Fabric Notable Stories, June 23, 2016
David Bloom
Journalist, host, consultant covering the collision of Hollywood and Silicon Valley
By David Bloom
My latest Tubefilter column looks at the fallout from the recent murder of Christina Grimmie by an obsessed fan. Grimmie got her start on YouTube, made her way to ‘The Voice’ behind a huge Internet following and was walking open-armed during a fan meet-and-greet to the man who would shoot her to death and then himself. For a medium whose stars build their followings through direct and intense connections with their fans, will everything have to change? How will creators balance safety and connection in the future?
Insights: Will Christina Grimmie’s Murder Ruin The Fan Bond That Built the Creator Community?
By David Bloom
https://www.tubefilter.com/2016/06/22/christina-grimmie-bond-creator-community/
Now, in the wake of Christina Grimmie’s June 11 murder, online stars who weren’t even alive when Schaeffer died face an almost existential question. How can they protect themselves while still maintaining and building their most valuable resource: a direct relationship with their ardent fans?
It’s those fans who watch and like and share creator videos, buy their books and merchandise, attend their live events, and justify the big checks those creators receive from influencer marketers. Without that intense fan relationship, the entire creator ecosystem faces dramatic changes.
Traditional Media, Digital Media
Big Media Needs to Embrace Digital Shift—Not Fight It
By Amol Sharma
https://www.wsj.com/articles/big-media-needs-to-embrace-digital-shiftnot-fight-it-1466568061
The youth drain in traditional TV is real: People ages 18 to 24 are spending nearly 30% less time per week watching TV than they were in 2012, according to Nielsen. The drop is 18% among people 24 to 35. Some are cutting the cable-TV cord. Others are simply spending more time on social media or watching online video.
Digital ad spending, meanwhile, is rising and will surpass spending on television in the U.S. next year to reach $77 billion, according to eMarketer. For now, digital’s rise is coming mainly at the expense of other media—TV has actually been on a remarkable run lately. But that is largely due to ad-price increases that are unsustainable.
Live Streaming, Digital Media
Live.me To Offer $500,000 To “The Next Top Broadcasters” At VidCon (Exclusive)
By Sam Gutelle
https://www.tubefilter.com/2016/06/21/live-me-the-next-top-broadcasters/
It has announced “The Next Top Broadcasters,” a competition that will offer $500,000 in short-term contracts to its winners.
The Next Top Broadcasters, or #TNTB for short, will begin on June 23rd, which is also the first day of VidCon. Starting on that day, creators who launch new Live.me accounts and begin streaming on the app with the hashtag #LivemeStar will have the opportunity to earn virtual “diamonds” from their fans.
Digital Content, OTT, Apps
go90 Starts Casting to TVs
By Jeff Baumgartner
https://www.multichannel.com/news/advanced-advertising/go90-starts-casting-tvs/405851
It marks the first time go90 content has been optimized for the big screen. Watchable, Comcast’s similar, ad-supported OTT service, is offered on mobile apps to all-comers and on X1 boxes for its pay TV subscribers.
Live Streaming, Digital Content, Social Media
Tumblr launches live video tools with a little help from other apps
By Jordan Valinsky
https://digiday.com/platforms/tumblr-launches-live-video/
Unlike Twitter or Facebook, which either built native tools in-house (Facebook Live) or acquired another app (Periscope), Tumblr is going the economical route by outsourcing the technical capabilities to third-party, live streaming apps, including YouNow, AOL’s Kanvas, YouTube and Upclose.
Tumblr is teaming with publishers, including Mashable, MTV and Refinery29, to live stream content exclusively to the platform. The company is also exploring ways to monetize live video with brands and using it as an ad offering.
Digital Media, Video Advertising
Digital Video Advertising to Grow at Annual Double-Digit Rates
https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Digital-Video-Advertising-Grow-Annual-Double-Digit-Rates/1014105
eMarketer expects US digital video ad spending will see double-digit growth annually through 2020. By contrast, TV ad spending will grow much more modestly, at rates ranging from 2.0% to 2.5%. Still, TV will remain dominant, with total ad spending reaching $77.17 billion in 2020, more than quadruple the $16.69 billion for digital video, as explored in a new eMarketer report, “Digital Video Trends Q2 2016: Monetization, Audience, Platforms and Content.”
OTT, Digital Media, Streaming Video
Netflix Chews Up Less Bandwidth, as Amazon Video Streaming Surges
By Todd Spangler
https://variety.com/2016/digital/news/netflix-bandwidth-share-2016-1201801064/
In March 2016, Netflix represented 35.2% of downstream traffic on North American fixed networks during primetime hours, according to a study by network-equipment provider Sandvine. That’s compared with 37.1% six months ago for the world’s No. 1 streaming-video service, and down from 36.5% a year ago.
