Biographical Information

Articles for Nadine Krefetz

Ad Buys: StackAdapt, Disney, and Bell Target SMB

StackAdapt recently announced they are working with Disney and Bell Media to provide their demand-side platform for agencies to access inventory programmatically.

Rebundling Fatigue, Ad Tolerance on the Rise, Says TiVo Video Trends Research Report

We're here to parse a new market report from TiVo called "Q2 2024 TiVo Video Trends Report: North America Consumers Getting Smarter as Fatigue Sets In Amidst the Re-bundling Marathon." The title is a mouthful, and the research doesn't deliver on everything it promises.

The Generative AI Industrial Revolution

Generative AI may prove even more divisive to society than the Indus­trial Revolution. There are many questions well worth examining re­garding gen AI's impact on the streaming in­dustry, the media and entertainment world, and more. In this article, I'm going to focus on a few streaming use cases in the hope of pro­viding a broader perspective on the changes happening in our world now and those we can expect going forward.

Q&A: Simon Crownshaw, Microsoft’s Worldwide Media and Entertainment Strategy Director, Talks Gen AI

In this expansive interview with Simon Crownshaw, Microsoft's worldwide media and entertainment strategy director, we discuss how Microsoft customers are leveraging generative AI in all stages of the streaming workflow and how they're using it in content delivery and to enhance user experiences in a range of use cases. Crownshaw also digs deep into how Microsoft is building asset management architecture and the critical role metadata plays in effective large-language models (LLMs), maximizing the value of available data.

Dynamic Paywalls for Streaming Services

What would happen if we started to have dynamic paywalls for streaming ser­vices? Leveraging user data, machine learning, and generative AI could create offers based on con­sumption patterns. Some companies are dab­bling in this, but now we have the technology to really start developing it.

Contextual Advertising for CTV and FAST Raises the Bar on CPMs

The challenge with FAST advertising is how to serve appropriate ads when limited first-party data about the consumer is available. Contextual advertising can provide targeting for this untracked FAST audience adding scene-by-scene detail of exactly what a viewer is watching, and a new partnership between Anoki and Amagi aims to take content-to-advertising matching to a new level.

Q&A: NBCUniversal SVP Monica Williams Talks Streaming the Olympics, Cross-Platform CX, and the Power of Metadata

In this wide-ranging interview with Monica Williams, NBCUniversal's SVP of digital products and operations for the company's content distribution business, we discuss how the proliferation of digital platforms across the OTT, CTV, and online ecosystems has brought new content distribution challenges, the boon of metadata for improving customer experiences, and the 17-day everything-must-go-perfectly marathon of distributing the Olympics.

Games On! Programmatic Ads Compete for Eyeballs at the Olympics

FreeWheel is ready to support a streaming marathon for this summer's Paris Olympics, enabling programmatic buying for the first time for targeted ad-serving. Here's what this means for FreeWheel, NBCUniversal, advertisers, and premium sports streaming.

The Monetization Story of 2024 and Beyond

For the longest time, people I've interviewed have complained about how much of the video advertising budget went to social. Now the tide is turning.

Roku Enters Stage Left Selling Data with Roku Exchange

Last week Roku announced the Roku Exchange, a "TV streaming-first" advertising solution that connects ad inventory with advertiser demand.

Q&A: Google Cloud's Anil Jain Explains How Generative AI Is Driving Digital Transformation for M&E and DTC

For Anil Jain, leading the Strategic Consumer Industries team for Google Cloud has meant helping traditional media companies embrace cloud and AI, move to an OpEx-centric business model, and adapt to a more development-oriented mindset in engineering and product management. In this interview, Jain discusses the global shift to cloud-based operations in the media industry, the ways generative AI is disrupting everything from production to packaging to all aspects of the user experience, and what media companies should be afraid of if they're not already.

Netflix Announces Plans to Take AdTech In-House at 2024 Upfronts

Following Disney, WarnerBros, Amazon, and YouTube with DIY approach, Netflix touts 40 million ad-supported subs, announces new in-house adtech platform targeting end of 2025 launch

NAB 2024: Top New Tech for a Disruption-Ready Streaming Industry

Exciting new and (mostly) AI-driven tools and services from NAB 2024 that very specific problems, from shooting great iPhone footage to automatically creating short clips to providing live low-latency translation and captioning to creating customized radio programming to building purpose-driven social communities.

The State of Video Monetization 2024

What does the future of streaming monetization look like? This post-Peak TV media ecosystem is a brave new world, and being able to find the content you want, with the price you want to pay, will likely keep consumers on their toes for years to come.

