• by Dave Morgan , Featured Contributor, November 16, 2023

I’ve written before that I believe the definition of “premium video” is fundamentally in the eye of the beholder, the viewer.

An even better way to look at it is something longtime friend and media industry visionary Eric Fischer shared on LinkedIn earlier this week: "’Premium’ = whatever works for a particular advertiser. If consumers choose to interact with an advertiser within a piece of content, that's premium for them.”

However, while I generally espouse the purist points of view on this issue, I truly applaud the work of the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video and the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) for their work in publishing proposed definitions for premium video for the U.S. video ad market, as reported in Media Daily News.

Their checklist is super-helpful and -- surprising to many -- quite open and inclusive. For sure, they highlight issues uniquely tied to long-form studio and professionally produced content, as you would expect, but their checklist in no way de-categorizes content on platforms like Google’s YouTube, for example, or attempt to neutralize approaches like Eric Fischer’s. Instead, the checklist uses enough subjective language to enable professionals to best run their own strategies.

The guidelines focus on a few key attributes. Specifically, to qualify as premium, video content must be:

1. Delivered transparently

2. Brand-safe

3. Seen by real people

4. Aired within a high-quality viewing experience

Who can argue with that? I love it. Thank you, FreeWheel and VAB. You have done a great service to our industry with your leadership here.

What do you think?