Ad Operations Online » Streaming Ads

StreamGuys And AdsWizz Monetize Internet Radio for All Classical Portland

Otilia Otlacan — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 08:06:14 +0000

BAYSIDE, CALIFORNIA – All Classical Portland, an independent, non-profit radio station with an FM presence in several Oregon markets, this year celebrates its 30^th anniversary on the air. However, the pure-format Classical station – one of the few of its kind remaining – is not resting on its over-the-air laurels.

Streaming media and its monetization is top of mind for Director of New Media Alexander Bighill, who joined All Classical Portland in 2011. Bighill has since expanded to eight streams using StreamGuys’ cloud-based streaming architecture. Online and mobile listeners can choose from two AAC+ and two MP3 streams, further supported with redundant streams via StreamGuys’ robust architecture.

Most recently, the station has added AdsWizz’s Digital Advertising Monetization Platform for audio pre-roll injections. StreamGuys offers the AdsWizz platform as an integrated service for broadcasters and audio publishers seeking to generate revenue and monetize streams through targeted content delivery.

“We have a strong sense of place and love the music we play. We’re passionate about sharing this with the rest of the world, and StreamGuys helped us increase online listenership with the reliability of its global infrastructure,” said Bighill. “Online streaming can be fun and exciting, but sometimes that’s not enough of a reason to justify the money that goes into the technology. StreamGuys recommended AdsWizz when it came time to directly monetize our streams.”

Bighill reports that the AdsWizz service is reliable and hassle-free, with new audio files added to the pre-roll rotations over a simple user interface. The station is approaching ad insertion with simplicity to start, injecting in-house-produced pre-rolls as users initiate streams. Bighill expects pre-roll sales to escalate as more listeners and businesses become familiar with the service.

All Classical Portland also utilizes business software from both companies to strategize future growth opportunities. This includes StreamGuys’ SGMon and SGReports analytical tools, with the former producing weekly listenership overviews for comparison to Arbitron terrestrial audience reports. Bighill adds that SGReports offers “an insane amount of detail” about when and how listeners tune in. AdsWizz brings additional value with pertinent information on pre-roll impressions.

His overall impression is that streaming media is vital to the public media space, and that it’s time to take advantage of robust, multi-format delivery and cutting-edge technologies such as the AdsWizz platform.

“It should be no surprise that internet-based media is more than a fad,” said Bighill. “The ability to deliver our broadcast worldwide is a huge advantage because the ratio of terrestrial listeners versus online listeners will inevitably continue to shift. To help offset technological investments, new ways of generating revenue are also needed. The average internet user realizes that a 10-second message is preferable to a subscription service, and that’s where services like AdsWizz are helpful.”

About AdsWizz

AdsWizz provides ad serving and audience analytics technologies to CDNs, agencies, ad networks and online audio publishers. Its audience analytics product delivers publishers with real-time and actionable metrics on their audience behavior. AdsWizz ad serving technology enables agencies and ad networks to create online advertising campaigns across audio, video and display formats with social media integration. The ad serving technology gives online audio publishers the ability to monetize all their online content such as Simulcast, webcast or Podcast; Web, Mobile or In-dash; and domestic or international. AdsWizz serves its customers from its San Francisco, Denver, Paris, Brussels and Bucharest offices. For more information, visit www.adswizz.com.

About StreamGuys, Inc.

In business since 2000, StreamGuys is a provider of audio and video streaming toolsets and services. The company has a reputation for outstanding customer service, a robust and reliable network, and competitive rates. More than 600 clients worldwide, across many industries, depend on their mission-critical service. Projects include serving as the technology backbone for live streaming/podcasting for top public broadcasters such as New York Public Radio, WAMU Washington D.C., KQED San Francisco and WXPN Philadelphia; live video events for major auto racing circuits and the British Royal Wedding; audio streaming for government entities such as D.C. Court of Appeals, U.S. Army, and the National Science Foundation; mobile video content for Cisco Systems; and IPTV content for international broadcaster ABS-CBN.

Ooyala Delivers In-Stream Video Viewing on Twitter

Otilia Otlacan — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 13:30:20 +0000

Twitter Video Card solution creates new ways to discover, share and monetize video; ESPN first to adopt

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - Ooyala, the leading video streaming and monetization platform provider, today announced that it has developed a Twitter Video Card solution, in close collaboration with Twitter, that enables Ooyala customers a turnkey solution to embed videos directly into their Twitter streams for instant playback. Previously, users were only able to include a link to a video in Twitter. This solution inserts a thumbnail of the video directly into the stream so followers can click and play directly without leaving Twitter.First deployed by sports broadcaster ESPN to better serve its 24 million online video viewers, Ooyala’s Twitter Card solution provides media companies, broadcasters and brands a new way to distribute and monetize video content delivered via Twitter across desktops and mobile devices. In addition, the solution can increase the discovery and sharing of video content and optimize engagement through social and mobile by eliminating the barriers to view content directly on Twitter.

