See Hands-On Demos Of New Advertising Platforms and Networks

At the Streaming Media East show on Wednesday May 21st, Evan Berg, formerly of Brightcove and now with Visible Measures, will be leading a demo session entitled "New Advertising Platforms and Networks". Despite all the talk about how well online video advertising works and the projections that it will be a billion-dollar business this year, the fact remains that many video advertising platforms still leave a lot to be desired.

In the past year, new ad platforms and networks have come to the market looking to solve problems like targeting, analytics, syndication, and inventory management amongst others. This special session will feature demos from some of those new companies—including Yume, VideoEgg and FreeWheel.tv—who will give you an insight into how they are looking to take content monetization to the next level.

Confirmed presenters include:

• Moderator: Evan Berg, VP, Corporate and Business Development, Visible Measures
• Bob Bahramipour, VP, Ad Operations, YuMe
• Matt Sanchez, CEO, VideoEgg
• Douglas Knopper, Co-Founder, Co-CEO, FreeWheel

Have a topic or question for any of the speakers you want to see addressed? Submit it in the comments section and we'll add it to the Q&A portion of the session.

Registration is still open and you can see all the various pricing packages, including a one-day ticket on our website. Six years since we took over the StreamingMedia.com business and we've still managed to keep the conference very affordable for everyone to attend. A full two-day conference ticket is only $895.

Ad Networks Vs. Branded Video Sites

At the Streaming Media East show on Wednesday May 21st, Joe Mandese, Editor In Chief at MediaPost will be leading a session entitled "Ad Networks Vs. Branded Video Sites". In the increasingly disaggregated world of online video, who will win share of video advertising budgets?

Branded sites like YouTube, Heavy, Daily Motion (etc.), or the burgeoning market of advertising network players. Buyers and sellers face off on the impact of branding vs. audience reach and the implications for media planning, advertising budgets, and CPMs.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Moderator: Joe Mandese, Editor In Chief, MediaPost
• Fred McIntyre, SVP, AOL Video
• Aleck Schleider, VP, Marketing, Advertising.com
• John Lumpkin, SVP, Sales Strategy and Partnerships, Heavy.com
• Garrett Albanese, Media Supervisor, Carat

Have a topic or question for any of the speakers you want to see addressed? Submit it in the comments section and we'll add it to the Q&A portion of the session.

Registration is still open and you can see all the various pricing packages, including a one-day ticket on our website. Six years since we took over the StreamingMedia.com business and we've still managed to keep the conference very affordable for everyone to attend. A full two-day conference ticket is only $895.

Majority Of Independent Content Producers Will Never Make Money

With all the talk of online video advertising and the projections people are making, one of the biggest downsides to it is that just about every independent content producer thinks they should be making money. But the reality it, most of them are not making any money today and never will, even year's from now when there are more eyeballs online.

Monetization is now the word that seems to be used in every discussion and in every article, yet rarely do we hear or read about any content producers who are making money from their content. We know of the success that some major broadcasters and those with very unique brands and content like MLB are having, but aside from those, there are very few content creators making any money.

One of the biggest reasons for this is that much of the content on the web today stinks. Not all content, but much of it is really bad, poorly produced and quite frankly, will never make any money no matter how much this industry grows. Content creators think that just because they can create content it must be worth something. When I speak to content creators I use the analogy of TV content. Lots and lots of shows are produced for TV yet many never make it. Only a small fraction of content on TV lasts and makes the networks any money. Now I know many will say that does not apply since the costs for TV style production is so much different than content produced for online, but the principle is still the same. Not all content is something people want to watch, let alone pay for.

Having a discussion with a content producer earlier in the week they said, "Media reviews of our site and customer feedback is very positive. Everyone thinks the idea is wonderful and they love the quality of the videos. We give website visitors two free views of the videos of their choice and then prompt them to sign up for a subscription. However, when it comes time to haul out the credit card to purchase a subscription the enthusiasm wanes."

The questions we need to be addressing are is the subscription-based approach working for anyone, or is sponsorship/ad-supported the only potential option for generating a reasonable ROI? Is the ad-supported model generating revenue for small producers who don't have tens of thousands of viewers per month? Does this revenue amount to anything more than pocket change? Must the small producer partner with a platform provider, e.g., Brightcove, in order to have a chance of success, or is it feasible to "roll your own" website realizing that most small players don't have ad sales staffs and experience in selling ads?

In the long run, the small content producer is still going to struggle to make any money from their content. Viral marketing, syndication and other forms of promotion can help, but not for the majority of those making video. Putting all of the business models aside I still think the biggest problem facing the industry is that there is not enough quality content on the web today.

