In this week’s Week in Review: DISH opens first impression, by impression programmatic exchange, IBM acquires The Weather Company’s, Mobile and Cloud and LiveRail cleans up its act. To receive weekly summary of industry news and other VAN interviews and videos, sign up to the weekly Video Round-Up.
DISH Network Opens Impression by Impression Programmatic Exchange
Satellite Pay-TV provider, DISH, has debuted a programmatic marketplace and supply-side platform running on IPONWEB. DISH initiated beta testing with DataXu, Rocket Fuel and TubeMogul and will introduce the platform to the digital industry upon completion of successful testing with these partners.
This is the first impression-by-impression programmatic marketplace for linear television, and will allow for 360-degree consumer reach across viewing experiences. “For a consumer, the lines between smartphones, computers and TVs are blurring,” said Adam Gaynor, vice president of DISH Media Sales. “DISH’s platform unites TV and digital buying, creating an easy avenue for brands to target their message comprehensively and efficiently across the entire consumer experience.”
IBM Acquires The Weather Company’s B2B, Mobile and Cloud
IBM has acquired The Weather Company’s B2B, mobile and cloud-based properties. The agreement covers the WSI, weather.com, Weather Underground and The Weather Company brand. The combination of expertise from each company will serve as the foundation for the new Watson IoT Unit and Watson IoT Cloud platform, building on a $3bn commitment made by IBM in March 2015 to invest in related offerings and services
Facebook’s LiveRail to Clean Up Act
Facebook’s LiveRail service is set to terminate some of its publisher services for an undisclosed number of clients by the end of November, citing a push toward “quality, direct-publisher relationships”. An e-mail, sent to customers from LiveRail, explains that: “LiveRail is shifting its business focus toward quality, direct-publisher relationships”. Facebook doesn’t want separation between its LiveRail exchange and the publishers who use it to monetise, so the company is taking swift action to cull intermediaries. Facebook’s move comes after AppNexus abolished impression resale on its platform and dramatically consolidated its supply chain. Read the full e-mail and story in detail here.
EU Parliament Votes Against “Net Neutrality”
The European Parliament has voted against a set of rules that would safeguard “net neutrality” in Europe. A regulation that governs how internet traffic is managed was set to undergo a series of amendments, all of which have been rejected by MPs. The existing legislation, which was accepted, will be developed into regulations.
Instagram Releases ‘Boomerang’
To counter the use of GIFs and Vines, Instagram has released their own video-looping app, Boomerang. The app allows users to make a one-second looping film by taking a burst of photos and stitching them together into a high-quality mini video that plays forwards and backwards.
Google Supports Digital News Initiative with €150 Million
The Digital News Initiative, a collaboration between Google and eleven European news organisations with the aim of supporting high quality journalism through technology and innovation, has been boosted by the news that Google will be putting €150m into the scheme.
Alphabet Shows “Substantial Growth” in Mobile Search Ads
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has shown “substantial growth” in its mobile search advertising business, in its first quarterly earnings call. The report also also contains news of it registering yet another decline its average CPC, which slipped 11 per cent year on year.
Over Half of Media Companies Have Been Cyber-Attack Victims
More than 50 per cent of media companies worldwide have suffered a cyber-attack, a new report from Newscycle Solutions has revealed. Of those surveyed, 12 per cent weren’t even sure if their company had been victim to any kind of cyber attack.
Google and Mediaset Announce Partnership
Eight years of legal disputes have been brought to an end with a partnership between Google and Mediaset. The agreement is aimed at developing the digital presence of Mediaset’s content through a partnership with YouTube and Google Play.
Global VoD Market Set to Rise
The increase of internet availability in developing nations and the demand for VoD products is expected to fuel the global VoD market, which is expected to reach US$ 263 billion by 2016, a report from Future Market Insights has predicted.
Broadband in EU Still Only 75 Per Cent as Fast As Advertised
Subscribers are getting only 75 percent of the advertised download speed, according to the European Commission. However, the study also found that broadband has become more affordable and that substantial investment is being made in high speed fixed as well as 4G (LTE) mobile infrastructures.
