According to eMarketer , US digital video advertising spending will increase by double-digit percentages annually between 2018 and 2021, eventually topping $22 billion. How can you capitalize on the exciting new opportunities that come with this growing industry? You need to develop a comprehensive strategy and overcome common hurdles—from maintaining viewability to minimizing latency—to deliver a high-quality, multi-platform experience.

Not sure where to get started? You’re in luck: We just released a new video advertising content hub —packed with the insights and information you need to maximize your ROI and grow your business. And we’ll be continuously updating the hub with industry trends and best practices to ensure you’re set for success. Read on for a preview of what you can expect, and download the whitepaper to learn more.

Master the terminology

Did you know that the Media Ratings Council (MRC) recently released updated guidelines on what they consider to be a “viewable ad impression”? According to the new guidelines, an ad has to be 100% in view for two seconds or more in order to be considered “viewable.” 

Check out the first five videos in our advertising-focused Video Vocab series to learn more about:

• The latest definition of “viewability”

• The two primary ad request formats (VAST and VPAID)

• How an ad server, a demand-side platform (DSP), and a supply-side platform (SSP) work together to create an ad ecosystem

• The difference between client-side ad insertion (CSAI) and server-side ad insertion (SSAI)

Get started

To stake a claim in the world of video advertising, you need to develop a comprehensive strategy—and determine how you will execute on it to achieve the best results.

Our new whitepaper outlines the following steps to capitalize on your market opportunity:

1. Identify valuable audiences and determine which devices and platforms they’re using.

2. Ensure your content is brand-safe and attractive to advertisers.

3. Establish an ad operations team—and assign the right people to oversee technical implementation and manage monetization efforts.

4. Select the right ad server to meet your needs.

5. Determine whether direct or programmatic advertising (or a combination of both) is right for your business.

The video advertising landscape can often feel fragmented and complex, but taking the steps above will give you a great launching point—paving a streamlined path toward monetizing all of your content. Download the whitepaper for more tips and best practices.

Want more expert insights on how to maximize your video advertising potential? Check out our Optimize Your Video Advertising Strategy content hub. And be sure to stay tuned for more video advertising content over the coming months!

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Whether you’re looking to streamline internal communications or improve the employee onboarding process, video can be a powerful tool to inform, engage, and unify your teams. 

And don’t just take our word for it: By incorporating instructional videos into its training program, Wendy’s boosted employee learning retention and decreased the time employees needed to spend in training courses. And Dunkin’ Brands used video to bridge the geographic gap between corporate staff and 2,000 franchise owners around the world. From improving learning initiatives to streamlining communications between remote teams, it’s clear that video can connect your organization in exciting new ways.

Do these stories inspire you to put video to work across your enterprise? You’re in luck! We rounded up some of our top blog posts covering all the basics you need to know to get started:

• Boost your employee engagement with video
  Not sure where to begin? Check out this post for expert insights on how video can improve your employee onboarding, education, and engagement efforts—and ideas on the types of content you should prioritize.

• 7 tips for engaging employee training videos
  When it comes to employee training videos, engagement is crucial to ensuring your team actually retains the knowledge you’re sharing. Read this post for seven tips on how to create training content your employees will actually look forward to watching. 

• Using training videos to transform corporate learning
  Ready to take your training videos to the next level? Check out this post to learn more about how to live stream learning sessions, adapt and improve your training content based on video engagement metrics, and more.

• Behind the scenes with Brightcove: Building culture with video
  We practice what we preach here at Brightcove! Read this post to learn more about how our team uses video to deliver engaging monthly C-suite communications and live stream internal events to our teams around the world.

• Tips and tricks for employee and customer appreciation videos
  With Thanksgiving just a few weeks away, this post is particularly timely! Check it out to learn how to use video to show your team you’re thankful for their hard work and dedication. Whether you choose to highlight some major team wins or an employee of the month, video can be a powerful tool for recognizing the people who make your business thrive.

Want to learn more about how to take your internal comms to the next level with video? Explore our enterprise video suite to find the solution that meets your needs.

To view our Partner blog, click here

For the first time in a decade, the number of TV sets in the US connected to a pay-TV provider’s service has fallen under 50%. A new study from Leichtman Research Group said just 47% of all TVs in use have a providers’ set-top box.

Also down: Total connections. Just 75% of TV households nationwide subscribe to some form of live pay-TV service, LRG said, down from 84% five years ago and from 87% in 2009. That 75% is similar to the number of households that watch TV that currently take a subscription video service like Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime.

Just more than half (54%) of TV households have both a cable, satellite, or telco video service and an SVOD service, while a nearly equal number (21% and 20% respectively) have only a pay-TV service or only an SVOD service. Just 5% have neither, LRG said.