Michael Cerda, CPO for Streaming at TelevisaUnivision, Talks Building and Growing the World’s Largest Spanish-Language Streaming Service

Nadine Krefetz interviews Michael Cerda, CPO for streaming at TelevisaUnivision. He discusses the from-the-ground-up rebuild he implemented when he arrived at the company. He describes how—in just 9 months—his team assembled and scaled the tech stack dri­ving ViX, the world's largest Spanish-language streaming service, which haslive-streaming, AVOD, SVOD, and FAST offerings.

How to Meet the Challenges of Cloud-Based Media Creation

Nadine Krefetz writes about the ways of how to best meet the challenges of cloud media creation.

Should We Trust Nielsen Math?

After reviewing Nielsen/Gracenote's 2023 State of Play report, Data-Driven Per­sonalization: The Future of Streaming Content Discovery, I found the numbers they cited to be very much on the creative side. I don't get a warm, fuzzy feeling when I think about their research.

Best of CES 2024

Streaming Media's Nadine Krefetz recounts media tech highlights from CES 2024

Cloud Atlas: MovieLabs’ 2030 Vision Roadmap for Industry-Wide M & E Interoperability

MovieLabs' CTO Jim Helman discusses his experience creating standards for content classification for the Hollywood studios, as well as the MovieLabs ten-year strategy to bring interoperability to as many vendors as possible. The Entertainment Identifier Registry (EIDR) Helman helped create is a content ID which now holds more than 2.8 million records modernizing many aspects of production and operations. He'll also update us on the industry's response to the 2030 Vision strategy to bring interoperability to media creation technologies, requiring less custom engineering and better communications between software, infrastructure, and services.

Q&A: Caffeine CEO Ben Keighran Talks Fan-Focused Niche Sports Broadcasting

Caffeine is a well-funded, newer live broadcasting platform for fan-focused, niche content for interactive viewing. With the platform now surpassing 40 million users, most of its content consists of long tail and local sports programming. With $262 million in financing raised since 2016, Caffeine is emerging as a destination for "sports you can't find anywhere else." This Q&A with Caffeine CEO Ben Keighran explores Caffeine's unique approach to niche sports streaming and monetization model.

The State of CTV Advertising

Ad buying is changing. For example, now you can buy from an agency that has deep knowledge of data around local viewing, or you can go to a TV manufacturer that has deep knowledge of all of the viewing on its hardware.

Dispatches from Demuxed 2023, Part 2: Low-Latency Ad Insertion

Demuxed 2023 (Oct. 24-25, San Francisco), is the premier peer-organized and peer-approved video developer conference. This two-day conference covered a lot of topics. Here's my summary of a presentation on dynamic, low-latency ad insertion.

Dispatches from Demuxed 2023, Part 1: Updating Ad Delivery

Demuxed 2023, which took place Oct. 24-25 in San Francisco, is the premier peer-organized and peer-approved video developer conference. There's supposed to be no marketing at the event. Although the first person I ran into was a sales rep, much of the time I spent there was listening or talking with technical contacts. The most interesting presentation for me was from Pluto.

The Argument for Addressable Advertising

For this column, I spoke with Larry Allen, VP and general manager of data and addressable enablement at Comcast Advertising, about a question that lands firmly on the deterministic side: "What is addressable advertising?" The term "addressable" refers to targeting digital and broadcast inventory and being able to buy audience segments on a household level.

Generative AI and the Future of Media Tech

Incorporating generative AI into our workflows has the potential to impact almost everything in media technologies, and I'll examine several of the possibilities in this article.

Revry CPO LaShawn McGhee Talks Global AVOD, Analytics, Content Curation, and Inclusivity

What's it like being CPO at a streaming network that's carving out a unique position in the global media and entertainment universe and managing an expanding array of ad-supported channels and a high-visibility roster of brand partners? To find out what that role entails, what drives the tech stack that keeps such a network humming, and how Revry develops, sources, licenses, and curates its diverse content offerings, I spoke with LaShawn McGhee, Revry's CPO and one of the company's four co-founders.

Nielsen Reports Streaming Viewing Growing, But With Growing Pains

While streaming may be inching ahead, according to Nielsen's latest report, this is far from a sure bet. Both Disney+ and Netflix have had ad-supported accounts out for less than a year. It's way too early to call this "good."

Server-Side vs. Client-Side Ad Insertion: Which Side Are You On?

There are two broad categories of CTV ad insertion: Server-side (SSAI) and Content-side. We've had the SSAI vs. CSAI debate many times before, with SSAI often coming out on top in recent years, but the uptick in FAST viewing is changing the conversation for many stakeholders in the current media landscape. Effective ad delivery is far from a one-side-fits-all proposition these days.

