
YouTube executives weren't available for comment. The video-sharing site runs banner ads and also gives advertisers the opportunity to run video ads that users can click on if they are interested.
(...) Time Warner's AOL, for instance, believes spots of no longer than 15 seconds work better, and doesn't think its users should have to see several pre-rolls over the course of a single video-watching session, says Kathleen Kayse, an AOL Media Networks executive vice president. Some, such as CBS, run pre-roll ads with short videos but use so-called mid-roll ads -- appearing in the middle of a program -- for longer segments.
General Electric's NBC Universal runs pre-rolls on its Web sites, but also suggests advertisers experiment with various lengths and other formats, says Peter Naylor, the company's senior vice president of digital media ad sales.
Executives at ad agencies and Web concerns say Web video advertising needs to evolve. Pre-rolls may not disappear, says Yahoo's chief sales officer, Wenda Harris Millard, but, "I don't think this will be the majority of video advertising online, by far."
Monday, October 2
TV Still Favorite Medium To Watch Videos
Video isn't that popular on the Internet, says a study commissioned by the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau. When it comes to video usage on alternative platforms, it doesn't even make the top five. In surveying some 2,100 people between the ages of 12 and 54, results show that the computer/Internet usage for video is far down the list of most important activities. The highest usage is for search. Next comes playing games, then visiting news-related sites. In fifth place is listening to music. Sixth is visiting social-networking sites. After that comes watching video. The study found that 60 percent of people prefer watching TV to computer activity, and 65 percent of the time when compared to a video iPod or a PlayStation. Some of the audience groups that prefer to watch video on TV versus mobile devices were a surprise: teens and young men.
(Source: MediaPost)
(Source: MediaPost)
Video Ad Firms Hit Fast-Forward
Media Post reports:
WITH WEB VIDEO NOW DRAWING TV-like audiences, a herd of companies are jostling to meet the growing demand for ads accompanying online videos. Venture-backed startups are vying with online ad networks, ad networks are pairing with video-savvy boutiques, and Internet giants such as AOL and Google are gearing up their own video ad-serving efforts. No wonder that 15- and 30-second spots that run before videos are typically commanding CPMs of $15 to $30--among the highest on the Web.
But the scarce inventory driving up CPMs is also slowing faster expansion of video advertising. Marketers remain reluctant to place their brands alongside user-created videos of questionable content and quality. None of that has stopped emerging video ad companies from reaping big venture capital dollars. "Broadband penetration and speeds are sufficiently high to enable high-quality video and ads--that's not something you could say as recently as two years ago," said Warren Lee, a partner at Canaan Partners, which recently led an $8.4 million investment in video ad-serving firm Tremor Network. (...). Young companies such as Tremor, Brightcove and PostRoller are touting their video technology expertise to compete with existing Internet ad serving networks. "Delivering video across a network of publisher sites is significantly more difficult than delivering a text or banner ad," said Lee. He noted that video ads, for instance, must be able to run on a variety of formats including Flash, Windows Media Player, Real Media and QuickTime. "There's a lot more that can go wrong," he said.
Video startups are also focusing on particular markets to nurture nascent video ad networks online. For its part, Tremor is bypassing the biggest Web sites to target less trafficked ones in the auto, finance and entertainment categories. "That's where a lot of the volume and opportunity is," said Jason Glickman, chief executive of Tremor. He said the company has a network of about 150 sites on which it serves in-stream ads, including WhitePages.com and RedOrbit.com. Similarly, PostRoller so far has cultivated mainly video-centric sites such as Blip.tv, Streetfire.net and WeakGame.com for serving video ads. Started earlier this year, PostRoller is already serving more than 2 million video and static ads daily to a network of 25 sites, according to founder Tod Sacerdoti. He estimates that less than one-third are video ads, because many sites prefer less intrusive banner ads. The dubious content of some sites also keeps branded advertisers from buying video ads. Hewlett-Packard and Netflix are two prominent video advertisers with PostRoller, said Sacerdoti, who previously started Plaxo. Both Tremor and PostRoller are gearing up their sales force to build up their networks. Tremor is especially aggressive, planning to triple its sales staff to 15 by year's end.
Large, established ad networks aren't just standing by. Advertising.com earlier this year acquired independent video ad company Lightningcast and in June Google began offering click-to-play video ads on sites in its content network. A month ago, ValueClick--the second-largest ad network--moved to upgrade its video capability through a partnership with video ad specialist EyeWonder. As video advertising grows, the demand for third-party verification by ad-serving services will only increase, according to analyst Denise Garcia of WR Hambrecht & Co., who covers ValueClick and other Internet ad firms. That means big ad networks will continue to team up with or acquire video ad shops if they don't have the expertise in-house.
But both emerging and established ad networks are currently constrained by a dearth of professional video content of the kind that brand advertisers want. About 95 percent of the inventory of video pre-roll ads were sold out through April, according to an AccuStream iMedia Research study. "Inventory still exceeds supply for professional video and it's going to stay that way for a while," said Hambrecht's Garcia.
Advertising.com's In-Stream Video Network, which has inventory of 200 million pre-roll video streams each month, is about 80 percent sold, according to Elicia Brand-Leudemann, the network's director of marketing. She explained that it can operate more efficiently than other networks, in part, because it's constantly adding new inventory. She said that until advertisers have more control of what content their ads will be associated with, they will be wary of user-generated content. At the same time, video-sharing sites such as YouTube have to be mindful of alienating their users if they start to impose greater control over content to create a more friendly environment for advertisers. Members could end up migrating to any of the dozens of competing video sites. For its part, Advertising.com is trying to strike a balance. It has agreements with sites such as YouTube and MySpace to place video ads, but only on landing pages within the sites that have no user-created video. "The quality and content of the sites is very important," said Brand-Leudemann.
