Jul 30, 2015

The Shot Heard Round The World?



Originally published at TDG Research on July 30, 2015

In TDG’s April 2015 report on OTT TV Advertising, we predicted that the artificial division between OTT and linear TV streams of the same broadcast would cease to exist within five years, at least for advertising purposes. Lo and behold, what should we see this week, but that CBS is going to run the same ads on the 2016 Super Bowl regardless of whether you’re watching the game through your set-top box or through your iPad.

Is this revolution already being televised or is CBS just slightly ahead of the game?

READ THE REST AT TDG RESEARCH

Jul 28, 2015

TV’s Customer Experience Continues Its Downward Spiral

Originally published at TV[R]EV on July 28, 2015

File this under “and then they wonder why no one likes them”:

new study from Verizon’s AOL unit shows that despite plummeting live viewership numbers, the amount of TV advertising is actually UP.

Commercials now take up an average of seven minutes and 30 seconds of every thirty minute show, versus seven minutes and 7 seconds in 2011. What’s more, the number of 15-second spots climbed to 37.6% from 32.1% over the same time period.

That means not only are viewers being subjected to longer ad pods but they’re also being subject to more commercials in those pods. 

READ THE REST AT TV[R]EV

Jul 25, 2015

VidCon – Ignore It at Your Own Risk



Originally published at TDG Research on July 23, 2015

VidCon is taking place this week in Anaheim. What started out as a convention for teenage fans of YouTube stars has turned into one of the premier events of the entertainment industry, with 21,000 attendees, and sponsors like Kia, Taco Bell, Best Buy, Panasonic, and Canon. Media executives that ignore this conference do so at their own peril.

As VidCon sponsors and attendees are figuring out, interruptive advertising is not the best way to reach Gen Z and Late Millennials. Rather, they are turning to more social-based outreach like #CreatedWith content done in conjunction with Social Video Influencers, such as the stars of YouTube, Vine, and other social video platforms.

But just how popular are these Influencers, and is their reach limited to only a small pocket of young teens enamored with them?
The answer is a resounding “no.” A study done by Variety last year showed that, among teens 13-to-18, YouTube stars like Smosh and PewDiePie are more popular and recognizable than mainstream stars like Jennifer Lawrence and Katie Perry.

Take a look at Variety’s Influencer chart, Famechangers. How many of those names do you recognize? Millennial and Gen Z audiences know them all. Importantly, this community of Influencers is growing, and not just through YouTube. Sites like Vimeo and Vessel are proving to be fertile ground for Influencers –- video stars who’ve launched their own series, often with millions of followers across a widening variety of social platforms.

Take Cameron Dallas, a 20-year old Vine star that has millions of followers across all major social platforms. His first mainstream production, a feature film called Expelled, knocked Guardians of the Galaxy off the top spot on iTunes within 12 hours of its release. That’s real star power and something that brands and content producers alike need to keep in mind.

Brands, studios, and networks must also understand how these fans go about interacting with Influencers; why they feel bonded to them in ways they don’t with Hollywood stars, who seem distant and removed by comparison. With Social Video Influencers, there’s a sense of intimacy and accessibility created by their use of social media. Fans feel they know these people, many of whom started their careers doing homemade videos, cultivating and growing their fan base by making themselves accessible. This strong, deeply-rooted connection is why fans feel so strongly about them. And, as illustrated by Cameron Dallas, this sort of loyalty can be incredibly valuable.

Another insight from VidCon: as social video goes mainstream, so too does the reach of these Influencers. It is thus imperative that content producers determine how best to use them; incorporating them into mainstream movies and TV shows to leverage the power of their audiences. To do so requires a deep familiarity with these Influencers — understanding who their audiences are, with which MCNs they’re affiliated, and what their goals and ambitions are.

Keep in mind that I’m not suggesting in any way that Influencers will supplant the current TV ecosystem, only that they will definitely become an important part of it. The lessons they’ve learned regarding how to build a brand from scratch — from attracting audiences based solely on the strength of their content and word-of-mouth, to learning how to navigate a system where fans demand 24/7 access –- will prove valuable to anyone creating programming in this day and age. The ease with which some (but not all) Influencers can slip into the mainstream is also worth noting: networks should view them as a ‘farm team’ of sorts, a proving ground for future talent.

It will be interesting to see how Hollywood adapts to the, well, influence of influencers and how this, in turn, changes the way we think about fame.

