Tag: ott

Roku Offers Advertisers Demographic Guarantees Based On Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
On Monday, Roku announced it will start offering advertisers audience guarantees for that are based on Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings in an attempt to close the gap between OTT and traditional TV ad measurement.

This makes Roku the first major OTT streaming platform to offer such guarantees for certain audience demographics, such as “adults 18 to 49”, allowing advertisers to buy and plan ad campaigns using the same kind of currency they have grown used to in traditional TV advertising. Previously, Roku ads are sold based on impressions. The streaming set-box maker signed a partnership deal with Nielsen to measure demographics on the Roku platform about two years ago.

What Brands Need To Do
With viewers increasingly choosing on-demand viewing over linear TV, advertisers have been curious about the viewing data that SVOD services are collecting. But since many of those services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are not ad-supported, it is difficult for brands to reach the streaming audience. In addition, Roku says about 40% of its users are cord-cutters, meaning that are not reachable via traditional TV ads either.

Therefore, Roku’s ad offering is valuable for brands as it provides a way to reach those streaming viewers. And now with the new Nielsen ratings-based metrics, advertisers may have an easier time planning and evaluating their ad campaigns on Roku. As advertising on linear TV and digital channels continue to converge, brand marketers will need to reconsider their media mix and perhaps consider leveraging Roku’s ad products to reach cord-cutters and cord-nevers.

Source: Multichannel News

Header image courtesy of Roku

Ford Partners With Slingbox To Bring Live TV Into 2018 Expedition Model

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Ford is revamping its in-car infotainment system by integrating traditional TV service into its vehicles, starting with the 2018 Expedition model. To support cable streaming capabilities, the auto company struck a partnership with Slingbox, an OTT streaming set-top device manufacturer. Screens will be built into the back of the Expedition’s headrests, providing non-stop live TV entertainment to passengers on the road.

What Brands Need To Do
The development of connected cars is quickly turning cars into media hubs on wheels. According to market research firm Gartner Inc., there will be a quarter billion connected vehicles on the road by 2020. This not only represents a huge growth area for media companies and entertainment brands, but also opens up a new marketing channel for brands to reach more consumers.

The development in driverless cars is an important market trend that The Lab cares about, primarily because of the incredible amount of new media time it can potentially free up. The average daily commute time in the States is currently about 50 minutes. If and when driverless cars are adopted by mainstream car-owners, it would make it possible for media owners and advertisers to visually connect with consumers on the go through in-car media such as digital video and video gaming.

 

Source: TechCrunch

Google Enters OTT Streaming Market With YouTube TV

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
On Tuesday, Google unveiled its long-rumored over-the-top TV streaming service, officially taking on the likes of Dish’s Sling TV and Sony’s PlayStation Vue to conquer the shifting TV market.

The service, dubbed YouTube TV, is essentially a “skinny bundle” that covers live TV programming from all four major U.S. broadcasting networks —  ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC — and their affiliated cable channels such as ESPN and Bravo. The inclusion of Missing from the lineup are channels owned by cable pay TV networks such as Viacom and Time Warner.

YouTube Live will cost $35 per month for up to six accounts, and it also comes with an unlimited cloud DVR feature as well as a content recommendation system powered by Google’s AI engine. In addition, subscribers will also have access to YouTube’s original content. Google says it will roll out the service in the U.S. in the coming months.

What Brands Need To Do
This announcement marks another high-profile entry of a tech giant into the OTT streaming market, as the battle for retaining TV subscribers and, more importantly, selling TV packages to cord-cutters and cord-nevers, continues to heat up. It also shows the remarkable journey that YouTube has been on since its founding in 2005 as a website where people upload their home videos. Now, viewers worldwide are watching more than 1 billion hours of video content on YouTube every day, growing at a pace that easily eclipses U.S. television viewership.

As for brands, this means another channel to reach the audience that has abandoned linear TV viewing in favor of time-shifted viewing, as YouTube TV will carry all the live TV ads. Taking the vast user data and the sophisticated ad operations that Google owns into account, it seems likely that the search giant will be offering some ad tech integrations with the streaming service and allow brands to target audience in a more granular, personalized manner.

