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February 28, 2006
Behavior Targeting in VOD Streams
It is inevitable that video on demand (VOD) will be ad supported. When it does, will the advertisements be targeted to who is watching? Perhaps not in the first generation of that future ad market, but that too is inevitable. So I was curious how behavioral targeting was progressing with online advertising. Clickz provides some answers.
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Behaviorally-targeted advertising campaigns grew to double the impressions of the year before, while click-through rates increased by 166 percent in 2005. That's according to data 24/7 Real Media gathered from its OnTarget behavioral targeting network...
If we could build a behavior targeting (BT) ad model for television, I’m not sure which pieces from online are applicable. For example, BT may be most successful when advertisers "retarget" customers or prospects with relevant advertising after they've visited the advertiser's site. In television the only possibility of that I can see is if a long-form advertiser-specific content substituted for online’s advertiser web site.
One thing about online BT that I find of possible interest is that audiences are more receptive to BT ads when they are not contextually targeted to the content of the target site. For instance, BT ads targeting the ‘Women’ segment performed below average when served to sites in the Women’s Interest vertical, but performed significantly better on sites in other segments. Might that mean that commercials that are targeted to a specific viewer but not consistent to the show might stand out?
Posted by Martino Mingione at 09:27 AM | Comments (51) | TrackBackFebruary 27, 2006
Is Cyprus really the first country to open up a 24x7 internet TV station?
I ran across the folks at Narrowstep a few years ago and had a chance to look at their system. It was quite interesting and it was then it hit me how easy it would be someday for anyone and everyone to become their own television station.
Cyprus has just become their client and they claim to be the first country to have its own television channel on the internet, launched at a fraction of the cost of a conventional terrestrial or satellite television station.
Promoting culture, leisure and business for Cyprus, the online video-on-demand service is designed to provide viewers with information about the Mediterranean island and associated businesses.
Cyprus ITV has an in-house production company, shooting on high-definition video for the service. The Cyprus Tourism Organisation and the Press and Information Office on the island have will also use the channel to broadcast their own productions.
Posted by Martino Mingione at 12:33 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBackFebruary 24, 2006
Viacom in talks to supply internet content
Viacom is looking to supply a major Internet portal with its content, according to the Financial Times. During the company's fourth quarter earnings conference call, Chief Executive Tom Freston disclosed the negotiations, but did not mention the portals under consideration.
The arrangement would see Viacom supply video and other content in exchange for a share of ad revenue.
Viacom already supplies content to Yahoo, AOL and TV Guide's video search engines. Freston wants to increase digital revenues from $150 million last year to more than $500 million over the next three years. Viacom reported a 68 percent drop in profit due to weak results from the company's movie studio, Paramount and a series of special charges.
February 21, 2006
NASCAR video streams online
Turner Sports is looking to take advantage of the Daytona 500's popularity by launching a Daytona 500 ad gallery at NASCAR.com. NASCAR.com's strategy is similar to that of AOL, which created a Super Bowl ad gallery that generated more than 42 million video streams, according to AOL.
Televised on NBC this year, the Daytona 500 drew almost 19 million viewers to Fox last year, when advertisers spent about $35 million on TV spots. In comparison, TV ad spending on the 2005 Super Bowl reached $160 million, and ads for the 2005 Oscars pulled in $72 million.
Advertisers in the Commercial Showcase will include Budweiser, Chevy, Pepsi, NASCAR, NASCAR.COM, Coca-Cola, Goody's, Sears, Home Depot, and Ford.
February 17, 2006
Study Finds Consumers Spend 13% of TV Viewing Time on VOD Content
You would think that the programmers and the cable companies should stop fighting each other and build a mutually advantageous VOD platform for everyone. That thought got another boost today.
The results of a Horowitz Associates study indicates that if programmers build on-demand programs, consumers will come. And if programmers don’t create on-demand viewing options, they risk losing viewing share to those that do.
An earlier joint study by Horowitz and Points North Group indicated consumers prefer free, ad-supported on-demand TV programs versus paying $1.99 for programs by a three-to-one margin.
The latest Horowitz study also reports that more than half of the cable customers with free VOD use the service on a weekly basis, with two in 10 using it daily. Consumers with movies on demand watch an average of 1.5 movies a month and more than one-quarter watch two or more in the average month. Additionally, more than three-quarters of digital cable households have VOD service, and VOD remains a key driver to customer satisfaction.
