Live blog of a panel presentation at Internet Summit in Raleigh NC, 7 November 2012. Refresh often for updates!

Scaling Online Video’s Growing – And Shifting – Peaks

Kurt Michel – Product Marketing Director, Akamai

The internet was not designed for HD video. But it’s becoming one of the biggest uses, and we expect it to be as seamless as TV. How did we get there?

Today viewers expect their content on any device, anywhere, any time. The Red Bull space jump streamed to 8 million viewers on YouTube live. In Sept. 2012 US consumed 39 Billion online videos. 85% of US online audience views videos.

A brief history of online video

1999 Victoria Secret announces at Super Bowl an online video fashion show. Took the site down when millions showed up all at once.

2002 Apple keynote for G4 streamed online to 81K subscribers. 16GB per second streamed

2004 election 21GBps

2007 Netflix streaming. BBC iPlayer. Streaming starts to become a business model. iPhone launches, and video goes mobile.

2008 Hulu launches. TV shows online. 444 GBps Tiger Woods event. Android launches.

2009 Comcast “TV Everywhere.” 10854 TBps for Obama inauguration.

2010 Apple TV. iPad & 4G LTE.

2011 Royal wedding. 2.9 million concurrent streams. Social viewing/second screens.

2012 NFL champioinship – Average user engagement 39 minutes, > 2M viewers. Quality had to be high enough to keep them that long. Streaming movies pass DVD sales. HD quality screens on mobile devices.

Key Takeaways

  • Online audiences growing
  • Single event bandwidth is increasing
  • HD capable mobile devices and faster networks, will continue to improve delivered video quality.
  • Better quality and new use models driving more engagement.
Summer 2012 Olympics – First true online Olympics
47 petabytes of video streamed (equivalent of 10 million DVDs).
What challenges ahead?
  • High quality for any device anywhere
  • Varying formats
  • Varying bitrates
  • Managing costs
  • Monetization
  • Analtyics
  • Security and rights management
Online Video Advertising
Growing rapidly,  but a long way to go. Streaming video can carry targeted ads to specific user groups. 88% of tablet owners use while watching TV. “Couch commerce” – content product placement produces ability to purchase on mobile device. The Cloud is where all this will happen.

 

Branded Entertainment and Online Video Marketing

John Roberts – President, Third Floor Productions

Traditional commercials are watched and paid attention too less. Being too obvious doesn’t work. Consumers are less excited about brands than brands think they are. Harder to guard brands. No new media presence can lose customers.

Goal is to entertain, not to promote or pitch. Convergence of info and entertainment. NOT product placement, but form of content that truly grabs attention.

connecting with potential customers on a different level. Push the line further (or draw it back). Brands become publishers – their content becomes sought after.

Forms: webisodes, promos, short films, vlogs, etc.

Third Floor produced a micro site “Bear Aware” for a NatGeo program. Had no NatGeo branding, just meant to draw traffic with humorous video webisodes about a guy living with a bear in his house. www.AreYouBearAware.com Pushed to NatGeo’s YouTube channel. Engaged with NatGeo’s audience on a different level from their normal stuff. Also attracted new viewers who would never watch NatGeo channel.

John is playing various examples of Third Floor produced videos.

 

Insights on Social TV in Primetime

Ryan Wells  – Podcaster

Advantage of social watching on niche networks like below is keeping the conversations out of your more general networks like Twitter and Facebook.

Miso (app): check in to TV shows while watching. Social engagement stats are now being tracked like Nielson rating.

GetGlue: Pushes toward helping to discover new shows. The suggestion algorithms don’t work too well yet. Tastes are more refined than they can pick up. They have badges called stickers. You actually get real stickers mailed to you at a certain level! Linked to your cable provider, so it can tell you what you might want to watch right now.

IntoNow: Syncs in real time for a “second screen” experience. Detects show by listening to room noise and checks you in automatically. Can capture frames from live TV and create a meme image you can share.

Lots of other new apps proliferating.

Second Screen Experience

Movie producers are producing dedicated apps for particular movies that sound-sync with the movie and add all sorts of enhanced content as you watch.

USAnetwork.com/social Has a list of apps for their shows. Every show has its own chat. Chat live with actors from the show as you watch.

 

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