That doesn’t necessarily mean people are streaming less Netflix video. The decline in traffic share, according to Sandvine’s analysis, most likely stems from the company’s recent improvements in video-encoding efficiency. Last December, Netflix detailed changes in its video-encoding schemes, which the company said could reduce bit rates by up to 20% while delivering equivalent quality.
Digital Media, Influencers
Netflix Taps Digital Heartthrob Cameron Dallas To Headline New Reality Series
By Geoff Weiss
Dallas marks the second online influencer to be tapped to headline a series by the streaming giant following Haters Back Off, a scripted comedy starring Miranda Sings — the ridiculous alter ego of YouTube star Colleen Ballinger-Evans. While little is known about Dallas’ unscripted project, the show will reportedly follow him and friends and family as he seeks to catapult his online fame “to the next level...”
Publishing, Digital Media
Mashable Goes To The Movies With Acquisition Of CineFix
By Sam Gutelle
https://www.tubefilter.com/2016/06/21/mashable-acquires-cinefix/
Under previous owner Whalerock Industries, CineFix became one of the most significant destinations for film buffs on YouTube. Its slate of web series includes Homemade Movies, which features DIY recreations of famous scenes, and Film School’d, which explains cinema history through time-lapse whiteboard drawings. Thanks to the popularity of these and other shows, CineFix has built up an audience of more than 1.6 million subscribers.
DB: Mashable’s pivot to video continues aggressively
VR, Entertainment, Live Streaming
Beyond Gaming: Consumers Show New Kinds of Interest in Virtual Reality
By Laura Hamilton
...gaming ranked sixth among these categories in the survey, with 61 percent of respondents stating they were "interested" or "very interested" in virtual gaming. The top six use-case categories of respondents were travel, tourism or adventure (73.5 percent), movies and recorded videos (67.3 percent), live events (67 percent), home design (65.9 percent), education (63.9 percent) and gaming (61 percent).
DB: VR’s initial successes may not be in entertainment or gaming at all. Real estate flythroughs, employee training and travel destination “brochures” all may finance VR pioneers before entertainment and game experiences hit a critical mass.
Video Production, Personalization
Adobe Sees Growth Opportunities in Primetime, New and Expanded Product Offerings
By Jeff Berman
Adobe Primetime helps broadcasters, cable networks, and service providers create and monetize personalized TV and film experiences for their customers across 3.4 billion devices, according to Adobe. It also provides data via Adobe Marketing Cloud integration that enables media sellers to optimize ad delivery in real time.
In March, the company announced Primetime over-the-top capabilities that make it easy for TV networks and pay-TV providers to bring more personalized TV and ad experiences directly to consumers via Apple TV, Microsoft Xbox, Roku and other connected devices, Narayen pointed out on the call. In May, Adobe also introduced expanded virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality capabilities within Adobe Primetime, with ad insertion, digital rights management and playback, he said.
Cord cutting, OTT, Digital Content, Pay TV
More OTT content drives cord cutting
As consumers find themselves with a wider variety of OTT content options, price is becoming less of a factor in the decision to cut the cord with pay-TV providers while content availability increasingly drives decision-making, according to content delivery specialist Limelight Networks’ semi-annual State of Online Video research report, which examines consumer behaviours and perceptions around watching online video. Streaming video services are surging in popularity, with seven out of 10 consumers now subscribing to at least one service.
Twenty-nine per cent of respondents cited rising prices as the primary reason they would cut the cord, down more than 8 per cent since May 2015. By contrast, 20 per cent of consumers said a key factor would be the ability to directly subscribe to the channels they want online, up 4 per cent in the same timeframe. Surprisingly, the number of respondents who would “never terminate cable or pay television subscription” has risen from 10 per cent to 15 per cent since 2015. This reinforces the diminishing impact of price on cord cutting and a shift to content availability driving behaviour.
Creators, Digital Media
VidCon Announces International Expansion for 2017
The World’s Largest Online Video Conference Adds New Events in Europe and Australia.
Anaheim, CA, June 22, 2016: VidCon (vidcon.com), the world’s largest online video conference for fans, creatives and industry professionals, today announced its first-ever international expansion. VidCon Europe will debut April 8-9, 2017, at the RAI Amsterdam
Convention Centre, while VidCon Australia will launch September 9-10, 2017, at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. The original VidCon will return to the Anaheim Convention Center in the summer of 2017. The new events will welcome approximately 7,500 fans and creators, with a custom experience designed to celebrate the online video world.
Video Production, Traditional Media
Mega Metadata Experiment May Affect the Future of Hollywood Production
By Lauren Blue
The project’s purpose was to realize the long-hoped for promise of production metadata. Could they enable all facets of a complex film shoot to not only talk with each other during the production and post production workflow but also retrieve all the metadata created along the way so it could be fed into subsequent applications?