Young people are using their connected TVs to watch over-the-top TV more than they use them to watch programming from a multichannel video provider. That's the finding of a new study from NPD Group's Connected Intelligence. The research firm found that 75% of 18- to 34-year-olds with connected TV sets or devices watch video over the Internet on those devices. About 68% use those connected devices to watch programming from a cable, satellite or telco provider.

If money follows time, then as consumers shift their viewing to mobile devices, advertising share shifts away from TV and toward the new premium-video online ecosystem. As that shift starts to happen -- and it already has -- online video companies will have to create new revenue opportunities. One such opportunity, yet to be fully realized: the ability to run several real-time bidded ads in a sequence, similar to a TV commercial break. In some circles, this is called a pod.

If you're on the creative side of the advertising business, it can be hard to get excited about programmatic buying. But I am. It can also be hard to see how it may help us make awesome videos. But it will. And here's why.

When you generate $60 billion in annual revenues, it's hard to pay attention to an emerging business line. That's the problem the Amazon Advertising Platform is running into. Launched in 2012, the business may already be generating a billion dollars per year. As a result, Amazon is thinking of ways to extend its ad business -- and what better way than video?

I am a video junkie. I love it -- and not just because I make my living connecting people to great video ads. I completely believe in great ads as the best way to capture the audience's trust, imagination, and purchasing power. It seems I'm not the only video ad tech CEO who gets this. U.S. digital video ad spending will nearly double in only three years, climbing from $4.14 billion this year to $8.04 billion in 2016. So why do premium news publishers seem to be the last ones holding out on embracing video as the most enticing and …

The debate rages on: Is cord-cutting a major issue or not? New research from Leichtman Research Group underscores that cord-cutting is not happening en masse, and it's not driving the growth in over-the-top services, either.

If you are going to make an investment of over $4 million for a 30-second commercial during Super Bowl 2014, your justification should in part be based on your return from online investments. Asynchronous and multiscreen content consumption is now the norm, so tying all your ROI expectations to one screen -- even if it is the biggest one in the household -- can't be prudent. But what can you do to get the best return on perhaps your biggest 30-second investment of the year?

Brands aren't just sitting on their laurels now that they've mastered content marketing 101: that is, to educate and inform. Instead, they're elevating their content efforts. Consumers expect information, but they don't necessarily expect a brand to appeal to their emotions or to delight them with entertainment. They're in for a surprise, though! We've found more and more brands taking advantage of streaming video to reach consumers on a whole other level of engagement. Call it the "movie-fication" of brands, if you like. So what does that mean, exactly? Here are a few examples:

Having worked eight years in the online video space advising bigger traditional and online media companies on their video strategy, I've broken down the 10 stages executives go through in their foray into the creation and distribution of video content. They are:

Recently, U.K. multichannel operator Virgin Media announced a deal with Netflix to make the OTT service available to 1.7 million subscribers with TiVo-equipped set-top boxes. This started me thinking: Should U.S. multichannel operators do something similar? My answer is... no.