THE BUSINESS OF “PLAY”MONETIZATION IN A VIDEO ECONOMY

THE BUSINESS OF “PLAY”

COMCASTTECHNOLOGYSOLUTIONS.COM | 800.824.1776 | © 2018 COMCAST TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

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Advertisers, content providers, broadcasters, agencies, content creators: One thing we have in common is that video is foundational to our success as a business. Across every discipline, teams and tech are working in concert to impact the minds and wallets of an increasingly intelligent, informed, and accessible global audience.

It doesn’t matter if your video content is a ten-second ad spot, a short-form entertainment snack, or a premium full-length movie. It also doesn’t matter if the content is an advertising tool to elicit a specific buying behavior, or a product in its own right. Every video has a purpose, and a value. Comcast Technology Solutions helps companies to adapt to a rapidly changing market by adopting the technologies and processes that can keep up – and keep them competitive.

HYBRIDITY: THE NEW NORMAL The relationship between video content and consumer happens through a screen, and those screens are evolving to challenge our notion of what a display can even be. Today, we’re talking about the Internet of Things and smart appliances. Tomorrow we may be talking about screens that fold up or are embedded in our clothing or eyewear. The new video economy is built on the success of relationships at the individual level, on the viewer’s terms, and your monetization strategy needs the flexibility to adapt to those very personal terms.

According to Nielsen’s Q1 2018 Total Audience Report, linear television consumption continues to rise along with growth in streaming and on-demand video. In fact, the broadcast model is proving to be popular with OTT destinations as well, and can serve as an “always on” component of a video experience that can include multiple ways for consumers to acquire on-demand content as well, such as:

• Transactional: A singular purchase: I give you money, you give me video.

• Ad-supported: I watch your linear feed or on-demand programs for free; advertisers pay you to include their content with yours.

• Subscription–based: I purchase a block of time during which I can access your content.

The hybridization, the “bringing together” of multiple approaches is a response to the truth that there is no “one right path” to connect you with a perpetually moving consumer target. To be clear, hybridizing your commerce approach is not as simple as taking different shots from different angles. It’s about taking a scientific approach to video commerce that’s based on sound insights about that consumer’s behavior.

Comcast Technology Solutions helps through a suite of advanced commerce tools that introduce necessary agility and fluidity into each workflow. Especially in the case of premium content that’s high-demand but more expensive to curate, there are ways to find a more profitable “sweet spot” that doesn’t alienate audiences with high expectations. Examples of hybridity in action include:

• Incorporating a transaction-based component into a subscription model is a phenomenal way to maximize the value of your premium content with flexible monetization options.

• Advertising can have a place in a subscription model too. The introduction of advertising tactics that don’t intrude on a viewing experience can offset the expense of content curation and production, without putting subscribers at risk for churn.

THE BUSINESS OF “PLAY”

COMCASTTECHNOLOGYSOLUTIONS.COM | 800.824.1776 | © 2018 COMCAST TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

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ELASTICITY: TECHNOLOGY FOR OMNI-DIRECTIONAL AGILITYA key success trait for today’s brands is flexibility—the ability to incorporate new ideas and components quickly. When consumer behavior shifts, we want to meet viewers on their terms with experiences and monetization strategies that make people say “this is valuable to me.” Elasticity takes this idea of flexibility and – pun intended – stretches it.

The problem is that keeping up with the pace of innovation is expensive, especially at the scale needed to reach viewers that are global and mobile. Capital expenditures are hard to justify when obsolescence could be looming right around the corner. The pace of innovation is so rapid that it’s almost a forgone conclusion that technology research and investments must be included into every annual budget. It’s not hard to see just how easily a major technology build can leach focus and resources from a media company’s primary mission statement: to make and sell great content and experiences that resonate with viewers.

Comcast Technology Solutions helps companies to maintain focus on what matters most – the audience relationship. As a technology partner, our philosophy is built on a holistic framework called Media Technology Lifecycle Management (MTLM). MTLM promotes the development of new media technology and delivery approaches to meet the ever-changing needs of consumers, while allowing for new monetization frameworks that will benefit the long-term success and viability of organizations and the overall industry alike. The core tenets of our MTLM framework are:

1. Know Your Business: A complete understanding of your existing platforms, processes and business models

2. Know Your Landscape: Becoming an expert in current market dynamics, trends, and competition

3. Create Centers of Excellence: Embracing transparency, trust, and mutual respect

4. Refine Your Workflow: Harden systems and processes in concert with innovation and security

5. Be Elastic: Adopt an elastic approach to dynamically scale, control costs, and roll out new business models

6. Measure Success: Establish the right benchmarks and performance metrics to drive improvements

7. Repeat: Practice continuous improvement with regular reviews that consider the impacts of a rapidly changing market to your game plan

Through this framework, our partners can meet shifting customer behaviors and demands with dynamic new technologies, delivery approaches, and monetization models. With the technology in place, teams can apply greater focus to core business initiatives – like serving customers and creating new content – while simultaneously lowering operating expenses.