Yet despite the link between VOD and cable satisfaction, the study found that when consumers were asked, unaided, what the biggest differences are between cable and satellite, virtually none mentioned VOD services.
Because of their two-way digital infrastructure, cable companies can offer thousands of hours of VOD programming while satellite companies remain fairly limited in the amount of on-demand hours they can push to their customers’ set top boxes.
Posted by Martino Mingione at 12:41 PM | Comments (32) | TrackBackFebruary 15, 2006
Watching downloaded content on your TV
Points North Group research found that 25% of Internet users are interested in watching downloaded TV shows and movies on their PCs and 38% expressed interest in watching that same video on their TVs.
Interest in watching content on TV is even stronger among 18- to-34-year-olds (68%), compared with the 45% interested in watching on PCs.
Over the past month, America Online, Yahoo, and ESPN.com, among others, have announced partnerships with chip maker Intel to use its new Viiv technology platform, which allows users to consume Internet content over their TV screens.
The first Viiv-compatible computers and laptops are expected to start trickling to market over the next several months. TVs, Internet-ready DVD players, and other devices, however, are not expected to debut until the second half of this year.
The Dog eat my rating point
NIELSEN MEDIA RESEARCH ANNOUNCED plans to add college students living away from home into its national TV ratings sample beginning in early 2007, marking the first time it will incorporate a so-called "out-of-home" viewing segment into its regular ratings panel.
Based on a series of special out-of-home measurement studies, the impact on TV audience levels and advertising rates may be quite explicit, raising ratings for some programs by as much as a full rating point. At least that's the conclusion of a two-year Nielsen pilot study commissioned by Turner Broadcasting, The WB, CBS, MTV Networks, Fox, and ESPN.
February 08, 2006
Ogilvy's New New Media Unit
OgilvyOne Worldwide launched Neo@OgilvyOne, the brand and entity that will handle digital and direct media in the wake of the mOne split.
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Nasreen Madhany is heading up Ogilvy's newly named and restructured network. Madhany will hold the title of global CEO of Neo@OgilvyOne and global head of digital content at OgilvyOne Worldwide.
"Digital media is a growth business and one that must be closely aligned with the creative process," Madhany said in a statement. "As part of the Ogilvy network, we are uniquely advantaged to work in partnership with Ogilvy companies to deliver big ideas that cross all media channels for our clients."
The organization will try to keep up with the growth of digital media by making acquisitions, by partnering, and by being aggressive in hiring. Digital arenas it will tackle include digital advertising, digital TV, e-mail marketing, search marketing, blogs and vlogs.
Neo@OgilvyOne's global clients include American Express, Cisco, DuPont, IBM, Lenovo, SAP and Yahoo! Its U.S. clients include Allstate, Ameritrade, Pitney Bowes and Six Flags. The new entity operates "in all world markets," according to the company.
Posted by Martino Mingione at 02:36 PM | Comments (221) | TrackBackGod, I hope we don't end up with one set top box per media company
NBC Universal has an on-demand deal with Apple Computer's iTunes and DirecTV. But now that they have caught the 'on demand religion' they may be going overboard. NBC has completed a deal that will give customers access to its movies and TV shows through a new cable set-top box.
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The deal is with Aeon Digital, a maker of digital set-top boxes, which will launch a new product this spring that will allow consumers to access NBC Universal Television Distribution shows, "Blind Date," "The 5th Wheel," and a special uncensored episode of "Jerry Springer."
NBC Universal theatrical movies will also be available -- "Ray" and "The Motorcycle Diaries," "The Skeleton Key," and "The Wedding Date," as well as upcoming premieres of "The 40-Year Old Virgin" and "The Constant Gardener."
With the new Aeon set-top box, the DV-220, consumers can also access songs, radio programming, and thousands of theatrical films. In addition, the box has a built-in DVR, a wireless router, and access to the Internet. The box also includes an electronic programming guide (EPG) to locate favorite TV programs.
About.com hires Brightcove for distribution, ads
The New York Times Co. has hired Internet TV start-up Brightcove to facilitate distribution of online video content. Brightcove will help the Times syndicate video content to other Web sites via its customized video player. The company also will facilitate production of videos submitted by consumers.
The deal will roll out in the next several months with the New York Times Co.'s About.com's new "About Gadgets" videos, which focuses on technology, said Scott Meyer, CEO of About.com. He added that About.com plans to syndicate videos far more broadly than at present; currently, the company is distributing video on Comcast's high-speed portal. "The reason we went with Brightcove is because we wanted to have a platform that would scale," he said.
