Julia Zangwill Shares the Results From the 10th Annual FreeWheel’s Video Marketplace Report

This year marks the 10^th anniversary of FreeWheel’s Video Marketplace Report, a seminal study on the state and future of premium video. The study is a valuable track of the emergence and growing popularity of premium video in the marketplace.

Methodology

“The report started in 2010,” explained Julia Zangwill, Director of Advisory Services at FreeWheel, “and we saw the need to highlight the trends in the premium ecosystem.” Over time it went from three pages to thirty pages and from just the U.S. market to the U.S. and the EU. The basis of the analysis is derived from the rich data set culled from the FreeWheel platform on premium video. “It’s all aggregated and anonymized and it is ad views data as well as video views data,” she explained.

Premium video is a term that can be loosely defined nowadays. For Zangwill, “It is a bit of a hot potato. The way we define it is around professionally produced, mostly long-form video, that has monetization rights. Those are MVPDs, Distributors as well as Programmers. It is the traditional television players that we focus on.”

Keeping it Fresh

In order to keep the study up-to-date, accurate and relevant in a highly changing and evolving ecosystem, changes were made in the analytical structure of the study. “We re-architected the way we analyze the world’s largest dataset of premium video ad impressions to reflect the changes we’ve seen in the market over the last ten years,” she noted and added, “This year, we see a long pattern of fragmentation across systems, content, and operations move towards integration, with notable examples of content aggregation, system simplification, and operational consolidation.” To that end, FreeWheel readjusted the way the database and queries were structured. “We took last year’s study, broke it apart and put it back together so we have a lot more flexibility going forward.”

Study Takeaways

Zangwill reflected that, “Overall, the past ten years we saw incredible growth. Technology was always one step ahead of consumers. When TV Everywhere services were first introduced in 2011 there was a lot of confusion on ‘how do I log in?’ and ‘on what devices does it work?’ and ‘what content is available inside or outside the home?’ But fast forward to the past year, we reached an inflection point where the technology and the content and the operations are starting to simplify.” In 2020, TVE made up 40% of ad views, but ad supported streaming services were 38% of ad views and continue to accelerate. With all of the device fragmentation, “Connected TV has emerged as #1, with close to 75% of device consumption” she stated.

What has facilitated CTV adoption, according to Zangwill, was the rich choice of high quality content especially in 2013. She referred to it as “the Golden Age of TV comprised of high caliber, scripted shows including AMC’s Breaking Bad and FX’s The Shield,” that consumers wanted to view on the larger screen. This timing, aligned with advanced technology like Roku boxes and Firesticks, accelerated CTV adoption. “Back then it was 2% of ad views and it more than doubled the next year. Seven years later, CTV makes up 62% of ad views proving CTV is here to stay,” she concluded.

The study also confirmed the Power of Live Sports. “Five years ago, the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil led consumers to watch more live sports on digital platforms than ever before.  In 2020 live content made up 55% of content consumption, and we expect the 2021 Tokyo Olympics will set new records later this year,” she noted.

Another takeaway is the rise of Programmatic. “It is another new data cut that we can now track moving forward. It was in its infancy in the past decade, specifically around video. But it has been in a mature state now for a long time. In 2015, header bidding made the transition from display to video. Today 24% of impressions are executed programmatically,” she explained, “We expect to see that accelerate and continue in the next few years.”

The pandemic, according to Zangwill, created decision fatigue which led viewers to passively stream content throughout the day to fill the time. This trend could continue with live sports coming back.

Next Steps

Looking to the future, “There is a lot of competition out there when it comes to ad supported services and there are going to be organizations to opt-in for a low cost value proposition. There will also be other players who are going to be more premium and have a higher price point that offers a different ad experience or different content. The value proposition will become very important,” she predicted.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

 

The World of Outstream Video. Interview with Yoav Naveh

Yoav Naveh has a background steeped in building predictive systems for online advertising and internet security startups. Prior to launching ConvertMedia, he served as Captain in the elite technological unit of the Israeli Intelligence Corp and received multiple awards of achievement while there. 

Upon completing his service, Naveh went on to receive a degree in mathematics and computer science at Tel Aviv University. As a self-described expert in the programmatic industry, Naveh also has a passion for machine learning and big data.

As the co-founder and CEO of ConvertMedia, Naveh works in the world of outstream video which are, according to Cynopsis, video ad units that aren’t tied to content. (An out-stream ad can run between paragraphs of text, on the side of a page. They are presumed to be more valuable because they can guarantee 100% viewability.) ConvertMedia is an outstream video SSP that, according to Naveh, “enables publishers to strike an ideal balance between revenue goals, the exposure they afford advertisers and how they engage consumers.”

I sat down with him and asked him the following questions:

Charlene Weisler: What exactly is an outstream video SSP?

Yoav Naveh: SSPs have traditionally helped publishers connect to demand channels (advertisers via DSPs and ad networks) and sell real estate. An Outstream SSP makes that connection for outstream video supply. We believe that SSPs should evolve beyond demand management and offer user experience controls. In outstream, a high impact and effective format, publishers need to have tools to manage the user experience in a way that is respectful to the user, and measures not only the potential revenue, but also the user experience tradeoff.

Charlene Weisler: What type of video – length, origin etc, do you work with?

Yoav Naveh: Most ads are 15-30 seconds long. But we feel that outstream can be an opportunity for content marketers to play longer stories within outstream formats. This allows marketers to have a few seconds of high impact format that then stays active on the page only if users engage. If the user does engage, the marketer can now play a significantly longer story/ad (2-5 minutes).  This brings publishers the opportunity to deliver an experience similar to what Facebook created with in-feed with video.

Charlene Weisler: What is your definition of television?

Yoav Naveh : Television is professionally created video content that is made available for a mass audience through broadcasting or streaming

Charlene Weisler: How are you able to move TV dollars to digital?

Yoav Naveh: Advertisers are looking to reach their audiences, who are online, and in particular on their mobile devices. But they need to be able to reach those audiences at scale and in a viewable and reliable way if they are going to make the move from broadcast TV to digital. Outstream video opens up quality, viewable inventory at scale and will be the key to moving budgets so advertisers can be where their audiences already engage with content.

Charlene Weisler: Tell me about some of the data you collect and how you use it?

Yoav Naveh: We collect data on the effects of different video ad formats on the user experience and how it correlates with revenue to help publishers find the balance between revenue and user experience. We measure the load-time of the ads, the time the user spends on a page, how they move and interact with the page, where they came to the site from (i.e., whether it was from social media or organically) and if they immediately leave after the page visit. We also allow users to provide direct feedback on the ad with an opt-out option.

Charlene Weisler: What is your definition of programmatic?

Yoav Naveh: Programmatic is the automatic method of buying and selling digital media

Charlene Weisler: What happens when Smart TV’s gain critical mass? How will that impact your business?

Yoav Naveh: Smart TVs present an opportunity to create new video advertising experiences for users. We will need to develop smart and relevant ad experiences that enhance the user experience that such devices introduce beyond the pre-roll.