The comments section is open and I'm sure many have their own take on the subject, so feel free to get the conversation going.

"Streaming Content to Generate $70 Billion By 2013" - An Unrealistic Claim

Insight Research is forcasting that streaming content will generate almost $70 billion in the U.S. by 2013. I don't know how they come up with that number as I have not seen the full report, but $70 billion? They say the revenue prediction comes from audio and video files transmitted over the Internet, via an IPTV network or to mobile phones. They say that advertising revenue will fuel this growth and that "Questions surrounding consumers’ willingness to pay for content have been dispelled by the popularity of satellite radio and iTunes." I would disagree. Customers are willing to pay for music via iTunes, but so far, not videos on a mass-market scale. Over time, yes, more video specific content via iTunes will be purchased but you have to  back up the $70 billion number with more than just iTunes as an example. And what does satellite radio have to do with streaming?

They also say that if pre-stream costs drop faster than expected, or IPTV or 3G takes off faster than expected "it could blow the doors off of our forecasts, propelling this industry into explosive growth." I am all up for reports that show growth and make predication based on accurate data, but $70 billion is just so far away from reality. If someone has a copy of the full report, I'd love to see how the $70 billion number is calculated.

Webinar: Online Video 2.0, Best Practices You Can Use Today

StreamingMedia.com is hosting a free live webinar today at 11amPST/2pm EST on the subject of "Setting the Bar for Online Video 2.0: Best Practices You Can Use Today". Sponsored by PermissionTV, join online video experts as they discuss the top trends in online video and review real-world examples of how companies are setting the bar for the next phase – Video 2.0. Whether a brand marketer, an advertising agency or a media company, this Webcast will arm you with the information you need to execute your own Video 2.0 strategy.

The webinar is free and you can sign up online.

Conference Session Preview: Streaming Media East Show Agenda

I've been a little slow in blogging as of late as I'm hard at work on finalizing the advance program for the Streaming Media East show taking place in May. We will have 36 sessions at the show and the first third are now confirmed with moderators.

This year I have decided to use the blog to post the conference agenda before the advance program is even printed so everyone can see the kinds of topics and subjects that are going to be discussed and the kind of demos that will be shown. Please keep in mind, this is just the first 1/3 of the program, there is a lot more to come.

If you see a session in particular you are interested in possibly speaking on you can send in a speaking request, but since the deadline passed more than two weeks ago, those who sent in speaking requests on time get first priority.

Effective Business Models For Short-form Video Marketing
Some advertisers see user-generated video sites as a free way to distribute their message, however this has rapidly evolved into a significant paid business, where sites charge based on video placement and search keywords. Learn the relative ROI of going to a major site (i.e. YouTube) vs. a smaller site (i.e. Metacafe) vs. a plethora of tiny sites. Learn what methods are successful for getting viewers and the importance of content vs. placement. This panel will discuss and show video examples of effective business models for both advertisers and publishers.

LifeCasting: How Fast and How Real Can We Get?
How did lifecasting videos get so hot? In the early days of television, live was the second choice, because of potential pitfalls, cost of production and a host of other problems. And yet, in the world of Internet video, lifecasting - using Internet video to share moments of our lives or to broadcast events and happenings - is the new hot thing. With platforms like Kyte.tv, Zannel, Mogulus, Stickcam and many others now available on the market, lots of new options and opportunities exist. Come see some of the hot and upcoming mobile lifecasting options in action and discuss is lifecasting will be become just a fad or the next big thing.

Best Practices in Enterprise Streaming for Communications and Learning
Use of online video in the enterprise has evolved well beyond the special occasion of rudimentary talking head videos that characterized early adoption. Today, innovative organizations take a holistic view of all their online communications, seeking to extract as much value as possible from any infrastructure that involves video. Whether webcasting executive briefings across the globe, or capturing and archiving rich media presentations for training, marketing, sales, and compliance, a growing number of organizations are capitalizing on the ability of Web 2.0 technologies. This session will show firsthand examples from Fortune 500 organizations of best practices in integrated online video for communications and learning.

CDN Pricing: The Going Rate For Video Delivery
With more CDN players in the market than ever before, trying to figure out what you should pay for delivering video can still be quite complex. This presentation will offer real pricing numbers from large, globally focused content delivery networks and show you the average going rate when you outsource delivery to a third party. The session will also cover some of the variables that determine the final price, how you should accurately compare the delivery services of one CDN to another and gives you a list of providers in the market today.

Monetizing And Aggregating Niche Video Content
This panel will discuss the new ways content owners and site developers are aggregating content and distributing it on the 2.0 web. We will give examples of ways to develop niche vertical sites without having to hire tons of new personnel and discuss how to reach audiences on social networking sites like Facebook. Learn about some of the new emerging platforms for niche video distribution and learn best practices of ways to increase your changes of making money with your content.

