I sat in on the Mobile Video and Content panel discussion at GSMA Mobility Live 2016 in Atlanta, GA.
Panelists:
- Stacy Glisson, PwC
- Campbell Foster, Adobe
- Robin Wheeler, Twitter
- Hannu Verkasalo, Verto Analytics
- Laurie Baird, You.i TV
Trends in Mobile Video
For advertisers, people are getting harder to reach via TV
Consumers are watching a lot less TV advertising. According to Nielsen, consumers watch about 4 hours and 20 minutes of TV a day on average. If you watch 4 hours, an hour and a half of that is Netflix. It’s getting a lot harder to reach people on TV, as an advertiser. – Campbell Foster, Adobe
Ability to build and launch apps that work across devices
We’re providing apps that work on smart TVs, tablets, mobile phones, Xbox, Playstation. We’re trying to help media companies a simple way to get to a consumer in the way the consumer wants to digest content. (Laurie Baird, You.i TV)
Live Streaming is Exploding
Twitter is at the heart of live streaming, thanks in part to Periscope, but also with our overarching live stream strategy. Twitter is the best place to find out what’s happening right now, and that includes what’s happening on TV right now, so the live strategy we have is an extension to that. We have a deal with the NFL where Thursday night games are streamed. We also live streamed the debates and will live stream on election day. You do not have to authenticate (log-in) to view live video on Twitter, and that drives up viewership. (Robin Wheeler, Twitter)
“75% of our live streaming audience is under the age of 35.” -Robin Wheeler, Twitter
Authentication is the biggest inhibitor to video watching
One solution is enabling home-based authentication so that if you’re in the home, we detect if you have a cable package and authenticate you automatically. Something like 70% of live-streaming of TV on devices happens in the home. With auto-authentication, the conversion rate of people being able to view live video increases 30%. (Campbell Foster, Adobe)
The definition of mobile is changing
It’s not just devices, your smart phone and tablet, but other devices.
Content is still king
Growth in mobile is coming from the quality of content being produced. As the technology becomes more efficient, there are new growth opportunities. (Laurie Baird, You.i TV)
The consumer is really in control of what content we consume, when we consume it and how we consume it. ( Robin Wheeler, Twitter)
Consolidation in carriers and content companies
Carriers are all pursuing different strategies. AT&T, Turner, Verizon, HBO and Warner Brothers all have new developments recently and have seen signficant revenue growth from new content strategies. So many larger players are trying to own the entire end-to-end stack of content to technology/hardware and platforms. (Campbell Foster, Adobe)
Experimentation in monetization
The two ways to make money in online video are subscriptions and advertising. Chord-cutting is increasing. More and more direct to consumer services are being offered such as sports or entertainment apps. We’re also seeing a lot of experimentation in advertising with pre-roll, end-roll, and mid-roll. People are getting more creative with advertisement overlays where the ad takes up 1/3 of the screen or lower third but the video content keeps playing so the experience is not interrupted.
You’re actually going to be paying more to get the content you want because you’ll have to go to so many different sources for the content you want — Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, cable, sports, etc… but we believe in the next few years this will level out. (Laurie Baird, You.i TV)
