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Tuesday January 19, 2021

Following President Trump’s January 8 ban from Twitter and suspension on other platforms, including Facebook, misinformation about election fraud on social networks dropped from 2.5 million to 688,000 posts from January 9-15, according to Zignal Labs. Last week, Twitter said it had removed over 70,000 accounts “engaged in sharing harmful QAnon-associated content,” and Facebook said it was removing content with the phrase “stop the steal.” On Sunday, Twitter temporarily suspended the account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for repeated violations of its civic integrity policy. Greene, who has endorsed the QAnon conspiracy theory, had tweeted a thread about conspiracy and fraud related to the Georgia Senate elections.

Twitter alternative Parler, which went dark after Amazon terminated its web hosting services, was back on Sunday, sort of. At the site’s URL, a message from CEO John Matze said, “Our aim has always been to provide a nonpartisan public square where individuals can enjoy and exercise their rights to both. We will resolve any challenge before us and plan to welcome all of you back soon.” On Fox News on Sunday, Matze said, “I’m confident that by the end of the month, we’ll be back up.” Amazon dropped Parler after the January 6 assault on the Capitol, saying the site is “unable to effectively identify and remove content that encourages or incites violence against others.”

Video software provider Synamedia announced that its security and watermarking solutions are now integrated with Akamain, the intelligent edge platform for securing and delivering digital experiences. Synamedia’s solutions now detect and disrupt pirate streams in real time over the Akamai Intelligent Edge Platform and redirect viewers to legitimate services. “When illegal streams are disrupted, particularly during live sports, viewers tend to give up on pirated streams and switch to legal services,” said Yael Fainaro, SVP, Security at Synamedia “Akamai’s platform is used by many of our pay-TV and OTT customers and this integration will strengthen their ability to combat piracy at speed and scale.”

Nielsen announced the launch of Theatrical Video On-Demand, a measurement service for movie releases that are directly available to consumers to through streaming/MVPD platforms. “As this unprecedented pandemic continues to influence consumer behavior, perhaps even through a prolonged state of recovery waves, being able to measure and help clients appropriately monetize new revenue streams has never been more crucial,” said Scott N. Brown, GM Audience Measurement, Nielsen. “A bigger question might be what will audiences do following any recovery, how the behavior adopted during stay-at-home orders might influence habits when consumers have the ability to go back to theaters to enjoy that experience and how content creators will leverage data to make the best decisions regarding distribution platforms in the future.”

With theater attendance dramatically down, National CineMedia’s new Digital Out-of-Home group has teamed with location-based digital video network Captivate to sell Captivate media inventory on a hyperlocal level to engage movie enthusiasts at office and residential properties. NCM will leverage Captivate’s network of elevator and large format displays to target upscale consumers within close proximity of neighboring businesses. “Just like movie theaters, elevators and buildings are a captive media environment,” said Steve Sapp, SVP, Digital Out-of-Home Sales with NCM. “Pairing advertising with our great Noovie entertainment features and movie trivia games will allow local businesses to directly target movie audiences in nearby high-traffic premier office and residential buildings based on their preferred proximity.”

Samsung Electronics America and Twitch are teaming for a one-year mobile partnership that has Samsung Galaxy exclusively hosting mobile gaming challenges and events. Included are “Twitch Rivals Mobile Challenges”; year-long tournament “Mobile Mondays”; and “Mobile Gamine Heroes.” Details were announced during CES.

Having their household equipped with the latest media technology is important to only 54.3% of American households, according to a GroupM study conducted last month. Forty-eight percent of respondents said they’d like smart appliances, and 51.5% said they already have a 5G device. Males, younger people and the highest income households were most likely to “completely agree” that having the latest technology is important.

Brandtech group You & Mr Jones has completed its $260 million Series B, which valued the company at $1.36 billion. The round was completed by Merian Chrysalis, which invested $60 million. Paulette Forte, previously the Senior Director of Human Services at the NBA, has been tapped as Associate Partner to serve as the Brandtech group’s first Chief People Officer.