Focus Group: Young People's Attitudes Towards Online Video
This special session, a panel of high school and college students will discuss their online video consumption habits. Learn what types of online video content they like, what sites they get their content from, the devices they are playing it back on and how they interact with video advertising. Find out what their perspective is on pay media, portable content and what they think the future holds for the next generation of viewers on the web. Bring your own questions for a lively Q&A session with the students at the end of the session.

Live Broadcasting Over Mobile And WiFi Networks
While big media tests the waters of mobile broadcasting, many web video producers are already out there doing it live from the street, with a cell phone. Others are joining in and experimenting with two-way broadcasts via streaming video over cellphone networks and via WiFi, wherever they are. Viewers can chat while the broadcast is going on and affect and sometimes even direct the coverage of the content being produced. Come to this session to hear Steve Garfield talk with other pioneers in the live broadcasting space about their experiences on the forefront of this new technology for sharing their stories over the web.

The H.264 Convergence
Over the past year, more and more streaming media players are utilizing H.264 and providing support for the technology. Adobe's recent support for H.264 in their Flash player has sparked industry discussions amongst major broadcasters and online video producers about the role H.264 will play. This session will explain why H.264 is getting so much exposure, what recent announcements have put it into the spotlight and whether it can really be the one codec that the industry can all converge on. Attendees will also see real-world examples of sites and services that are utilizing H.264 today.

User-Generated Video in Education
The online video revolution has been embraced by students, teachers, instructors and researchers, many of whom are producing video for class assignments, teaching purposes and other uses. Learn what kind of content is being produced, where is it being posted and how user-generated content fits into the overall strategy of educational institutions. This panel of experienced educational media professionals will discuss the many ways your school, college or university can maximize the value of your user-generated video, and how you can assist faculty and students in making it better.

How Old Media Is Embracing Online Video and New Media
Led by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, this session will discuss how converging media technologies are redefining traditional distribution methods; how interactive and on-demand services are changing and how entertainment and news video is being consumed. Come hear from some of the leading publishers, broadcasters and advertisers about the impact that video and new media is having upon their business models.

Codec Comparison: VP6, H.264 and Windows Media
Choosing the right codec involves lots of factors, including quality, player install base, costs, and server related features. This session will compare the video quality of the big three codecs; VP6, H.264 and Windows Media. It will also include a comparison of the primary H.264 codecs including Apple, Sorenson, Main Concept and Dicas. The session will present attendees with the latest published penetration figures for the H.264 compatible Flash 9 player and Microsoft's Silverlight player and provide usage statistics among major broadcasters and corporations. Attendees will also learn how to compare relevant server and player related features, and costs associated with adapting and using each platform.

Delivering Media For Microsoft Silverlight With Windows Server 2008
This session will cover how to take advantage of the new Silverlight media serving features in Windows Server 2008. Attendees will learn about the new capabilities of IIS7 Media Pack including bit-rate throttling and playlist options for progressive download content. The session will also demonstrate the enhanced capabilities in Windows Media Services 2008, including scalability doubling and appliance-like cache/proxy deployment for edge networks specific to streaming.

NBC Direct To Use P2P Video Delivery From Pando Networks

In September, NBC announced that come this fall they would launch a new service, named NBC Direct, that would enable viewers to watch some of NBC's top TV shows as ad-supported downloads. While NBC plans to use many platforms to make their content available including iTunes, the move by NBC is essentially driven by the desire to cut out the middle man and deal directly with the viewer.

While most details surrounding the service have not yet been disclosed, three companies have been working together to build the NBC Direct service. ExtendMedia is doing the interface, YuMe is providing the advertising platform and Pando Networks has been chosen as the P2P technology of choice. When contacted last night, executives at Pando Networks would not comment for me on their involvement, but others I have spoken to have confirmed that after a long evaluation of various P2P networks by NBC, Pando has won the business.

When NBC Direct launches out of Beta, this will be the first major TV network in the U.S. to adopt P2P and make it such a crucial part of their distribution strategy. I know some will say Joost is already doing this and the BBC has been doing it for awhile but they don't count in my eyes, for obvious reasons. The NBC Direct service will bring a lot of exposure to P2P and will help to legitimize P2P as a solution for some, not all, kinds of video delivery. NBC won't be using P2P exclusively and as anyone who truly understands the value of P2P will tell you, it's not a replacement for other distribution platforms but rather a compliment or enhancement.

For Pando Network's it's a big win and should lead to other major broadcasters and content companies giving them and other P2P platforms a legitimate shot at solving their video distribution needs. 2008 is shaping up to be the "perfect storm" for the video delivery segment of this industry.