Scripps Networks’ Senior Director of Product Yazmin Wickham Talks Viewer-Centered OTT UX Design

Recently I caught up with Scripps Networks Senior Director of Product Yazmin Wickham to get a better sense of the role a Director of Product plays in developing and managing UX at a diversified media company in the OTT and CTV universe. I learned how Scripps approaches the viewer experience, both in AVOD and SVOD models, and attempts to deliver as consistent an experience as possible across a wide array of platform, and the challenges and advantages of maintaining a unified (or nearly unified) text stack across the board.

Generative AI and the State (and Future) of Media Financing

Following the disruptive rise of ChatGPT, in the coming months and years, if a VC or private equity firm wants to invest their pool of money in a streaming or media technology business, will Generative AI be a must-have component?

Measuring What’s Possible—Is This a Real Problem?

Now that ad dollars are moving from broadcast to digital via CTV buys, maybe we need to accept that the measurement standards for digital and broadcast are always going to differ.

Warner Bros. Discovery SVP Renard T. Jenkins Talks About Managing WBD's Massive Production Pipeline

Figuring out how Warner Bros. Discovery can pick the best technology to manage its massive production pipeline is what Renard T. Jenkins and his team do. Jenkins and I spoke on Zoom in late March about how those choices have changed in the past few years, his thoughts on machine learning (ML)/artificial intelligence (AI), and the unique demands of leading technology teams.

A Broadcaster’s Cloud Migration Primer

This article offers a primer on how a traditional broadcaster could start to move services to a cloud provider.

Why the Upfronts Are So Yesterday

The internet fostered the ability to make changes on a continual basis, so how come national broadcast advertising is still being transacted in the upfronts (the same format that started in 1962), which require an annual dollar and audience-reach commitment in advance to buy and sell advertising?

Veritone's GPT Video Producer 

Veritone's new product, Automate Studio--an IABM award winner at NAB 2023--is a generative AI tool which can work with a customer's content library and asset archive to identify and then create a video rough cut from a description

New at NAB 2023: Elevator Pitches

Because NAB attendance requires endurance, I want to recognize several companies who had compelling products, stayed to the end, and were able to do the briefest sub-5-minute elevator pitch for what's new in their offering.

The State of Media Technology Financing 2023

The formula for business funding and investment typically looks something like this: Identify a problem, and address it with a profitable solution, a great team, and the potential for huge growth. But in media technology, there's something else most companies are fighting against: moving customers to a SaaS model and winning over media companies that want to build everything in-house. Given these inherent challenges, what are the areas where investment looks like a good idea for companies in this industry?

The State of Streaming Monetization 2023

Streaming media business and monetization models expanded and diversified in 2022 and sent a clear message: Paid subscription models were a necessary gateway to widespread streaming adoption, but now ad-supported viewing has a chance to flourish.

Netflix Ad Verification Is Good Science but Underwhelming Math

The fact that Netflix is embracing ad verification and thus doing what is expected of every major media company that serves ads is good to know, but not particularly newsworthy on its own. What makes the announcement significant is that it shows that Netflix is relying on a measurement requirement (not of their own creation) which is simply hard to take seriously.

Winning the Data War: Accessing and Leveraging Streaming Analytics

This article explores the topic of data rights versus technology capabilities as it impacts media companies' ability to leverage accrued data and analytics to target relevant audiences, expand their reach, and monetize their content offerings. If the intersection of data rights ownership and technology capabilities access were captured in a Venn diagram, the space in between would be very small for some media companies.

The Top 5 Problems with Streaming Advertising

At Streaming Media West last November, I moderated a panel on how to keep advertising workflow flowing. The discussion yielded a number of valuable insights on the state of streaming advertising, including 5 key takeaways on the biggest challenges we face with advertising in the OTT world today.

The New Advertising-Industrial Complex

Strategically, streaming delivery needs more advertisers. Advertising is a necessary part of the media business model, but by not being nimble enough to attract more advertising and somehow sell digital the same way cable and broadcast are sold, digital services are shooting themselves in the foot.

Paramount SVP of Ad Operations Jarred Wilichinsky Talks Adtech Stacks and Strategy

The unforgiving world of ad tech means any mistake can cost millions of dollars. Ad tech is the key to a successful AVOD/FAST monetization strategy, but there are so many moving parts that it can be a challenge to get it right. Wilichinsky provides practical insight into what works, what doesn't, and how ad-supported delivery compares to subscription offerings.

The Streaming Toolbox: Ateliere Discover, Axinom Mosaic, and nanocosmos nanoStream Cloud

In this article, I'll look at three tools that provide interesting services for building media services and products. Ateliere Creative Technologies provides not just traditional MAM capabilities but also content management and app delivery. Axinom, likewise, has a development platform for building back-end services. nanocosmos expands on the old OVP model by delivering low-latency video for live, interactive-product developers. While I see a little bit of overlap with two of these products, it would be interesting to try to use everything here together.