In addition to providing distribution support, Brightcove will help power ads that accompany the video clips, said Adam Berry, Brightcove vice president, marketing and strategy. The Times Co. will continue to sell the ads.
February 07, 2006
TVeyes has ears, too
A new, free service from multimedia search engine TVEyes lets you search each and every word spoken during TV news broadcasts from well-known news organizations. This includes (or soon include) FoxNews.com, CNN.com, MSNBC.com, CBSnews.com, Reuters.com, and News.BBC.co.uk.
TVEyes is using voice recognition technology to create a "spoken word index" that makes these programs keyword searchable. You'll find the search box on the TVEyes home page. Searching is simple and straightforward. Enter your keywords and go. Results can be sorted by relevance or date.
One drawback with the service is that you're only able to search video news content the sources have made available on the open web. Not every segment from every news program is placed on the web. Also, most of these sources are available via other sites.
In addition to the free TVEyes service, the company also offers a sophisticated subscription-based video search service. It's used in many industries, including media and public relations, media organizations and educational institutions to name just a few.
The fee-based TVEyes also know as TVEyes Professional offers near real-time (delayed by only a couple of minutes) searchable transcripts (created in many cases using closed captioning) of television programming on most U.S. major networks, local stations throughout the U.S., and a selection of stations around the world like BBC1, CBC Newsworld, and Al Jazeera (English language service). A free trial is available.
The fee-based service offers email alerts so when a name, word, company or other important word is mentioned on the air, a subscriber is notified within minutes of the airing.
Podcast Search from Podscope
TVEyes is the company that powers Podscope. This service, launched last April lets you keyword search podcasts using speech recognition technology (again it's not a perfect transcript). Podscope also makes other video and audio content (both submitted by users and found via their crawl) keyword searchable.
Last September, we learned that Podscope will power podcast search on AOL. In December Podscope began offering keyword-based RSS feeds. In other words, when the keywords you select are mentioned in a podcast, you're notified via RSS. Here's a Robin Good interview with the man in charge of TVEyes/Podcast, David Ives.
Rocketboom to sell ad inventory on eBay
Some poeple believe that buried somewhere in the arcane business that is known as 'advertising' is an auction type mechanism. While auctions are not generally applied, Rocketboom is carrying that logic to its ultimate conclusion by selling its video Web log ad inventory on eBay.
This means that Rocketboom is bucking the traditional Internet model because it isn't working with a media buyer or ad network. Rocketboom reserves the right to reject any bidder, and said in its eBay posting that it won't accept pornography or gambling ads.
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The bidding, which started at $500, had reached $14,999.99, by Sunday. The eBay ad promises one million impressions minimum. The two top bidders, "Dave-Texas" and "FivePercentCard_com," don't appear to be brand marketers. Baron said he originally anticipated that the ads would sell for somewhere between $8,000 and $40,000, based on an estimate Internet expert Jeff Jarvis gave the company.
It is not surprising that the bidding had not yet reached the higher valuations, and that the top bidders are not big-name brands. A decision to spend takes way too long to make it through the bowels of the decision-making process.
Rocketboom used eBay because conventional ad sellers moved too slowly. "We tried to go with ad sellers, but it was taking too long and our deadlines were never met," he said. "We kept hearing that it was taking too much time for the advertisers and everyone else to understand how it could work."
Old Media's Worst Nightmare: Stars Emerging On The Internet Platform
Ronald Grover, who has covered media for Business Week for a couple of decades, sees the emergence of a "worst nightmare" scenario for traditional media: Somewhere, probably in the not-too-distant future, an Internet radio or video program is going to leap from a small, zealous audience to a huge audience, unencumbered by all the restraints of commercial radio and TV.
He focuses his piece on The Young Turks, a trio of ultra-liberal commentators who produce and host their own TV-like Webcast, which is heard by perhaps 100,000 listeners a week. But that has gotten them some advertisers, plus a deal with Sirius Satellite Radio and three local radio stations. Podcasts will soon be available for purchase for a buck per show. In sum, The Young Turks are on a roll.
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"If Big Media isn't paying attention, it ought to," writes Grover. "The Internet has a way of producing overnight sensations." Incidentally, one of the three Angelenos who constitute The Young Turks is 38-year-old Ben Mankiewicz, the son of Robert Kennedy's onetime press secretary.