Two weeks ago, I interviewed Yaron Samid, the Co-Founder and CMO of Pando Networks from the Streaming Media West show and discussed the current hurdles in the P2P industry and what role Pando Networks is looking to play in the market. (apologies on my audio levels as I was battling a cold)

New Book: Hands-On Guide To Creating Flash Advertising

Last month, the latest book in my series came out entitled "Hands-On Guide To Creating Flash Advertising", written by Jason Fincanon. Amazon has the book the cheapest for $23.

The book covers how to create awe-inspiring, mind-blowing Flash ads and microsites that engage consumers and demonstrate their worth to clients and delivers the nuts and bolts of the development process from initial design conception to ad completion. You can views the table of contents on the Amazon website and see more details about what the book covers.

Anyone who posts a review of the book on Amazon will get a free copy of the next edition of the book when it comes out. This goes for bad reviews of the book as well, as all reviews are welcomed.

Beyond Pre-Roll: What's Next for Online Video Advertising?

That's the question we're looking to have Yahoo!, BlackArrow, Revision3 and CNNMoney.com give us their insights on at the Streaming Media West show in two weeks. I'll be moderating a session on this subject and looking to get answers on which type of advertising works best online: pre-roll, post-roll, in-stream, sponsorship, or all of the above?

We will also discuss if revenue automatically comes with the audience, or will a sudden spike in popularity sink your production under a mountain of bandwidth costs before you ever get a chance to swim? It's a hot topic and one we'll have a lot of debate over. The panelists include:

• Dan Rayburn, Executive Vice President, StreamingMedia.com (Moderator)
• Cheryl Kellond, Sr. Director, Global Ad Product Strategy, Yahoo!
• Jason Schafer, VP, Business Development, CNNMoney.com
• Brad Murphy, VP, Business Development, Revision3
• Chris Hock, VP, Product Management, BlackArrow

It's not too late to register. While the early registration discount period has now passed, if you have not yet registered and want a discount code, let me know.

The Five Biggest Technical Issues Hurting The Growth Of Online Video Advertising

For many years, the online video industry has always had some who like to point to limitations on the technology as being the excuse and reason why the industry is not grow as fast as some may like. For years it was people complaining that video quality is not good enough, that it's  too hard to deliver and too difficult to scale. Today, those arguments are no longer valid. The technology is here today to have great quality video, to deliver it with performance and to reach as big of an audience as today's business models support.

But when it comes to online video advertising, there is a valid argument that the technology today does not have the functionality that is needed for us to see video advertising growth on a faster scale. Will we get there? Yes. But it's taking longer than it should due to these ten technical and industry issues:

• There is no set standard for the length of an ad based on the length of the content. We all get ads at 10, 15 and 30 seconds in length for both long and short form content, with each content site doing it differently. And in some cases, like I outlined with Yahoo!, some sites deliver different ad lengths in the same piece of content. What a bad user experience. How can we expect viewers to get use to watching ads when the experience is different on each site?

• Many times, ads are delivered at a lower quality and smaller window size than the content itself. This is a trend I am seeing more and more of lately. I click to watch a video that is encoded at 300 or 500Kbps but the ad I get before it is only encoded at 100kbps and the ad only fills up a fraction of the video window. What a poor experience. For instance you are given a 320x240 window but then the ad shows up as 240x180. The only reasoning behind this that I can think of is that it's cheaper to deliver the ads this way since they are at a lower bitrate and/or the agency encoded all of it's ads at only one bitrate. It looks like crap.

• There is still very little being done in the way of targeted ads. Due to many technical issues, ads are still being churned out and delivered to web users with almost no insight into what the user wants to see or more importantly what the user should see based on their location. I always use the example of how I see Crispy Creme donut ads yet the closest Crispy Creme to where I live is 43.3 miles away in Milford CT. I know some ad platforms are doing more and more with targeting, but still not enough. This needs to be figured out faster. If you can't deliver ads based on a persons interests, geographic location or even gender, then the majority of these video ads are completely being wasted. It's no wonder the pre-roll ad format is dying.

• Reporting metrics. Where are they? It seems that every ad network I talk to all measures and records user metrics for ads very differently. What is the problem here? Not being able to give advertisers back the reporting they want, thereby enabling them to try and come up with their own metrics to judge if their campaign was a success or not is like shooting the industry in the foot. No service, product or offering is worth anything if you can't give the person who is paying for it the data they need to analyze if they should keep paying for it. The ad vendors make this WAY too difficult. For instance, if you look at the top six to eight vendors websites who provide these services, why can't you download a product sheet from their website that shows exactly what type of reporting is offered? Why are they hiding this info and keeping it mysterious?

