Showing posts with label joost. Show all posts
Showing posts with label joost. Show all posts
Sunday, November 04, 2007
The end of pre-roll ads...finally!
(Play the video above to see)
Finally, the players in online video are adapting to the fact that the way in which we interact with video online is completely different from our experience with linear TV. More specifically, most users are turning away from video with pre-roll advertising. It could be the fact that most pre-rolls are commercials made for TV placed in front of short form content, but I don't think so. This is a very different medium and our time is most often limited when viewing content.
The most recent solution seems to be pop-up type banners at the bottom of the video window while the content keeps playing. You can wait for the pop-up to go away, or you can close them right away. You also have the option to scroll through even more of them. Funnily enough I found myself doing this because the banners were relevant to what I had chosen to watch. Was it because I am in the industry? It may be, but I found myself doing it at points I was bored with the content of the video itself. The lesson here is if you give the user the power to interact, they will use it. In this case it works to the ADVANTAGE of the advertiser. WOW!
Maven.net and YouTube are the largest adopters of this approach, but others will quickly follow.
YouTube has also added to both its Custom and AdSense players. These are players that you can build with content of your choosing in order to post on any site or blog that you want, including content from the major networks. It is truly a revelation to see content from the major networks with NO pre-roll advertising, but pop-ups instead - knowing that this is likely to set a very real precedent. The small pop-ups offer a terrific alternative to traditional advertising, with the option of linking to a commercial or any other content that an advertiser wants to share with us if we WANT to see it.
...but wait a minute, does this really matter?....I mean, most people still watch TV right?
Yes, BUT this year almost 16% of American internet users watched full-length television shows online, according to a new report released by The Conference Board and TNS. This is double the amount recorded last year. Personal convenience and commercial avoidance were the two top motivating factors. Nearly 73 percent of online households said they use the internet for entertainment purposes on a daily basis and an additional 15 percent search for entertainment several times a week.
From all of this you can only draw a few simple conclusions. Once the convergence of TV and the internet is fully realized, commercials will most likely disappear in their current :30 & :60 forms. Why? Because our habits are being driven by our fast-changing relationship with interactivity, and the web is leading the way.
The transformation is happening sooner than you think; so agencies, brands and media owners who don't adapt...beware! Time to seriously start dismantling those big TV ad shops and figure out what content consumers will ask for...figure out how to get your clients to bring value to their customers through these much more valuable new forms of interactivity.
...and please STOP asking me if you can just place those :30's on the web...NO!
If you think this warning is dramatic or out of touch...know that I HAD to add the word 'ad' into the title of this blog as a senior executive from a major agency whom I was in a meeting with last week did NOT know what 'pre-roll' meant. SCARY!...but SADLY true...
Monday, September 10, 2007
Why the pro-sumer can now compete with the networks...
First a few facts...while most people still watch most programming on their TV, a four-year analysis of Internet use have found that 47% of time online is currently spent viewing content as opposed to 33% of that time spent for communication purposes. This is significant because 4 years ago, those numbers were reversed. This shows that viewers of content are more and more using the web as a respected delivery tool for online video.
Powerful production tools have been at the hands of the pro-sumer for quite some time, and quite a bit of talent is being discovered as a result. Distribution has been another story with every site requiring different specifications for upload, making the task a laborious one.
And lets not forget how everyone is trying to get paid for their efforts...via advertising. Advertisers & sponsors price the value of programming against the amount of viewers. Before now there was no easy way for a small publisher to aggregate all of their viewers across multiple distribution points on the web, other than counting them manually. This left advertisers to question the math behind the numbers. Now things are about to change.
Online video distribution and analytics tools that allow undiscovered talent to distribute and measure the success of their programming throughout the web are beginning to emerge. These types of tools will become the great equalizers, as small publishers are able to more easily distribute their content to all of the major online video portals, while tracking the numbers through an impartial 3rd party.
The new, online video publishing tools are now offering one stop shopping for distribution, bundled up with analytics tools to enable programmers to more easily track their fan base.
Tubemogul: http://www.tubemogul.com/
Vidmetrix: http://www.vidmetrix.com/
Or how about a budding local news journalist being able to broadcast live with little more than a laptop, web-cam and internet connection. Now they can with Mogulus: http://www.mogulus.com
To compete with the networks is no easy feat, given their infrastructure and the dollars they place behind advertising their own shows. But at the end of the day it is all about the quality of the idea, and new ideas tend to come from the ground up, not the top down.
All this makes it much more likely that the next 'Sopranos' will be an online show, and that that show has a high likelihood of being brought to you by someone other than a major network.
For those of you that think that watching video content over the internet is for the few or decades away...a few more facts.
IPTV subscription video revenue will grow exponentially from $779 million in 2006 to $26.3 billion by 2011 not including advertising and value-added TV services, and 1 in 5 broadband homes will have the technology to watch internet-based video on their TV sets by the end of 2007. Over 72 million broadband homes – representing over two-thirds of the marketplace – are projected to have PC/TV devices by 2017.
