Tag: ott

Viacom Inks Data Deal With ComScore For Cross-Platform Measurement

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Viacom has reached a new multi-year deal with comScore to leverage the latter’s vast data on digital audiences to help advertisers target specific audiences across the various Viacom properties. Last year, comScore merged with TV audience measurement firm Rentrak to better compete with Nielsen. With this new deal, marketers are able to access the audience data from comScore via Viacom’s Vantage platform, and use it to target and track audiences across linear TV, digital, and VOD services within Viacom’s media network.

What Brands Need To Do
As digital and OTT distribution channels continue to grow, consumers’ TV and video consumption is increasingly fragmented. Therefore, brand advertisers should embrace the new data-driven tools Viacom offers to better measure and serve content and ads across multiple devices and channels.

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

 

Source: AdWeek

Amazon Debuts First Live Show With Shoppable Content

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Amazon is set to launch its first live programming today as the ecommerce giant pushes deeper into original content development. The show, titled Style Code Live, features a trio of YouTube stars and reality TV personalities on a QVC-like set where they talk about fashion trends, give make-up advice, and, of course, plug select products. Viewers will be able to buy the corresponding products from a carousel under the video player. The half-hour show airs live every weekday at 9PM ET, which puts it in direct competition with primetime TV programs. All previous episodes will also be available for streaming for free on Amazon’s site, no Prime membership required.

What Fashion And Beauty Brands Need To Do
Amazon has yet to reveal which brands will be featured on the show, but it seems safe to assume that the company will feature items from its own private fashion labels like Scout + Ro and Franklin Tailored. Amazon reportedly stands to make as high as a 40% profit margin on apparel, but only 15% of Amazon’s customers ever buy clothing and accessories on the site. So it makes perfect sense for Amazon to launch this live show to give its apparel products a strong push. For fashion and beauty brands, this live show presents a great new opportunity to get their products in front of online viewers with a better discovery mechanism and encourage purchases right on Amazon’s site.

With viewers moving away from linear TV to OTT viewing, the proliferation of streaming content is giving brands more opportunities than ever to be discovered by new audiences. To learn more about how brands can reach viewers on OTT platforms with branded or sponsored content, check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: Variety

AT&T Preps Three OTT Streaming Services To Court Cord-Cutters

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Following the footsteps of Comcast and Verizon, AT&T has announced their plan to launch three OTT streaming services later this year to appeal to cord-cutters and cord-nevers. The three streaming options will be DirecTV Now, which will offer a full range of live channels and on-demand shows targeted at cord-cutters; DirecTV Mobile, a  package of premium and digital videos aimed at smartphone users; and DirecTV Preview, a free, ad-supported service with a content selection that caters to the interests of teens and Millennials.

What Brands Need To Do
The ad-supported DirecTV Preview can offer brands looking to reach a younger audience a channel to reach their target audience with video ads that are usually not buyable on subscription-based streaming services. Besides, AT&T can leverage the user data they have to offer brands better targeting and customization for their ads, similar to what Verizon is doing with Go90. While it remains to be seen whether those three services can draw sizable audiences, brands should stay conscious of the ongoing changes in the digital video space and adjust their ad buying strategy accordingly.

To find out more on 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: AdAge

Amazon Prime Video Dips Toe Into Free, Ad-Supported Content

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Amazon has been steadily building out its OTT streaming service Prime Video with new shows and branded content to compete with Netflix. On Thursday, the streaming service broke new ground by launching its first ad-supported original series. The show, The Fashion Fund, is a 10-episode reality competition series produced by Condé Nast Entertainment. It is free to watch for everyone with no Prime membership required and features some clickable ads that link to the brand’s website or Amazon shopping page.

Although Amazon has clarified that this is merely an experiment with ad-supported content and that Amazon Prime Video will remain ad-free, this new series nevertheless signals Amazon’s exploration of new business models for its OTT service. This new development also dovetails nicely with recent reports that Amazon is mulling over selling slim subscription bundles of TV networks via its OTT service.