• CPM rates. Ok so this one is not a technical issue but it is one of the biggest problems in the industry. Why is it that no one is willing to say what they get per CPM for online video ads? I ask content owners all the time, I ask the portals, I ask the major networks and to date, I don't know of a single specific example I could tell someone of what the rate is. I could not point you to one major content owner and say I know what price they are getting for CPMs rates and no one shares this info. Yes, everyone says it's between $10 and $60 and that's completely useless. All of the major studios keep telling us how well they are doing online with their content and how well the advertisers love to sponsor it and how much growth they are seeing yet, none of them will give any numbers, to anything. Short-sided thinking folks. You know how many content owners actually have good content worth syndication or licensing but don't as they have no idea what type of rates they can get? There is such a lack of information in the market for CPM rates and no one is doing any educating of the market. It's a losing proposition for everyone when this information is hidden away as if it's some sort of patented trade secret. They always have excuses like the one where the major broadcasters say advertisers are buying ads across many different platforms and they can't break out the P&L from just one platform like the web. What crap.

I'm certainly not the first person to point out some of the technical problems the online video advertising industry is facing and I won't be the last. We all see the potential that online video advertising holds and see the many ways that content owners and portals are embracing all forms of online video ads for pre-roll, post-roll, in page, in stream etc.

Part of the problem is the industry itself but a good deal of the problem lies with the technology of the entire ecosystem for video ad creating, selling, fulfillment, delivery and tracking. I'm as big a fan as anyone when it comes to ways that content can be monetized, but the industry as a whole needs to do a lot better job of working together to create as much in the way of standards as they can.

Last Week's Overlooked News Items

Last week was a busy one for news. By now, everyone has already read many articles about the Microsoft and Adobe announcements along with many other mainstream news from IBC. In addition to the major announcements, there were some news stories and articles less mainstream that I found of interest.

• From Rich Miller over at DataCenterKnowledge.com, which is a great blog about the data center industry, Rich has a post from last week entitled "Dueling Data on Volume of P2P Traffic" which talks to some new data released in the market that about what percentage of traffic on the Net comes from P2P. Lots of competing data, lots of different results.

• From the last100.com website, a post from last week entitled "11 video download stores compared" gives a good detailed overview of the services lack of innovation and technology choices on how they are implementing DRM.

• Scott Kirsner, who runs the CinemaTech blog is putting on a class entitled "Digital Distribution and Marketing" at The Film Arts Foundation in San Francisco. The class will be featuring a lot of case studies and Scott's asking for help in spreading the word. I am always up for helping to promote anyone who is trying to educate the industry. Don't know if Scott is still looking for good case studies, you can contact him at his website.

• There was plenty of talk last week about how the Justice Department said Internet service providers should be allowed to charge a fee for priority Web traffic. Some sites already covered the news, but if you have not read about, do so now. It's important.

• Chris Albrecht over at NewTeeVee.com had a great post last week entitled "What Constitutes an Online Hit?" where he addresses the problem with the way video sites measure traffic. Chris addresses a great question and one that I have been complaining about forever when it comes to online video metrics. This industry lacks any and all standards.

News Corp. & NBC Announce New Company Name: Will Keynote Streaming Media West Show

This morning, News Corp. and NBC Universal announced that their new online video portal, most recently referred to as NewCo, will now be officially named Hulu. The release says that starting today, users can sign up at the Hulu website to be included in an invite list for the private beta which will start in October.

Kevin McGurn, VP, National Sales Leader for Hulu will be one of our keynote presenters at the Streaming Media West show in November in San Jose. Keynote presentations are available for free to all registered attendees and online registration is now open.

MSNBC.com Needs To Dump MSN's Lousy Video Platform

I first wrote about this back in March and I am amazed that even since then, MSNBC.com still can't get it's live video streaming to work for anyone with a Firefox or Safari browser. And the worst part, they have no problem delivering you a 15 second ad in the player first, BEFORE they tell you that your browser does not currently support live video. So I have to sit through a video ad only to then be told that I can't see the live stream I clicked on.

MSNBC's video player has said it is in "beta" ever since it launched, which was at least a year ago. And it's still in beta? The technology behind MSNBC.com's video offering is "powered by MSN" which in my eyes is even worse. If MSN can't provide the video functionality MSNBC.com should have, then MSNBC.com should fire MSN and use a platform that actually works. But of course that won't happen.

