In this week’s Week in Review: Instagram extends video to 60 seconds, Dailymotion collaborates with AdMaxim and Telenor acquires Tapad. To receive a weekly summary of industry news and other VAN interviews and videos, sign up to the weekly Video Round-Up.
Instagram Extends Video to 60 Seconds
Photo sharing social site Instagram has extended its videos to run to 60 seconds, but only for video adverts. The decision to allow longer videos will give advertisers more options, including letting them reuse longer formats that they’re already paying for on TV or other platforms like YouTube.
Dailymotion Collaboration with AdMaxim
Video platform Dailymotion has announced a collaboration with AdMaxim. The global strategic partnership allows advertisers to directly purchase the mobile in-stream inventory of Dailymotion and to reach its worldwide audience through AdMaxim’s interface.
Telenor to Acquire Tapad
The Telenor Group has entered into an agreement to acquire approx. 95 per cent of marketing technology firm, Tapad Inc, Tapad has reported. The companies hope that the acquisition will enable Telenor to take a position within the rapidly growing market for advertising technology, and secure important competence within digital marketing and analytics.
TV Advertising Tops £1 Billion
Total TV advertising spend in the UK is set to top £1bn for the first time in the third quarter, according to data from the Advertising Association and Warc. The growth was partly driven by the Rugby World Cup.
90 Per Cent of Twitter Videos Viewed on Mobile
Micro-blogging site, Twitter, has confirmed that long-form tweets are part of its plan for 2016, and has shown that, on average, posts containing video content are retweeted six times more than those without. The Twitter ‘Plan for 2016’ event also saw Twitter revealing that 90 per cent of video views came from mobile, and that video growth had leapt up x150 over the past twelve months.
Facebook Live Streaming Available to US Users
A recent Facebook update has allowed U.S iPhone users to live stream on the social network site. Initially Facebook’s live streaming option was only available to celebrities before rolling out to journalists and public figures too, but after five months of tweaks the option has become available to all US users with an iPhone.
Doubleclick Adds App Install Features to Counteract Mobile Challenge from Facebook
Google has unveiled a host of new features that will let users download both Android and iOS apps directly from both its search function, as well as other web properties, in a move that can be read as a rear-guard action against Facebook’s growing strength in the mobile space. The new features, available via the DoubleClick Marketing Solutions suite, let app developers promote their wares across its assorted web properties, via DoubleClick Bid Manager (DBM) using search, display, and video ad formats.
BT Confirms EE Acquisition
BT has acquired EE after it was cleared by the CMA earlier in January. The telecommunications company has announced a restructuring plan now that it has secured the deal with EE. Under BT, EE will focus largely on the consumer market retaining its brand, its network and its high street stores. BT have also reported added 97,000 TV customers in its fiscal third quarter, taking its total to 1.4 million.
80 Per Cent Use Ad-Blockers
80 per cent of mobile users said they either used ad-blocking software on their mobile phones, or they wanted to, according to a study from GlobalWebIndex. By gender, men and have a small lead over women. That’s in line with male internet users being the most likely to deploy ad-blockers on their PCs or laptops.
Yahoo to Cut 2,000 Jobs After Poor Quarterly Results
As it revealed revenues in its latest quarter dipping by 15 per cent, Yahoo is set to axe 2,000 jobs. The cost-cutting plan is set to involve shutting offices in Dubai, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid and Milan.
Amazon Prime ‘Nearly Doubles’ Q4 Subscribers
Amazon’s Q4 has reported an operating cash flow increase of 74 per cent to $11.9 billion for the trailing twelve months, the company’s Q4 results have shown. Fire TV remains the #1 best-selling streaming media player in the U.S., having added over 1,000 new apps, channels, and games since September. Prime Video continues to grow internationally with nearly double the streaming customers compared with fourth quarter 2014.
Print-Focused News Outlets Beat Online Exclusives on Facebook
Print publications are out-performing digital outlets on Facebook, a new study from Engagement Labs has found. Print-focused news outlets, such as The Houston Chronicle and Business Insider, are out-performing online exclusive sites on the social media site as articles on Facebook tend to have a longer shelf-life and popular news stories stay at the top of news feeds.
Sky UK and Ireland Adds 146,000 TV Customers
Sky has released its Q4 results, which show an additional 140,000 TV customers in the UK and Ireland. However, churn was down 30 basis points year on year to 10.2 per cent, the lowest Q2 level for four years. The company promised that in 2016, Sky Q will evolve with the addition of the UK’s “most comprehensive” Ultra HD service, powerful voice search and its own app for mobile devices, plus more partnerships and content.
Alphabet Posts Revenues of $21 Billion
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has overtaken Apple as the world’s most valuable company as it posts revenues of $21bn in its Q4 2015 report. Stocks in the company surged in the immediate aftermath of the quarterly results release, and Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet, claims that the profit rise was based on the back of the strong performance of its mobile and YouTube business.