Jul 23, 2015

VidCon – Ignore It At Your Own Risk


Originally published at TDG Research on July 23, 2015

VidCon is taking place this week in Anaheim. What started out as a convention for teenage fans of YouTube stars has turned into one of the premier events of the entertainment industry, with 21,000 attendees, and sponsors like Kia, Taco Bell, Best Buy, Panasonic, and Canon. Media executives that ignore this conference do so at their own peril.

As VidCon sponsors and attendees are figuring out, interruptive advertising is not the best way to reach Gen Z and Late Millennials. Rather, they are turning to more social-based outreach like #CreatedWith content done in conjunction with Social Video Influencers, such as the stars of YouTube, Vine, and other social video platforms.

But just how popular are these Influencers, and is their reach limited to only a small pocket of young teens enamored with them?

READ THE REST AT TDG RESEARCH

We’ve Seen The Future Of Television, And It’s Wearing Aviator Goggles

Originally published at TV[R]EV on July 23, 2015


There’s a seemingly unobtrusive news story this week about a new series called Oscar’s Hotel for Fantastical Creatures that contains the blueprint for the future of television.

To begin with, the series is to appear on Vimeo, a site previously known for being YouTube’s smarter, lesser-known cousin, a place where student filmmakers posted their latest oeuvres. But no more—Vimeo’s grown up and is looking to become a full-fledged OTT network, complete with original programming. That’s a list that seems to be constantly growing.

READ THE REST AT TV[R]EV

Jul 21, 2015

Bullying The Bullies


Originally published at TV[R]EV on July 21, 2015

Sling TV launched its first round of TV commercials this week and we know some MVPDS who are not going to be happy.

Like, all of them.

Despite the Sling team’s initial promise that they were going after cord nevers (people who’ve never gotten a pay-TV subscription, usually younger Millennials), the ads, which mock the less-than-stellar customer experience offered by the nation’s MVPDs, seem squarely aimed at convincing people to cut their ties to those poor-service-providing providers.

In other words, cord cutting.

READ THE REST AT TV[R]EV

Jul 20, 2015

Book Excerpt In The Guardian Today


There's an excerpt of one of the chapters from Over The Top running in today's Guardian. It's about the shifting value of ownership and how streaming services like Netflix and Spotify may be making owning media irrelevant.

I'll give you a tease of the first two chapters and then you can give The Guardian the clicks to read the rest.

One of the most significant changes happening today, something that affects every industry, not just television, is the shifting value of ownership. The idea of ownership is based on the concept of scarcity: if a certain good or service is scarce, it’s of value to own it. But if it’s plentiful, then ownership is of less value. Different cultures place different values on ownership. If you remember your American history, the Native Americans were often confused by the European notion of land ownership, land being open and plentiful on the Great Plains. 
So too with music, TV, and movies these days: when they are available whenever and wherever you want them, the idea of consumer ownership seems pointless. This wasn’t always the case however, and a quick look back can help us understand how we got to where we are today.  

Jul 17, 2015

The Emmy Nominations And TV’s New Golden Age

Originally published at TV[R]EV on July 17, 2015

The Emmy nominations have been released and two of the biggest names on the list are Netflix (Orange Is The New BlackHouse of CardsThe Unbreakable Kimmy SchmidtBloodlines) and Amazon (Transparent). That’s a sentence that would have been unthinkable even two years ago. It represents a triumph for OTT, but more than that, it represents a triumph for the industry’s newfound ability to stop catering to mass audiences and the lowest common denominator.

01
Read the rest at TV[R]EV

Jul 16, 2015

Is Stream Comcast’s Trojan Horse?


Originally published at TDG Research on July 16, 2015

Stream, Comcast’s new virtual pay-TV service, has been causing quite a buzz in the industry this week. People seem confused by it, by the seemingly random set of features. This is why every conversation I’ve had about the service seems to start with “What do you think they’re really trying to do here?” And they’re asking because the official response of “sell a skinny bundle to a bunch of Cord Never Millennials” just seems a little off.

It’s not that Cord Nevers aren’t a good target for a skinny bundle. It’s just that there’s something about the Comcast package that doesn’t add up, something that makes you think that there may be something else going on.

Allow me to explain….