What Brands Need To Do
Should Amazon move forward with this ad-supported model and create more free-to-watch content, the new audience they attract could help Amazon get a portion of the video advertising dollars that are increasingly moving to digital. As a result, this would also present a new channel for brands to reach the audience consuming TV content via streaming platforms (check out our Outlook 2016 for more on the Appified TV trend). In this fast-changing media landscape, brands need to stay alert of the new channels and opportunities to effectively reach the right audience, and adjust their ad spending accordingly.

 

Source: Wired

 

Two New Tools To Help Brands Build Their Own Apple TV Apps

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
The launch of the new Apple TV created a new channel for brands to reach consumers in their living rooms with content marketing. Now, two companies have come out with tools to help brands build their own OTT streaming portals. Earlier today, video distribution platform VHX opened its API to let developers create their own streaming apps for Apple TV or Roku set-top boxes.

Similarly, brands hosting video content on JW Player’s platform will be able to use its newly released open-source tvOS app framework to create their own version of Netflix with ease, which Tasting Table, a food website, used to build and submit an Apple TV app for review in less than 24 hours.

What Brands Need To Do
As consumer eyeballs shift away from a rigid programming grid to time-shifted viewing due to the increasing availability and variety of streaming content, there are new opportunities for brands to reach consumers with branded content, which can live alongside traditional media content and is equally discoverable through universal search on advanced TV interfaces. Therefore, brands with video content would be smart to use the new tools available to create their own content portal apps for streaming platforms.

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

 

Sources: The Next Web & 9to5 Mac

Nearly Four Million Viewers Watched The Super Bowl Via Streaming

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
A record number of viewers watched Sunday’s big game on streaming platforms, according to CBS. The network reports that 3.96 million unique viewers tuned in to watch the match across all streaming services, compared to the over 1.3 million people watched the Super Bowl through NBC’s web stream last year. CBS also reports that those viewers consumed over 402 million total minutes of coverage, watching for more than 101 minutes each on average.

It should come as no surprise that the number of streaming audience continues to grow, as the network and NFL have been making it easier for viewers to streaming the game. This year, for example, CBS made the live stream available on its CBSSports.com website on PCs and tablet, as well as via its CBS Sports app across a variety of mobile and streaming devices, including Roku, Xbox, and the new Apple TV.

What Brands Need To Do
Unlike the previous year, CBS made the decision to bundle the broadcast and streaming ad sales for this year’s Super Bowl, which means the viewers who streamed the big game also saw the same ad spots as the viewers who watched it on TV, further expanding the already humongous reach of Super Bowl spots. As more and more viewers continues to opt for streaming content and time-shifted viewing, it is up to brands and media owners to catch up with the shifting consumer behaviors and make their content more easily accessible.

For more information on how brands can reach their audiences on streaming platforms, check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.

For more stories on how brands are leveraging new technologies to reach Super Bowl viewers, check out our coverage on Super Bowl 2016 here.

 

Source: TechCrunch

Amazon To Develop Original Kids Content Starring American Girl Dolls

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Toymaker Mattel has announced a partnership with Amazon to create four live-action specials based on its American Girl dolls. Amazon may also produce a new kids series starring those dolls if the specials prove successful with the audience on Amazon Prime. This is not the first time a streaming service has ventured into kids content. Last year, Amazon Studios greenlit six pilots of kids programs, while Netflix expanded its kids content lineup with three new original series last week. Similarly, HBO struck a deal with Sesame Street for an exclusive window on new episodes last year.

What Brands Need To Do
Today, consumers have increasing options to avoid ads across all media types. It is getting harder for brands to reach their audiences when content consumption has shifted away from traditional TV to ad-free subscription services. This Mattel-Amazon deal provides a great example in how brands can develop branded content via partnerships with content creators to reach audiences that are otherwise unreachable.  

