Advertising on Connected TV (CTV), otherwise known as Over-the-Top (OTT), is a hot topic for advertisers who want to get their messages on any device, including TVs that can be connected to the Internet. According to eMarketer, upwards of 40 percent of the world’s population are “digital video viewers.” But advertising on CTV has enough pitfalls to discourage marketers from embracing it. During a CES 2021 session, DoubleVerify chief executive Mark Zagorski and chief product officer Jack Smith enumerated the challenges and proposed solutions. Continue reading CES: Advertisers Need Better Measurement to Embrace OTT

Just prior to CES 2021, LG Electronics stated it spent $80 million to take a 60 percent stake in Alphonso, an advertising technology, data and measurement company, to advance its aim of building a streaming-TV advertising business. LG is buying out Manifest Investment Partners and other existing Alphonso investors. Founders, current and former employees and “various advisers” will hold onto the remaining shares. The company, which had a pre-money valuation of about $125 million, has raised $6.3 million thus far. Continue reading LG’s Major Stake in Alphonso Boosts Its Streaming Ad Goals

The sprawl of CES, typically measured in millions of square feet of exhibit space, multiple venues, and hundreds of thousands of attendees, now spans the globe as the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) sets “the global stage for innovation” in an all-digital format when it opens its four-day run on January 11. However dispersed, CES Week will still be the focal point for the consumer technology sector and trends will emerge, even if news and product announcements will originate from both CES events and individual company presentations. Continue reading All-Virtual CES 2021 Focuses on Innovation Despite Pandemic

The Wi-Fi Alliance began its Wi-Fi 6E certification program for devices built to transmit signals on the newly launched 6GHz band. Introduced just before CES 2021, the program comes in time to certify next-generation devices that can take advantage of the fastest speeds ever available with Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi 6, which began its rollout in 2019, adds access to the 6GHz band after the Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to open it for unlicensed use. Until now, Wi-Fi use has relied on 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Continue reading Wi-Fi 6E Certification Program Paves the Way for New Devices

Days before CES 2021 opens, South Korean tech company LG Electronics introduced its first-ever LG QNED TV, which marks a significant improvement in brightness and contrast. The LCD (liquid crystal display) TV uses ultra-small LEDs as the backlight; these LEDs are one-tenth the size of those used in its previous LCD TVs, which provide a much brighter picture because more of them can be bunched into a single area. The 86-inch LG QNED TV model, which offers 8K resolution, contains 30,000 LEDs as backlight. Continue reading LG Electronics Unveils Mini LED QNED TV Ahead of CES 2021

Oracle has uncovered a significant fraud involving advertising on streaming platforms. Dubbed StreamScam, Oracle Data Cloud found that the fraud leverages flaws in ad serving technology and the supply chain to trick advertisers into paying for ads never seen by viewers on real devices and apps. Oracle Data Cloud chief product officer Derek Wise puts the damage at $14.5 million over the last four months, based on an estimated average cost of $20 per one thousand consumer impressions in OTT viewing. Continue reading Oracle Reveals Advertising Fraud on Streaming TV Platforms

Fox Corporation joined USC students via Zoom for the fourth installment of ETC@USC’s Executive Coffee with… series. Sixteen graduate students from the Marshall School of Business and the Iovine and Young Academy, many preparing to work in entertainment, shared their views on the future of media with Michael Park, VP of digital marketing for Fox Corporation. The discussion topic for the October 14 session was “What is the future of streaming entertainment, TV consumption, marketing, advertising and revenue models?” Continue reading ETC Executive Coffee: A Discussion with Michael Park of Fox

Nielsen will debut a new TV ratings system beginning in Q4 of 2022 that will incorporate digital viewing, including streaming TV, into its metrics of current traditional TV audiences. In 2021, it will preview the new data with existing ratings. Nielsen will need the approval of the TV networks and tech companies and hopes to gain ad seller and buyer support by the start of the fall 2024 TV season. Nielsen will also need to integrate its new metrics across platforms and data sources to ensure reliably comparable information. Continue reading Nielsen to Introduce New TV Ratings That Include Streaming

California Film Commission executive director Colleen Bell said Hollywood production is slowly but steadily coming back. In March, all projects approved under the California film and TV tax credit program requested force majeure to retain their tax credits, and now 10 of them have resumed production since June 12. Still, the number of on-location film permits in Los Angeles declined 7.6 percent from October to November while production in Vancouver and Toronto are at pre-pandemic levels although movie theaters are shuttered. Continue reading Productions Return Slowly in California But Boom in Canada

The next ETC Digital Town Square — Breaking Down “Ripple Effect”: A Case Study on COVID-19 Safety Protocols, Advanced Workflows and Virtual Production — will be hosted by Equinix and the Entertainment Technology Center@USC on November 19, 1:00-3:30 pm PST. Free and open to the public, the webinar will dive into “Ripple Effect,” a recent live-action short produced by ETC that leveraged Safetyviz as well as remote and virtual production to improve safety in the return to media production. Register today for your virtual front row seat to this important webinar. Continue reading REMINDER: Virtual Production Webinar Slated for This Week

Only two weeks after T-Mobile introduced its OTT pay-TV bundles, the cable industry has taken it to task, stating that its rebundling of networks for different tiers is not allowed under the carriage deals it inked. T-Mobile’s TVision costs $10 per month for 34 networks that included comedy and entertainment but not sports, news or local TV stations. T-Mobile also offered three Live TV tiers, starting at $30 per month. Now, its offerings, priced lower than rivals YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV, must change. Continue reading Cable TV Partners Push Back Against T-Mobile OTT Service

Nielsen has partnered with AT&T’s DirecTV and Dish Network, two of the largest pay-TV distributors in the U.S., and smart TV maker Vizio, to use data collected by these companies to measure targeted advertising on television. The shift means that, rather than tabulating an average audience for all ads in a program, Nielsen will measure each ad individually. The adoption of targeted advertising is expected to increase the value of TV ads, which have been struggling recently as broadcast and cable networks lose viewership to a growing number of streaming services. Continue reading Nielsen Plans to Measure Targeted Advertising on Television

The next ETC Digital Town Square — Breaking Down “Ripple Effect”: A Case Study on COVID-19 Safety Protocols, Advanced Workflows and Virtual Production — will be hosted by Equinix and the Entertainment Technology Center@USC on November 19, 1:00-3:30 pm PST. Free and open to the public, the webinar will dive into “Ripple Effect,” a recent live-action short produced by ETC that leveraged Safetyviz as well as remote and virtual production to improve safety in the return to media production. Register today for your virtual front row seat to this important webinar. Continue reading Ripple Effect: Webinar Covers Virtual Production Case Study

Reaching viewers on streaming media is now a double-edged sword: advertisers want better metrics and the ability to target their messages even as the issue of privacy has also come to the fore. What’s becoming clearer is that any tools to provide metrics will need to obtain viewers’ consent. Until now, advertising has depended on tracking cookies and retargeting to follow people from website to website, which sparked the rise of ad blockers. Now, new privacy regulations in Europe and California are forcing a change. Continue reading Advertisers Reinvent the Cookie to Better Track Streaming TV

Canada would like to levy a portion of online streaming services’ revenue to help fund domestic TV and music production. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and others would be required to meet Canadian benchmarks, such as more content to serve its French-speaking and indigenous populations. According to Canada’s broadcast regulator, streaming services’ annual revenue is about $5 billion in Canadian dollars or $3.77 billion U.S. Canada seeks “nearly C$1 billion” a year from streaming services. Continue reading Canadian Law Would Impose Levy on All Streaming Services