“Twitter is a growing source of inbound referral traffic and outbound content distribution for online media publishers and broadcasters,” said Jonathan Wilner, senior director, business product management at Ooyala. “Consumers today are at the intersection of social and mobile, and demanding easy and fast access to video content. Our ability to deliver video directly into the Twitter stream is a major step forward for publishers who want to drive viewer engagement in real-time.”

As a result of the close collaboration with Twitter, the Ooyala solution has been certified by Twitter, meaning customers can quickly and easily integrate and distribute video content directly into their streams across all platforms — including desktop, mobile web and native smartphone and tablet apps for both iOS and Android — and trust that the player will work seamlessly within Twitter. The solution works via an Ooyala Twitter SDK and automatic hosting for Twitter Cards. The turnkey API from Ooyala automatically generates the necessary Twitter tags so that a video can be inserted onto a video landing page to enable Twitter Cards.

Powerful Solution when paired with Discovery

The technology works seamlessly with Ooyala Discovery, which enables video content providers to increase view-related revenue by algorithmically recommending highly relevant content within the Ooyala Player. For example, if a user watches a highlight from a football game within the ESPN Twitter stream, they could receive a recommendation to also watch highlights from the post-game press conference. Personalized content recommendations can further drive user engagement and monetization for each video share in Twitter.

Opening Revenue Streams

In addition to benefiting consumers, this technology opens up new revenue streams for Ooyala customers. It enables the distribution of ad-supported video content across client-owned and consumer Twitter properties, magnified by sharing tendencies of Twitter users. It also opens the door for video integration into Promoted Tweet advertising campaigns across Twitter.

Customers that take advantage of Ooyala analytics will also have extensive data on the performance of their videos through Twitter Video Cards, in addition to the data they already receive on their websites and/or apps, allowing them to further optimize their video content.

About Ooyala

Ooyala delivers personalized video experiences across all screens and is the leader in online video management, publishing, analytics and monetization. Our integrated suite of technologies and services give content owners the power to expand audiences through deep insights that drive increased viewer engagement and revenue from video.

Companies using Ooyala technology include Telstra, ESPN, Pac-12 Enterprises, Miramax, Bloomberg, Telegraph Media Group, Telefonica, The North Face, Rolling Stone, Dell, Sephora and Yahoo! Japan. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Ooyala has offices in New York City, London, Sydney, Tokyo and Guadalajara, Mexico. The company works with premier reseller and technology partners throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, Japan and the Asia-Pacific region. For more information visit www.ooyala.com.

US Spending on Mobile Display Ads Will Nearly Quadruple over the Next Five Years, Says ABI Research

Otilia Otlacan — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 06:30:47 +0000

NEW YORK – Mobile advertising is a young and relatively small market today. But over the next five years, spending on mobile display ads in the United States, estimated at just under $313 million today, will almost quadruple to exceed $1.2 billion in 2015.

ABI Research practice director Neil Strother says, “A survey conducted by ABI Research in February found that 28% of the mobile subscribers queried accessed the mobile Internet daily. This is a huge increase over the number doing so just 14 months ago, and is a powerful driver for the mobile marketing and advertising market.”

Mobile display ads – essentially similar to online banner ads – are only one method available to aspiring mobile marketers. The others are:

- Text messaging
- Search advertising
- Ads within applications (in-app)
- Video (streaming and on-demand)

While smartphone usage is a primary driver of this new and still fragmented industry (smartphone penetration in the US currently stands at about 20%), mobile marketing’s potential extends to mobile devices of all kinds.

“Marketers have increasingly been shifting budgets into mobile campaigns,” Strother reports. “This became evident during our research interviews with advertising agency executives, technology vendors and mobile ad network operators, who said they have been seeing year-over-year increases of 25% to 30% in campaign spending.”

Big technology firms are now getting involved, as demonstrated by Apple’s acquisition of Quattro Wireless and Google’s takeover of AdMob. But independent ad networks are also serving this market, companies such as Millennial Media, Jumptap, and Greystripe. “Each of these networks is focused on a somewhat different part of the market,” says Strother, “but in principal they’re open to anybody with money who wants to reach a mobile audience.”

A new ABI Research Market Data product, “Mobile Ad Spending” (http://www.abiresearch.com/research/1005172), provides market data and projections for spending on commercial mobile messaging, mobile display advertising, mobile search, mobile in-application advertising and ad-supported mobile video. The forecast database also examines user adoption for these various types of mobile marketing engagements, and includes five-year forecasts for the advertising inventory for each type of method.

