CYNOPSISDIGITAL
05.09.16
Good morning. It’s Monday May 9, 2016, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.
TODAY’S CODEBREAKER
Virtual MVPD: A virtual MVPD (multichannel video programming distributor) is an MVPD that offers a range of premium video content without having to own any network infrastructure. Examples include Internet video service providers such as Sling TV and Sony PlayStation Vue.
TOP NEWS
Hulu’s cable integration is kicking off: Suddenlink is now offering TV subs access to Hulu’s app on its TiVo-made cable boxes – with a couple of exceptions. Shows from The CW and Univision are currently not included in the integration. According to Variety, negotiations with the CW and Univision broke down for unknown reasons, and Hulu wasn’t able to obtain the rights to carry the two networks on operator-leased equipment.
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NEWFRONT UPDATES
YouTube’s NewFront, held at NYC’s Javits Center North, was a massive gala attended by thousands of YouTube celebs, advertisers, fans, and yes, a handful of media types. (Put it this way – unlike other NewFronts this year, the entryway to the event was decked out with a red carpet.) Aside from the obligatory YouTube execs, presenters included YouTube comedian Lilly Singh, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver (who touted the advertising value of making content available through YouTube), and even Big Bird (who was just plain adorable). YouTube dubbed the event Brandcast, which made sense given the company’s bold pitch to brands: Spend much less on linear TV advertising, and much more on YouTube advertising. It’s a pitch that YouTube has been hammering for a while; in recent months, it’s starting to become more convincing.
To maker her case, CEO Susan Wojcicki rattled off a startling statistic: “YouTube now reaches more 18–49-year-olds than any network broadcast or cable,” she said. “In fact, we reach more 18–49-year-olds during primetime than the top 10 TV shows combined.” Her assertion is backed up by a Nielsen study of US viewers that Google commissioned. Wojcicki also confirmed news that broke earlier in the week: Between 2016 and 2017, Magna Global, Interpublic’s ad-buying unit, has committed to spending at least $250 million on YouTube instead of TV.
It’s important to note that Wojcicki didn’t give precise numbers as to just how many people are watching YouTube during those primetime hours. Nor did she note what percentage of viewers were watching Google Preferred content – the content that YouTube pre-approves as being brand-safe, and that therefore garners the most ad dollars. Still, Wojcicki’s point stands: Advertisers who fail to consider YouTube’s ubiquitous reach among younger demos do so at their own peril.
The company had some announcements: It will be launching Google Breakout Videos, a product allowing advertisers to insert spots into the “hottest and fastest-rising” viral videos on YouTube. Google Preferred advertising will soon be available programmatically through Google’s DoubleClick Bid Manager. The NBA will be launching two virtual reality series on YouTube. And Sesame Street will now have its own channel on YouTube Kids, which the company said receives over 10 billion views annually.
Finally – and this doesn’t really carry news value, but Cynopsis Digital will go ahead and mention it anyway – YouTube’s event concluded with a live concert from Sia. It was something special. So a note to all digital media companies: If you can afford to pay Sia to perform at your NewFront, go ahead and do that.
At its NewFront event, the gaming-centric digital media company Machinima announced the upcoming launch of Mach 1, a new agency designed to help brands connect with gaming and eSports audiences. And, like other NewFront presenters this year, Machinima announced a data-driven advertising initiative: Machinima Preferred, a new programmatic network, will use the company’s Fan Segmentation models, along with quality and brand safety data from the analytics firm OpenSlate, to target gamers.
The company also produced stats from a study it commissioned from SuperData, a gaming-oriented market research company: Over 188 million people will watch competitive gaming this year. Worldwide revenue for eSports is projected to total $892.8M in 2016, up 19% year-over-year. And the total worldwide market for eSports will be $910M this year, and is projected to grow to $1.3 billion by the end of 2019.
