Posted on 18 September 2007 by Robert Seidman
At the recent TechCrunch40 conference in San Francisco, angel investor Ron Conway said that he thought monetization of Internet video was the single biggest growth opportunity on a percentage basis.
While TVbytheNumbers will mostly focus on the numbers that drive the business of television, we believe that when it comes to today’s television content over time some of the lines are getting blurred. People are accessing their favorite content in new and different ways.
Further, with budgets for online video advertising expected to reach as high as $4.3 billion annually by 2011 according to some estimates, we expect the space to heat up rapidly and we’ll be tracking it.
As veterans of some of the issues that have plagued Web measurement, it seemed like a great time to check in with some of the measuring companies and thought leaders regarding Internet video metrics.
Panelists:
1. What are the biggest challenges of measuring internet video?
Ted Leonsis: Measurement of any new medium is difficult, but it is especially so in a hyper-growth market like internet video. Internet video has a variety of challenges when it comes to measurement, the biggest of which is measuring the relative value of one video over another.
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Posted on 10 September 2007 by Robert Seidman
1. What are the biggest challenges of measuring internet video?Videos can become extremely popular overnight (for example Funny or Die’s ‘The Landlord’) and then flame out within a few days. While each video may represent a terrific advertising platform, real time speed and resolution are required if advertisers and publishers are to capitalize on such transient popularity.
From a technology point of view, there are a number of challenges. Primarily, as with the web overall, a new methodology is required that combines panel-based data with directly measured data.
- Panel-data alone does not suffice. (As with measuring other Internet media, panel based measurement is deeply flawed especially when it comes to understanding the consumption of long tail content and interpreting short-term trends.)
- Direct measurement is challenged to provide full coverage of viral video distribution. (Sometimes raw data files are shared and often content [and Flash players] is embedded in sites that don’t allow the JavaScript that can identify the location of the embedding, for example MySpace).
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Posted on 10 September 2007 by Robert Seidman
1. What are the biggest challenges of measuring Internet video?
Whether you’re measuring video online, on traditional television sets or on an expanding array of other delivery platforms, the ultimate objective is to be able to identify who actually is watching the content, because advertisers consider demographic measurement of audiences critical to effectively targeting their creative messages.
From a single panel perspective (where we measure both Internet and television in the same home) a major hurdle is simply getting people to allow us to measure their Internet usage. From a privacy standpoint, people see PC’s as dramatically different from TV’s, and, at this point, they are much less willing to allow us to measure their online activities.
Another complexity is that fact that virtually all sites have their own internal measurement, and creating syndicated data that provides a comprehensive view that is in line with client’s server data can be difficult for a variety of reasons. But in general, creating Internet video measurement systems that are flexible and scalable enough to accommodate the fluid nature of the present industry is the chief challenge we’ve embraced.
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