 

Source: ReCode

Header image courtesy of YouTube TV

Facebook Plans An OTT Streaming App As It Aims For More Video Ads

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
According to The Wall Street Journal. Facebook is planning to launch an ad-supported streaming app for set-top devices, such as Roku and Apple TV, to showcase its growing video content. The social network giant is reportedly in talks with media companies to license long-form “premium” video content, but it is unclear whether user-generated video content will also be pulled in from News Feed.

What Brands Need To Do
This app follows Facebook’s relentless efforts over the past few years in cultivating video content as it makes a strong push for more video ads. Earlier this week, the social network announced an expansion of partnerships with third-party ad tech companies, promising to provide advertisers more data and a clear comparison between social ads and TV ads. Once launched, the app would offer brand advertisers a valuable new video channel to leverage Facebook’s audience data to reach targeted customers. As Facebook continues its push into the digital video space and challenges YouTube for a piece of the growing video ad budget, brands should carefully consider their video strategies and take into account Facebook’s growing video ad products.

 

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Facebook To Target Streaming Viewers By Linking User Profiles With IP Addresses

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Last month, Facebook announced a partnership with A+E and streaming startup Tubi TV to bring Facebook ads to OTT streaming devices like Roku and Apple TV. Now a Bloomberg report reveals that the social network has been testing personalized ad targeting in this new program by linking Facebook profiles tied to the IP addresses of the streaming set-top boxes. Facebook customizes commercials based on the user data and certain A&E shows they are watching, and it is testing ads for nonprofits or its own products along with a handful of name brands, according to a company spokesman.

What Brands Should Do
The update better illustrates Facebook’s ambition in expanding its ad product and reach into the living room and onto the streaming devices. As we noted when this OTT partnership was announced, Facebook’s venture into streaming ads should provide brand advertisers with better targeting capabilities to reach OTT viewers and cord-cutters by bringing the same audience data that powers the rest of its ad network to the set-top boxes. And that looks like exactly what they have been doing. With more and more viewers choosing on-demand streaming over linear TV, brands wishing to reach consumers at scale should start exploring the advertising opportunities on the ad-supported streaming services.

To read more on how brands can deal with TV’s shift toward streaming platforms, please check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: Bloomberg

AT&T Plans Personalized Dynamic Ads For DirecTV Now

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
On Monday afternoon, AT&T announced the official launch date and pricing for its over-the-top live TV service. DirecTV Now is set to launch on November 30th and offers three different plans that range from $35 per month to $70. It will carry live programming from most major U.S. TV networks except for those owned by CBS and Showtime. By all accounts, the competitive price and rather comprehensive content offering should make it a strong contender in the growing OTT streaming market and challenge the pay-TV providers.

At launch, the same ads on networks’ normal live feeds will also appear on DirecTV Now, and AT&T will start selling VOD ad inventory for 64 channels. Down the line, however, AT&T has bigger ambitions. DirecTV Now plans to introduce data-driven personalized ads by mid-2017, which will be dynamically inserted into live programming for the two minutes of commercial time per hour that AT&T can sell. The commercials that networks sell nationally will mostly remain the same.

What Brands Should Do
According to data from the U.S. Commerce Department, the percentage of U.S. households that have cut the cord on both TV and wired broadband in favor of wireless Internet access has doubled from 10% in 2013 to 20% in 2015. With viewers increasingly choosing on-demand viewing over linear TV, brands wishing to reach consumers at scale should start exploring the advertising opportunities on the ad-supported streaming services preemptively. In that regard, DirecTV Now’s ambition in adding personalized dynamic ads to live programming coupled with AT&T’s massive consumer data should prove to be valuable for brand advertisers.