Streaming Numbers in the News

Targeting streaming viewers is becoming harder. Today, services are looking at understanding what viewers will buy, not their personal information. Here's a roundup of a few recently published reports.

The Streaming Toolbox: Piano, Jet-Stream, CommScope

A look at the Piano Analytics platform, the Jet-Stream streaming platform, and CommScope's Manifest Delivery Controller (MDC)

Streaming Toolbox: Mimir, DAIConnect, and Panopto

Streaming Toolbox is a regular feature that looks at cloud-based services that perform a wide range of functions for online video publishers, going beyond the marketing fluff and giving readers an understanding of how these platforms and services might help them.

Ad Tech Raises the Stakes as Streaming and Broadcast Viewerships Converge

Broadcasters are watching digital and trying to bring the best of digital ad tech into their "broadcast" environment-even if that broadcast environment is on CTV. While it is becoming more and more confusing to differentiate between broadcast and streaming, one thing that's clear is that digital—and the ad tech supporting it—are responsible for the success of one of streaming's standard business models.

FAST and the Future of Streaming Monetization

FAST (free ad-supported television) is on the rise, but how can content distributors thrive in this very competitive landscape?

The Streaming Toolbox: Tedial, Frequency Studio, Mlytics

The set of tools I'll explore in this article will help you orchestrate workflows, create FAST broadcasts, and do multi-CDN worldwide live streaming management. Using all of these tools, you could get your own channel up and running and deliver it everywhere—even in China. These set of tools were demo'd for me. In order for me to test an application, vendors need to provide dummy data, and not everyone can make it available within our editorial timeframe.

The Ad Tech Industry Needs to Tell a Better Story

Ad tech is driving billions of dollars in revenue every year. So why can't people understand what it is, how it works, and why they should care?

Is Free Ad-Supported TV (FAST) the Future?

FAST has been the big story of the last two years, but there's tension growing between streaming services and TV/OS manufacturers over who owns the viewer and how to get those viewers to the content.

Cutting-Edge Uses for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning In Streaming

The uses for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)—from text identification to contextual advertising to cultural sensitivity—are multiplying. Here's a look at some of the most compelling offerings on the market today.

Making Money From Streaming Video: You Might Be Doing It Wrong

The lean-back era is long gone, and if you're not engaging your audience, you're not building your business. Read on to see experts from Struum, Cinedigm, KweliTV, and VidCon have to say about new approaches to growing audiences and generating revenue.

The Streaming Toolbox: Eventuall, GumGum, and Monterosa

Looking for ways to increase engagement and viewer dwell times, make your videos more interactive, and offer gamification? These solutions from Eventuall, GumGum, and Monterosa might be just what you need.

FuboTV Scores Big on Content Choice, Ad Load, and Revenue

Nadine Krefetz put fuboTV through the paces, and the sports-focused streaming service exceeded expectations.

Does Ad-Supported Streaming Actually Cost You More?

About one-third of users of ad-based streaming services click on and subsequently purchase items, according to Parks Associates. So maybe subscription is cheaper in the long run?

ATSC 3.0: NextGen TV Has Finally Arrived

Bringing together the best of OTT and the best of OTA, ATSC 3.0 is finally available out in the wild. Here's why you should care.

Welcome to the Ad Tech Jungle

Advertising technology is scary. Here are a few solutions—for ad fill, multicast distribution, monitoring, contextual ad insertion, analytics, demand-side, and supply side—to help you make it out alive

Paying to Watch Ads with HBO Max

Like almost everything else HBO Max does, the OTT service has gotten the ad experience right

The Streaming Toolbox: Vistex GTMS, Agora, Transmit

Vistex's GTMS manages content licensing, Agora provides transport protocols and SDKs for interactive media app developers, and Transmit offers a new spin on advertising

The Streaming Toolbox: GrayMeta Iris Anywhere, Vimond VIA Live, and StreamClick

The latest installment of the Streaming Toolbox looks at a remote production tool for creating interactive content, a scheduling tool for delivering live and live linear programming, and a collaborative quality-control (QC) tool for source file analysis.

STIRRing Up Local TV Advertising

Sinclair Broadcasting's STIRR brings viewers free, live, local broadcasts—along with localized ads. The implementation is still buggy, but the concept is right on target.

Why Should Broadcasters Make the Switch to the Cloud?

Broadcasting has been behind streaming in its embrace of the cloud, but the rewards of making the switch can be significant. We talk to executives from American Public Television, WarnerMedia, Paramount+, and Streaming Global to get their take on why you should make the change if you haven't already.