ComScore's Video streaming reports:
• Online viewers watched an average of 158 minutes of streaming video per streamer.
• The average video stream duration was 2.5 minutes.
• Nearly three out of four (74.3 percent) U.S. Internet users streamed video online.
• More than one out of three (35 percent) U.S. Internet users use YouTube.
• The average online video viewer consumed 63 video streams (more than two per day).
Adobe’s Flash Player, YouTube, Apple’s QuickTime are all planning on being fully H.264 (HD) compatible this year.
The bottom line is that this will all make for a much more competitive marketplace. One that will keep the networks on their toes, while giving the little guy a real chance to compete...
Powerful production tools have been at the hands of the pro-sumer for quite some time, and quite a bit of talent is being discovered as a result. Distribution has been another story with every site requiring different specifications for upload, making the task a laborious one.
And lets not forget how everyone is trying to get paid for their efforts...via advertising. Advertisers & sponsors price the value of programming against the amount of viewers. Before now there was no easy way for a small publisher to aggregate all of their viewers across multiple distribution points on the web, other than counting them manually. This left advertisers to question the math behind the numbers. Now things are about to change.
Online video distribution and analytics tools that allow undiscovered talent to distribute and measure the success of their programming throughout the web are beginning to emerge. These types of tools will become the great equalizers, as small publishers are able to more easily distribute their content to all of the major online video portals, while tracking the numbers through an impartial 3rd party.
The new, online video publishing tools are now offering one stop shopping for distribution, bundled up with analytics tools to enable programmers to more easily track their fan base.
Tubemogul: http://www.tubemogul.com/
Vidmetrix: http://www.vidmetrix.com/
Or how about a budding local news journalist being able to broadcast live with little more than a laptop, web-cam and internet connection. Now they can with Mogulus: http://www.mogulus.com
To compete with the networks is no easy feat, given their infrastructure and the dollars they place behind advertising their own shows. But at the end of the day it is all about the quality of the idea, and new ideas tend to come from the ground up, not the top down.
All this makes it much more likely that the next 'Sopranos' will be an online show, and that that show has a high likelihood of being brought to you by someone other than a major network.
For those of you that think that watching video content over the internet is for the few or decades away...a few more facts.
IPTV subscription video revenue will grow exponentially from $779 million in 2006 to $26.3 billion by 2011 not including advertising and value-added TV services, and 1 in 5 broadband homes will have the technology to watch internet-based video on their TV sets by the end of 2007. Over 72 million broadband homes – representing over two-thirds of the marketplace – are projected to have PC/TV devices by 2017.
ComScore's Video streaming reports:
• Online viewers watched an average of 158 minutes of streaming video per streamer.
• The average video stream duration was 2.5 minutes.
• Nearly three out of four (74.3 percent) U.S. Internet users streamed video online.
• More than one out of three (35 percent) U.S. Internet users use YouTube.
• The average online video viewer consumed 63 video streams (more than two per day).
Adobe’s Flash Player, YouTube, Apple’s QuickTime are all planning on being fully H.264 (HD) compatible this year.
The bottom line is that this will all make for a much more competitive marketplace. One that will keep the networks on their toes, while giving the little guy a real chance to compete...
Monday, July 09, 2007
IPTV is finally here...
All of a sudden the technology and GUI experience of being able to watch TV via the internet is upon us. I'm not talking about YouTube or the multitude of UGC sites with a small video window and endless amounts of mindless (yet often entertaining) content.
I'm talking about the fact that most of the major networks hit shows are available to stream online whenever we want to see them. Most are also able to do so in a full screen format.
Accompanying the networks are technologies from both new and veteran technology companies. They are doing deals with all of the major networks and are able to stream this content via the web and serve it up in an on-demand model, full screen and over a standard internet connection. They are like virtual versions of the cable companies that we know of today.
...EXCEPT, they're FREE!
Now don't get too excited, because all that FREE stuff means we still have to watch commercials as someone has to pay for the content. But SO WHAT, we watch commercials now and that is not about to change. What will change is the shape and form in which these sponsorship messages arrive. Some of these new services come with DVR-like capabilities, allowing you to...skip commercials.
But all this is great news. It means we are getting closer to a true on-demand content model. One that may bypass out traditional cable operators, and one that will push brands and their marketing agencies to get off their asses and create compelling content that their clients customers actually want to watch.
Now, most of this content will also be pushed out to multiple devices which will also revolutionize the ad model as we know it. Technologies like Visible World will enable advertisers to push out different versions of a commercial on-the-fly depending on what device is being served at the time.
http://www.visibleworld.com/homepage.php
While things are moving faster than any one of us in the industry imagined, true adoption won't take place until the traditional networks can more easily push their content out to the web, and web content creators are able push to their content to the big screen.