MSN is completely clueless when it comes to its video offering if they think users are going to stay loyal to MSNBC.com as their news source when every other news site does it better. If MSNBC.com was smart, they would dump MSN video immediately and or fire whoever manages their video offering. But they won't do that as Microsoft wants to push their IE browser on you, except that they don't make IE for the Mac, so Mac users are basically just screwed as well as PC users who don't want to use IE and prefer to use Firefox instead.

Last time I posted about this, some readers wrote in to say:

- "It's not just Mac users. I have a PC as well, and many of MSNBC's videos won't play on it either if I'm using Firefox. If I use IE, then I'm okay."

- "I've also enjoyed using Firefox on my laptop, but i can NEVER get MSNBC video to work with Firefox on my laptop - it is so frustrating!"

- "Come on MSNBC, get your stuff together. If amateur webmasters can make this stuff work, so can you. You just don't want to."

2007 marks the 14th year that streaming media technology was first used on the Internet and it's sites like MSNBC.com that make the technology look like it has barely evolved in that time and gives the entire industry and technology a black eye. As much as MSN says video is an important part of their business, clearly their lack of interest in making their videos work properly says otherwise. It's as simply as being greedy and wanting to push IE on us, including those platforms they don't even make IE for.

Microsoft as a company has been late to the game when it comes to all aspects of the Internet and video is no different. MSN, MSNBC.com, Soapbox etc... are all behind the times when it comes to their video offering. You'd think they would want to prove the opposite by having a quality video offering but they are stuck in the politics and red tape of a company that can't get out of it's own way.

My suggestion to MSN, get out of the video business. You have no concept of what a good user experience is, you can't provide basic functionality that ever other major news outlet has been providing for years and you're insulting users by making them sit through ads when they can't get to the content they want. You can't even provide a basic player check to see if the user has the system requirements that are needed - which companies were doing back in 1998.

Give up MSN. Throw up your hands and move on. You can't win in the video game.

Yahoo! Video Shows Us The Problems With Online Video Advertising Today

You'd think by now content companies, especially the large portals, would have figured out a better way to deliver online video ads in a compelling manner. But if Yahoo! News is any indication, the world of online video advertising has a long way to go before this business grows like we all want it to. Delivering online video ads is still a terrible user experience with un-targeted ads, of different lengths, too often in the content whilst taking away all of the user control.

If you want to see clips from the show 60 Minutes, Yahoo!, through a deal with CBS, has created a portal at http://60minutes.yahoo.com. While the interface of watching and finding videos is decent, the entire business and delivery of online video ads is horrible.

I chose to watch the story about online gaming and a window popped up with the video and nine thumbnail videos below the main window. Before the start of the video, I was delivered a 30 second ad for Netflix. While the ad was playing, nothing on the website was clickable, forcing me not to be able to click on any other links and disabling all content on the site. And once the ad was over, the video that played was only about a minute in length. What Yahoo! has apparently done is taken the 60 Minutes segment on online gaming, and cut it up to nine one minute segments. So when a user clicks one of the other thumbnails to watch the second section of the video, they get another ad, again for Netflix, again 30 seconds in length before you get to watch a video that's 48 seconds long.

And if you want to watch all nine segments of the show, get ready to also sit through nine ads. Adding this up, I have to watch nearly four minutes of ads, to see a segment of content less than nine minutes in length. And the ads are completely un-targeted. I got 6 Netflix ads, and 3 ads for online trading. So why is there no ad system in place showing me different ads? Does Yahoo! really think showing me the same ad six times is what consumers want or is effective for the advertiser? And why were some of the ads 15 seconds in length and others were 30 seconds? In the same piece of content you're delivering two completely different ad lengths which is a horrible user experience. I get a fifteen second ad which I then get use to with this content, only then to be delivered one twice as long when I watch part two of the same piece of content.

And even if you let all nine of the videos play back to back playlist style, Yahoo! still puts many ads before each of the segments breaking up all of the content into way too many pieces. If a segment like 60 Minutes is under nine minutes in length, it should not be broken up into nine pieces. And why is it that the 60 Minutes episode that is on the Yahoo! portals home page, is one from close to a year ago and not from the episode that aired last night on TV? The story of online gaming was one I saw on TV at least six months ago. But the one I saw last night on TV is no where to be found on the Yahoo! website.

To find it, I have to go to a different website. And not the CBS Innertube website where you would think it would be since that is where you can watch full-length CBS shows, but rather you have to go directly to the 60 Minutes website on CBS.com. And once there, while I can find the video, see the screen shot on how it plays. It is embedded into the page, in a window that is larger than it actually plays in. But I guess I can't complain since while the video window is super small in size, it is free of ads.

