VOD TV Ads Enjoy Steady Growth

Video-on-demand TV advertising through major cable TV providers continues its steady climb.

In the second quarter, total advertising impressions were 20% higher to 6.8 billion, with 80% coming from set-top boxes and 20% from other devices, per Canoe Ventures, the dynamic ad-insertion technology company.

There were 2,409 campaigns running in the second quarter -- 83% from paid TV advertising, 17% from network promotions. A total of 2,522 campaigns ran in the first quarter, with a total of 6.1 billion impressions.

Year-to-date there have been 13 billion advertising impressions. For all of 2017, there were 23.3 billion advertising impressions. In 2016, there were 17.9 billion; in 2015 there were 11.8 billion.

Ed Papazian, president of Media Dynamics, has said these impressions "mean set usage not viewing ‘impressions’ ... So the viewer impressions are probably about half the number cited.”

But Chris Pizzurro, head of sales- marketing for Canoe, counters: “Canoe numbers are ad impressions, not ad insertions. Since Canoe counts an ad impression only when the ad starts in play mode, these numbers should not be discounted. If anything they are actually understated because they do take into consideration co-viewing.”

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Canoe has a national TV footprint of 36 million TV homes from three major cable operating companies: Comcast, Cox and Charter Spectrum.

A majority of Canoe’s ad insertion impressions come “mid-roll” -- during the episode, not before or after -- totaling 5.9 billion impressions. The average mid-roll ads per break were just under four commercials: 3.87, with mid-roll viewing completion at 99%. Pre-roll ads average to 1.1; post-roll 1.04.

In an average single episode, 57% of the time, consumers saw the same spot once. The average campaign was “capped” at two impressions per episode.

Highest average VOD activity -- in terms of Canoe’s advertising impressions -- occurs on the weekend -- 1.1 billion each for Saturday and Sunday.

 

 

5 comments about "VOD TV Ads Enjoy Steady Growth".
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  1. Chris Pizzurro from Canoe, August 1, 2018 at 1:05 p.m.

    I have a concern with Ed’s statement. Canoe numbers are ad impressions, not ad insertions. Since Canoe counts an ad impressions only when the ad starts in Play Mode, these numbers should not be discounted. If anything they are actually understate because they do take into consideration co-viewing.

    Chris Pizzurro
    Canoe

  2. Caroline Horner from Lift Analytics, August 1, 2018 at 1:06 p.m.

    What is the logic behind this statement?  Ed Papazian, president of Media Dynamics, has said these impressions "mean set usage not viewing ‘impressions’ ... So the viewer impressions are probably about half the number cited.”

  3. Chris Hock from Adobe Systems, Inc., August 1, 2018 at 2:20 p.m.

    Agree with Pizzurro's take that these impressions may be understated because they do not take co-viewing into consideration. One other point, I think the the viewing behavior of VOD is different than that of traditional linear TV. Linear TV may have more of the "the TV is on but no one is in the room" where as VOD is generally something viewers specifically search, find and play and has a higher engagement. That's certainly anecdotal experience from my extended family's viewing... but I recall seeing research that has backed that up as well.   

  4. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, August 1, 2018 at 3:18 p.m.

    Guys, what I mean is that if the "impressions" or GRPs are based on set usage, not individual viewing records, they don't tell you who in a household is reached, which clouds the targeting aspect considerably. However, if we don't care about reaching a particular consumer, just his/her "household" ,then the numbers understate the actual tally of viewer impressions as there are probably 1.2-1.3 viewers-per-set tuned in. Naturally, if there is a means to get people to identify themselves as in control of the device or set when it's on, this is a plus regarding targeting---but is this a universally true situation or does it apply only some of the time?

  5. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, August 1, 2018 at 3:54 p.m.

    Caroline, it's a matter of how the data is expressed. And it can get confusing. It's much easier to reach a household---where viewing by anyone counts---than to reach a particular individual in a household. In fact  an average household resident watches only half of the content that is accessed by the home. Still,  if you say that you have garnered 3 billion "impressions" and they are based on set usage not individual viewing data, you are probably undercounting the actual number of "viewer" impressions since there are probably 1.2-1.3 viewers- per-set. On the other hand, if you express your data as rating points or a percent of the target audience---GRPs----invariably the number of household GRPs is considerably higher than the corresponding number for a particular viewer segment. For, example, your 3 billion household GRPs would tranlate into about 1.7-1.8 billion GRPS for many population segments as those particular people were not the ones who were watching in many cases. The only way that 3 billion household GRPs would also apply for those living in the households would be if every member of the family watched every time any of the  sets was tuned in and for the entire duration of the activity---an obvious impossibility.

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