There are also major hurdles for the IPTV delivery companies as they try to figure out what their business model moving forward will be. They face major competition from new entries into this marketplace as the barrier to entry is low given the fact that, unlike the traditional cable companies, there are no infrastructure costs into the home & no licenses to acquire. Basically, anyone with access to money can develop a similar solution and get it up in a fairly short period of time, as Joost found out after the release of Veoh's full-screen player. Many of these companies rely on hosted solutions as their bread and butter money, but peer to peer has proven that this is not the most efficient way to serve video and the costs soon outweigh what you can charge.
What will set these companies apart is content and their ability to quickly sign up the best of the networks in order to get the best following. The problem here is that the networks will NOT be giving exclusivity to anyone. The only option left for them at the end of the day will be to start to create and own their own content as the emerging, traditional networks had to do. Without this, they are purely a commodity play.
For more information or to sign up to be part of the Beta Testing programs of some of these IPTV companies:
Joost: On-DemandTV from major networks on your computer-full screen. (http://www.joost.com)
Veoh: On-DemandTV from major networks on your computer-full screen. (http://www.veoh.com/veohTV/veohTvIntro.html)
Microsoft's LiveStation: On-DemandTV from major networks with the added ability to actually display live TV on your computer-full screen. (http://beta.livestation.com/)
If you want a more in-depth view at how quickly this has been evolving, read two blogs that I wrote within the past year on related subjects:
The death of the networks...and what is a channel anyway?
http://web.mac.com/jaredhendler/iWeb/smashtube/smashblog/2DF1DDEB-1160-45DD-AE83-E0EBD17617B3.html
The New Syndicators...Googled again?
http://web.mac.com/jaredhendler/iWeb/smashtube/smashblog/F0E3EA09-4E3B-43F2-9AC0-393D1542422F.html
I'm talking about the fact that most of the major networks hit shows are available to stream online whenever we want to see them. Most are also able to do so in a full screen format.
Accompanying the networks are technologies from both new and veteran technology companies. They are doing deals with all of the major networks and are able to stream this content via the web and serve it up in an on-demand model, full screen and over a standard internet connection. They are like virtual versions of the cable companies that we know of today.
...EXCEPT, they're FREE!
Now don't get too excited, because all that FREE stuff means we still have to watch commercials as someone has to pay for the content. But SO WHAT, we watch commercials now and that is not about to change. What will change is the shape and form in which these sponsorship messages arrive. Some of these new services come with DVR-like capabilities, allowing you to...skip commercials.
But all this is great news. It means we are getting closer to a true on-demand content model. One that may bypass out traditional cable operators, and one that will push brands and their marketing agencies to get off their asses and create compelling content that their clients customers actually want to watch.
Now, most of this content will also be pushed out to multiple devices which will also revolutionize the ad model as we know it. Technologies like Visible World will enable advertisers to push out different versions of a commercial on-the-fly depending on what device is being served at the time.
http://www.visibleworld.com/homepage.php
While things are moving faster than any one of us in the industry imagined, true adoption won't take place until the traditional networks can more easily push their content out to the web, and web content creators are able push to their content to the big screen.
There are also major hurdles for the IPTV delivery companies as they try to figure out what their business model moving forward will be. They face major competition from new entries into this marketplace as the barrier to entry is low given the fact that, unlike the traditional cable companies, there are no infrastructure costs into the home & no licenses to acquire. Basically, anyone with access to money can develop a similar solution and get it up in a fairly short period of time, as Joost found out after the release of Veoh's full-screen player. Many of these companies rely on hosted solutions as their bread and butter money, but peer to peer has proven that this is not the most efficient way to serve video and the costs soon outweigh what you can charge.
What will set these companies apart is content and their ability to quickly sign up the best of the networks in order to get the best following. The problem here is that the networks will NOT be giving exclusivity to anyone. The only option left for them at the end of the day will be to start to create and own their own content as the emerging, traditional networks had to do. Without this, they are purely a commodity play.
For more information or to sign up to be part of the Beta Testing programs of some of these IPTV companies:
Joost: On-DemandTV from major networks on your computer-full screen. (http://www.joost.com)
Veoh: On-DemandTV from major networks on your computer-full screen. (http://www.veoh.com/veohTV/veohTvIntro.html)
Microsoft's LiveStation: On-DemandTV from major networks with the added ability to actually display live TV on your computer-full screen. (http://beta.livestation.com/)
If you want a more in-depth view at how quickly this has been evolving, read two blogs that I wrote within the past year on related subjects:
The death of the networks...and what is a channel anyway?
http://web.mac.com/jaredhendler/iWeb/smashtube/smashblog/2DF1DDEB-1160-45DD-AE83-E0EBD17617B3.html
The New Syndicators...Googled again?
http://web.mac.com/jaredhendler/iWeb/smashtube/smashblog/F0E3EA09-4E3B-43F2-9AC0-393D1542422F.html
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