The next few weeks could see sweeping changes at Hulu triggered by the exit of co-owner Providence Equity Partners, according to an internal memo obtained by Variety. The memo, drafted in July, claims that the buyout of the private equity firm, which owns 10 percent of Hulu, would be completed in September by the video venture’s other corporate owners Disney, News Corp and Comcast, which each own 30 percent. This event would also make it possible for top Hulu executives whose shares have already vested to cash out. A source tells Variety that Kilar alone could cash out at close to $100 million and then decide to leave -- a possibility that Hulu’s co-owners seem to be taking seriously. A second consequence of the Providence exit could be changes to Hulu’s licensing agreements, which could lead to Hulu losing exclusivity for some of its content. One major stumbling block appears to be that Disney and Fox don’t agree on how the video service should be run going forward (Note: Comcast, which also owns close to a third of Hulu, waived its rights to manage the company’s affairs as a condition of its merger with NBC Universal). Among other things, the report indicates that Disney and Fox are at odds over authentication. Fox wants users to log in with either their Hulu Plus or pay-TV account details to get next-day access to its content, while Disney has no interest in this type of authentication.
As with other multichannel TV providers, IPTV companies delivering TV and other content will aggressively move to offer more multiscreen viewing over the next year.A Infonetics Research survey found that 83% of cable, satellite and telco TV operators plan to offer some type of multiscreen viewing -- PC, smartphone or tablet -- by 2013. Infonetics notes that those participating in its survey usually deliver linear broadcast TV over a IP network.But when it comes to some top Internet-based video platforms, research has revealed that many IPTV service providers do not support -- as yet -- streaming services such as YouTube, Hulu, or Netflix. In addition, only a minority of IPTV operators -- one-third -- currently offer social media connections with the TV set.For IPTV companies and others, Infonetics believe one of the growth areas will continue to be subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services. 83% of Infonetics respondents offer SVOD premium channels like HBO, Showtime, and Starz, and libraries of first-run movies. This activity will rise; by 2013, 89% of operators will have some form of SVOD.Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband access and video at Infonetics Research, says: “Because it’s so challenging to differentiate on content, pay-TV providers are looking to stand out from their competitors by offering additional services and features, such as multiscreen viewing, social networking and content discovery and recommendation services."
Comcast customers accounted for almost one-third of all subscribers who signed in to watch NBC’s Olympic coverage online. Its 31% figure topped the access levels at all other cable, satellite and telco TV operators. With control over NBC, Comcast had an incentive to attract subscribers to NBCOlympics.com. Comcast also said Xfinity customers viewed more live online streams than the national average, based on an index that was 43% higher. Comcast took steps to make the access process easier by eliminating the need for verification for customers with both Xfinity TV and online services when watching in their homes. Of the streaming video amount (live and on-demand) watched by Comcast subscribers, 32% was done via mobile -- smartphones or tablets. Levels were mostly higher on weekends. Yet there is some evidence that ample viewing was done at work as the remaining 68% used PCs, with peak levels between the hours of 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. While watching TV, the smartphones and tablets played another role as consumers used them in massive amounts as a remote control to switch between channels with London coverage. Comcast had wanted the opportunity for live viewing online of thousands of sports events as a way to boost interest in TV Everywhere possibilities.
The latest comScore figures show that Facebook has overtaken Yahoo for the No.2 slot in video, trailing Google’s YouTube. This isn’t the first time this has happened; back in August 2010, Facebook pulled off this feat, but Yahoo managed to usurp its slot soon thereafter. At the time, I asked comScore if the views that Facebook gets credit for on comScore's include a- only views in Facebook's player b- embedded on Facebook.com's but using third party players (ex: YouTube) c- both The answer surprised me: it was a, the views that comScore gives Facebook credit for only include those limited to Facebook’s own player. Now raise your hands if you’ve ever seen a Facebook player in the wild? Obviously those are user-generated videos that Facebook members have uploaded, probably not very attractive to marketers. Facebook is indeed a social networking site built around photo-sharing. Its pending acquisition of Instagram was intended to address Facebook’s weakness in mobile, but the fact that Instagram posed a direct threat to Facebook’s core photo-sharing functionality was the fear factor that drove Mark Zuckerberg to shell out $1 billion for the nascent company. With Facebook’s stock off by 50% of its IPO price, one has to wonder if Mark Zuckerberg and his brain trust are considering a shift in strategy with regards to video (and possibly, content, too). If you think about it, the main value creators in video and media have indeed been the aggregators/distributors. As such, Facebook’s massive audience of nearly 1 billion users makes it a very potent force in the media landscape, but it has yet to realize that potential. Mark Zuckerberg has adopted a neutral tech-platform stance that has left a lot of money and value on the table. It’s worth noting that Google is now morphing rapidly into a media company. It’s not creating video content yet per se, but it is funding it at a massive rate. One company that has always had media and video creation at its core is Yahoo. It’s worth noting that according to comScore, from August 2010 to July 2012: - Google (YouTube) grew from 146,274,000 uniques and 1,903,240,000 video views to 156,999,000 uniques and 19,588,510 video views (a 10x growth in video views); - Facebook went from 58,596,000 uniques and 243,210,000 video views to 53,045,000 uniques and 327,801,000 video views (so uniques fell while views grew); - Yahoo went from to 53,929,000 uniques and 229,087,000 video views to 48,693,000 uniques and 625,077,000 video views (so uniques fell while views grew). If those numbers are accurate and the methodology hasn’t changed, they further stress the reality that users are increasingly turning to YouTube for video content, but Facebook and Yahoo have grown video views thanks to a rising tide in video creation, consumption and sharing. Ironically, in August 2010, Facebook’s focus was solely in “products,” while Yahoo’s was on content -- but with Facebook’s stock at 50% off the IPO price and Yahoo hiring Marisa Mayer as CEO (who is poised to focus on technology and products, even though I think eventually she will focus on Yahoo’s strengths), it’s entirely possible that Yahoo will focus on productizing video, while Facebook (at least starts to) look at content. That doesn’t mean that Facebook will or should create content, but with that massive audience, the right mix of creation, curation and aggregation would overnight propel Facebook into a juggernaut in the space, instead of merely the dumb pipe it now occasionally serves as. Ultimately, while Google is trying to attack Facebook via Google+, Facebook could in fact return the favor by attacking Google at the heart of its video strategy (YouTube), and hold on to its lead at number 2. Of course, with Mayer at the helm of Yahoo, it’s clear that she will do everything she can to reclaim the second spot. Regardless of what happens, it will be an interesting race to watch.
As initially reported in VidBlog on August 17, Adap.tv just announced its “Adap.tv Audience Unifier” that enables brands to buy targeted digital video ads based on TV viewing behaviors using “Nielsen Online Audience Segments – TV Viewing” tools. Adap.tv said it will use Nielsen’s cross-platform data across all types of video inventory.