Tag: tv

The Growing Pains Of Web-Based TV

Posted on by Lab Team

Web-based live TV might have finally arrived, but it’s still got a long way to go to achieve the reliability of cable, especially during big events. Last Saturday night, Dish’s over-the-top streaming service Sling TV suffered outages during the March Madness Final Four match ups: around one thousand users reported choppy live streams during the broadcast. Earlier today, Sling TV apologized for underestimating the heavy live streaming demand, and blamed the issues on a classic humblebrag of “extreme sign-ups and streaming.”

According to Sling’s CEO Roger Lynch, the problem only affected “a fraction” of its user base. Still, this seems a bit disconcerting for the cord-cutters. TV Networks providing programming content to Sling TV have also reportedly limited the number of subscribers it can sign up to two million in the US, which could further stall the growth of web-based TV. Overall, streaming providers will need to find a way to work with content delivery networks and Internet service providers in order to overcome growing pains.

Twitch To Stream HBO’s Silicon Valley Before It Airs

Posted on by Lab Team

Read the original story: The Verge

Continuing the eff0rts to broaden its content, Twitch has announced that the season opener of HBO’s critically acclaimed series, Silicon Valley, will stream on its site next Wednesday, ahead of the show’s Sunday premiere. Matching the massive crowd of video game lovers on Twitch (around 100 million monthly active users) to a sharp comedy satirizing the modern tech culture is certainly a smart move, with which HBO is most likely hoping to get some streamers and cord-cutters interested in its standalone streaming service, HBO Now.

Why Google Is Dipping Its Toe Into Original Content

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: CNET

Google’s game studio, called Niantic Labs, is reportedly adapting its popular mobile AR game Ingress for television. This is a surprising move, considering the aversion towards developing original content the search giant has demonstrated, but nevertheless an understandable one, given that Google can position the TV show as another layer of the game to increase its reach and influence.

Event Recap: Three Themes From The 4A’s Transformation Conference 2015

Posted on by Lab Team

Every year since 2009, ad agency leaders have gathered to discuss ongoing trends and the future of the ad industry in the annual 4A’s (American Association of Advertising Agencies) Transformation Conference. And at this year’s event, the spotlight was firmly on programmatic.

Programmatic Is The Future
The event kicked off with the release of a White Paper report on the transformative potential of programmatic buying, and throughout the event, the current industry practice and positioning of programmatic ads were discussed at length, with the general consensus being that programmatic is valuable both as an audience targeting tool and as an automation process for buying ads. As the White Paper concludes:

Advertisers and their agencies must align with technology providers here, as well, to promote greater visibility into the new infrastructure being created. Accountability, trust, quality and value are four key pillars on which the foundation of a programmatic future must be laid.

TV Will Continue To Be A Powerhouse
Many attendees still trust TV based on its 60-year track record and solid research. John Montgomery, GroupM’s COO, told 4As that traditional TV business will continue to deliver audience as a “real powerhouse” that is “100% viewable”. It offers volume and scale like no other medium, said Montgomery, and “video pales in comparison”.

Cross-platform Targeting Ties Everything Together
While TV advertising drives awareness and word-of-mouth, digital screens are more personal, and content is chosen very specifically, lending to a more direct engagement with users.  As advertisers continue to expand their campaigns across different screens, the full value of video advertising can be unleashed by shaping the messaging by platform.

A panel led by ESPN Research. for instance, highlighted some results from their “Valuing Video” study on the effectiveness of video ads across TV, digital, and mobile platforms. Digital video impressions combined with TV impressions drive performance—especially purchase intent, ESPN concluded.

Head image taken from www.aaaa.org

Google Fiber To Experiment With Targeted TV Ads

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: AdWeek

Nielsen’s antiquated rating system has been criticized for years, yet no real challenger to the TV measurement behemoth has emerged—until now. Google is reportedly looking into providing real-time tracking and targeting capabilities for TV ads, similar to the systems it uses for digital ads, starting with trials in Kansas City with Google Fiber TV subscribers.

 

Sony Officially Joins The OTT Market With PlayStation Vue

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: WSJ

Sony first announced its over-the-top TV streaming service PlayStation Vue last November, and now 4 months later, the company is ready to officially enter the crowded and ever-shifting OTT market. The subscription-based service will first launch commercially in New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia in the next two weeks, with nationwide rollout planned by the end of the year.

Apple TV Gains Exclusive HBO Now Support

Posted on by Lab Team

We reported last week on the new information on the standalone HBO streaming service, and now Apple has confirmed its involvement in launching this much-anticipated OTT service. Kicking off today’s event, Apple surprised the industry by announcing exclusive support for HBO Now.

Responding to the offerings from its competitors, especially Google’s Chromecast and Amazon Prime, Apple is also lowering the price of Apple TV from $99 down to $69 to give it a competitive edge. We expect to see Apple TV taking on an increasingly important role as Apple continues to push into the OTT market.

Header image taken from Apple.com

Update: Apple will have the online exclusive for three months, according to HBO. HBO Now may still come to existing pay-TV partners before that.

 

 

HBO And NBC Dive Deeper Into OTT Market

Posted on by Lab Team

New information on HBO’s much-anticipated standalone service surfaced last week. The new subscription service, reportedly titled “HBO Now”, will cost $15 per month and be available on Apple TV through an early partnership between the two companies.

Meanwhile, NBC is confirmed to be developing a comedy-focused OTT service to court cord-cutters. Staple shows like Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show will be included and the subscription fee is reported to be around $3 per month.

Modern Family Highlights Our Digital Connection With Apple-Centric Episode

Posted on by Richard Yao

Emmy-winning comedy Modern Family aired a rather unusual episode last night: an entire episode framed within a MacBook laptop screen and filmed exclusively with Apple’s mobile devices. While it might seem like a giant infomercial or product demo for Apple (though the Cupertino company did not directly sponsor the episode), the show pulled it off with hilarious jokes and a good grasp on the way modern communication works in an episode that, as a whole, highlighted our connection to our family and friends in this digital age.

The entire episode played out on the MacBook screen of the show’s mother as she frantically tried to get in touch her “missing daughter” using FaceTime, iMessages, Find My iPhone, and other iOS apps at her disposal. And it’s not just Apple—Facebook, Pinterest, Yahoo News, Google StreetView, and Microsoft’s Halo all made cameos as well. One particular funny gag involved the character hastily buying a last-minute birthday present from RalphLauren.com and selecting next-day shipment so as to cover up her forgetfulness.

While those technological asides are fun and pretty innovative for a hit network sitcom, it’s the human moments—the ones that illustrate how instant connectivity affects our relationships—that really stood out. Spoiler alert, though: the daughter was asleep in her room the whole time.

Top image taken from ABC promo video on YouTube

Why Sony Is Now The PlayStation Company

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: The Verge

Earlier this week, Sony announced that it has started spinning off its audio and video divisions, after a similar decision to spin off its television division last year. This means that in a few years, Sony would exit the laptop, smartphone, and TV markets entirely, leaving only its movie studio, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and its PlayStation division as company’s core business.

Such focus seems necessary since Sony’s mobile division reportedly cost the company over $1.5 billon in Q2 2014, while the gaming division earned the company $200 million in profit. It’s also safe to conclude that failure to compete with rival Asian tech giant Samsung, especially in the smartphone and TV markets, played an important part in Sony’s drastic decision.