IBM Closes Weather Company Deal
IBM has secured the deal to acquire The Weather Company’s B2B, mobile and cloud-based properties. The cable TV segment was not acquired by IBM, but will license weather forecast data and analytics from IBM under a long-term contract. The collaboration of the two companies will become the foundation for the Watson IoT Cloud platform.
Global Pay TV Cord-Cutting Trends Up
Despite good Q3 figures for pay-TV, the trend for cord-cutting is still on the up, a report from Ampere Analysis has discovered.
Streaming Services Increase TV Viewing
SVoD services such as Hulu and Netflix have helped to raise increased TV viewing, according to Horowitz Research’s Multiplatform Content and Services, Wave 2 2015. The survey shows that A third of OTT viewers report watching more TV overall compared to five years ago.
Three Quarters of Millennials Engage On Multi-Screens
Eighty-eight per cent of millennials use second screens when watching video content, research from U.S trade body the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) has revealed. While watching video content, half of online Americans use second screens via another device such as a smartphone or tablet.
SVoD Users Spend $6 Per Month on OTT
The average monthly spend for U.S households on internet-based subscription SVoD services such as Netflix and Hulu is $6, up from $3.71 in 2012, new research from Parks Associates has found.
U.S Department of Commerce Proposes Copyright Change
A report from the US Department of Commerce has recommended amendments to copyright law that would provide both more guidance and greater flexibility to courts in awarding statutory damages. The suggested amendments would continue to provide meaningful protection for intellectual property while preserving digital innovation.
One in Seven Australians Don’t Watch Commercial TV
Over one in seven Australians now watch no commercial TV at all on a normal weekday, according to findings from Roy Morgan Research. The numbers are double that of 2008, and the gap is widening between age groups, with 14-34 year-olds making the fastest exit from the medium.
Apple Reportedly Builds Prototype Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets
Apple has reportedly put together a team of experts in VR and augmented reality and it is looking to make a device that could rival Facebook’s Oculus Rift headset or Microsoft’s Hololens device. The report also claimed that Apple has acquired augmented reality firm Flyby Media – a company that develops computer vision technology that links real life to mobile and wearable devices.
More Than Half of Households To Have Smart TV
By 2019, more than 50 percent of TV households in Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany will have smart TVs, the IHS has reported. Smart TV penetration has already reached 50 per cent, the IHS has said, with the number expected to rise to 63 per cent by 2019.
Online Viewing Growth in Sweden
Online video viewing is growing fast in Sweden, with an all-time high reported in 2015, a report from Mediavision has found. On average, Swedes watched 36 minutes per day of streamed online video during the period. Above all, the increase in viewing is driven by a strong growth for American services such as Netflix and Youtube. Nearly 40 per cent in the age group between 15 to 74 years watched online video on an average day during the fourth quarter.
Samsung Smart Platform Reaches 2.5 Million Weekly Visits
Samsung has reported that its smart platform has now passed the 2.5 million weekly unique users mark. This represents a 33 per cent increase in users over the past six months.
12 Per Cent of Adults Concerned By VoD Content
Around one in ten adults claimed to have seen something which concerned them on Video on Demand platforms, which rises to 28 per cent for teens, Ofcom has found. The research covers the full range of content available on-demand and online; from ‘catch up’ TV services, to user-generated video clips and subscription services such as Amazon Prime.
View Through Rate is Top KPI, Says Videology
The view through rate continues to be the priority for the UK advertisers when establishing campaign objectives, Videology’s Q4 results have shown. According to an analysis of all impressions run through Videology’s platform in the fourth quarter 2015, view through rate is the top key performance indicator to measure the real impact of video campaigns.
UK Online On-Demand Viewing Grows
Three quarters of UK adults have viewed an online video-on-demand service in the last 12 months, according Ofcom’s ‘On-demand and Online Research: Consumption and Concerns’ report. The report shows that catch-up TV is the most popular category, with 96 per cent of 16-24 year-olds accessing such a service.
Mobile Data Traffic to Grow 8-Fold
By 2020, there will be 5.5 billion mobile users, representing 70 per cent of the global population, according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast (2015 to 2020). The report also predicts that by 2020, the average mobile connection speed will increase 3.2-fold, from 2.0 Mbps in 2015 to 6.5 Mbps by 2020.
This Week on VAN:
What the LiveRail Shutdown Means for Video Publishers and the Wider Market, read more on VAN
UK Television Ad Spend Grew in 2015, Additional Growth Forecasted for 2016, read more on VAN
Ad of the Week: Guinness, Intolerant Champion, AMV BBDO
Guinness is celebrating Instagram’s new 60 second brand slots with a homage to John Hammond, New York’s champion of jazz and black music as part of their ‘Made of More’ series.