READ THE REST AT TDG RESEARCH

Jul 9, 2015

Dog Days of Summer

Originally published at TDG Research on July 9, 2015

This summer has witnessed an unusual phenomenon — two to be exact. The first: networks are launching a spate of new series during the summer months, which are usually consigned to reruns. The second: even though these new shows are debuting to some fairly dismal ratings, the networks appear blissfully unconcerned. In fact, USA Network actually renewed its summer offering, Mr. Robot, before the show even made its official debut.

So are the network bosses getting a bit too much sun, or is there something else afoot?

READ THE REST AT TDG RESEARCH

Jul 6, 2015

The Search For Orphan Black: Why MVPD VOD Gets No Respect

Originally published at TV[R]EV on July 6, 2015

This weekend, I set out to binge watch Orphan Black. While I get BBC-America through my pay-TV service, I’d only recorded six of the ten episodes and so needed to go to my MVPDs VOD to watch it.

Thus began my tale of woe and dreadful customer experience.

Clicking on the “ON DEMAND” button takes me to the “Movies” tab of the first level menu, which is so long I need to scroll to see the whole thing. My options are (in order)

mvod vod
  • Search
  • Free & Premium
  • TV Shows
  • Kids Zone
  • Movies
  • Movie Bundles
  • TV Series to Own
  • My Library
  • Zona Latina
  • Events
  • Adult
Deciding that my best bet for finding Orphan Black was to go to “TV Shows,” I scrolled there, where I encountered a lengthy submenu:
  • Most Popular
  • By Network
  • By Genre
  • Full Seasons to Own
  • Hit Series to Own
  • Full Season Sale
  • Buy to Own
(Think they’re pushing ownership?) From there, I went to “By Network” since I really wasn’t sure what genre Orphan Black fell into.

There are a lot of networks. This submenu was broken up into:
  • A – C
  • D – G
  • H – M
  • N – R
  • S – T
  • U – Z
Finding and clicking on “BBC-America,” the 14th listing on the A-C submenu, I am again confronted by a series of choices:
  • BBC America HD
  • Doctor Who
  • Graham Norton Show
  • Jonathan Strange
  • Orphan Black
  • Tatau
But my journey was far from over.
Choosing “Orphan Black” gave me yet another submenu, with all the episodes from Seasons 2 and 3 listed as:
orphan black
  • Orphan Blk 201
  • Orphan Blk 202
  • Orphan Blk 203, etc.
It’s a confusing nomenclature, one I’m guessing is lost on a lot of viewers.
Finally locating “Orphan Blk 301,” the first show of the third season, I click and am confronted with what is hopefully the final submenu:
  • Add Bookmark
  • Other Episodes
  • Watch Now in HD
  • Watch Now in SD (the default)
  • Rate this show
Clicking on “Watch Now in HD” actually finally launches the show.

But say I’d accidentally clicked on the wrong episode and wanted to choose “Other Episodes”  from that final submenu. Rather than take me back to the previous menu, I am taken to the “Buy To Own” sub-menu where I can buy the season for $17.99 or individual episodes for $1.99. Since the episodes are included for free with my pay-TV subscription, I’m not sure why I’d want to buy them, but getting back to the previous screen (the one with the free episodes) takes a whopping 35 clicks.
One final issue: should I need to exit out of the show for any reason, I’m brought back to the live TV screen, not even the On Demand menu and have to start all over again.

With a user experience like this, it’s no wonders viewers prefer streaming services like Netflix or their own DVRs. If the MVPDs expect to make VOD a profit center and if they expect the networks to regard them as viable alternatives to their own OTT apps, then they’ve got to step their acts up and solve the user experience dilemma.

Jul 2, 2015

Binge-Watching Isn’t A Trend Anymore. It’s The Norm.


Originally published at TDG Research on July 2, 2015

A new study released this week proclaimed that 92% of ‘consumers’ have binge viewed TV programs. That made for a lot of great headlines–there was, however, a giant footnote to that stat. It seems the study, conducted by TiVo, consisted solely of current TiVo users, who, given that they’re spending hundreds of dollars a year on a high-end DVR system, are probably far more prone to binge view than the average user, and thus not the segment to hold up as representative of all TV viewers.

Does that mean we need to throw the results of the study out? Or are TiVo users (like TDG subscribers) just ahead of the curve?

While in-and-of-itself not representative of general US binge viewing, the TiVo study is directionally correct, indicative of where things are heading. And while it’s unlikely that 92% of the population is binge viewing (it’s hard to get 92% of Americans to do anything, even pay for TV service!), we do think that a sizable majority have indulged and will continue to do so.

READ THE REST AT TDG RESEARCH