 

Source: Engadget

Header image courtesy of americangirl.com

NHL’s New App Showcases The Future Of TV-Watching

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
On Monday, the NHL unveiled NHL.TV, a new app that brings a next-level interactive viewing experience to hockey fans. Available for both iOS and Android, as well as all major OTT streaming devices like Roku, XBox, PlayStations, and Chromecast, the new NHL.TV app allows hockey fans to watch live, out-of-market hockey games, choose their own angle of view from six HD video feeds, and keep up with their favorite teams with a customizable dashboard showing scores and stats. The app was made by MLB Advanced Media, the same company providing the streaming infrastructure for HBO Now, the WWE, WatchESPN, and, of course, the MLB app.

What Brands Need To Do
As Tim Cook said when he introduced the revamped Apple TV last October, “the future of TV is apps,” which is evident in this new NHL streaming app. It provides the audience with much agency in choosing the way they want to watch games and engages fans with interactive extras and personalized content feeds. Any brand with video content should consider developing an app to host their branded content and leverage the parity of new content distribution model on streaming devices. In that regard, this new NHL app provides a good example in design and execution.

For more information on how brands can engage with their audience with new interactive viewing experiences, check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: Business Insider

Header image courtesy of NHL.TV

CES 2016: What’s TV To Do? NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke Has Answers

Posted on by Lab Team

Yesterday afternoon, NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke took the stage at CES 2016 to make a case for the traditional TV business. Facing increasing competitions from the new Internet TV services like Netflix and digital videos, the TV ratings has been in steady decline for the past few years, but Burke firmly believes that the TV business is going to adept and hang around “for many, many years.”

Throughout his conversation with MediaLink CEO Michael Kassan, Burke stressed several times on the incomparable mass reach that TV possesses. “Niche content might work with targeted digital ads,” he admits, “but if you want a blockbuster, you better advertise on the Super Bowl.” He thinks too many marketers have been treating digital videos as a “shining new thing” that will magically replace the scale of TV, and warned against such mentality.

Nevertheless, the TV industry still needs to adept to the shifting viewing behaviors and pick up a few tricks from their digital competitors to connect with today’s mobile-first consumers. When asked about NBCUniversal’s recent investment in Vox and Buzzfeed, Burke said one of the reasons they invested is “to learn from them, to go to market with them.” He regards consumer data and premium content as the two key weapons that will help TV compete with its digital videos.

When asked if services like Netflix were enemies, friends, or frenemies, he said “all of the above,” and admitted that Netflix has definitely impacted the ratings, “but not as much as time-shifted viewing.” He concludes that all players in the content space will have to continue to evolve, and figure out how to get better at distributing content in digital spaces. To that end, NBC’s new OTT comedy streaming service SeeSo seems like a step in the right direction.

 

For more of the Lab’s CES coverage, click here.

 

CES 2016: Netflix Goes Truly Global, Adds 130 New Countries

Posted on by Richard Yao

The lab attended the opening keynote of CES 2016 featuring Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, who announced near the end of his presentation that this morning Netflix launched in 130 new global markets, including some major ones such as India and Russia. With this radical expansion, Netflix’s service is now available in almost every country in the world, with only China as a conspicuous hold-out.

Reports have also noted that Netflix has stricken a partnership with South Korea-based TV manufacturer LG to include its subscription as a prepaid service in LG’s new smart TVs, as part of Netflix’s global expansion plan. But there was curiously no mention of this partnership during the keynote presentation. Mr. Hastings also shared a few first-look trailers for some of its upcoming new series, including Baz Luhrmann’s hip hop musical The Get Down and new British royal drama The Crown, which focuses on the early life of Queen Elizabeth.

During the keynote, Reed Hastings proudly recapped Netflix’s rapid development into today’s leading OTT content provider, citing stats such as 70 million household users clocking up a total of 42.5 billion viewing hours for 2015. As a streaming services, Netflix’s “all-episodes-at-once” approach gives viewers more control in their content consumption and ushered in a new on-demand “binge-watching” era. TV is now no longer linear and restricted to a programming grid, but instead full of choices and quality content free to be consumed on any devices. In this new era of Internet TV, brands needs to start figuring out new ways to reach today’s audiences, especially with product placement or sponsorships in ad-free environments like Netflix.

For more of the Lab’s CES coverage, click here.