In this week’s Week in Review: Facebook introduces video comment, StickyADs.tv accelerates programmatic TV and AT&T interested in Yahoo. To receive a weekly summary of industry news and other VAN interviews and videos, sign up to the weekly Video Round-Up.
StickyADs.tv Accelerates Programmatic TV
StickyADs.tv, who were recently acquired by Comcast, have launched a new programmatic guaranteed feature that will enable buyers to make direct buys of reserved inventory using Open RTB pipes. A number of European broadcasters, such as France Télévisions, M6, Next Régie (BFM TV, BFM Business, RMC Découverte, Eurosport) and Spiegel.tv, are the first to successfully deploy the new programmatic guaranteed feature across their private exchanges.
Tremor Video to Shut Down DSP in UK to Focus on SSP
New Managing Director of Tremor video, Andrew Morley, has effectively closed down the ad network and demand-side platform (DSP) side of the business in the UK to focus on its supply-side platform (SSP) business. From the end of Q2 this year, Tremor Video will wind up its DSP and network business in the UK in order to concentrate on bringing renewed verve into the market’s SSP sector.
Apple Executives Reportedly Tapped Up Time Warner and Netflix
Apple executives discussed the possibility of acquiring Time Warner, the owners of HBO and CNN (amongst others) last year, reports the Financial Times. Time Warner is currently valued at $58 billion. The company has also been considering acquiring Netflix, according to Fortune.
AT&T Interested in Yahoo
The telecom giant, AT&T, has made a bid for Yahoo Inc. Originally, AT&T had said they wouldn’t be involved in a deal with Yahoo, but have kept in the loop of the process through its stake in digital advertising business YP Holdings LLC., which had proposed a merger with a subsidiary spun out of Yahoo’s core business.
Republican National Committee Reserves $150 Million for Video Ads
The Republican National Committee is finalising its largest digital ad deal ever, to reserve $150 million worth of video ad inventory for the general election. Although the amount is unprecedented, it represents an acknowledgement on the part of the RNC that the party’s likely nominee will need more help than usual on the digital front.
Infuse Helps Consumers Find Fresh Videos
Smart filters on Infuse for Apple and iOS has a redesigned library view that not only helps you find videos the old-fashioned way, but incorporates smart filters that automatically sift through your collection.
Third of Australians Watch TV On Demand
Over a third of Australians now watch TV “On Demand: in an average four weeks, new findings from Roy Morgan Research has shown. “On Demand” includes either free or paid ‘non-linear’ viewing, from the networks’ catch-up TV services to Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD), including Foxtel.
IMAX Plans VR Strategy
Following IMAX’s Google “VR collaboration” news, the cinema company is set to develop a premium location-based virtual reality offering that will deliver immersive, multi-dimensional experiences, including entertainment content and games, to multiplexes, malls and other commercial destinations.
EU Commission Updates Audiovisual Rules
A ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach is not appropriate for consumers to benefit from the opportunities and for the rules to meet the different challenges posed by the very diverse types of online platforms, the EU Commission has said. The Commission are updating their audiovisual rules and will look at each area where it can act, from telecoms to copyright rules, to address any specific problems in a future-proof way for all market players.
Study Finds Signs of Saturation in Video Streaming Market
The growth rate of the U.S streaming market is slowing for the first time, new data from Strategy Analytics has found. The report suggests that this shows the first signs of saturation in the market.
ConvertMedia Appoints Joe Girling, as UK General Manager
Former Sizmek and Videoplaza executive, Joe Girling, has been appointed the UK General Manager of ConvertMedia. In this new role, Girling will be dedicating his efforts to establishing strategic partnerships that maximise the company’s growth potential in the UK market while at the same time supporting territories in EMEA.
Mediaocean Partners With Integral Ad Science
It will be easier for media buyers to plan, transact and report on advertising campaigns with the partnership of Mediaocean and Integral Ad Science. Using Integral’s viewability data, Prisma users to invoice, reconcile and pay for viewed impressions using Integral’s viewability data. The partnership comes on the back of Mediaocean’s acquisition of Colspace.
ADventori Expands to UK Market
Personalised ad company, ADventori, has appointed Will Bishop to head up its new UK operations. The French company is looking to expand operations to a London-based audience.
SAP Creates DSP and DMP Called Exchange Media
SAP has entered the digital advertising market by creating a DSP and DMP from scratch that it’s calling SAP Exchange Media (XM). The XM Platform is an integrated online media network that directly connects advertisers and publishers in the cloud, based on the SAP HANA platform.
Facebook Introduces Video Comments
Social media platform Facebook has continued its push to encourage users to react to threads by allowing comments in video form. A representative of Facebook said that the tool, currently available in a few select countries, will “give people different tools to share fun, expressive content with their friends on Facebook”. Video commenting is being tested on both Facebook’s iOS and Android apps, as well as on the Web.
Meredith Local Partners With SpotX To Centralise Programmatic Video Sales
Meredith Local Media Group, the division of Meredith Corp. that oversees 17 local broadcast TV stations and 13 local news sites, has partnered with SpotX to power the sale of digital video ads across the broadcaster’s 13 news websites. Meredith Local will be using SpotX’s ad server and SSP to find new pockets of inventory and improve yield.