The Streaming Toolbox: Vegas Stream, axle ai, and Lumen Orchestrator

A trio of products and services tailor-made for today's work-from-home streaming producers and engineers, combining pro-quality live streams with cloud-based content management and multi-CDN edge delivery.

OTT Ad Tech's Biggest Challenges (and a Few Solutions)

OTT advertising technology is at a crossroads, as brands work to build relationships with consumers without alienating them. Here's a look at some of biggest questions facing the ad tech industry, along with some possible answers.

The Streaming Toolbox: Push Live, MediaMelon, and Ryff

This issue, I'm focusing on products from the world of advertising. Push Live is used to deliver live broadcasts to multiple destinations while providing customized branding for monetization on different platforms or in different regions. MediaMelon's Smart­Sight for Ads delivers detailed analytics and QoE for ad-supported content. While both of these products respond to existing market needs, the last product—Ryff—sets out to create a whole new market altogether.

The State of OTT Video Advertising

The OTT video advertising world has reached a tipping point, as consumers turn to AVOD services and ad tech gets more sophisticated

The Streaming Toolbox: Hovercast, Prophet, and Pulsar

In this installment, we look at products for interactive live streams, ad inventory pricing, and CDN balancing

The State of Video Ad Tech 2021

As ad-supported viewing grows, the industry grapples with three key challenges: privacy, workflow fragmentation, and scale

Navigating the Ad Tech Maze

Here's how five industry experts are finding their way through the complicated world of advertising technology.

What Does SSAI Life Look Like Without Cookies?

Katz Networks' Yazmin Wickham, Comcast's Larry Allen, and Optus' Jeremy Brown discuss the current challenges of server-side ad tracking in this clip from their panel at Streaming Media West Connect.

The Streaming Toolbox: FILMIC Pro, Bitcentral FUEL, Touchstream VirtualNOC

This installment of The Streaming Toolbox is all about remote control, for mobile devices, advertising, and network operations

Server-Side vs. Client-Side for Streaming Ad Insertion

Katz Networks' Yazmin Wickham, Optus' Jeremy Brown, CBS Interactive's Jarred Willichinsky, and Comcast's Larry Allen make the case for server-side ad insertion in this clip from their panel at Streaming Media West Connect.

Machine Learning and OTT Personalization

Resonance AI's Randa Minkarah, Streaming Media's Nadine Krefetz, and American Public Television's Garry Fields discuss the role of machine learning in targeted OTT UX customization in this clip from their panel at Streaming Media West Connect 2020.

ATSC 3.0: The Future Is Now

The broadcast industry has been looking for ways to compete with OTT, and ATSC 3.0 gives it its last, best chance.

Solving the OTT Worfklow Puzzle

With so many moving parts in the streaming workflow, are best practices even possible? Five industry leaders share their insights into how to make all of the pieces fit

Best Practices for Server-Side Ad Insertion

fuboTV's Geir Magnusson, Sinclair's Michael Bouchard, Reality Software's Nadine Krefetz, Eyevinn's Magnus Svensson, and Verizon's Darren Lepke discuss SSAI best practices in this clip from Streaming Media East Connect 2020.

Key Considerations for OTT Integration

Verizon's Darren Lepke and Streaming Media's Nadine Krefetz discuss the importance of efficiency, cost, metrics, and ad partnerships in OTT integration in this clip from Streaming Media East Connect 2020.

How to Ensure Smooth OTT Platform Integration

FandangoNOW's Rema Morgan-Aluko, fuboTV's Geir Magnusson, Sinclair's Michael Bouchard, and Eyevinn's Magnus Svensson discuss best practices for integrating OTT components and platforms in this clip from Streaming Media East Connect 2020.

Biggest Challenges Facing OTT Providers

Verizon's Darren Lepke, fuboTV's Geir Magnusson, and Reality Software's Nadine Krefetz discuss the present and future of OTT in this clip from Streaming Media East Connect 2020.

The Streaming Toolbox: Zixi, Cleeng, and Penthera

We look at a B2B intelligence layer for content transport, a company that enables customer relationship management decisioning, and a service that facilitates offline viewing.

Android TV: The Future of Television?

Google's TV platform may be the best hope for a future in which pay TV and OTT exist side by side.

The Top 10 Reasons to Attend Nadine Krefetz' "Cloud Streaming Media Tools" Workshop

10 key reasons why you won't want to miss Nadine Krefetz' in-depth online workshop at Streaming Media East Connect, Tuesday, May 26, 3 pm ET/12 pm PT.

The Streaming Toolbox: Cinnafilm PixelStrings, THEOplayer, and Resonance AI

In this installment of The Streaming Toolbox, we'll cover a platform that transforms video formats, another tool that actually looks at what is resonating with viewers using AI and machine learning (ML), and a third that is a player which is delivering the product the first two tools are working with.

