Robert Andrews

LONDON — It’s only natural that native advertising articles exist only on the websites of the individual publishers who sell and create them – after all, they depend on the tone and content production skillset boasted by that publisher. But Danny Hopwood wants native’s small reach to break out of their creators’ own confines, with […]

LONDON — The Guardian will reboot its mobile app with a new design in the next few weeks after spending the last year re-thinking its mobile web and mobile app strategy, says chief digital officer Tanya Cordrey. “Probably within the next month or two, the new Guardian app will be hitting your local app store […]

LONDON – Those ads that follow users around the web with a banner for a vacation after they browsed for a vacation may soon be more than just banners. “The ability to retarget someone with a video as as opposed to just a display ad adds an interesting new dimension,” the EMEA president of Publicis-owned […]

The concept of “viewability” has gained prominence lately, as advertisers – alarmed by news that many video ad impressions are not really viewed by humans – seek certainty about their wasted spending. Programmatic video ad platform Brightroll’s CEO Tod Sacredoti recently got up on stage at Brightroll’s own video summit to highlight the three prerequisites […]

Should publishers use programmatic ad trading mechanisms or continue selling direct to ad buyers? The emergence of private marketplaces means those options are no longer mutually exclusive, says one big video publisher. “This set of pipes and plumbing that fuel a programmatic system was created for anonymous inventory,” according to Jonathan Carson, chief revenue officer of […]

Over-the-top online video and TV device maker Roku is adding more digital channels to its gadgets whilst building out an advertising business to augment its original paid video background. “We’re launching over 90 channels a month,” business development VP Scott Rosenberg tells Beet.TV. Roku added Yahoo Screen, WatchESPN and Sky Store over the last few […]

Long-form, snackable, downloads and live – online video sure has many different modes of consumption. But what are the next methods on the horizon as technology changes? “There are a lot of ‘next’s,” says video tech firm Brightcove‘s senior director for media solutions, Mike Green. “I see a lot of incremental improvements on a service like […]

LOS ANGELES — Nowadays, some TVs let viewers search for internet video content with their voice. But the experience can be underwhelming once users realize the vocal hoops they must jump through to meet their device’s exacting speech standards. “We think of the analogy as almost like (the search engine) Alta Vista back in the […]

Nielsen’s mobile video future starts this coming October. That is when the measurement firm will start quantifying mobile TV viewership following the recent announcement of the addition, says the company’s global product leadership president. Nielsen will fold mobile viewership in to its C3 TV ratings system in the fall. Before that, it will give its Online Campaign […]

LOS ANGELES — Online video technology vendor Rovi recently signed a deal to bring internet-connected on-screen program guides to non-connected TVs. The deal will see internet TV box makers Entone and Evolution Digital take on Rovi’s connected guies in their intermediary connected TV boxes, which enable TVs with connected features. “You’ve got a legacy infrastructure […]

LOS ANGELES — Could talking to your TV, not your viewing partner, be the next big thing? Rovi’s new chief operating officer thinks so. “Conversational search really will be one of the tools that will transform the TV experience where the user has the ability to converse with their navigation solutions to provide a more […]

LOS ANGELES — Subscribers to smaller US cable TV services may now get some of the basic interactive features of modern digital TV platforms, after TV tech firm Rovi signed a deal with the NCTC, a cooperative of nearly 1,000 cable operators. The deal sees Rovi’s DTA Guide, an electronic program guide software, get added […]

LOS ANGELES — You can’t move these days for ad tech vendors espousing the virtues of data-based targeting. Amongst that pack is Rovi, which launched its Audience Management Solution suite this January. “The entertainment industry has been slow to embrace big data and analytics,” says Rovi’s analytics product and technology VP Matthew Emans. He says […]

For the last year, online video advertisers have been realizing that as many as 40% of video ads played and paid for may not actually be viewed by humans on the other end. On Sunday, The New York Times ran a big feature that has taken this new idea, the dirty secret of true, “viewability”, […]

LOS ANGELES — CNN is seeking advertisers to buy slots in its recently-announced next-generation news platform, CNNx. The news broadcaster announced the product in April, including live-updating contextual information around real-time shows and scroll-back access to previously-aired stories. “You’re no longer at the mercy of the broadcast,” says Rajin Persaud, VP of next-gen business at the […]

Online video fingerprinting technology will be used by child porn police to seek out and take down the offensive material from the internet. Birmingham, UK-based Friend MTS says it has “donated” its F1 fingerprinting system to the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. Once enforcers have found child porn videos, they will encode the videos […]

It’s that time of the year when online publishers present their upcoming products and services in the form of so-called “NewFronts” events. In its NewFronts, The Wall Street Journal announced a video segment about how technology drives hope and health, a data- and animation-driven short video series, a new tablet video magazine and a documentary […]

If the digital advertising people getting high on “programmatic” trading are to access the $70 billion US TV ad market this way, they had better develop some empathy first, says one of the industry’s leading media finance advisors. Luma Partners CEO Terence Kawaja says TV ad trading, historically reliant on broad demographic targeting, and digital […]

The realization that as many as 40% of video ad views may be faked by publishers has given rise to systems measuring true “viewability” for advertisers. But one ad tech vendor says ad buyers shouldn’t trust “viewability” numbers when they are produced by publishers themselves. “The key for viewability is to make sure that the measurement […]

AOL is touting 16 new video series to advertisers at its 2014 NewFronts event in Brooklyn. Leading the slate, Making A Scene With James Franco will see the actor-director and friends re-make much-loved scenes from old movies. “They’re going to re-do them with a twist – it’s going to be highly social,” AOL’s video president […]