VOD – The MSOs’ Less Favorite Child? (When It Could Be the Cinderella Story)

VOD – The MSOs’ Less Favorite Child? (When It Could Be the Cinderella Story)

By on March 29, 2009

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It’s Spring, and thoughts turn to March Madness and The Cable Show (this week in DC – if you’re going I’ll see you there).  And since Cinderella Stories are part of March Madness and VOD seems like it has the status of Cinderella among the various "children" of the MSOs (their business initiatives)…

Rather than extending that metaphor, here’s the point.

VOD usage could and should be a lot bigger than it is.  It should be providing much more value to networks, advertisers and consumers.  And operators too, especially via higher subscriber satisfaction driving better retention, which will have a beneficial impact on their financials.

Currently, VOD usage is not large.  There are billions of annual VOD views, but that’s not a big number when total US TV/video viewing in 2008 was 480 billion person hours (according to my calculations).

Comcast recently reported averaging 325 million VOD views per month.  Continue reading “VOD – The MSOs’ Less Favorite Child? (When It Could Be the Cinderella Story)”

Posted in Advertising, Canoe, Revenue Models, TV, VOD | 1 Response

DVRs Are An Involuntary Carriage Agreement

DVRs Are An Involuntary Carriage Agreement

By on March 22, 2009

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As consumers move video consumption to new digital platforms, carriage agreements between content providers and platform operators are of key importance.  Cable networks’ agreements with multi-channel operators (cable, satellite and telcos) limit their ability to offer their full portfolio of shows online.  Many of the proposed "Over The Top" initiatives for bringing video content via the Net to TVs will likely need their own carriage agreements or collide with existing ones. Issues of carriage agreements loom large for VOD and mobile too. 

However, there is a digital video on-demand platform where the carriage rights landscape is friction-free.  In fact, for broadcast networks, TV stations and cable networks it’s unavoidable.  It’s a TV-connected platform in 30% of households – my modelling says it will be in 50% by the end of 2011 (see the previous newsletter Back To The Future (Estimates) – A Brief Review of Broadband Video, DVR and VOD Metrics for more).  It’s…

DVRs – The Involuntary Carriage Agreement

TV stations (and therefore broadcast networks) are on all DVRs regardless if they’re seen over the air or in operator-connected households under must-carry or retransmission agreements.  Continue reading “DVRs Are An Involuntary Carriage Agreement”

Posted in Advertising, Cord Cutting, DVR, Over The Top, Revenue Models, TV, VOD | Leave a response

Embrace The Click – Taking Advanced Video/TV Ads Beyond CPM

Embrace The Click – Taking Advanced Video/TV Ads Beyond CPM

By on March 15, 2009

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This past week I moderated a panel at ITVT’s TV of Tomorrow Show. The panel was on broadband video advertising and featured an excellent set of panelists (thanks to them for participating):

(In my opinion, the TV of Tomorrow Show is the premier conference focused on advanced and interactive TV/video. The panels are excellent, as is the quality of the attendees.)

On our panel, one of the top of mind topics was ad metrics and currencies.  The panel discussed moving away from CPMs towards engagement currencies (for example time spent), those better reflecting the ad capabilities digital tech affords.

Viewers using new video platforms are not tolerant of the 32 units per hour or more in linear TV (DVR owners certainly are not).  Combine fewer units with CPMs linked to TV (even with a premium) and it will be difficult for programming on new platforms to match, let alone surpass, today’s revenue production of TV on a per episode viewed or per hour basis.

On other panels, the desire to move towards engagement pricing was reinforced.  But, several content providers voiced a strong aversion to using clicks as currency – clicks seen as not being a true indicator of engagement and not reflective of the branding power of new video platforms. Continue reading “Embrace The Click – Taking Advanced Video/TV Ads Beyond CPM”

Posted in Advertising, Broadband Video, Revenue Models, TV | 3 Responses

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