Commentary

Don't Touch That Mouse

Don't bother looking for broadband TV's proverbial "tipping point." In 2005, the industry blew right past it with barely a mention. Millions watched last July's Live 8 concert live via aol.com, and after the event, consumers accessed 88 million streams on-demand. The day Hurricane Katrina made landfall, a record 9 million videos were streamed from MSNBC.com alone. And in recent months, agencies report sellout conditions for in-stream placements at Eonline and AccessHollywood.com.

"Video advertising has increased exponentially," says Janet Balis, AOL's senior vice president, sales development, who sees brisk demand for video on AOL news and music channels, particularly in AOL Music's "Sessions" and its "Top 11 Video Countdown," as well as on the enhanced "Coaches" channel.

So what tipped broadband? In 2005, we entered a world where TV brands and advertisers poured their properties into "broadband channels." From MTV's "Overdrive" to Google Video, from Mark Burnett's planned Web-only reality series to AOL and Warner Bros.' In2TV on-demand offering, the content is here. "It's not a niche audience that is streaming anymore," says Erin Hunter, senior vice president, media and entertainment, comScore Networks. "This is the majority of the Internet, over 100 million month to month."

Is It Real TV?

But even as consumers, programmers, and media budgets gravitate to broadband, the outlook for streaming video and how it maps against traditional TV behaviors is only beginning to come into focus. Will viewer loyalty develop? We know that David Letterman confronting Bill O'Reilly, along with other spicy video clips, can scorch servers. But will users come back for ongoing series, and will sponsors stay the course?

AOL says its Web-original "The Biz" generated 1 million unique visitors in October and November. "We believe the audience can be loyal," Balis says. AOL learned that a key for broadband TV is social networking: "[It is] more likely across an audience that is willing to talk about their experiences, participate in them actively, and share them."

At iFilm, inventory and usage have spiked nearly 50 percent in the past year, though much of the video streaming is still event-driven, "after-the-fact TV viewing," like the Jon Stewart/ Tucker Carlson smackdown, says Danny Fishman, iFilm's executive vice president of sales. But that, too, is shifting, as dedicated audiences now hit Fishman's channel on Fridays for the weekend movie trailers. Music videos also generate return visits.

While audience development remains in its infancy online, Fishman believes that sponsored video series will secure loyal and broad audiences via emerging distribution strategies. The video company Broadband Enterprises already licenses video from major brands so that it can match advertising to the content rather than the audience, and send it to multiple Web site partners. "I really see syndication as a big thing in the future," Fishman says.

And broadband appetites may finally move beyond video snacking. According to comScore Media Metrix data, Discovery.com served an average 66 minutes of video per user in December, although most others like MTV and iFilm were well under 10 minutes a month. At one of the most ambitious broadband channels online, MTV's "Overdrive," the "time spent" data continues to rise each month, according to Ben White, vice president of digital media, MTV. Viewers on "Overdrive" now spend twice as long as they do on MTV.com. Programming options, broadband responsiveness, reliability, and screen size have all risen substantially. "These all lead to a longer attention span," White says. "You can get to a lean-back experience."

The Lean-In Consumer

Lean-back is fine, but what advertisers want is the lean-in engagement viewers bring to in-stream spots. In living rooms, advertisers don't even know if viewers are present, let alone focusing on a spot. With broadband video, viewers are actively seeking specific clips, and seem to stick through the pre-rolls in remarkable numbers. "We are seeing about 80 percent completion rates," says Samantha Tenicki, media supervisor, Starcom USA. "And a lot of that is 30-second spots," she notes.

Agencies are now thinking about retooling their creative and media plans to optimize cross-platform performance. Nearly all pre-rolls continue to repurpose TV spots, and many in the industry say that campaign timing and placements aren't as sophisticated as they should be. "We tell advertisers that if they buy ESPN, they should be buying it online," says Tracey Scheppach, Starcom's video innovations director. "If you advertise on 'Lost,' where is the 'Lost' online campaign?"

In the broadband video age, campaigns require more continuity between TV and online experiences, because consumers are accessing the URLs of their favorite TV shows. At MTV, White was astonished by the depth of viewer interest in the "Laguna Beach" site. "There seems to be an endless appetite for content around [hit] shows," he says. And despite the fear that eyeballs are fleeing TV for the Web, MTV is finding that the broadband channel only adds to its reach.

Getting Good Reception

For programmers and advertisers, broadband TV remains in an antediluvian era, attempting to respond to gushers of interest. Online providers have been surprised by the demand for video from users and clients. "There's not enough supply," says Chris Young, CEO of Klipmart. "Publishers that didn't have video strategies or players are scrambling for solutions."

While 30-second spots play well enough, many publishers say they would prefer short-form creative tailored especially for online engagement. "We are learning that length depends on the device but also on your particular brand and message," says Starcom's Scheppach. It's not just the pre-roll, either. Video effectiveness increases noticeably when advertisers pair video with static ads. Adjacent ads emblazoned with calls to action on the media player also linger long after 15-second video spots.

Even Web video experts can only guess how lean-back the experience will become. AOL's Balis imagines loyal audiences for regularly scheduled franchises like "Sessions" and the upcoming Burnett reality show "Gold Rush." But capricious video clip-hunters will continue to rely on search as their TV remote.

Even MTV "Overdrive's" tech-savvy youth audience has yet to embrace the most cutting-edge experiences, like assembling their own video playlists. "At first people didn't quite understand it," says White. Which only goes to show that in broadband TV, even the hippest of the hip are still making it up as they go along. "It doesn't intuitively strike home with a linear [TV] culture that is about, 'What is on today, and how did it do after it played once?'" White admits. "We're rapidly getting acquainted with the long tail. You really have to start thinking differently."

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