It is a component of the firm’s Mobile Marketing Strategies Service (http://www.abiresearch.com/mobile_marketing.jsp) which also includes Research Reports, ABI Insights, and analyst inquiry support.

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies. From offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team of experts advises thousands of decision makers through 28 research and advisory services. Est. 1990. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.

Ooyala Adds Adaptive Bitrate and Ad Serving to Live Streams

Otilia Otlacan — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:00:33 +0000

Ooyala’s Enhancements Makes Live Video More Accessible and Monetizable

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Ooyala, a leading provider of end-to-end video platform applications and services, announced two significant enhancements to its live streaming product, Adaptive Bitrate Delivery and Advanced Ad Network integration. Effective immediately, Ooyala customers are now able to initiate, manage and monetize Live Streams with Adaptive Bitrate Delivery from the same platform from which they manage their VOD (Video on Demand) content.

With Adaptive Bitrate Delivery, the quality of the live stream dynamically adjusts as the user’s viewing environment changes. This gives users on a broadband connection a near-HD quality viewing experience; those not on a broadband connection receive a video experience with no buffering or stuttering.

With the new Advanced Ad Network integrations, ads can be inserted both dynamically and manually in a Live video stream – allowing for greater monetization opportunities. Unlike most ad integration services, Ooyala’s allows for placement of multiple ads from multiple ad networks throughout a single stream.

Companies like Gotcha Media in Japan, Arsenal Football in the United Kingdom and AVP in the US – all use Ooyala as their live video technology provider.

“The addition of Adaptive Bitrate Delivery and Advanced Ad Network integrations make high quality video streams accessible to more users around the world and give content owners the ability to maximize monetization opportunities,” says Bismarck Lepe, Co-Founder and President of Product Strategy at Ooyala.

The launch of these two features furthers the mission of offering the most comprehensive video platform with the most sophisticated analytics and monetization offerings to both media, enterprises and SMBs. Forrester Research recently ranked Ooyala as a Video Platform leader with the “best-in-class analytics and monetization capabilities.”

About Ooyala Inc.

Ooyala is a video technology company that provides a comprehensive software platform enabling the delivery, management and monetization of high quality online video content. Its innovative analytics engine and monetization server allow video content owners to drive revenue by maximizing the value of their content. Ooyala has over 500 customers, including 150 global media and enterprise customers such as Warner Brothers, Wenner Media, Fremantle, Armani, Sybase and Electronic Arts.

Episodic Reveals Breakthrough in Dynamic Live Ad Insertion

Otilia Otlacan — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:30:15 +0000

Online Video Platform Expands Opportunities for Monetizing Live Event Streaming

SAN FRANCISCO – Episodic, Inc., an emerging online video platform provider, unveiled a solution for inserting mid-roll advertising into live streaming content. With the Episodic Live Ad Manager, live event producers can easily insert standard ad units delivered by Episodic or any of the major ad servers directly into live online broadcasts. This technology signals a major shift in the revenue potential for live events, opening up doors for significant monetization opportunities in delivering live video on the web.

“This unique technology opens up a new pool of ad inventory for publishers and allows them to maximize revenue from their live events,” said Matias Cudich, VP Product Management at Episodic. “Publishers often simulcast their television broadcasts to the Web with ads and all. Although these publishers are broadcasting the same commercials twice, once on television and then again on the Web, oftentimes they are not paid twice for these advertisements. Now with Episodic, publishers can simulcast their broadcasts online and open up a new pool of ad inventory that their online ad sales teams can sell against.”

With this innovation, Episodic is offering programmers and cable operators a real-time, multi-platform ad campaign management and decision system for delivering timely and relevant ads during live streaming sessions. Ad placement for a live event may be pre-programmed or inserted manually from the Episodic Live Ad Manager.

A Customized Viewing Experience

Rather than mixing the advertisement into the actual video stream, Episodic sends a command to the video player, which responds by playing the right advertisement at the appropriate moment in the live stream, as dictated by the director of the live event. When there is a break in the action, a call is made to an ad server and delivered flawlessly, without any stutters or buffering, ensuring a television-like experience online. Because the ad is not actually mixed into the live content feed, ads may be served from remote ad servers and localized to the viewer. For example, fans in Brazil may see one advertisement during a live event while fans in France see another.

This technology is not limited to advertising and can be used to create a more dynamic and engaging viewing experience. For instance, a producer may add content during the live stream to indicate that a player has just scored a touchdown. That content can then be sent to the Episodic player which would react by bringing up instant highlight reels from the last five touchdowns the player scored. These sorts of dynamic experiences where the video player reacts in real-time to the action in the frame are unique to the web and essential for driving viewer adoption and monetization of live web video.

Episodic is now offering dynamic live ad insertion as a standard component of the Episodic Publishing Platform. Episodic continues to extend its lead as the only online video platform that allows content publishers to manage and monetize both live and on-demand video from a single application.

