Brain Matter(s): They Might Be Giants
The Cablevision cable TV sales reps walked through my suburban Long Island neighborhood in December of 1975, promising better reception and a new channel called HBO.
They carried these little “HBO On Air” guides with them, left behind as part of the sales pitch, a featured film on the cover, full…
great post about the Goliath’s of cable and their pre-David beginnings.
Hitler reacts to Ad Tech.
This Snicker’s pre-roll ad (outlined by the red border) ran through the Videology network (formerly known as TidalTV) and was served inside a display banner.
Kudos to the fine folks at TubeMogul for starting this FakeProll.com tumblr which calls out Video Ad Networks who are running Fake PreRolls (from Digiday Article):
http://www.digiday.com/platforms/video-ad-net-calls-out-competitors/
Fake pre-rolls are video ads that autoplay on a Web page where the viewer has shown no intent to watch the ad or the content after the ad. They are typically run within banner ad units or in small, syndicated players below the fold.
The CW Television Network Signs TV Measurement Contract with Rentrak - Ratings | TVbytheNumbers
As fragmentation continues and people have more choices of programming on multiple different platforms, the science of measuring audience going to have to expand their sample size and account for engagement on all screens. This is a great step for the CW.
TV Audience Erosion
Surely as measurement technologies advance and we have better ad targeting capabilities for television, actual content viewing and response to advertising will outweigh the age metric. In another post on this topic in Gigaom, “Bad news for Nielsen: TV ads to be bought more like online ads,” Ryan Lawler quotes Michael Hayes, president of Initiative Digital, suggesting that the 18-49 demographic does not matter because what matters is the buying behavior and intent, regardless of age and gender. If we can measure this — which is the goal with digital ads and IP enabled set top boxes - then the age demographic is irrelevant.
Source: mediapost.com
TV Networks Pull Back On Original Web Content
But why are so many TV networks fleeing a business for which they would seem perfectly suited? The exodus comes at a time when many see brightening skies for original content on the Web. Though it took some time for the numbers to measure up to the early promise of Web video, profits and audiences are on the uptick.
“I would think they should be doubling down right now on creating original content for the Web,” says Marc Hustvedt, editor-in-chief of Tubefilter News and founder of the International Academy of Web Television. “The ad dollars are moving towards it. There’s this whole group, a new core of digital studios that are really booming in terms of audience.”
Source: The Huffington Post
Online Video Shifts to Primetime Viewing
As you can see from the above graph, viewers are spending less time watching online video during the day. But rather than the deep valley online video faced during primetime hours just two years ago, viewership online now actually peaks around 9 p.m.: the same time broadcasters air their most valuable TV properties.
But it’s not just broadcast TV programming moved online seeing a boost in primetime viewing. The Yahoo report mirrors finding from web original video distributor Blip.tv, which said last year that its viewership had shifted from daytime viewing to early-evening viewing.
Here’s the link to the original Wall Street Journal article
Microsoft Demos iTV Ads Using Its Kinect Technology
So basically all an advertiser will have to do is add a URL and a call to action to its existing spots that can then be embedded in game or video content. In the demo, Microsoft showcased a spot by Adidas that asked viewers to say “Xbox more” to receive more information about the brand in the form of a rich-text email that automatically goes to the email account associated with the Xbox Live login.
Source: adage.com
One might not immediately think of Facebook as being a player in the world of web video, but they are uniquely positioned capitalize on the growth of online video.
Viewers Migrating From Traditional TV to Online Video
U.S. consumers also now spend an average of four hours and 20 minutes per month watching video on the web, a full hour and 10 minutes above what they spent in Q1 2010.
In addition, timeshifted TV (i.e. TV content that is recorded and watched later) also continued to grow, as did mobile video viewing, up 43% (20%) from the year previous.Departing from earlier studies that found that the heaviest media consumers consume content across all platforms, Nielsen’s latest survey shows that those who watch the least amount of traditional TV — particularly those in the 18 to 34 age demographic — are watching more online video.
One of our clients sent this article to me… it’s a very interesting read on Video viewing habits
Hulu is popular, but that wasn't the goal
The crux of the problem is that Hulu’s ad sales are still dwarfed by some $30 billion annually in programming fees that pours into the media giants from cable, satellite and telecom providers. Those fees support the cost of producing content, and undercutting them by steering viewers away from TV and to the Internet would jeopardize the sturdiest financial leg of the TV industry.
As long as the production costs of making/distributing a profitable (linear) Television series remain orders of magnitude greater than the production costs of making/distributing a profitable (internet) Television series, these two business models will remain quite different.
Independent TV Series produced on the web are made on shoestring budgets, and monetized largely by advertisers. Many of these smaller independent production companies are starting to make profits.
The challenge for TV Industry is that people want to watch TV online. But in order to make that possible, they have to monetize their shows the same way. This means that ad loads would have to be the same (8 minutes of ads for 22 minutes of content). But even then, since advertisers pay the networks based on share and ratings on linear television as ‘measured’ by Nielsen, a fair amount of revenue will not be recognized since measuring web viewership is far more accurate and leaves very little room for extrapolating audience data the way Nielsen does.
An equilibrium between these two businesses may be achieved at some point in the future, but it will most likely come at a cost of the Television Networks changing their business model, not the other way around. And that’s not going to happen any time soon.
Source: Los Angeles Times
Nielsen Sues ComScore in Fight Over Web Traffic Measurement
The battle between firms keeping score of Internet traffic is heating up as The Nielsen Company has just filed a lawsuit against ComScore for violating five patents relating to the collection, analysis and reporting of information concerning computer activity.
Source: hollywoodreporter.comthr
via LisaMcT
Based on this post by TV by The Numbers this blogger breaks down Price per Viewer per Episode on BetweenTheScreens.
