Here’s today’s video advertising news round-up. Sign up for the VAN newsletter for a weekly summary of industry news. Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP gave ‘Big Media’ a ‘wake-up call’ today, according to the FT Blog, which was reporting on the FT Digital Conference in London today. Sorrell said traditional media companies are being complacent and the real impact of companies like Google and Facebook have yet to be felt. Sorrell said that in no more than ten years, digital had grown to become a third of WPP’s business. News Corp, at around $2.6bn, is the WPP’s biggest media-buying client, out of a total book of $72bn. But Google is second at $2bn and will overtake News Corp soon.
China’s Largest Search Engine to Buy PPS Net TV for Between $350 and $400 Million
China‘s largest search engine, Baidu Inc, is in the process of acquiring Chinese online video firm, PPS Net TV, for between $350 (228 million)-$400 million, according to Reuters. Late last year the search giant acquired a majority stake in its loss-making online video unit, iQiyi. PPS Net TV has acheived huge scale in the Chinese market. According to their website, “According to the data of iResearch in the end of 2010, PPS Net TV has over 210 thousand sets of channel programs and over 280 million subscribers. It daily covers over 25.12 million people and more than 100 million users per month. The market share of PPS reaches 55.30% and the monthly effective using time has been over 711 million hours. PPS is proud to be the No.1 in Net TV industry.”
Blinkx Revenue up 71% on 2012
Online media platform blinkx expects revenues for the year to the end of March to be approximately $196m – ahead of the previously upgraded range of $180m to $185m and an increase of 71% on 2012. According to Stockmarketwire, “Blinkx expects adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to be approximately $26m, an increase of over 200% from $12.8m in 2012. Profit before tax, including one-time costs and amortisation of purchased intangibles, is expected to be approximately $15m, an increase from $1.9m for 2012.”