The State of Video Monetization 2020

It's no longer SVOD vs. AVOD, and innovative approaches to both content, subscription formats, and advertising are generating new revenue streams for every business model.

Deepfakes and the War on Reality

Deepfakes are becoming harder and harder to spot, but the streaming video industry is digging into ways to both detect them and stop their spread. For now, though, it's "viewer beware."

What You Might Have Missed at CES 2020

CES isn't just about the biggest and best TVs. Here are a few new products that floated under the radar but are worth your attention.

The HBO Max Formula

How will HBO Max stand out in the crowded SVOD landscape? WarnerMedia execs laid out plans for the service at CES 2020.

CES 2020: ViacomCBS Boldly Goes Where None Have Gone Before

ViacomCBS chief digital officer Marc DeBevoise says CBS All Access has brought churn down to single digits and seen a 60% growth in subscribers.

CES 2020: Quibi Rolls the Dice on Short-Form Content

CEO Meg Whitman and founder and chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg announced that the new mobile service will roll out 175 new original shows and 8,500 episodes at a rate of 3 hours of new content per weekday

The Streaming Toolbox: Valossa, Signiant, and Red5 Pro

This month, we look at tools for content recognition, file transfer, and low-latency WebRTC streaming

Solving the Ad Tech Mystery

As ad-supported OTT services grow, the video engineering world needs to understand the complicated advertising technology landscape.

Streaming Media West Preview: Off-the-Shelf Streaming Tools

Learn how to create, buy, edit, analyze, and distribute content—plus launch your own streaming video service—in only three hours. It's one reason to attend Streaming Media West next week.

7 Essential Tools for Every Creator's Streaming Toolbox

Stream live with low latency. Collaborate on edits. Distribute to multiple platforms. Analyze data to make better choices. Here are the innovation leaders every streamer needs to know about.

Streaming Sites Crunch the Numbers on Interactive Video

Creating an interactive online experience, such as Netflix's Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, takes a lot of extra footage and budget. Viewers like it so far, but do the economics add up?

The State of Machine Learning and AI 2019

For events like the royal wedding and the World Cup, machine learning and AI are taking center stage.

The State of Server-Side Ad Insertion 2019

SSAI is taking off, but problems of standardization and scale remain. Here's what Fox Networks, FuboTV, The Weather Channel, and others think of the emerging technology.

CES 2019: D2C in 1, 2, 3

With Apple, Warner, and Disney prepare to launch direct-to-consumer (D2C) offerings, other streaming services might struggle to keep up. At CES, executives from YouTube, Hulu, FandangoNow, Tubi, and others offered suggestions on how to compete.

CES 2019: How Will Blockchain Reinvent Media?

Whether ensuring creators get paid, content stays locked down, or personal data is treated like intellectual property, blockchain offers solutions to some of digital media's biggest challenges, according to a CES panel.

CES 2019: The Future of TV

ABC News, Twitter, PBS, and MAGNA talked about how old media turns new challenges into opportunites at CES 2019 in Las Vegas, leveraging new types of content and data to increase engagement and monetization

The ABCs of APIs: Developers Are Migrating to API-Based Workflows

APIs make it easier to use best-of-breed tools that connect disparate software applications and platforms. They've also changed the way video developers create new products.

Streaming Video Services Attempt to Solve the Monetization Puzzle

How are cutting-edge content services finding ways to make money in a crowded field? Read on for advice from Ellation, Xumo, FandangoNow, and others.

The State of Server-Side Ad Insertion 2018

For years, SSAI has promised targeted advertising in a seamless stream that defeats the ad blockers. Has the promise finally been realized?

Protecting Your Assets: How Studios Secure Their Premium Video

Piracy will always be a problem, but new advances in DRM and watermarking are making headway in the never-ending global battle.

Five Tips For Talking About Video with IT

IT departments aren't as resistant to video as they once were, but there's still pushback. Here are five ways to get the conversation started.

Instagram Presses Play on New Vertical Video Platform

As more people than ever watch video on Instagram, IGTV gets rid of the one-minute video limit while still constraining creators to the vertical format.

Content Licensing Gets Complicated: Who’s Minding the Store?

The video ecosystem is getting more complex, so managing licenses manually is becoming impractical. Learn how publishers and broadcasters are turning to automation to solve the problem.

Re-Engineering Real-Time Video Delivery

A Stanford University research team has created an architecture called Salsify that might offer a better way to deliver video for real-time applications

SME 2018: Hey Google, What's Next in OTT?

Consumers find browsing for live linear content its own reward, and Google Assistant is setting out to make the experience more enjoyable and productive, according to Google's Rachel Berk in the Streaming Media East 2018 closing keynote.