WITH WEB VIDEO NOW DRAWING TV-like audiences, a herd of companies are jostling to meet the growing demand for ads accompanying online videos. Venture-backed startups are vying with online ad networks, ad networks are pairing with video-savvy boutiques, and Internet giants such as AOL and Google are gearing up their own video ad-serving efforts. No wonder that 15- and 30-second spots that run before videos are typically commanding CPMs of $15 to $30--among the highest on the Web.
But the scarce inventory driving up CPMs is also slowing faster expansion of video advertising. Marketers remain reluctant to place their brands alongside user-created videos of questionable content and quality. None of that has stopped emerging video ad companies from reaping big venture capital dollars. "Broadband penetration and speeds are sufficiently high to enable high-quality video and ads--that's not something you could say as recently as two years ago," said Warren Lee, a partner at Canaan Partners, which recently led an $8.4 million investment in video ad-serving firm Tremor Network. (...). Young companies such as Tremor, Brightcove and PostRoller are touting their video technology expertise to compete with existing Internet ad serving networks. "Delivering video across a network of publisher sites is significantly more difficult than delivering a text or banner ad," said Lee. He noted that video ads, for instance, must be able to run on a variety of formats including Flash, Windows Media Player, Real Media and QuickTime. "There's a lot more that can go wrong," he said.
Video startups are also focusing on particular markets to nurture nascent video ad networks online. For its part, Tremor is bypassing the biggest Web sites to target less trafficked ones in the auto, finance and entertainment categories. "That's where a lot of the volume and opportunity is," said Jason Glickman, chief executive of Tremor. He said the company has a network of about 150 sites on which it serves in-stream ads, including WhitePages.com and RedOrbit.com. Similarly, PostRoller so far has cultivated mainly video-centric sites such as Blip.tv, Streetfire.net and WeakGame.com for serving video ads. Started earlier this year, PostRoller is already serving more than 2 million video and static ads daily to a network of 25 sites, according to founder Tod Sacerdoti. He estimates that less than one-third are video ads, because many sites prefer less intrusive banner ads. The dubious content of some sites also keeps branded advertisers from buying video ads. Hewlett-Packard and Netflix are two prominent video advertisers with PostRoller, said Sacerdoti, who previously started Plaxo. Both Tremor and PostRoller are gearing up their sales force to build up their networks. Tremor is especially aggressive, planning to triple its sales staff to 15 by year's end.
Large, established ad networks aren't just standing by. Advertising.com earlier this year acquired independent video ad company Lightningcast and in June Google began offering click-to-play video ads on sites in its content network. A month ago, ValueClick--the second-largest ad network--moved to upgrade its video capability through a partnership with video ad specialist EyeWonder. As video advertising grows, the demand for third-party verification by ad-serving services will only increase, according to analyst Denise Garcia of WR Hambrecht & Co., who covers ValueClick and other Internet ad firms. That means big ad networks will continue to team up with or acquire video ad shops if they don't have the expertise in-house.
But both emerging and established ad networks are currently constrained by a dearth of professional video content of the kind that brand advertisers want. About 95 percent of the inventory of video pre-roll ads were sold out through April, according to an AccuStream iMedia Research study. "Inventory still exceeds supply for professional video and it's going to stay that way for a while," said Hambrecht's Garcia.
Advertising.com's In-Stream Video Network, which has inventory of 200 million pre-roll video streams each month, is about 80 percent sold, according to Elicia Brand-Leudemann, the network's director of marketing. She explained that it can operate more efficiently than other networks, in part, because it's constantly adding new inventory. She said that until advertisers have more control of what content their ads will be associated with, they will be wary of user-generated content. At the same time, video-sharing sites such as YouTube have to be mindful of alienating their users if they start to impose greater control over content to create a more friendly environment for advertisers. Members could end up migrating to any of the dozens of competing video sites. For its part, Advertising.com is trying to strike a balance. It has agreements with sites such as YouTube and MySpace to place video ads, but only on landing pages within the sites that have no user-created video. "The quality and content of the sites is very important," said Brand-Leudemann.
Amazon’s Recently Launched Video Site Unbox Has Problems
Amazon.com launched its version of online video sharing less than a month ago. Already now the industry sources, including a PC-World staff blog, are reporting the service is suffering substantial teething problems. (...) When it was launched a few weeks ago, Amazon promised clients smooth passage both buying and renting streaming content. However, to keep delivering on that promise or to actually make good, Amazon is already offering a software upgrade to its video player. Apparently this is because of feedback it has received. "Clearly the service had its problems, but it also appears as if the company is paying attention and is willing to act quickly to try and remedy them", writes PCworld in its blog.
So what's actually gone wrong? Quite a number of things, it appears - problems during downloads, difficulties in fast forwarding and rewinding as well as time-consuming licensing agreements. The upgrade is meant to consider all of these issues. What's more, the company is offering its registered users a refund of USD1.99 in the form of a credit.
(Source: BizReport)
So what's actually gone wrong? Quite a number of things, it appears - problems during downloads, difficulties in fast forwarding and rewinding as well as time-consuming licensing agreements. The upgrade is meant to consider all of these issues. What's more, the company is offering its registered users a refund of USD1.99 in the form of a credit.
(Source: BizReport)
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