For all the talk of how big the online video industry is, it's not even going to be a billion dollar industry this year, compared to TV advertising which is expected to do over $22 billion this year. While many times different segments of the online video industry say that the business models are what's stopping the growth of an industry and not the technology, when it comes to online video advertising it's the opposite. Online video advertising technology still does not provide the level of functionality, standards, reporting, targeting and interactivity that is needed to drive this business forward a lot faster. The technology needs to get fixed before this business can really start to take off.

"What's Next for Online Video Advertising" Meetup Video Now Online

The session I moderated last week at the NY Video 2.0 Meetup entitled "What's Next for Online Video Advertising" has now been archived thanks to Viddler. We had a good session with a lot of questions from the audience for the panel of speakers from NBC, DoubleClick, ScanScout and OMD.

The NY Video 2.0 Meetup is a free event organized each month by Yaron Samid over at Pando Networks. Each month the event draws 150-200 attendees and focuses on a particular topic in the industry. If you are in the NYC area this is a great event to attend for lively Q&A and networking.

OMMA Video Archive With FOX, AOL, Yahoo! and ABC Now Online

Mediapost has now archived the sessions and presentations from the OMMA Video show in NYC. The session I moderated entitled "TV Content Comes Online: Prime Time on the Web" with FOX, AOL, Yahoo! and ABC is now available for viewing.

I asked the panelists some of the questions that readers of my blog wanted to know more about so check out the Q&A portion of the video about 15 minutes in.

You can also read David Kaplan's recap of my session over at PaidContent.org or another overview at Mediapost.com.

NY Video 2.0 Meetup in NYC: Beyond Pre-Roll, What's Next for Online Video Advertising?

The next NY Video 2.0 Meetup will take place Monday July 9th in NYC at the Columbia Business School. I'll be moderating a panel entitled "Beyond Pre-Roll: What's Next for Online Video Advertising?" starting at 7pm. The panelists for this discussion will be:

• Kevin McGurn, VP, Advertising, nbbc
• Jeff Minsky, Director of Digital Media, OMD
• Robert Victor, Product Manager, Emerging Media, DoubleClick
• Jed Savage, EVP, Strategy and Development, ScanScout

This is a great chance to come hear if anyone is making money with online video advertising and learn the going CPM rates for video ads. As always, the event is free but the room size is limited to 200 attendees. As of today, there are only 26 spots left, so RSVP now if you want to attend.

Have any questions for the panelists? Leave them in the comments section and I'll ask them during the Q&A portion of the session.

What Are The Going CPM Rates For Online Video Advertising?

A reader of the blog reminded me that one of the questions that was not answered in detail last week at the Streaming Media East show is what sites are getting in regards to CPM rates for video ads running on niche sites with professionally produced video content. We've seen numbers mentioned that all over the place in articles and mentioned at conferences, ranging anywhere from $15 - $40. And trying to get real numbers from people seems to be data they don't want to share. As an industry, we've at least got to give people an idea of what is possible depending on the type of content they have and the kind of site it is on. So what are the real numbers out there? What are you paying or charging?

15 Second Pre-Roll Video Ads Will Become The Standard

Yesterday, there were a bunch of interesting announcements that came out at the IAB Digital Video Leadership Forum in NYC, the most interesting being from NBC Universal.

NBC announced that it would no longer run or accept pre-roll ads longer than 15 seconds for short-form content. They did not define what length "short-form" is to them, but also said they would still run 30 seconds pre-roll ads in front of full-length episodes. This is a smart move on their part. I know a lot of sites already run 15 second ads, but in most cases, the advertiser really ends up deciding the length of the ad as opposed to the site.

NBC also announced that it had partnered with a handful of rich media companies including Unicast, Eyewonder, Pointroll and EyeBlaster to create new forms of online ads that let users direct the playback of advertisers' messages and that enable branding in the video player itself, thereby giving more control to the viewer. Another smart move on their part as it is giving the viewer more say in how the ads are consumed. Instead of just forcing viewers into an experience that you know they don't want, why not give the viewer the ability to customize the ad playback so that it's a better user experience and gets the advertiser better branding. I think I am like many viewers on the web where when I see a 30 second pre-roll ad, I hit mute and go do something else for 30 seconds until the ad is over. If NBC can keep that ad down to 15 seconds and allow me to better customize my experience with the ad, I'd probably sit through it.

NBC set a July deadline for implementation to allow advertisers time to prepare for their new standard.

BitTorrent Entertainment Network To Get Ad-Supported Downloads

ZeroPaid.com, a website that tracks news in the file sharing and P2P community did a write up yesterday on a deal that BitTorrent announced with YuMe Networks. The joint agreement calls for BitTorrent to use the new YuMe advertising network to insert advertising within videos available for download from the BitTorrent network.

