A summary of the most exciting recent news in online video in the U.S., U.S.-Hispanic and Latin American markets. If you’re trying to keep up, consider this your one-stop shop.
US/US-HISPANIC MARKET
According to YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, 1.5 billion logged in viewers visit online video social network YouTube every single month. That’s the equivalent of one in every five people around the world. Average viewers spend over an hour a daywatching YouTube on mobile devices alone. Wojcicki also added that YouTube is working to make Virtual Reality (VR) more accessible and more affordable for viewers and creators.
Olympusat, Inc., a media company specializing in the ownership, distribution, production and technical services of Spanish and English-language networks, announced that Consolidated Communications will roll out the VEMOX™ platform to deliver its new Spanish-language OTT TV Everywhere service.
According to the Ooyala Q1 2017 Global Video Index, for the first time long-form content represents the majority of time spent watching video on every screen.
Accenture Interactive is entering programmatic video, launching a new ad unit that will incorporate programmatic overlay product placements on streaming video content.
Adobe is introducing Adobe Advertising Cloud TV to add new capabilities to its TubeMogul platform. The goal is to accelerate the adoption of data-based automated TV buying, including linear TV, addressable TV, connected TV, VOD and over-the-top TV.
Facebook is releasing a new app for creators, the company announced at the annual online video conference VidCon Friday.
21st Century Fox Inc.‘s sports department is eliminating the writing staff to invest in more-lucrative video production.
Video ad serving platform SpotX and Immersion Corp. (NASDAQ:IMMR), the leading developer and licensor of haptic technology, have joined forces to bring haptic-responsive video advertising opportunities to market at scale on mobile devices. By teaming up, the pair will bring Immersion’s haptic technology across all media owners on SpotX’s platform, empowering advertisers with high-impact, tactile experiences.
More than $4 billion was spent on US mobile video ads in 2016, according to the latest Global Entertainment and Media Global Outlook report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers. That number is expected to nearly quadruple to $16.2 billion spent on digital video by 2021.
LATAM MARKET
OTT measurement firm Conviva closed a $40 million funding round, with investment from Future Fund, New Enterprise Associates, Foundation Capital and Time Warner, for the development of new products in Latin America and Asia.
Last month, AwesomenessTV launched a new season on its Spanish YouTube channel with 2btube. The leading Spanish language digital talent representation agency and content producer will produce and manage all the content for this channel.
Spanish media group AtresMedia announced a deal to buy Smartclip, a video ad platform that works on connecting online and TV ads, to increase operations in Latin America, with a focus on Brazil. In Latin America, the company has 164 million unique viewers, according to comScore.
