by Jim Wilson | Jan 23, 2018
2017 saw tremendous consumer growth in streaming TV services and 2018 is set to be even bigger. This year, eMarketer estimates that 181.5 million U.S. consumers will use connected TVs at least once every month — equating to more than 55% of the U.S. population — and by 2021, that number will expand to 194.4 million, which is almost 58% of the population. Letâs begin with a basic definition of OTT video (over-the-top): OTT video is video transmitted via the Internet that bypasses traditional cable/linear distribution. While it can either be ad-supported or subscription-based, at Premion, we consider true OTT to be long-form and live streaming premium content such as network programming, TV shows and movies.
The pace of digital disruption that is transforming the TV industry is accelerating: the growth in IP-delivered TV content is reshaping distribution models, consumer viewing habits and advertising. Every major TV operator has launched or is in the midst of launching and scaling up their direct-to-consumer streaming offerings. Consumers now have more choice than ever — from DirectTV Now, FuboTV (a Premion partner), Sling TV (a Premion partner), PlayStation Vue and YouTube TV, to name just a few. Philo is another recent entrant that offers 30-plus entertainment channels. Disney has plans to launch two streaming services and may develop even more following its 21st Century Fox deal.
With many media and content companies jumping on the streaming TV bandwagon, the marketplace is becoming increasingly fragmented, and itâs creating even more competition for high-quality content to keep viewers hooked: Already there are over 200 OTT services in the U.S. market, according to Parks Associates.
What can we expect in 2018 with the rise in streaming services and OTT advertising growth?
Read the full Forbes article by Jim Wilson here.
by Jim Wilson | Sep 27, 2017
The transformation of TV is happening faster than many anticipated. OTT (over-the-top) viewing is growing exponentially. Itâs now the dominant platform for premium video viewing. While advertisers know they must be there, many are still asking: Is it a broadcast or a digital buy?
Itâs time we look at OTT advertising differently.
In this golden age of TV, where consumers have more quality content options than ever, theyâre embracing the speed at which TV is moving to the Internet, especially if itâs ad-funded and free.
eMarketer estimates there are 193.3 million OTT users in 2017, with 168.1 million U.S. connected TV users. The rise of OTT comes at a time when cable is seeing continuing declines as another million consumers cut the TV cord last quarter, per a DSL Report.
Audience fragmentation across devices and screens is accelerating; according to comScore, the average household has 10 connected devices, and that figure rises to 19 devices among households with at least four people. Every major TV player is adjusting to this phenomenon by moving quickly to launch or announce plans for standalone Internet TV services.
How should marketers navigate the rapidly evolving and fragmented OTT space and reap its full potential?
Click here to read Jim Wilson’s entire article in MediaPost.
by Jim Wilson | Aug 7, 2017
By any measure, media transparency remains the hot-button issue for advertisers today. Beyond voicing their concerns, weâve seen two of the worldâs largest advertisers pull back their digital ad spending. Both P&G and Unilever are putting their money where their mouths are, with P&G cutting spending by 41% year over year and Unilever doing the same by a whopping 59%.
At this yearâs Cannes Lions, media industry leaders convened to address the ways they are working to improve transparency, and we saw Ebiquity launch its Media Transparency Score at the event in the hopes of becoming one of the standard benchmarks for the industry.
Click through to Jimâs article in Forbes to read more.
by Jim Wilson | May 16, 2017
At this yearâs NAB, I hosted a panel session with fellow panelists Raoul Marinescu, Head of Sales at Pluto TV; Adam Helfgott, CEO of MadHive; Giancarlo Maniaci, CEO at ColorTV and David Haynie, CEO at CitySpark. Stacy Huggins, CMO of MadHive moderated the panel.
The session explored the future of over-the-top (OTT) advertising and what it takes to shift more ad dollars to OTT, how to monetize content, how to meet customer expectations and the importance of data in AdvancedTV experiences.
Here are the five key takeaways from our thought-provoking discussion:
Education is the biggest barrier right now for OTT
Some refer to OTT as only video that is delivered by a streaming device through a television rather than content that is streamed through a tablet or a smartphone.  Some agencies refer to OTT video as AdvancedTV, whether itâs short form or long form.  Some even lump OTT into Cable VOD, which are clearly two different offerings targeting different audiences. Although OTT viewership is growing rapidly, there are differences of opinion about it. At Premion, we define it as premium, long-form episodic streaming video outside of a cable subscription.   We also access our inventory through direct partnerships while others source from exchanges.
Furthermore, a number of agencies are still grappling to figure out where OTT lives within their own internal structures. In some instances, we see the buying coming out of TV while others treat it as digital.  With greater education and investment in OTT digital capabilities, we hope to see it own its own place inside of agencies.
Improve content discovery and curate local experiences for consumers
The good news for consumers is that with streaming OTT apps, you can pretty much watch whatever content you want, whenever you want.  The bad news is the experience in trying to find it. We are seeing the rollout of enhanced content discovery features such as voice-activated search thatâs helping to improve the consumer experience.
Giancarlo Maniaci at ColorTV pointed out that aside from making sure that you are driving traffic to content properties, customer retention is key and it requires constantly curating content to deliver a more personalized experience for the consumer.
For CitySpark, David Haynie highlighted the opportunities to curate highly relevant, local experiences for OTT audiences. CitySpark can match up content based on what users are watching. For example, if someone is watching a rock-climbing show, they can be served up hyper-local rock-climbing events in the area.
Frequency capping is the industryâs dirty little secret
Our panelists agree that cross-network frequency capping is an important issue that needs fixing, as it remains one of the biggest annoyances for OTT viewers today.
MadHiveâs Adam Helfgott says that, âfrequency capping is an inventory problem as the same inventory is being made available across multiple providers. While it may be frequency capped on one platform, itâs difficult to know if the same ad is capped on a second platform.â MadHive is working on a meta-data open data management platform to better track and solve this issue.
Need to standardize OTT media buying
To shift more ad dollars and to simplify the OTT media-buying experience requires our industry to come up with and agree on new standards. Â Raoul Marinescu shared that for Pluto TV, standardization is a top-of-mind issue and right now transactions could be device specific or on Pluto TVâs platform.
To address this issue, we need to build standard audience segments that are portable across the âwalled gardensâ of OTT providers, but this is a huge undertaking and it will take the cooperation of many to solve this.
Data is the lifeblood for OTTâs future
For OTT advertising to scale, we need to invest more in data, advanced targeting and measurement solutions.
Our panelists shared excitement for the future of OTT, in which there would be a centralized way to target and marry data sources together to have proper attribution back to each data source. Programmatic, data-driven IP-delivered advertising is another way to achieve the long-tail scale needed.
At Premion, targeting is the lifeblood of our business. We deal with local and regional advertisers and they depend on having quality data so they can spend their ad dollars wisely. And they need lots of inventory to scale a campaign that moves the needle.
While itâs still early days for OTT advertising, we are collaborating with our partners to find new ways to address frequency capping across networks, improve standardization and deliver enhanced targeting and engagement vehicles.
By leveraging what weâve learned from our past and collective experiences, we are helping the industry make sense of it all and drive OTT forward.
—Jim Wilson, President, Premion