About Episodic, Inc.

The Episodic publishing platform enables the broadcast of live and on-demand video to any web site, mobile phone or Internet connected device. With Episodic, content producers are able to push video to their web properties, showcase content via social networks, and even build custom branded iPhone applications around their media. Episodic spans the video value chain, providing everything publishers need to manage, measure and monetize their content. Episodic is based in San Francisco, CA and is privately held.

Akamai Delivers for Leading Broadcasters During Michael Jackson Memorial Service

Otilia Otlacan — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:45:09 +0000

CAMBRIDGE, MA – Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leader in powering rich media, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, announced online traffic statistics associated with live coverage of the funeral services of Michael Jackson.

Experiencing the second largest day ever in terms of total traffic on the Akamai network, the Company reported it delivered more than 2,185,000 live and on-demand streams in Flash® and Windows® Media formats. Total traffic on the Akamai network surpassed a rate of more than 2 terabits per second during the memorial service.

A real-time view of streaming on the Akamai EdgePlatform can be seen at: http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/dataviz3.html.

Consumer interest in online news regarding all aspects of Jackson’s life, death investigation and planned funeral proceedings has remained high since his death. Early on in the online streaming of the memorial services today, at about 1:00 pm EST, there was a peak on Akamai’s Net Usage Index for News (http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/nui/news/index.html) at 3,924,370 visitors per minute, with more than 3.3 million visitors per minute coming from North America. On June 25th, at about 6:30 EST, as word of Jackson’s death began to spread, traffic on the Net Usage Index for News spiked to 4,247,971 global visitors per minute at its peak as compared to average of approximately 2,000,000 visitors per minute globally. Seventy-five percent of visitors were accessing sites from within the United States. As a point of comparison, the largest day on the Akamai network in terms of total traffic on its network was the Obama Inauguration live streaming online in January 2009. Please see this press release for further data on that event: http://www.akamai.com/html/about/press/releases/2009/press_012009.html

“When a public figure of global prominence such as Michael Jackson passes away, the public’s desire for up to date information and news is rarely satiated,” said Robert Hughes, executive vice president of Global Sales, Services, and Marketing at Akamai. “Akamai’s network has seen a steady stream of online traffic when news of any sort related to Michael Jackson is updated, and we expected demand from a global online audience around the online streaming of his funeral would be no different. For an event of this scale, Akamai’s globally-distributed EdgePlatform is unique in its ability to bypass congestion points on the Internet, and to ensure a reliable, high-quality experience for our customers. While this event was supported without any issues for our broadcast customers, it is also important to point out that Akamai continued to deliver perfect quality of service for the remainder of our 2,800 enterprise customers. This is just the beginning of what is possible when broadcasting live to audiences around the world.”

Akamai also delivered 548 Gbps of live and on-demand Flash streams utilizing Adobe Flash technology.

“Given the widespread impact Michael Jackson had on the pop music scene, it’s no surprise millions of people watched his memorial service streamed live on the Web,” said Jim Guerard, vice president and general manager of Dynamic Media for Adobe. “We’re pleased a global audience was able to access and experience this high-profile event – as it happened – via the Adobe Flash Platform over the Akamai Network.”

Adobe Flash Player is on over 98 percent of connected computers and delivers approximately 80 percent of Web video worldwide, ensuring that content and applications are presented consistently in the format users want. For more information on the Adobe Flash Platform, please visit http://www.adobe.com/flashplatform.

The Akamai Difference
Akamai® provides market-leading managed services for powering rich media, dynamic transactions, and enterprise applications online. Having pioneered the content delivery market one decade ago, Akamai’s services have been adopted by the world’s most recognized brands across diverse industries. The alternative to centralized Web infrastructure, Akamai’s global network of tens of thousands of distributed servers provides the scale, reliability, insight and performance for businesses to succeed online. Akamai has transformed the Internet into a more viable place to inform, entertain, advertise, interact, and collaborate. To experience The Akamai Difference, visit www.akamai.com.

Akamai is a registered trademark of Akamai Technologies, Inc. Other trademarks used above are for descriptive purposes only.

Ad Operations Online » Streaming Ads

StreamGuys And AdsWizz Monetize Internet Radio for All Classical Portland

Related articles:

Ooyala Delivers In-Stream Video Viewing on Twitter

Related articles:

US Spending on Mobile Display Ads Will Nearly Quadruple over the Next Five Years, Says ABI Research

Related articles:

Ooyala Adds Adaptive Bitrate and Ad Serving to Live Streams

Related articles:

Episodic Reveals Breakthrough in Dynamic Live Ad Insertion

Related articles:

Akamai Delivers for Leading Broadcasters During Michael Jackson Memorial Service

Related articles: