Internet Video: Direct-to-Consumer Services, a new study by Parks Associates, a Dallas, TX research and consulting firm, projects broadband video ad spending will rise from $1.072 billion in 2006 to $4.385 billion in 2010.
“Major broadcasters, movie studios, retailers, and content aggregators are all experimenting with new ways to distribute video content online and attach advertising to their offerings,” said Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst. “The early results are quite promising.”
He said the revenue is split between embedded ads and non-embedded display ads. “Most of these early advertising dollars will be generated from display ads on different video streaming Web sites. Later, as the inventory of high-quality embedded advertising increases, we’ll see that ad revenue grow to surpass the non-embedded ad dollars,” he said.
Most of the advertising is in-banner video ads and in-stream pre-rolls, but alteratives are being developed by VideoEgg, which is leveraging opt-in tickers and banners and Vidavee, which is introducing a hot mapping technology that identifies the most popular segment within a video for advertisers to insert their messages, Scherf said.
The study also focused on the revenue TV networks are generating from advertising inserted into their broadband offerings. “ABC indicates that revenues from their Internet programming could total approximately $700 million in fiscal 2007 and Scripps Networks, which operates such broadcast channels as The Food Network, HGTV, Fine Living and DIY, announced that 10 percent of its revenue is coming from online sources, most of it advertising,” Scherf said. “Online distribution has boosted viewership and advertising revenues for current prime time television offerings and serves a strong differentiator in an increasingly fragmented market.”
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More