by Steve Smith on Feb 28, 11:45 AM
Digital veterans may recall that across the history of online media, sports publishers tended to be on the leading edge of Web technology. Driven by a passionate audience for whom more is always more when it comes to content, companies like ESPN stayed out in front when it came to pouring video online. Fantasy sports providers have always been among the most successful paid content winners. And niche players like The Sporting News were among the first to marry online community and content to the best effect. And so when it comes to mobile media it is not surprising that …
by Steve Smith on Feb 25, 12:37 PM
If you are going to make a Web series that spins off a fun bit of random silliness online, then there really is only one way to go with it. Make the premise about a couple of guys who create a random bit of online silliness. RandomCreepyGuy.com made a business out of featuring the kinds of personal photos everyone has, where some offbeat oddball ends up in the shot. The taxi driver in Vegas. The guy who gave us directions in Cleveland. That dude (you know who I'm talking about) who knew the guy who got us the tickets to …
by Steve Smith on Feb 24, 12:22 PM
I am not sure there is any seasonality to online programming, but spring is as good a time as any for new digital content. Perhaps in tune with Spring Break, Break Media rolled out a slate of Web series it will be launching in coming weeks. All of the content is decidedly skewed to the young male audience. Now that the lad mags like Maxim are in decline, someone has to serve this demo offbeat humor, rugged weirdness and the usual wink-and-a-nod guy guidance.
by Steve Smith on Feb 23, 12:54 PM
Odd as it sounds, the one thing Amazon, the world's leading e-retailer, needs is a better online shopping experience. For digital media, that is. The company rolled out its Instant Videos service for Amazon Prime premium members yesterday and once again called attention to how ill-suited its online store is for browsing downloadable media.
by Steve Smith on Feb 22, 11:56 AM
Optimizing video ad campaigns effectively lifts key performance metrics, but even when experienced humans do it manually some inefficiencies are inevitable. Ad marketplace SpotXchange boasts that its new automated optimization engine, cleverly named OTTO, is already showing that a well-tuned robot works wonders in a new age of real-time bidding where nano-second decisions are required to serve highly individualized impressions. OTTO watches campaigns and learns from past performances for a specific placement, a certain publisher or even a segment. It learns for other campaigns and then from real time feedback from the currently running campaign.
by Steve Smith on Feb 21, 10:17 AM
Every elementary school student of the 1960s coveted those moments when the metal venetian blinds went down, the screen lowered over the smudge-ridden blackboard, and that massive Bell & Howell 16 millimeter projector was wheeled in by the AV dweeb to the middle of the room. Lesson-weary and restless, we finally got a lean-back visual moment - a class period eaten up by a film. If you were really lucky, it was the twentieth showing of "Donald in Mathemagic Land" or the Capra-directed "Our Mr. Sun." This was an early pre-branded entertainment variety of corporate video we might call "branducation." …
by Steve Smith on Feb 18, 1:37 PM
Size matters, but not in the ways you might think for video advertising. First, the fast expansion of video inventory is not driving down pricing. Both video ad volumes and prices are increasing pretty much in tandem through 2010, reports FreeWheel in its quarterly Video Monetization Report. Indexed against the full year of video pre-roll ads served through its system, the company found that video ad views grew 20 points through 2010 while CPMs were up 19 points on an index basis. FreeWheel data included 23 billion video views in 2010 and 13 billion ad views. The number of pre-roll …
by Steve Smith on Feb 17, 12:00 PM
Investors have some reason to be skeptical of the digerati's persistent claim that Internet-based and distributed video content really has arrived. After all, there were many false starts -- from Web TV to Pseudo TV, TheDen to Entertaindom TV. And dare we say "Joost?" And even now, TV content at Hulu and the network sites tends to suck attention away from the video hubs and "digital studios" that continue to compete with YouTube and others for ad dollars. For the big money on Wall Street it is hard to know where to place bets. But one investment group that controls …
by Steve Smith on Feb 16, 11:45 AM
Despite the proliferation of paid media models, online piracy of copyrighted materials will continue, according to a new report from PwC. In its survey of 202 people who admit to downloading pirated media, the company found that of course the chief motivator is price, supported by their perception that "everyone is doing it." Curiously, PwC found that the many ad-supported sources of free media might be contributing to the legitimization of piracy because they blur the line between legitimate and illegally obtained copyrighted material.
by Steve Smith on Feb 15, 1:03 PM
I knew I was getting in over my head when the video quiz at Dailymotion started asking me which classical music riff was heard throughout Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon. Or when it asked me to ID the ten second clip of a French film only an NYU film school graduate might remember. I thought I was a movie buff, but it turns out I don't know Jack.