Written by: Rhodes Mason, Vice President of Business Development
This October I will be moderating a panel discussion at Digital Hollywood on the multi-screen universe and how it affects the digital entertainment world. As I prepare for the panel, I am reviewing some of the newest developments that affect our industry and I’d like to share some of my thoughts with you here.
Marco Polo: Someone recently said to me “I understand that you deliver trailers online but what about mobile and IPTV?” Huh? Mobile and IPTV are “online” - but maybe I take it for granted that people know this. Now that Nielsen and Comscore are tracking viewers across mobile, web and IPTV, it might help marketers and media buyers to understand we are delivering video to all these devices via IP. With mobile ad inventory exploding and IPTV just starting to get some critical mass, having these companies track all these plays should help unify media buys. Like Marco Polo, we have to follow our audiences across every screen.
One Platform to Rule Them All: There is nothing more frustrating than being on an iPad and seeing that you need a Flash player to play a video. The emerging HTML 5 standard is an important step forward in enabling video content playback across all screens, including the iOS. Ad networks still are implementing serving capabilities into this platform so it is not entirely mature as an ad-supported play. However, if you do not offer play back on iOS, you risk losing traffic. But it does appear that we will soon have one platform that works everywhere - and not a gigabyte too soon!
Evil is In the Eye of the Beholder: Google will soon be in the device business. With its recent offer to purchase Motorola Mobility, Google is going to be competing with its Android clients. How this shakes out is unknown (given that the deal hasn’t even gone through yet), and though Google says it wanted a patent portfolio, this may present an opportunity for another OS (WebOS gets new life?).
All You Can Eat vs A La Carte: Consumers of movie rentals appear to prefer subscription VOD (SVOD) over transactional VOD. Parks Associates just released a report showing that consumer spend during a six-month period ranged from $12-$26 for a la carte services compared with almost $48 per household for subscription. Driving this is of course was Netflix however; with their rate increases to begin September 1st, it will be interesting to see if they lose subscribers or if their streaming movie buffet fills the belly of their subscribers. My bet is on the latter.
Lots of food for thought on our ever-changing industry. If you plan to be at Digital Hollywood on October 18th, come see the panel. We have some great panelists lined-up, including execs from Verizon, LG, Intel, Sony Television, MobiTV and Yume. We’ll speak to strategy in the multi-screen universe and try and get a handle on the rapid developments our industry produces month-to-month.
“Every once in a while, amid all the randomness, something unexpected happens and pushes us all forward.” The Switch (2010)
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