Some industry observers are saying that this will have a big impact on content models as to date, all downloaded content is either free or only monetized via pay per view. This idea has me confused as does portions of this announcement and as anyone who knows me will tell you, I am always skeptical when a press release says its product or service is "game-changing", "First-Ever", "taking online video advertising to another level," and "never before been available".

For starters, how are the ads being inserted? Once I download a video, can the ad be updated or changed? And part of the big draw of the new ad network in YuMe's eyes is that they say they can track “view-throughs” rather than “click-throughs”. But if I download a video, and then take it with me on a plane on my MacBook, and have no connection to the Internet, how is YuMe tracking anything?

YuMe is quoted as saying, "What we're saying is that video streaming is a fundamentally different thing. You need to do it cross-platform and you should be able to take a video ad, associate it with a set of content and demographics and allow the advertiser to associate that regardless of where the content is being watched -- be it the Web, a mobile phone or a BitTorrent download -- and aggregate the reporting all across that."

I disagree. It's no different than the ad model that the content owners are trying to get to work when it comes to streaming videos online. The fact that YuMe will insert an ad into a downloaded video as opposed to one that streams really does not change the monetization. In order for a major media content owner to give away the content as opposed to a pay per view model, how many eyeballs and downloads are they going to need to get before the advertising model will work?

We are a long way off from the point of where major content owners are going to give away their content because they have been able to monetize it via advertising. Yes, the potential exists, but not anytime soon until some of the major business and technical hurdles get solved.

Agencies Warned: In Digital Media, Change Or Die

Mediapost has a good article on their website today that reviews some of the sessions going on at the OMMA Hollywood conference this week. Specifically, this article talks to how the role of the agency will need to change to keep up with the emerging media planning platforms.

This is not unique to our industry or a media business. This applies to companies in any industry that allow themselves to not embrace change and work with it, instead of against it. The record industry is a great example of an industry that in my opinion has never kept up with or embraced change.

Adobe Flash Video To Soon Challenge Windows Media For Live Streaming

At the Streaming Media West show last year, I did a presentation entitled "Flash Versus Windows Media: How to Choose the Right Format". One of the purposes of my presentation was to compare the two formats on a factual basis. Not which format has better codecs or compression but rather highlighting what each format did or did not support, like live streaming, DRM and other platform functionality.

One of the strong points about the Windows Media format is that it is the dominant format for webcasting. When it comes to live broadcasting, Windows Media is the format that is used hands-down. But this year, Adobe seems to be making progress in giving Windows Media a run for it's money. More and more I am hearing from customers who want to try out Flash for live broadcasting and content delivery networks are actively working to build out their networks to support live Flash. Add that to the recent release by Adobe of their live Flash encoding tool, and the Adobe Flash format is quickly starting to pique webcasters interest. Yes, the quality of live Flash at high bitrates is still not as good as Windows Media and the Adobe live Flash Media Encoder is missing some features, but it's expected Adobe will work quickly on fixing those issues.

It's an exciting time in the industry as both Adobe and Microsoft are really stepping up to the plate this year with new announcements and product offerings for their video platforms. Later in the year, it’s going to shape up to be a real platform battle and round two is just getting underway.

73% of U.S. Companies Say They'll Advertise in New Media

The American Advertising Federation released a report last week that says 73% of U.S. companies say They'll advertise in new media. Some of the findings:

• Seventy-three percent of respondents said that one to twenty percent of their budget is reserved for experimentation and new media properties. Significant, however, is the finding that 12.37 percent of respondents list 21 to 40 percent of their budget as reserved for these items.

• In 2006, the most expected innovations in the media landscape were 1) the availability of TV programs on the Internet, 2) the mass adoption of text messaging in the United States, and 3) the importance of social media/networking as part of the communications plan.

The real question is, what percentage of that will be allocated to media that incorporates online video? What numbers are you seeing?

SM East Session: Performance Metrics for Online Video Advertising

We have some great sessions at the Streaming Media East show in May about the online video advertising market.

One of the sessions, moderated by Kate Kay, Editor, News and Special Projects for ClickZ News talks to what criteria, beyond impressions, will publishers be held accountable for as video advertising matures. The panel will be discussing topics like pre-roll vs. post-roll, ideal commercial length, and ad formats (interactive components, companion banners, etc.) are just a few of the applications that must still be studied for their relative effectiveness in driving performance for both brand and direct response advertisers. The panelists include:

• Christine Peterson, Associate Media Director, Carat Fusion
• Rob Aitken, Online Video Product Manager, AP
• John Ellis, VP, Product Management, ValueClick Media
• Beth Higbee, SVP, Interactive Brands, Scripps Networks

What topics or points would you like to see discussed at this session? Please include them in the comments section.