“ELASTICITY TAKES THIS IDEA OF FLEXIBILITY AND STRETCHES IT.

THE BUSINESS OF “PLAY”

COMCASTTECHNOLOGYSOLUTIONS.COM | 800.824.1776 | © 2018 COMCAST TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

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TOOLS TO MAXIMIZE CUSTOMER LIFETIME VALUE (CLV)What drives your business?

Your monetization strategy is not something that gets tacked onto the end of a content library, but rather is a direct result of a) your understanding of unique audience journeys, and b) your ability to pivot quickly and adapt to every permutation of change. Beyond the basics of managing files and destination, there’s a lot of relationship management to think about:

• Entice and convert new viewers: Offer free trials, introductory pricing and subscriber privileges to entice new customers, or target specific consumer segments with tailored promotions. Expand your base organically with gift vouchers and internal incentives such as refer-a-friend rewards. Implement short-term “test drives” like weekend or one-day access.

• Turn raw data into actionable intelligence: Identify minimum subscription periods needed to recoup subscriber acquisition cost. Implement automatic renewals and rollovers. Implement robust reporting to maintain the highest awareness of subscriber loss, and pour the insights into loyalty and retention campaigns.

• Build Loyalty: Roll out an experience that reduces churn with baked-in flexibility that supports options like a la carte product bundling, “cross-grading” across platforms, and flexible billing options (such as the ability to skip payments or get warranted refunds easily.)

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT: PEOPLE TVThis breakthrough venture is a perfect example of how an established brand can employ agile monetization strategies to tap into the huge market potential of today’s over-the-top (OTT) video market. Print media was the parent company’s bread and butter for most of the company’s history; but even as customer preferences shifted into digital consumption, they wanted to create a new, long-form “lean back” video destination that would be much different than the short-form video content that the company was used to producing. They required a solution that was not only cost-effective, but also one with the elasticity to scale up or down. If the program was successful, the model also needed to be fully duplicated to potentially launch similar services for other brands in the company’s stable.

• The kick off began with a detailed launch plan and a deep-dive assessment of the technologies and workflows needed for a successful launch. Throughout the planning and design phases of the program, a spirit of open communication kept the aggressive timeline on track.

• A streamlined, complete set of tools and processes enable the team to manage and publish video assets across all platforms. In fact, the client has needed only a handful of dedicated employees to maintain operations and keep fresh content coming to customers on time.

• Comcast Technology Solutions’ expertise in advertising and video content presentation was brought to bear, delivering insights around advertising placement, multi-platform user experience, and how to maximize the value of an advertising-based video on demand (AVOD) destination.

Within 6 months, we launched People TV – a groundbreaking, ad supported, free streaming service that brings viewers into a deeper level of engagement with these respected and celebrated brands. Available on leading OTT platforms, smart TVs, mobile devices and the web, the results have surpassed forecasts for both revenue and market penetration. Within a year of launching, the app had been downloaded more than a million times, and the average viewing time is well over 30 minutes. For a video destination that relies on advertising revenue, the success and quality of the new service makes it an increasingly attractive choice for advertisers to place their best video spots. The service was designed from the get-go to provide People TV with the agility to change monetization strategies, or adopt new ones, based on insights from real-world use. In fact, although the initial plan was to transition to a subscriber-based service, advertiser interest in the new service’s popularity has exceeded expectations.

THE BUSINESS OF “PLAY”

COMCASTTECHNOLOGYSOLUTIONS.COM | 800.824.1776 | © 2018 COMCAST TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

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ADVERTISERS: CAPITALIZE ON MORE SCREEN OPPORTUNITIESAdvertising delivery is, at its core, content delivery. Advertisers and agencies alike are on the lookout for every opportunity to increase revenue and elevate the success of every campaign. That said, they both share many of the same overarching delivery pain points as other media specialties, such as the increased costs and complexities of serving a multi-platform consumer landscape and the mounting expenses of producing top-quality video spots. That said, there are plenty of differences as well.