Bauer Media Appoints New Commercial Marketing Director
Liz Martin will be joining Bauer Media as Commercial Marketing Director, working across its multi-platform portfolio of influential media brands. Martin is currently Publisher on Bauer Media’s music, film and maturity markets, she has been instrumental in recent projects such as the launch of Empire Live.
Google Releases Universal App Campaigns For iOS
Google is opening up its Universal App Campaigns for iOS developers to use for driving app installs to Apple devices. The company has been building out its app install capabilities since it first unveiled the campaigns in September, and so far says it’s now driven more than 2 billion app downloads. Google has also revealed a mobile-focused update for its AdWords platform and a dedicated VR app for YouTube for its Daydream offering.
Facebook Live Global Video Map Charts Live Users Worldwide
In order to bring Facebook Live to more people, the social media company has launched an interactive map that shows all the Live videos that are going on at that second. Previously users could only to see Facebook Live videos from friends or videos that were particularly trending on Facebook’s News section.
UK Programmatic Adoption Fastest in Europe
Programmatic growth is inevitable across Western Europe and the US, according to a new white paper from Ooyala. The report found that 23 per cent of online video is already traded programmatically in the UK, representing a 42 per cent growth year-on-year in this area, which is only overtaken by Sweden.
Snapchat Data Reveals Brand Buy-Ins
Only a few brands have aired ads on Snapchat’s Discover feature; a fifth of Activewear brands have rolled out the ads, and over half of them are from Nike, according to L2’s report on Snapchat advertising. The report shows that three product sectors, activewear, CPGs and consumer electronics, have accounted for 57 per cent of all ads on Snapchat Discover. Snapchat have also partnered with Nielsen to offer deeper audience metrics in the U.K.
Tumblr Appoints New Head of Marketing Partnerships
Yahoo-owned blogging site, Tumblr, has appointed Tatiana Simonian as head of Marketing Partnerships. Simonian will be responsible for developing partnerships and integrations with entertainment and media brands, and was previously VP of branded music for Nielsen Entertainment and, earlier, inaugural head of Twitter Music. She has additionally held roles at Disney and Hot Topic, where she created multi-platform activations for music film and product initiatives.
Consumers Prefer Shorter, Muted Video Ads
The most “tolerable” style of video advertising is silent, according to 45 per cent of consumers taking part in a video advertising survey conducted by Wibbitz. Just six per cent of the people asked said that advertisements they can interact with are the most tolerable types of video ads.
Consumers Prefer to Discover Content Themselves
Consumers are showing increasing mistrust for pushed content and continue to stiff-arm brands attempts to reach them, a survey from Rapt Media has shown. The survey has found that online ads are being rejected by 43 per cent of those surveyed with 62 per cent preferring to discover content themselves.
Rise In Video Streaming Generates Minor Increase in Revenue
A reported 88 per cent increase in music video streaming has shown an increase in revenue of 0.4 per cent during 2015, according to BPI’s Music Market Review. Artists have not benefited from the rise of streaming, earning £24.4m to the industry as a whole in 2015. By comparison vinyl sales generated £25.1m for labels over the same period.
Growing Threat of Cyber Attacks
The National Crime Agency has warned of a growing threat of cyber attacks that are more “technically proficient and aggressive”. The NCA said that the top cybercrime threats to UK businesses today included “financial Trojans” designed to look like legitimate software to gain access to confidential information; distributed denial of service attacks (Ddos) aimed at shutting down or disabling online functions during hacking attacks; and data breaches.
Facebook Pushes VR with Oculus London Hub
Facebook has created a London-based hub for its virtual reality Oculus division, enlisting former Google software engineer Mike LeBeau to lead the team. Posting to the social network in January, LeBeau indicated that the London hub would play a big role in the development of its VR technology.
Mobile Screens Are Most Emotionally Engaging
Brands must create ‘seamless moments’ to most effectively engage with consumers across multiple screens, and mobile screens are most effective to deliver these ‘seamless moments’ for consumers, according to new research from Yahoo. The report found that consumers are actively open to and want engagement from brands when shopping, travelling, or, in particular, relaxing.
BT CEO Apologises For Broadband Quality
Gavin Patterson, BT chief executive, has conceded that his company must do more to improve the quality of its broadband offer in a public admission of failure in The Telegraph. Patterson acknowledges customer complaints and admitted that some consumers were left with slow speeds with a lack of communication as to when they might expect to receive high speed broadband.
Videos and Links No Longer Count Towards 140 Characters
Twitter has confirmed that videos, links and GIFS will no longer count towards the 140 word limit that the micro-blogging site has always used. The changes include replies, tagging other users in posts and using photos.
Cisco Ups Revenue for Q3
Technology company, Cisco, has reported strong revenue growth in its Q3 report for earnings. Revenue growth is $12.0 billion, up 3 per cent, with product revenue up 1 per cent and service revenue up 11 per cent.