SME 2018: Blockchain 101 for Media and Entertainment

Blockchain's distributed ledger offers new opportunities for combatting privacy, securing financial transactions, and finding new approaches to monetization and royalty payment. This presentation from Streaming Media East offered a high-level view of the possibilities for the video industry.

SME 2018: Direct-to-Consumer & the Future of Video Distribution 

Three tips for succeeding in the increasingly crowded field of direct-to-consumer video services: use voice assistants, go local, and never underestimate the value of metadata

SME 2018: Netflix Bridges the Content and Technology Gap

At a Streaming Media East keynote panel, producers, colorists, and cinematographers spoke with Netflix's Christopher Fetner about the challenges and opportunities that come with creating in 4K and HDR

NAB 2018: Companies to Watch

Make.TV, DLVR, Wicket Labs, Valossa, Grabyo, Wildmoka, Amagi, and JW Player all made a splash with new products or services that are worth a look in case you didn't see them last week at NAB.

NAB 18: Streaming Technology Drives Changes for Broadcasters

Traditional broadcasters need to adopt new ways of working to compete in the streaming space. Execs from ESPN and MLB share what's worked for them.

The State of Video and AI 2018

The machines aren't taking over; they're just helping video publishers achieve their goals more efficiently and effectively.

CES '18: The State of the Stream

At CES last week, executives from Disney, Fandango, Amazon, and Oath highlighted the trends pushing streaming video forward. Diversified delivery, engagement, data, and personalization lead the way.

CES '18: What Is Volumetric Video, and Why Should You Care?

Pioneered by Intel, volumetric video differs from traditional VR or 360° video and offers a truly three-dimensional viewing experience.

CES '18: Paying for Content with Data Instead of Dollars

Consumers are increasingly willing to exchange personal data for video content, but services need to be aware of generational differences and the balance between being targeted and being creepy

The World According to Twitch: Winning With Experimentation

Twitch is more than just the world's most popular gaming video content platform. It has a committed following in the millions, and just might be the future of media.

SMW 17: Live Streaming Today and Tomorrow

Live Streaming Summit panelists agree: Live, user-generated content will continue to compete with—and possibly surpass—professionally produced content, and we need to build tools and technologies to keep pace

SMW 17: Publisher Tools and Content Discovery on the Roku Platform

Streaming Media West attendees got an inside look at the details of Roku's Direct Publisher program, including insights into the company's revenue sharing and advertising offerings

SMW 17: Monetizing Live Streaming

Panelists at the Live Streaming Summit emphasize agility and flexibility in monetization strategies, and tout the importance of authentic content to compel viewers to stick around

SMW 17: Microsoft's Media & Machine Learning

Microsoft Cognitive Services tools target publishers, developers, and data scientists to leverage the power of machine learning and AI for their video

Two Strikes and You’re Out: Limelight Measures Viewer Sentiment

Almost 60% of viewers will move on after the second time a video buffers, Limelight finds in its 2017 State of Online Video report.

Got 4K Content? Sony DADC NMS Has You Covered

At IBC, Sony DADC New Media Services will show off its 4K cloud workflow, in partnership with Amazon Web Services and Hybrik

Twitch Embraces Ecommerce with Amazon Associates

The new Gear on Amazon extension lets viewers go directly from the stream to purchase their favorite gamers' gear and gives broadcasters a share of the revenue; Twitch also announced heatmaps and video overlays

Twitch To Stream Crunchyroll Anime Marathon

The top video game streaming site has been expanding its content offerings, this time with shows from the leading anime network

Google Video Intelligence Analyzes Images in Videos

Generating video metadata for large libraries is almost impossible to do manually, but Google Video Intelligence is being used by companies like Cantemo to automate the task.

Engineering the Video Experience for Alexa and Her Friends

Voice recognition is the future of video search, bringing viewers an intelligent system that delivers exactly what they want—but getting there won't be easy.

SME '17: Scorecard—Broadcast vs. Digital Video

Digital is still behind on always-on availability, scale, and latency, but it's catching up, and it offers advantages in user experience, quality, and—soon—monetization.

SME '17: Live Linear Channels—The Next Frontier

Technological and monetization challenges stood out at this panel at the Live Streaming Summit at Streaming Media East

Google Cloud Goes After Media & Entertainment Customers

Google Cloud is now responsible for 20-25% of all internet traffic and powers Snapchat, engineering director Leonidas Kontothanassis tells Content Delivery Summit attendees,

Amazon, Netflix, and More Go Global With the Cloud

At NAB, execs from Amazon, Netflix, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros. shared their insights into how virtualized workflows in the cloud are helping them meet international demand

NAB 17: NBC Reinvents Itself Online

Led by Saturday Night Live and This Is Us, NBC's digital strategy stands out as a model for other networks to find success online and off.