There’s no denying that eSports is exploding, commanding increasingly large viewership numbers among younger audiences. Numerous companies are getting on the bandwagon, including Turner and IMG, whose ELeague will begin running linear and digital content later this month. But the precise numbers are extremely valuable to advertisers who are still trying to wrap their heads around the promise of eSports. And, as Machinima has clearly concluded, it’s important for advertisers to understand that there’s a wealth of data available to aid in audience targeting. So if eSports is a relatively new phenomenon, how is it that we already have so much data available about the avid gamers that make up its audience?
In an on-site interview with Cynopsis Digital, Machinima CEO Chad Gutstein had an answer. “Gaming is literally ones and zeroes,” he said. “Developers have been using data on playability to make their games ever better for a long time. And I think that’s an advantage that gaming has: It’s really the first digital-native entertainment property.”
Joost Van Dreunen, a Ph.D.-holding professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business who happens to double as SuperData’s CEO, was also on hand to speak with Cynopsis Digital. He said that, though a ton of data exists on gaming audiences, the next task for brands is figuring it how to interpret it properly. “The benefit of having digital games is that it’s all trackable,” he said, echoing Gutstein. “If there’s a streaming channel that says that there’s a hundred million hours [of viewership],” he said, “that’s cool, but how many of those viewers are actually humans? And how many of those viewers are passively watching versus actively watching? We can see the revenues, and we can see the momentum behind it, but we need to now break it down into interest categories, viewer behavior, time of day, that type of stuff.” “Getting access to the data isn’t the difficulty,” said Van Dreunen, so much as “harmonizing it with different data sets.” Still, in the age of big data, one thing’s for sure: It’s better to have a lot of data and find yourself struggling to interpret it than to lack the data in the first place.
Great Big Story, the CNN-funded digital video startup geared toward highly-produced non-fiction content, is only six months old. Nonetheless, it’s already earned a Great Big Millennial Audience, according to CNN president Jeff Zucker. Zucker, relying on a cane as a result of a recent knee surgery, was nonetheless on hand to enthusiastically rattle off some numbers at GBS’s NewFront: 6.2 million multi-platform fans, an 80% mobile audience share, an average of twenty-two thousand social actions per video, and forty million monthly multi-platform views. But there was one number he lingered on more than any other: 27. That, he said, is the age of the average GBS viewer.
“This is not about CNN. This is not about news,” said Zucker. “It’s about the first company that we have launched in 35 years that does not boast those three little red letters.” In other words, the C, the N, and the N. One might speculate that, though CNN was out to reach millennial viewers, the network decided it simply couldn’t do so as CNN. It’s undeniably fascinating to see a cable exec openly discussing – even boasting about – an effort to distance a new project from his company’s brand. But based on the numbers, the decision seems to have yielded the intended results.
GBS held its NewFront event at Houston Hall, an expansive beer hall in NYC’s West Village. Several stations, made up to look like campfire sites (assuming campfire sites can come equipped with HD screens) were set up throughout the space to display GBS video content.
And GBS announced several new initiatives, including a deal with The Weather Channel: The Weather Channel will linearly air That’s Amazing, a new eight-part series from Great Big Story. (GBS will then bring it to digital platforms in short form.) GBS, in partnership with CNN Films, will also roll out Really Great Big Stories, a six-part series of film shorts about “tales of genius, exploration, magic and wild determination.” In addition, a new partnership with TIFF will see GBS working with well-known filmmakers on upcoming projects. Musicians Willie Nelson and Chris Funk will also appear in GBS video content. And, though it may be young, GBS already has the luxury of renewing a project: The Philippe Cousteau-starring series Aquatic World will be coming back for season two.
If GBS is to keep growing the way it wants to, the next big phase of its development must be platform expansion. And fortunately for GBS, all involved are well aware of that fact. While Great Big Story’s content is available through its website, via iOS and Android apps, and across social platforms, most of its traffic comes from Facebook (over two-thirds of its 40 million monthly video views, according to the video analytics firm Tubular Labs). But within the next six months, Zucker said, GBS will launch via Snapchat, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Roku and Verizon’s Go90. (It’ll also launch on VR platforms, as seems to be legally mandated for all digital media companies in 2016.)