Comcast Leads Funding Round With Spaces Investment
Spaces, L.A. startup developing virtual-reality and mixed-reality experiences, announced $3 million in initial funding led by Comcast Ventures. The company’s two co-founders, CEO Shiraz Akmal and CTO Brad Herman, both hail from DreamWorks Animation, where they worked on the studio’s VR content experiences.
Internet Speed Tool Created By Netflix
SVoD provider, Netflix, has launched its own internet speed checking website, fast.com. Fast.com measures a users personal Internet connection at any given time. The speed index measures average monthly speeds of actual Netflix streams during prime time hours.
Time Inc Launches Video Platform “Instant”
Instant, a new mobile-first, all-video digital platform featuring content “about the lives and projects of digital celebrities,” has been created by Time Inc. The company have said that the Instant user experience will be a “fluid video stream,” so viewers can watch without interruption, with no app download required. Time Inc. plans to premiere Instant at VidCon 2016 next month in Anaheim, CA.
Video Cloud Platform as a Service Launched By Kaltura
Video tech provider Kaltura has a launched a new cloud video platform as a service (VPaaS) offering, aimed at giving clients the ability to build and launch video applications, and integrate video into existing platforms and workflows.
Fewer US Multichannel Video Subscribers
Despite a relatively upbeat cable performance, multichannel video subscriptions have seen a slow decline that’s picking up speed, according to SNL Kagan. The report shows that direct-broadcast satellite (DBS) and telecommunications (telco) sectors lost 162,000 video customers during the period.
FOTV Media Networks Acquires OVGuide
Online video discovery platform, OVGuide, has been acquired by FOTV Media Networks. Integration with the FOTV group of companies will expand OVGuide’s reach globally, exposing the platform to FilmOn TV’s strategic partners such as Lenovo, as well as introducing it to FilmOn.com’s 70 million monthly unique users.
Germany’s AV Advertising Market Continues to Grow
The German audiovisual advertising market should see growth of up to 4 per cent this year, taking total sales to €5.7 billion, according to figures compiled by the country’s commercial broadcasters’ association, the VPRT. TV advertising is set to grow by between 2 per cent and 3 per cent to €4.5 billion.
Samsung Exploring Online TV Service
Samsung Electronics Co. is reportedly in preliminary talks with entertainment companies to sell an online TV service. This would potentially put Samsung in a growing list of tech companies trying to compete with the likes of Comcast Corp. and AT&T Inc.
Rubicon Project Launches ‘Next Generation’ Video Platform
Advertising marketplace operator Rubicon Project has unveiled the initial success of its next generation Mobile Video Platform (MVP) as it also said that it has moved from beta to general availability worldwide. The company also announced that MVP now reaches more than one billion unique connected mobile devices globally.
YuMe and StickyADs.tv Partner To Expand Video Inventory
In order to help premium publishers embrace programmatic video in a controlled and transparent manner, YuMe and StickyADs.tv have formed a partnership. The integration between YuMe’s comprehensive demand side platform (DSP), YuMe for Advertisers (YFA) and StickyADS.tv’s supply side platform (SSP), will give advertisers and agencies access to premium video inventory online and on mobile.
Netflix is Preferred Viewing Platform
Among those who have been exposed to streaming programming, Netflix is the most frequent choice for all demographic groups surveyed when they want to watch a TV show, according to a survey from E-Poll Market Research. The results also show that the popularity of streaming is due in large part to viewers’ interest in time shifting, binge watching and avoiding commercials.
Online Advertising In UK Tops Germany and France Combined
Online advertising grew 13.1 per cent to a market value of €36.2bn in 2015, surpassing the €33.3bn European TV market, a report from IHS, in collaboration with IAB Europe has found. The report, the AdEx Benchmark, has also shown that the UK spent more than double on online advertising in comparison to Germany and almost triple the spend in France during 2015.
Vivendi Moves Closer to Gameloft Takeover
Vivendi has moved closer to taking full control of Gameloft after the French games company’s third-largest shareholder said it would sell to the media giant. Vivendi now has 44 per cent of the mobile games company’s shares, more than twice the amount owned by the games company’s founders, the Guillemot family.
Dazed Media’s Chief Commercial Officer Moves to Joe Media
Will Hayward, previously Chief Commercial Officer of Dazed Media, has left the company after 11 months to join Joe Media as its first ever chief executive. Hayward will be responsible for leading the company’s two UK offices, in London and Manchester, and will oversee all aspects of the business from editorial and commercial to business operations.
Vice Appoints New Head of Content
Ciel Hunter, an 11-year veteran of Vice Media, has been promoted to the position of head of content, overseeing operations across mobile and digital platforms. Hunter takes over for Alex Miller, who is returning to Vice’s London office as the newly appointed creative director of Viceland EMEA.
This Week on VAN:
EU Introduces New Rules for Video Sharing Platforms, TV Advertising and SVOD Content, read more on VAN
Inventory is Up and CPMs are Down: Connected TV Advertising’s Time has Finally Come, read more on VAN.
IAB says Three’s Network-Level Ad-blocking will Kill Smaller Publishers, read more on VAN.
Ad of the Week: Security Mums, Sport Club do Recife, Ogilvy Brasil
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