Streaming Device Sales to Top 86 Million
Global annual unit sales for streaming media devices, including both player and stick form factors, will increase from 30 million units in 2013 to 86 million units in 2019, new research from Parks Associates has found.
A Third of Most Influential UK YouTube Traffic is From UK
The top ten most influential UK YouTube stars have been found to have followers that live primarily outside the UK, a study by Tubular Labs for the BBC has found. Only a third of traffic for the top ten influential creators from the UK come from there.
WPP Reveals Revenue Growth in Q3
WPP has announced a 5.9 per cent growth in reported revenue to £2.927bn for its third quarter. The company said it was expecting more “client caution” going forward.
Twitter Reports $132 Million Loss
In the first quarterly report since Jack Dorsey was announced as CEO for Twitter reported a loss of $132m in Q3.
Millicom Releases Strong Q3 Results
Millicom has reported strong growth of Cable and Digital Media revenue in its third quarter reporting, with its Total Cable and Digital Media revenue generating units increased by 83,000 to 5.25 million.
Videocon d2h Adds 0.2 Million Net Subscribers
Indian d2h TV service, Videocon, has added 0.2m net subscribers in their Q3 results making them the fastest growing Pay TV operator in India.
Orange Raises Annual Profit Target After Q3 Results
Europe’s fourth largest telco, Orange, posted higher Q3 sales and core profit for the first time since 2009. The results have been helped by stronger results in its key market of France, prompting it to raise its annual profit target.
YuMe Expands to Outstream Video Ads
This week, YuMe launched an Outstream offering.
Amazon Makes Up Previous Losses in Q3
Online retailer, Amazon, has reported a profit of $79 million in the third quarter, up from a net loss of US$437 million for the same quarter a year earlier.
Brazil Pay-TV Market to Reach 28 Million Households
By 2018 the Pay-TV market in Brazil will reach 27.7 million households by 2018, new data from Dataxis has reported.
Facebook to Become Top Social TV Platform
Facebook is set to overtake Twitter as the top social TV platform, research from The Diffusion Group (TDG) has found.
Native Video Ads and a New Polling Feature Announced for Twitter
Twitter have announced a limited beta test of native video ads at the Twitter Flight developer conference in San Francisco.
Chocolate Video Ad Auctions Grow
From August 2015 – September 2015, Vdopia’s Chocolate saw total video ad actions grow to 311 per cent. This shows the speed that digital video advertising is growing in the sector.
Comcast Defies ‘Cord Cutting’ With Promising Q3 Report
Comcast have reported their “best third quarter for video subscribers in 9 years”, with just 48,000 subscribers lost in Q3. Comcast attributed the improvement mainly to its X1 set-top box, which is now in one-quarter of video homes and accounted for 60 per cent of video connects in Q3.
BT/EE Merger Provisionally Cleared
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) UK has provisionally cleared BT’s planned acquisition of telecommunications provider, EE.
75 Per Cent of Latin Americans Can Access TV Everywhere Services
There is a total of 53 TV Everywhere (TVE) platforms in South America and Mexico, up from Q2, and 75 per cent of South Americans can access these, new data from Dataxis has found.
BT Adds 106,000 Subscribers in Q3
British Telecommunications (BT) has reported a growth of 106,000 subscribers in their Q3 to September 2015 results.
Rightster Proposes Board Changes
Digital video distribution and monetisation network, Rightster, has announced a series of Board changes.
This Week on VAN:
Tackling Ad-Blocking: Strategic Choices, read more on VAN
5 Things Publishers Can Do to Enjoy A More Fruitful Online Video Strategy, read more on VAN
Ad-blocking Company Shine’s CMO: ‘We’ve Got a Good Racket Going’, read more on VAN
Ad of the Week: Movember, Comedic Geniuses
Movember is upon us again and this year, draws upon the silent movie era to underline why it’s so needed.