• Video advertising is paving the way for monetization of new screen opportunities (the Internet of Things, for example), which behooves advertisers and agencies to employ the technologies and process efficiencies that can accept unforeseen new destinations into the workflow.

• The short shelf-life of most brand messaging means that there’s no such thing as a “set it and forget it” mentality, where a program and an associated ad stay connected in perpetuity. Ad distribution workflows need to operate as close to real-time publication as possible in order to open screens up to quick-strike opportunities and local businesses looking to leverage video.

• Buy-side and sell-side players in the advertising ecosystem are both still contending with processes developed over decades of linear television – with protracted delivery times that don’t work well for the near-real-time spot placement needs of non-linear, on-demand programming.

ADVANCED COMMERCE FOR AD BUYERS AND SELLERSEffective, agile monetization and advertising strategies require a workflow that allows both buy-side and sell-side players to place content in near-real time. Comcast Technology Solutions developed a collaborative cloud-based “marketplace” that can easily accessed by players across the delivery path. Benefits include:

• Quality-assured mezzanine assets that are ready for distribution at the press of a button for near real-time campaign execution

• Centralized library and asset management terminal

• Standards and Practices approval; seamless pass/fail functionality

• End-point aware processing and distribution

• End-to-end support, visibility, and instant asset tracking

With our cloud-based ad management solution, agencies can fill an ad repository, and programmers have access to use this universal library in a multi-tenancy environment. This provides real-time execution, and decreases processing time by days. It’s huge news for advertisers looking to capitalize on the revenue potential of rising percentage of on-demand viewing.

“ EFFECTIVE, AGILE MONETIZATION AND ADVERTISING STRATEGIES

REQUIRE A WORKFLOW THAT ALLOWS PLAYERS TO PLACE

CONTENT IN NEAR-REAL TIME.

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© 2018 COMCAST TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

THE CHALLENGES: TIME AND COMPLEXITYWhy does it still take days to get ads delivered to multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs)? Content providers often contend with internal workflows that require anywhere from 24 to 72 hours of time for a spot to be processed. That’s entirely too unreliable for advertisers with time-sensitive spots to sell. The problem is complexity:

• Dynamic ad insertion (DAI) for set-top video on-demand (STB VOD) requires additional metadata in a certain format in order to work properly with an intended program. Many spots aren’t delivered with the right (or any) metadata, so the onus is on the provider to produce it.

• DAI for digital destinations requires a variety of media formats, which again puts the responsibility on content providers to have the right people and tools to transcode and verify every iteration of every program. More than just quality assurance, it’s crucial to ensure the playback of the end-product.

• Standardization of processes doesn’t exist. Each MVPD has its own mechanisms and processes, and that can include a lot of internal client requests for large media companies – for instance, ads that advertise their own programming.

• Volume is a huge issue. For national spots alone, a major provider handles hundreds of thousands of spots annually.

Providers want to fully capitalize on the value of their content, especially during Nielsen C3/D4 measurement periods; but they can’t get there in a traditional workflow. Existing processes take too long to complete, and the delivery window can vary greatly, essentially limiting the types of advertising that can be utilized for a VOD asset. Advertising assets with a shorter shelf life, such as local ads or time-bound promotions, are not a good match for VOD playback unless they can be swapped out in near real-time once they are no longer viable.

THE PROBLEM FOR BUYERS AND SELLERSOur cloud-based architecture provides a common content hub for ad buyers and sellers. The centralized location within the overall ad delivery pathway provides both advertiser/agency and content provider/broadcaster with unprecedented visibility and ease-of-use. Where the previous workflow takes up to three days to complete, the new process can be completed in hours.

The across-the-board benefits translate into more than just better performance. They imbue the entire operation with the needed agility to respond to changes in short order, and make last-minute revenue opportunities possible. It eliminates multi-supplier delays and cost structure, ensuring that every ad impression opportunity is monetized.

YOUR CONTENT IS VALUABLE. MAKE THE MOST OF IT.Comcast Technology Solutions brings innovations from Comcast to the advertiser, content provider, global operator, and technology industries — providing solutions to our collective challenges and helping to forge a shared vision for the future. Built on Comcast’s know-how, proven facilities, platforms, and infrastructure, Comcast Technology Solutions offers more than 20 years of real-world broadcast and digital experience. We deliver technology beyond expectations to help customers develop new business models and transform the customer experience.

To find out more about how we can help you meet your online video objectives, visit www.ComcastTechnologySolutions.com, or contact us at +1 800.824.1776.