FreeWheel's David Dworin on the State of the Premium Video Marketplace

Study TakeawaysquotWe39ve been saying for years that the power of premium digital video is that you aren39t constrained by watching it on a cable boxquot Dworin said quotYou could watch whenever you wanted wherever you wanted whatever you wanted regardless of when something was traditionally programmed or what device it was for The wherever has changed because everyone was watching while stuck at homequot This has resulted in impressive growth in the number of video views and ad views quotWhat is really interesting is that we are seeing these double digit increases every year but they are increasing off an evergrowing base up 30 in ad viewsquot he addedAnother takeaway is that quotnearly three quarters of premium digital video viewing is happening on the big screen on a traditional television about half of it is happening though a connected TV device and about a quarter of it is happening through set top box VODquot he stated Compared to 2012 when the study was launched quotit was almost all happening on desktop with a little bit happening on tabletsquotFinally quotwe have seen the mix of content that people watch stay fairly stable over the yearsquot he explainedamp160quotBut this year because of the pandemic we39ve seen sudden shocks to it Traditionally we see a steady share of entertainment news andamp160sports but we39ve seen it shift Entertainment stayed high But we saw in March a spike around news with viewers turning towards digital video channels as their source for newsquotIs this a temporary result of the pandemic Dworin doesn39t think so quotThis is a year of accelerated changequot he explained quotWhat we are seeing happening in our data and anecdotally is that this is not a blip in 2020 All of these trends that we have been talking about for years this year was the catalyst that really started to transform the industry and push so many of these things forward fasterquotWhat the Data RevealedFreeWheel focused in on a specific week in March that was peak pandemicamp160to answer the question quotAre people shifting when they decide to watch TV now that they are home all the timequotquotWe saw almost a 15 bump in the amount of time people spent watching between noon and 6 pmquot he revealed quotThen another bump in the late afternoon and then bumps in the morning almost 10 and in primetimequotWhen you examine the data by platform Dworin noted that quotthe biggest differences by platform occurred in the first half of the pandemic But when we lookamp160at the full first half the biggest thing we see is continued explosive growth around connected TV growing over 40 year to year It is now about half of the digital viewingquotWith the lack of live sports quotadvertisers have had to use data in more sophisticated ways in order to find those audiences in other placesquot he stated quotWe will see a return to sports by viewers and advertisers as well as seeing advertisers adopt new tactics that they had to employ without sports therequotAs far as frequency is concerned quotthe technology is there to reduce the amount of repetition of creative so in 98 of ondemand sessionsamp160creative repeats either zero or one timequot he explained quotalthoughamp160it is difficult to frequency cap today across different publishers If you watch something on one app at one point and then on a different app you may not get frequency capping across all of themquot But he noted that there are some initiatives out there to address this issue Instead of the term quotincremental reachquot Dworin prefers to call it quotunique reach of people who you are not able to reach on traditional linear television This is a way that you can do it in a less cluttered environmentquotNext Steps for AdvertisersAccording to Dworin advertisers are still playing catch up quotThe amount of advertising dollars is not necessarily proportionally up to the amount of viewing that39s happening in what is still a fairly constrained supply environmentquot he said because there is less inventory in connected TV He advises advertisers to consider their crossscreen video strategy and quothow to best incorporate data how to incorporate programmatic and addressable advertising and accessing this inventory long term in a way that gives them access to really differentiated and important inventory while also making sure that publishers are able to keep it brand safe and compliant amp160everything everybody loves about traditional TV advertisingquotMethodologyUsing FreeWheel data offers a quotcomprehensive look into adsupported premium video because we see it across all of the different devices across all of the major media companies the major television companies the different platforms the different apps which offers a holistic viewquot Dworin noted The methodology has been refined over the years including the terminology they use and the data set has also expanded over time The data is powered by video content that uses FreeWheel for dynamic advertising quotanywhere where two different people may get a different ad versus scheduled advertising in traditional advertisingquot he explained The data consists of digital set top box VOD and some addressable televisionTo download a copy of the full H1 2020 Video Marketplace Report please click hereFreeWheel is a Comcast Company providing comprehensive ad platforms for publishers advertisersamp160and media buyers Powered by premium video content robust dataamp160and advanced technology the company is revolutionizing the way publishers and marketers transact across all screens data typesamp160and sales channelsClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNetamp160

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FreeWheel's David Dworin on the State of the Premium Video Marketplace

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