As David Spiegel, Great Big Story’s SVP of Sales & Brand Strategy, pointed out to Cynopsis Digital during an on-site interview, GBS has the resources of a major media company to help it distribute its content across web, mobile, social, and linear platforms. The value of that backing can’t be overstated. Yet to Spiegel, the startup’s success, more than anything else, boils down to content. “If you watch our videos, they don’t look like anything else that people are producing on the web,” Spiegel said. “Owning the real-time moment – I don’t need that. We have the largest news brand in the world [backing us], and they’re already going to cover news for us…We thought that there was a white space between the light and fluffy social fodder and the provocative influencer stuff, where we could tell our non-fiction stories…We try to give you something a little bit more valuable, try to leave you a little bit more satisfied.” The startup also prides itself on bringing that “doesn’t-look-like-anything-else” aesthetic to its branded content, which includes The Dreamers, an eight-part video series sponsored by Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Those types of partnerships, no doubt, will continue.
At its NewFront presentation, Vice announced that it will be launching six new verticals, and 20 worldwide TV channels, this year. The new verticals will focus on Gaming, Travel, Health, Money, LGBTQ, and Sustainability.
AD TECH
The creative asset management delivery platform Adstream announced a strategic partnership with FADEL, a provider of cloud-based intellectual property management software. Under the deal, Adstream will integrate FADEL’s cloud-based Asset Rights Clearance (ARC) solution into its platform. Adstream says the integration will extend its capability to manage rights for digital content on a global basis. “The marketing and content landscape is changing rapidly as consumers diversify to more channels, this is significantly increasing complexity for brands and agencies,” Adstream CEO Gerry Sutton told Cynopsis Digital. “An essential part of creative content management within this more complicated landscape is being able to navigate each asset’s IP rights. Partnering with FADEL makes it possible for our users to identify and clear complex content rights in a single workflow, increasing speed-to-market for ad campaigns while also saving time and reducing costs.”
PLATFORMS + DEVICES
During GoPro’s Q1 earnings call, CEO Nick Woodman hinted that a consumer-friendly VR camera may be on the horizon. (A developer-oriented VR rig is debuting soon – at a multi-thousand-dollar price.) “We think GoPro has an opportunity to be a leader in consumer VR,” said Woodman. “Our brand and our reputation directly translate into virtual reality.” The call wasn’t all forward-thinking optimism. The company’s Q1 revenue declined about 50% year-over-year. In addition, GoPro is delaying the launch of its long-anticipated drone, whose technology needs more fine-tuning, according to Woodman. The company says the drone will ship during the holiday quarter, instead of during the first half of the year as originally expected.
PROGRAMMING + CONTENT ACQUISITIONS
ICON Network, the Michelle Phan-helmed digital lifestyle network from Endemol Shine Beyond, has debuted a new eight-episode branded series in partnership with Subway. #LifestyleGoals follows three YouTube influencers over a weekend of collaboration in Los Angeles. Digital celebs SofiaStyled, Promise Phan, and NataliesOutlet star.
Below Deck Mediterranean, a new series from Bravo that recently premiered, is launching a new activation across multiple digital platforms. Among those initiatives is a new Below Deck Mediterranean Lens on Snapchat. In addition, an on-air Below Deck Mediterranean Social Edition will feature fans’ Snaps on May 17 at 8pm ET/PT. Bravo says that the May 17 initiative marks one of the first times Snapchat has ever been used as an added integration to a TV show. “Bravo’s audience is highly engaged across social platforms, so we are always looking for fun ways to connect with our fans on these channels,” Ellen Stone, EVP of Marketing at Bravo and Oxygen Media, told Cynopsis Digital. “The launch of Below Deck Mediterranean gave us the opportunity to lean into an innovative platform like Snapchat and its large user base, allowing fans to playfully interact with the series and spread their excitement about the show.”
