The ability of Internet TV broadcasters to monetize their content took a big step forward last week when Joost, the service launched last year by the founders of Skype, announced it has signed 31 advertisers from around the world as launch partners, including The Coca-Cola Co., Visa, Taco Bell Corp. and United Airlines.
The company announced its commercial launch yesterday, after a beta trial that began last December.
Joost offers over 100 channels of varying genres from some of the leading TV networks and entertainment companies, including CBS and Viacom, which will provide everything from prime time CBS programs and CSTV college sports to MTV, VH1, BET, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central content from Viacom. The company has also signed deals with Sony Music and other major record labels to play music videos.
Programming is available free at Joost.com to anyone who downloads the software. Full screen, TV-like content plays.
Brad Elders, Joost’s senior vice president of sales, said the company would follow an ad to edit ratio of no more than three minutes per 60 minutes of programming, “to strip out the clutter of network TV.”
He said advertisers would use “introstitials” instead of pre-rolls. Introstitials, a word Joost coined, refers to brief “brought to you by” messages that will play before programs start, followed by three :30s playing during a 30 minute program. Each program will have only one advertiser initially, he said.
Advertisers can play traditional TV spots, but they can take advantage of original executions Joost has developed “to add interactivity to the experience,” Elders said. Ads can run with an overlay that allows viewers to click for more information. “If viewers want tips on the product, they can click and the video behind it will stop and they go into the ad experience in a deeper way,” Elders said. The overlay will look like a logo that appears at the top of the screen.
Another new execution is the “hand raiser,” a small box that appears on the page that can be clicked to take users to a menu of branded content they can play.
Joost has worked with more than 20 agencies to develop campaigns for their clients, including Interpublic, which owns a variety of major agencies. Greg Johnson, executive director of the Emerging Media Lab, a division of Interpublic that advises the company’s agencies about new media opportunities, sees Joost as a “new type of offering with a very immersive solution for advertisers. They are showcasing video content in a way you haven’t seen before. The new interactive ad formats Joost has developed provide advertisers with the opportunity to use the overlay to interface with consumers.” He said the challenge is to make advertisers “understand how the video content can be applied.”
Todd Chanko, a JupiterResearch analyst, said advertising on Joost is a “no brainer. If they’re selling it on a CPM basis, it will be a lot cheaper than traditional media buys, so it’s a low cost way to get into the new platform. If it takes off they look smart and if it doesn’t they haven’t lost much.”
For certain major brands, advertising on Joost makes sense because their products identify with the medium. For HP and Intel, “they have an obligation to appear on the cutting edge and as for Nike, Joost is a venue for music video, so they’re counting on it to deliver the same type of audience as MTV,” Chanko said.
“For Joost, it’s a different story,” he said. “Will they upend the traditional TV model? Probably not. There’s still the issues of individuals having to download the software and have PCs that can run it. They have to go through the trouble as opposed to going to YouTube or streaming episodes of Desperate Housewives. Joost is still competing with the multi-channel video services, cable and satellite TV. In that sense, whether they have advertising partners or not, they have a long way to go. But it’s very impressive and proactive that they have sponsors and programmers on board.”
Dmitry Shapiro, Chief Executive Officer of Veoh, another Internet TV platform that is a Joost competitor, said, “It’s exciting that Joost has launched. We understand that there’s something much bigger than YouTube and that consumers want to be able to watch TV-like programs that are delivered to the Net. They’ve gone out and signed visible deals with advertisers. We have deals we haven’t announced yet, but we’ll be announcing them soon.”
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More