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LEADING THE EVOLUTION IN LOCAL OTT & CTV ADVERTISING

WINNER: CYNOPSIS ADTECH AWARD

OUTSTANDING LOCAL ADVERTISING SOLUTION

TAG CERTIFIED AGAINST AD FRAUD
125+ Leading TV & Media Brands, No Open Exchanges
Audience Targeting Across All DMAs, Website & Location Attribution

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ViacomCBS and DISH Media announced addressable ad replacement was successfully executed on a select number of live campaigns across DISH’s 9 million household footprint in certain CBS-owned-and-operated markets. Adcuratio powered the activation with its signaling solution, developed in partnership with ViacomCBS and DISH, enabling broadcast addressability across MVPD households that integrates with programmer and distributor infrastructure and signaling processes. “This breakthrough allows ViacomCBS to deliver the most powerful solution for our advertisers by combining the reach of national broadcast
with the targeted relevance of household addressable,” said Mike Dean, SVP of Advanced Advertising at ViacomCBS. “While cable networks have been addressable for years, addressable national broadcast has remained technically unreachable until now, making this a tremendous milestone for the industry and the future of television.”

Video advertising platform SpotX is integrating the Unified ID 2.0 solution, an open source and interoperable ID framework designed to improve relevant advertising while protecting consumer privacy and transparency without relying on third-party cookies. The solution upgrades identification standards by using encrypted and hashed email addresses, allowing consumers to manage how their personal data is collected. “Unified ID 2.0 safeguards the value exchange for relevant advertising with a simplified user consent framework while protecting all parties across the ecosystem. SpotX’s support for this technology builds on our promise to protect all data, and we’re excited to be one of the first video SSPs to adopt this upgrade for improving the open web,” said Kelly McMahon, SVP, global operations at SpotX.

Amazon outspent Google, Microsoft and Facebook on TV advertising by more than 73% combined in Q2 and Q3, according to an analysis by Alphonso. Other findings include:
· Video conferencing app Microsoft Teams outspent both Facebook Rooms and Google Meet during the period. Microsoft Teams was also made available for personal use in June; Google Meet did this later but didn’t invest on TV with that message. Rather, Google followed up with a TV campaign targeting usage among friends and families starting late Q3.
· Amazon’s smart speaker category ad spend dwarfed that of Google ($13.9 million versus less than $100,000); Amazon invested heavily in TV to promote its new 2020 lineup of Echo devices.
· Mobile device spend on TV was low as budgets focused more heavily on digital; Microsoft spent under half a million on its Surface Duo launch on TV, while the Google Pixel had a no so significant presence on TV during these two quarters.

Software platform for digital media measurement DoubleVerify has received Media Rating Council accreditation for display and video rendered ad impression measurement and sophisticated invalid traffic filtration, including app fraud, in the CTV media environment. “As marketers increasingly adopt CTV/OTT platforms for their ad investments, it becomes ever more critical for those investments to have the protection of MRC-accredited measurements,” said George W. Ivie, Executive Director and CEO of the MRC. “DV’s accreditation for its SIVT-filtered rendered ad impression measurement of both video and display ad creatives in these environments is an important step toward that goal.”

Lotame, a provider of data enrichment solutions, announced Magnite, Sovrn, Eyeota, and Advance Local will support its Lotame Panorama ID, a global, people-based, privacy-compliant and interoperable identity solution for a cookieless web. Magnite and Sovrn will integrate the Lotame Panorama ID to help increase publisher inventory value and enable advertisers to target first- and third-party audience data. “Publishers depend on being able to offer targeted audiences to brands to flourish in an environment where privacy regulations and the phase-out of third-party cookies are changing the rules,” said Brian Bouquet, VP of Product Management at Sovrn. “We are excited to implement the Lotame Panorama ID to ensure brands and publishers have access to a global, privacy-compliant and interoperable identifier to power their advertising without the need for cookies.”

Advanced advertising company OpanAP announced the launch of its new supply-side platform that provides advertisers access to available linear inventory from TV publishers. Built on APIs, OpenAP’s SSP provides approved buyside tools the ability to access and retrieve available inventory from national TV publishers including AMC Networks, Fox Corporation, NBCUniversal, Univision and ViacomCBS, with inventory coming soon from A+E Networks and The Weather Channel. Once integrated, buyers log into their existing systems to plan and buy media through an automated workflow using standardized information on audiences and inventory avails. “By enabling this new way to buy alongside agency planning capabilities, we are ultimately fueling a more vibrant ecosystem for advanced advertising,” said David Levy, CEO, OpenAP.

iSpot.tv has acquired Ace Metrix, which gauges consumer sentiments towards ads, measuring brand recall, purchase intent and likeability. “We know that brands invest in TV and video advertising to drive sales and lasting brand equity with audiences, often in the same campaign and creatives,” said Sean Muller, CEO and founder of iSpot.tv. “This acquisition represents an industry-first solution for measuring both business outcomes and brand impact together and in real time.”