The sports-focused virtual MVPD fuboTV recently announced that it has added ONE World Sports to its channel lineup. ONE World Sports features live and exclusive coverage of sporting events from around the world. “As a sports-first virtual MVPD we are thrilled to bring ONE World Sports to our subscribers,” Alberto Horihuela, fuboTV’s Co-founder & CMO, told Cynopsis Digital. “Sports are at the core of America’s entertainment and in a quickly evolving TV landscape, having access to the teams you love from anywhere you are becomes increasingly important.”
The Internet TV provider FilmOn has added a new channel: The Children’s Reading Channel is now available on FilmOn.com’s kids section. The channel was launched in partnership with the multi-platform content provider iRead2Know.
RESEARCH
According to a new report from the online video analytics firm OpenSlate, the two most viewed YouTube verticals among 18-34-year-old women are Beauty & Style and Health & Fitness. According to the study, the Beauty & Style vertical is largely comprised of Face & Body Care content (40%), as well as Make-Up & Cosmetics (34%) and Hair Care (13%). Meanwhile, the Health & Fitness category is more diverse in its topic composition. Fitness, Reproductive Health, and Weight Loss are the most watched. As for 18-34-year-old men, the most popular verticals are Gaming, Sports, and Entertainment (Music, Movies & TV). Gaming interest is hyper-focused on shooter games, role-playing games, virtual worlds, massive multiplayer, and more. Meanwhile, video consumption of Sports content is balanced between individual sports and team sports, with Skate Sports emerging as the leader. You can find the full study here.
EXECUTIVE MOVES
8i, a virtual reality startup that specializes in capturing 3D video of real people for use in virtual reality experiences, has a new exec. Steve Raymond, the founder and former CEO of the talent management and influencer marketing company Big Frame, has joined 8i as President of Studios. In the new role, Raymond will help the company grow its L.A. presence and work to get production partners and customers on board.
Big Boots, a digital entertainment social media studio dedicated to engagement platforms, announced a new hire. Alex Kancov will now serve as the company’s Head of Product & Technology. Kancov most recently served as SVP of Global Development for Bank of America/Merrill Lynch in the Financial Crimes Technology division.
TRIVIA
One of YouTube’s co-founders spent some time as the company’s CEO even after its 2006 sale to Google. He stepped down in 2010. What’s his name? You can find the answer in tomorrow’s newsletter.
Friday’s Trivia Question: Who invented the text message? Answer: Finnish engineer Matti Makkonen is credited with conceiving the idea – though the first text wasn’t actually sent until eight years later.
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2016 CYNOPSIS KIDS !MAGINATION AWARDS
Are you part of a team that works on a groundbreaking kids series, an addictive game or app, an infectious children’s entertainment campaign? Enter your mobile app, series, marketing campaign or leading executive in this year’s competition.
Deadline to enter: Wednesday, May 18, 2016 – Enter Now!
View past winners and honorable mentions: 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015.
DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT
As mentioned above, Sia delivered a performance at YouTube’s “Brandcast” NewFront event. Funny thing about Sia’s live performances: She stands off to the side of the stage, wearing a long-haired wig that covers half of her face, ensuring that her dancers are the real center of attention. To see what that looks like, go here.
Watcheroo Premieres and Tune-in Alerts for May 9-15:
– People Now at People.com, Monday-Friday at 8:30a ET and 11:30a ET: Guests include actress Kristin Chenoweth (Hard Sell), actor Jonathan Kite (CBS’s 2 Broke Girls), and actress Lucy Liu (CBS’s Elementary)
– Netflix: The talk show Chelsea, starring comedian Chelsea Handler, debuts May 11; it’s slated to air three nights (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) each week
Watcheroo is Cynopsis Digital’s tune-in guide, categorized alphabetically by platform or network. Programming includes digital premieres, ongoing shows, live-streamed events and linear TV digital integrated series.
See you tomorrow,
David Teich
05.09.16
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