Here’s an overview of what has been happening in video and TV advertising over the last week or so. If you’d like weekly update on what’s happening in the industry delivered straight to your inbox, you might want to consider signing up for the weekly Video Round-Up.
FreeWheel Seeing Major Shift Towards Authenticated Viewing, UK Video Growth Even More Pronounced than in the US
FreeWheel found that over 29 percent of long-form and live viewing is happening behind authentication walls, resulting in a significant 436% growth year-over-year. FreeWheel say that authenticated viewing opportunities for advertisers to better customise and share their brand messages with viewers across all screens and in the living room.
The report also found that live content, in particular, enjoyed a dramatic 176% increase in ad views as Programmers leveraged the unique aspects of digital to deliver distinctive viewing experiences that are stickier, more ubiquitous, and wholly immersive. Record numbers of viewers streamed major sporting events such as the Sochi Olympics, Super Bowl XLVIII, BCS Bowl Games, and NCAA March Madness as live events have become synonymous with digital.
FreeWheel also published some UK data for the first time, where they’re seeing growth trends that are outstripping the US. As the US market moves towards more TV-style viewing across devices, FreeWheel say the viewing in the UK is already dominated by long-form content on smartphone, tablet, and over-the-top devices. The report concludes that, as digital viewing continues to grow above 25% per year, we can expect to see industry innovation moving quickly to keep pace in an effort to bring TV to consumers wherever and whenever they are watching.
New TV Frontiers, The Technology and Strategy of Data-Driven Advertising
London, June 10th
42 Million US Homes Now Have a Connected TV, TV’s Outpacing PCs for Online Video
During the first quarter (Q1) of 2014 there were 42 million U.S. households with a TV connected to the Internet, either via a video game console, Blu-ray disc player, streaming media player or the TV itself. According to the NPD Connected Intelligence Connected Home Report, between Q1 2013 and Q1 2014 the number of homes with a TV connected to the Internet grew by 6 million. The vast majority of this increase was driven by growth in the number of homes with Connected TVs and streaming media players.
Parks Associates, another US research firm found that TVs are outpacing computers as the key platform for Internet video. In the first quarter of 2014, U.S. broadband households watched roughly 3 hours of online video per week on each platform, but the amount of online video consumed on a TV is increasing, up from 2.3 hours per week in 1Q 2013, while online video viewing on a PC is on a steady decline.
“The amount of all video consumed on PCs has declined, dropping from over eight hours per week in 2013 to 6.2 hours per week now,” said Brett Sappington, Director of Research, Parks Associates. “Ultimately, consumers can more easily access online video options on a television than ever before. In addition to smart TVs, Blu-ray players, and game consoles, consumers are also buying streaming media players and devices such as Google’s Chromecast. Pay-TV providers are making a strong push to extend TV Everywhere to a variety of devices. These trends are converging to displace computer-based video consumption.”
Videology Receive MRC Accreditation for Viewability, Launches ‘Viewpoint’
Videology, a video advertising platform, announced that it has received Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation for its measurement of viewable video impressions. In addition, Videology announced the launch of Viewpoint, a suite of tools designed to allow advertisers and media companies to make safer advertising decisions. Videology say Viewpoint will address brand safety in the following ways:
- Viewability: Videology’s viewability tool will use a unique combination of geometric and browser measurement to detect whether an ad is viewable on a user’s screen. Advertisers will be able to see the volume of ads measured as “viewable” according to the MRC standards in the campaign dashboard.
- Fraud Prevention: Videology will use a mix of proprietary and third-party solutions to monitor sites for common fraud risk indicators such as user frequency, performance anomalies and various other red flags. The solutions include (i) verification of every impression against the IAB/ABCe International Spider and Bots List, (ii) system-wide quality audits performed by third-party vendors such as DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science, and White Ops, and (iii) internal tools that monitor sites for fraud risk indicators.
- Content Quality: Videology say they accept an average of just 10 percent of all ad requests from public exchanges based on their approved specifications. The company also works with third-party solution providers for additional content quality control.
TV Still the Most Effective for Advertising, Say Thinkbox
A new study produced by Ebiquity on behalf of Thinbox, an organisation responsible for marketing TV advertising in the UK, found that TV continues to be the most effective advertising medium. The researchers looked at over 4,500 ad campaigns from 2008 and found that TV provides an average return of £1.79 for every pound invested between 2011-14, an increase on the £1.70 returned during 2008-11.
UK TV advertising revenues rose 3.5 per cent in 2013 to reach an all-time high of £4.63bn and is forecast to rise again this year courtesy of the World Cup.
Best of the Rest
TV Dollars Slowly Shifting to Web Video (Wall St Journal)
Australia’s Publishers Pile into Programmatic Video – and go direct (AdNews)
BSkyB Play the Scale Game with Bid to Buy Sky Italia (VAN)
