Is it a brand's job to tap in to challenging and sometimes dark political times, or to help consumer escape the darkness? Both, says one agency executive who was intrigued to see both opportunities presented to her at the recent NewFronts content shop. In this video interview with Beet.TV, MediaCom digital investment associate director Heidi Capnerhurst says the content she saw, as premium [...]

It announced 20 million paying subscribers in May but nevertheless plans to offer advertising in its live TV offering this quarter. Hulu is on a growth curve. But is the joint venture building its subscriber base, and what role does advertising play in a subscription-driven company? In this video interview with Beet.TV, Hulu subscriber growth head Patrizio Spagnoletto opens up on his [...]

While NCC Media’s newly announced division will work to advance the national addressable television market, it will employ the same principles—better data, targeting and measurement—to grow the spot TV business. “It’s important to point out that NCC’s traditional business in the spot marketplace is not going to go anywhere,” says Andrew Ward, VP, Comcast Media 360. In this interview with Beet.TV [...]

In the weeks leading up to this year's Digital Content NewFronts, we interviewed a number of industry leaders about what matters most: They cited quality storytelling, data and insights, authentic integration, accountability and brand safety. This video is a highlight compilation our several of our conversations. The first three are a related trio of concerns. Quality storytelling derives from consumer data and insights, [...]

YouTube certainly has reach, but its content doesn’t always lend itself to precise brand alignment. That’s where smaller digital players like Studio71 can differentiate themselves, according to MediaCom’s Renee Badigian. In this interview with Beet.TV at the Digital Content NewFronts 2018, Badigian, who is Account Lead at the GroupM media agency, talks about why consumers are more sensitive than ever to [...]

Sometimes with digital video, shorter is the best way to engage with viewers. With its just-completed Digital Content NewFronts 2018, the IAB “went back to its roots for a week” and had one of its best years yet, says Anna Bager, EVP, Industry Initiatives. “Great presentations, the right amount of great content, sales, customer engagement. I really thought it was extraordinary,” [...]

How can brands opt out of advertising in the next PewDiePie before a controversy kicks up? After the scandal in which one of the world's biggest video stars unwisely broadcast Nazi content, YouTube is hiring 10,000 moderators, as the brand safety concern rumbles on. But human moderation at this scale is a losing battle. YouTube and everyone will need to combine pairs of [...]

Female-focused Refinery29 sees its audience responsibility as “to service them, not to sell them” and it’s further expanding its video reach with a streaming service later this year. Called Channel29, the over-the-top offering will be available on smart televisions and on Refinery29’s digital channels to reach young and progressive women. “I truly believe the audience is the boss,” Refinery29’s Chief Content [...]

When it launches in June, the new and as-yet unnamed division within NCC Media has three goals for the national addressable television marketplace: Scale, data consistency and simplicity. “From a scale standpoint, it’s critically important that we get beyond the boundaries of any single provider,” says Andrew Ward, VP, Comcast Media 360. NCC Media is owned by Charter Communications, Comcast Corporation [...]

Walt Disney Co. has a new suite of advanced advertising offerings called Luminate, which spans the entire portfolio of linear networks, digital experiences and social executions across ABC, ESPN, Freeform and the Disney Channels. Luminate will use ESPN’s LiveConnect as a launch pad of sorts for other live events across the Disney portfolio and better enable the company to “speak [...]

If there’s a way to help clean up the digital media ecosystem—from TAG to ads.txt to DoubleVerify—Tremor Video DSP is a big participant and supporter. Because brand safety tends to be subjective depending on the advertiser, Tremor Video DSP is now relying on Grapeshot’s “contextual intelligence” capabilities, says CEO Lauren Wiener. Tremor Video DSP’s three-point plan to address concerns in the [...]

Based on its continuing research into how, when and why people consume video content, the IAB is “building a whole commercial innovation program” that will encompass video, audio and other platforms, says Anna Bager, EVP, Industry Initiatives. The IAB’s latest research, released this week, shows just how complicated the video marketplace is. Its Video Landscape Report report covers programmatic video, addressable [...]

Premium content, a multitude of new partnerships and how brands can create authentic resonance with consumers are the “common threads and themes” that Initiative’s Adam Gilbert takes away from the Digital Content NewFronts 2018. He also traces the arc of a digital content ecosystem that is in a sort of “retrograde” phase as live content becomes more prevalent amid the decline [...]

UK license fee-payers may be already be familiar with Live Lounge, the BBC Radio 1 strand which sees artists visit the Radio 1 studio to record intimate performances. But now the BBC is going global and multi-media with its music offering. At NewFronts in New York, the event at which premium publishers tout their upcoming content roster to hopeful advertisers, BBC [...]

At a Digital Content NewFronts where there was a plethora of new content distribution partnerships, ESPN was the rare standout. “One of the big things that we did announce was the fact that we had a big announcement, that we have no new distribution deals,” says Travis Howe, SVP, Platform Ad Sales Strategy, Solutions & Global Operations. “Because, in fact, we [...]

Less than a year into the integration of Tremor Video DSP’s demand-side business with Taptica, what’s now known as Tremor Video DSP is pursuing global expansion with Taptica while increasing partnerships with data providers and supply-side platforms. “It’s been a great nine months or so since then. We really have found some seriously important synergies with Taptica,” says Tremor Video [...]

Brands aligning themselves with social causes and movements should be a “no brainer” as long as they don’t embrace controversy just for the sake of controversy. “We heard that brands need to stand for something but that doesn’t necessarily mean always that they have to be controversial,” is the way Scott Donaton sums up one theme of the Digital Content [...]

If anyone doubts how Oath plans to differentiate itself with Verizon’s massive caches of insights from its broadband and wireless services and brick-and-mortar stores, Jeff Lucas makes it very clear. “What Oath offers more than anyone else is deep, deep data,” the Head of Oath’s Americas Sales says. “But also we are thinking about commerce” and “how advertisers can transact on [...]

Its core business is owning TV channels and movie studios - so why has Viacom bought in to the conference business? Connections, according to the man at the center of the deal. Back in February, the MTV owner - which is itself the target of a takeover by CBS - acquired eight-year-old VidCon, which examines how a new generation of YouTube talent [...]

Could a yogurt brand hold the key to the future of advertising? Abbey Thomas thinks so. The Tremor Video DSP chief marketer was talking with Beet.TV, fresh from the stage at this month's IAB Video Symposium in New York, where she interviewed the food company's own marketing senior director Eddie Revis. There, she discussed how Chobani is performing targeted advertising on advanced TV [...]