Apple TV+ is extending the free access period for customers who signed up via its 12-month free subscription. The free offer now runs through July 2021, from a prior extension through February. Customers on the Apple TV+ monthly plan who are paying $4.99/month will receive an App Store credit..

fuboTV has executed a binding letter of intent to acquire sports betting and interactive gaming company Vigtory. “We believe online sports wagering is a highly complementary business to our sports-first live TV streaming platform,” said David Gandler, co-founder and CEO, fuboTV. “We don’t see wagering as simply an add-on product to fuboTV. Instead, we believe there is a real flywheel opportunity with streaming video content and interactivity…. We not only expect sports wagering to become a new line of business and source of revenue, but we also expect that it will increase user engagement on fuboTV resulting in higher ad monetization, better subscriber retention and reduced subscriber acquisition costs.”

Firstlight Media and Evergent Technologies are integrating their cloud-based capabilities, bringing together Firstlight Media’s Content Management System and Evergent’s OTT and traditional video solution. “The creation and the management of relationships between consumers and OTT providers require two unique skill sets,” said Vijay Sajja, CEO and founder of Evergent Technologies. “Our partnership with Firstlight Media gives the industry the ability not only to rapidly create engaging user experiences, but also allows services to do quick market experiments with our flexible user management system.”

Firstlight Media is also teaming with SSIMWAVE, to enable OTT and pay-TV providers to seamlessly implement SSIMWAVE’s SSIMPLUS system in conjunction with Firstlight Media’s modular, cloud-based streaming platform that is built on Gen 5 architecture. The partnership supports optimization of encoding for VOD content, as well as live video monitoring from source to device.

Hulu cut the price of its basic, ad-supported service to $2/month for US college students. The regular price is $6. Eligible students will get the lower rate as long as they can verify their student status.

MVTV Motorsports Network announced the launch of SVOD MAVTV Plus. The service will make its official debut Saturday, January 16 with coverage of the final night of the 2021 Lucas Oil Bowl Nationals in Tulsa, OK.

Amagi announced that Moonbug Entertainment has selected its cloud solutions to create and distribute linear channels on FAST platforms in the US. “Moonbug has quickly evolved as a favorite content destination for kids in the streaming TV world. Through our partnership, Moonbug is well-placed for future distribution across the world- be it on streaming TV platforms, Owned and Operated apps, or traditional cable TV,” said Srinivasan KA, co-founder, Amagi.

News network LIT has launched its first 24-hour channel on Peacock with a three-hour live block of its flagship entertainment news program, “LIT Entertainment News.” “This is just the beginning,” said co-founder and co-CEOAdrian Woolfe. “We’re excited to continue LIT’s expansion with more partners, platforms and talent around the globe in the coming months.”

SKOOG announced a global partnership with Sesame Workshop, introducing a new interactive platform that merges tactile technology with a content library featuring “Sesame Street” characters. The platform combines multi-sensory play with interactive content and meaningful learning experiences.

Despite the dominance of the likes of Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu and Disney+, smaller options are seeing the biggest growth, with 75% of young viewers spending more time with lesser known free connected TV options, according to Team Whistle research service Whistle Wise. Findings include:
* Biggest YoY gainers among 13 to 36-year-olds in the study were Xumo (+25%), Stirr (+22%), Tubi (+19%) and Samsung TV Plus (+17%).
* 85% of respondents turn to streaming platforms to find content they can’t find on other platforms/switch across streaming services to find the content they’re looking for.
* 81% usually watch content on streaming platforms in the background while doing other things.

Qwest TV and Samsung Australia are teaming to add Qwest’s three music-focused channels – Qwest TV Jazz & Beyond, Qwest TV Classical and Qwest TV Mix – to all models of Samsung TV Plus. Co-founded by Quincy Jones, the premium music-related video service will appear as a featured channel on the Samsung Smart TV platform.