• Information Superhighway Within Reach
    The Internet has evolved into an omnipresent force shaping, or destroying, all that swims in its wake. There had been a time back in the early 1990s when the dream of an information superhighway was greater than the promises of the Internet. A place where families could connect via teleconference to a remote doctor or where a class could be taken on the opposite coast. Perhaps I am a romantic looking longingly at the past promise of the superhighway. But today's push into cross-platform analytics seems to me to be the gateway to the information superhighway.
  • Thriving In A Market That Rewards Quality And Volume
    I am often approached by publishers who want to grow video ad revenue and are willing to be flexible on pricing in order to get there. The challenge they sometimes face is that their amount of available inventory doesn't justify the CPMs at which they need to sell in order to remain competitive. There are several ways that these publishers can grow their volume while maintaining a high-quality user experience and an audience of sought-after consumers
  • Thanks To Technology, Video is Everywhere
    The 21st century is an era of mass technology, which has made mass information a commodity and hence a choice. Think of the past as a very simple road that led to very few places where people were constrained to appointment-based programming that was dictated by the radio and television broadcast schedules. Let us fast-forward to today, when audiences are empowered and able to stray away from appointment-based viewing, shifting time and location to their very own schedules via DVR technology, Internet syndication of television content and through advancements in mobile and OOH technology.
  • Avoiding Video Network Pitfalls
    The news over the past few weeks has been interesting, to say the least, when it comes to ad networks and those who work with them. On the heels of my publisher-directed, but advertiser- and network-relevant Insider article on auto-play video, a flurry of stories hit the wires.
  • A Peek Beyond The Schedule?
    As the number of ways in which we can potentially view programming has multiplied, so have the conversations and questions about the impact of such behavior, and the rate at which it will grow and where it may plateau. An exercise beyond informed conversation (useful though that is) that has particular appeal is creative scenario planning for different circumstances. Imagine, say, a point in time when the share of all viewing (regardless of platform etc.) that is in some way on-demand (DVR, online, VOD etc.) reaches 30%, 50%, 75%, 100%. How would your business evolve to address the new environment …
  • Exposing The Suspects
    Video networks, some have said recently, are a media hazard that threatens to undo whatever progress the segment has made in the first decade of this digital century, an unsafe harbor into which Fortune 500 marketers have been irresponsibly ported. As someone trying to build a company attempting a trustworthy reputation in this often unclean space, I can empathize with the many detractors who have cast their doubts of late. The stains that have been revealed have been there since birth, and the folks who have fathered these companies know it. These are the guys who have taken people's money …
  • Will People Pay For TV Everywhere?
    Last month I discussed the technical realities of "TV Everywhere," and the challenges we need to overcome as an industry before networks, studios and cable systems will be able to deliver true multiplatform distribution of premium content through a paid, cable system-based subscription model. If you missed that post, you can check it out here. My company supports all monetization models, both paid and unpaid -- but four weeks after my last post, TV Everywhere remains an inescapable buzzword of our industry. And if this technology didn't represent such a sea change in the way content will be delivered to …
  • Conspiracy Theory
    In truth, the present transformation of television has been evolving for 30 years. It all started in the early 1980s as TV makers sought to accommodate the desires of video producers to increase revenues. For example, the market for pre-recorded video tapes required that set-makers provide sockets enabling VCRs to be connected to the TV. Gradually more devices designed to mate with TVs were introduced. Examples include video game consoles, DVD players, camcorders, digital cameras and cable set-top boxes. As a result, connection panels became increasingly versatile, ultimately emerging as the center-of-gravity for the transformation of television.
  • 'Potential Reach' Is More Than Potentially Misleading
    I was recently on a panel discussing online video advertising, and a fellow panelist proclaimed "reach is not a problem for us, as we reach 115 million people according to comScore." This statement is factually incorrect. To accurately reflect his company's reach, the panelist should have said, "We can potentially reach 115 million people."
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