NAB 17: Scoring With Sports Advertising

As sports loses viewers on broadcast, they're moving online. Here's how to monetize them.

What's Your Video Data Roadmap?

Effectively using the data from each part of the technology stack means better business decisions and happier customers. Here's a quick overview of the data roadmap to guide publishers to making the right decisions.

How Time, Inc. Uses Data to Deliver Better Content, Stronger ROI

An old media company is learning new tricks as Time overhauls its editorial and advertising operations through the use of granular data on video viewing.

Build vs. Buy at Sinclair Digital

Ben Miller of Sinclair Digital Ventures discusses how the company decides what to build and what to buy, as well as the importance of knowing your audience

Is Targeted Digital Video Advertising Worth the Cost?

Digital advertising spending is set to surpass TV this year, but questions remain about whether or not the quality of the targeting justifies the extra cost

The Myth of Cross-Platform Viewer and Ad Metrics

At an Advertising Week New York Session called "Leveling the Cross-Media Playing Field," CBS, Facebook, Fox, and Turner exploded the myth of a one-size-fits-all approach

How Data is Changing HBO

HBO now uses near-real time data to adjust its promotional and marketing efforts on an almost daily basis

Advertising Works Better in Live than On-Demand: Yahoo

At last week's Advertising Week New York, Yahoo shared how its creating better ad relationships with viewers via live streaming events like Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting.

The Top Ten Enterprise Video Trends: Where Business Is in 2016

User-generated content, moving to the cloud, and going live: Here are the ten biggest issues impacting corporate video strategy today.

How to Optimize Your Video App

Even if you build a great video app, users might not find it unless you follow some of these tips from UFC and NeuLion.

How to Use Data to Drive Online Video Success

From content creation to subscriber retention, video publishers are embracing Big Data in a big way. These are the most important trends and challenges behind the video data revolution.

Programmatic Ad Buying: And Now a Word From Our Sponsors

The combination of programmatic ad buying and advances in ad insertion technology promise to revolutionize the advertising experience for buyers, publishers, and viewers. So what's taking so long?

Comcast to Stream More than 6,000 Hours from Rio Olympics

Comcast and NBC will offer total of 11 networks and 40 simultaneous streams from the games in Rio this August

NAB 2016: Amazon Wants to Be a One-Stop VOD Shop

At its NAB keynote Amazon's Michael Paull outlined the company's goal of having every digital channel and service on its platform

NAB 2016: Calkins Media Wins With OTT

At an NAB session Sunday, Calkins Media shared how it has monetized live linear OTT with relatively small viewer numbers

NAB 2016: The Appification of TV – Revolutionizing the Viewer Experience

Content publishers and operators are still struggling with an immature technology stack and interfaces as they try to get audiences to embrace watching TV in a new way

10 Essential Elements to Creating a Great Video Streaming App

From ad insertion to analytics, successful video app developers focus on more than just the content. Here's a roadmap to creating a successful app.

User Experience: To Keep Viewers, Online Video Must Be a Joy

Great content is the main ingredient for any successful video, but a terrific user experience makes the difference between bland and bold. User experience comes down to one simple question: Is your product a joy to use?

Video Asset Management Systems: How to Choose the Right One

Whether they're called digital asset management (DAM), media asset management (MAM), or production asset management (PAM), they all help organize digital libraries.

Search, Recommendation, and Curation: Attract and Keep Viewers

Discover how six companies are working to solve the challenges of search, recommendation, and curation to connect viewers with the content they want to see.

Instart Logic: Speeding up Mobile Website Delivery

Image- and video-heavy website delivery can be optimized with a combination of cloud and client-side architecture, said Instart Logic at the Content Delivery Summit

Kwicr: Slow Start Times on Mobile Threaten Viewer Engagement

A ten-second delay in start time will result in 18% of users abandoning your app, said Kwicr's Hugh Kelly at the Content Delivery Summit today in New York.

NAB 2015: How Sports and Gaming are Driving Live Streaming

Millennials watching eSports, travelers watching their favorite teams on the road, and sports fans who can't get the content they want anywhere else are driving 82% of live online video ad views, and publishers and advertisers are reaping the benefits.

NAB 2015: Winning the Next Generation of Viewers with OTT Services

OTT services are experimenting with business models, multiscreen delivery, and content packages to appeal to the growing number of viewers who are looking for alternatives to traditional pay TV offerings.

The State of Video App Development 2015

There's a digital land grab underway for real estate on mobile phones, set-top boxes, and game consoles. Here are the most important considerations for video publishers looking at developing video apps for multiple platforms.