To read more on how brands can deal with TV’s shift toward streaming platforms, please check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: Ad Age

Header image courtesy of DirecTV Now

AT&T To Give Free Apple TV To DirecTV Now Subscribers

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
AT&T is reportedly planning to give away streaming devices for free to incentivize customers to sign up for its upcoming OTT live TV streaming service DirecTV Now. Subscribers who agree to pay for three months of the service will receive a fourth-gen Apple TV, whereas those who pay for one month will get an Amazon Fire TV stick. The service is set to release before the end of the month.  

Why Brands Should Care
While this not exactly a new tactic for enticing sign-ups (Sling TV had a similar giveaway of Fire TV and Roku devices last year), the potential scale and cost of AT&T’s plan far exceeds its precedents. Gradually, we are seeing some ISPs jumping on the cord-cutting bandwagon to court customers either by launching their own streaming services like AT&T and Verizon, or integrating popular streaming services into their own set-top devices, such as the case with Comcast and Netflix. Such a trend will no doubt propel more customers to cut the cord and switch to OTT services.

As more and more consumers choose time-shifted streaming over linear TV, brands should follow the viewers and start to explore new TV ad formats on connected TV devices to engage with the audience in their living rooms. To read more on how brands can reach viewers on OTT platforms with ads and branded content, please check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: Apple Insider

Facebook To Sell TV Ads Via OTT Streaming Devices

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Facebook is set to bring video ads to your TV via OTT streaming devices such as Roku and Apple TV starting next week. Partnering with A+E and Tubi TV, Facebook will start delivering video ads to people who watch videos on the two media partners’ TV apps via its Audience Network ad network, similar to the way it delivers ads to publisher websites and mobile apps.

What Brands Should Do
Facebook’s venture into OTT streaming ads should come as a welcome expansion for brands, as the social network can use the same audience data that powers the rest of its ad network to the set-top boxes, offering brand advertisers more targeting capabilities to reach OTT viewers and cord-cutters. As more and more consumers choose time-shifted viewing over linear TV, brands should follow the viewers and work with content creators to explore new TV ad formats on connected TV devices and engage with the audience in their living rooms.

To read more on how brands can reach viewers on OTT platforms with ads and branded content, please check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: Re/Code

Hulu Strikes Partnership With Strata For OTT Ads

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Hulu is teaming up with Strata, an ad buying and selling marketplace, to build an ad platform geared toward streaming video. Strata, whose software is used by 99% of broadcast stations as well as over 1,000 ad agencies, says this new platform will offer advertisers an ad buying experience similar to that of local linear TV for Hulu’s streaming content across viewing devices. Hulu will convert ad impressions to TV rating-like metrics to make it easier for ad buyers to incorporate Hulu into their media mix.

What Brands Should Do
This partnership is particularly interesting considering that Hulu has just inked deals with Disney and Fox to carry their channels on its upcoming OTT live TV bundle, which could push more viewers to drop their cable subscriptions. With more and more viewers choosing on-demand viewing over linear TV, brands need to consider adjusting their media mix and increasing ad buys on ad-supported streaming services such as Hulu to follow the eyeballs.

To learn more about how brands can reach viewers on OTT platforms with ads or branded content, please check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: AdWeek

Roku Makes It Easier For Publishers To Create Ad-Supported Channels

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Roku launched the Direct Publisher tool on Wednesday to enable publishers to surface their video content on its streaming boxes. The tool allows publishers to create their own channel on Roku without writing any code. Roku will build a channel once the publisher provides a feed of their video content and will handle ad sales for the channel. The ad revenue will be shared at a 60-40 split between Roku and publishers.

What Brands Need To Do
With viewers increasingly choosing on-demand viewing over linear TV, advertisers have been eager to reach viewers on OTT streaming services, which are typically subscription-based and ad-free. Therefore, Roku’s offering is valuable for brands as they may set up their own video channel on Roku to surface their branded content. And for brands without a robust content library, this Roku initiative should still open up more ad-supported channels on Roku that brand marketers can leverage to reach cord-cutters and cord-nevers.

To read more on how brands can deal with TV’s shift toward streaming platforms, please check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: Variety