Pay-TV is losing younger viewers faster

Not surprisingly, older demographics remain more likely to subscribe to a pay-TV service than do younger consumers. About 83% of adults ages 45+ have a service—compared to 64% of ages 18-44.

• RELATED: Streaming services are just the new TV channels
• RELATED: Netflix Q3 earnings: 31% revenue hike, 6.8M new subs
• ALSO: AT&T hopes HBO Max will slow sub losses

Households with more TVs are more likely to be connected to a pay-TV service, with 87% of households with three or more TVs subscribing. That compares to 75% of households with two TVs, and 52% with one TV.

Overall, 27% of households now have an over-the-air antenna, LRG said, including 53% of non-subscribing TV households.

One other very worrisome trend is the decay in the number of households subscribing to a bundle of service from a cable, telco, or satellite provider, which for years has been a measure of the industry’s health and profitability. Combining high-margin phone and Internet service with low-margin video services has been crucial.

LRG said just 60% of providers now have a bundle of services, compared to 67% in 2014.

Finally, the cost of pay-TV services continued to rise. LRG said the average price tag was up about 6% since 2016 to $109.60.

The report is based on a telephone survey of 1,115 US adults age 18+. It has a statistical margin of error of +/- 2.9%.

The bottom line

The pay-TV business is evolving rapidly, with alternative video sources like Netflix et al setting a new table of choices for consumers. As AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said during the telco’s Q2 earnings call with analysts last month, the speed of the changes caught many traditional media companies and distributors by surprise.

With a new wave of services just surfacing—Disney+ and Apple TV+—the changes and challenges aren’t likely to slow down and slow-moving media companies risk being swamped by the rising tide around them.

Stay tuned.

Ed. Note: This post first appeared on the Videomind  blog.

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Whether you’re shooting a CEO update for internal communications or a corporate culture video for social, chances are you’ll need to leverage your fellow team members as on-screen talent. While some of your coworkers will welcome this opportunity to shine on camera, others may shudder at the thought of being in front of those big studio lights. In these scenarios, it’s more important than ever that you have a strategy in place to ensure your talent feels comfortable on set.

Here are my top five tips on what to do before and during a shoot to help your team members deliver their best possible performance:

1. Share the script beforehand

The actual shoot should never be the first time your on-screen talent sees the script. Make sure they get their eyes on it at least a few days in advance so that they can familiarize themselves with the content and get comfortable with what they’re saying. And consider organizing a table read with everyone involved in the shoot. This can be particularly beneficial for videos that involve ensemble casts or first-time actors. 

2. Prepare a visual package to help set the scene

Whenever possible, create the world in which the person is going to be acting in first. For instance, if an individual’s speaking role lives within a larger b-roll or graphics package, produce that shell before you shoot in the studio. By sharing those assets with your team member, you can provide them with more clarity on the overall style of the video and how they should behave on screen. 

This step is particularly important in projects where the actor needs to take on a unique persona to hit the desired tone. For instance, in our recent internal sales spiff video, we were going for an old game show vibe—and we shared our graphics package with our talent ahead of time so he had all the inspiration he needed to play host for the day.

3. Start the shoot with a practice run

During the first 10 minutes or so, take the time to go through the script together. Ask the talent to read through their lines, and offer to adjust any words or phrases that just don’t feel right to them. It’s important for the speakers to appear natural, so make any necessary tweaks to avoid the “I would never say it that way” scenario. Doing this at the onset empowers you to adjust the teleprompter accordingly, making your talent feel even more comfortable when it comes time to get in front of the camera.

4. Encourage your talent to keep going (even when they make a mistake!)

Of course, it’s only natural to want to stop and start over when you trip on a word or forget an important part of the line. But in reality, getting stuck on one particular sentence will only make the individual feel frustrated and decrease their overall confidence on camera. Coach your team member to ignore the mistake and keep going. And let them know that you’ll keep track of which parts you’ll need to go back to later. Just be sure to give them a nod of assurance that they’re doing great so far:

5. Run through the script multiple times—and take a break when necessary

Experience level comes into play here, but many of your internal video stars will become increasingly comfortable with each run through—which will in turn lead to a better overall performance. By letting them know that the plan is to compile the best takes from each run through, you can assure them that they don’t have to do a perfect read every time. And if you find that they really hit their stride in the latter half of the last read through, be sure to do the whole thing one more time so that their tone is consistent throughout.

That being said, if you sense that someone is becoming increasingly stressed or frustrated with each take, don’t be afraid to stop for a bit to let them regain their composure. See below for real-life footage of me needing to take a short timeout:

In these scenarios, reiterate that your team member has worked really hard so far and they deserve a quick break. And, if applicable, consider having them watch one of your more experienced team members run through their section of the script to pick up some tips and tricks.

The golden rules of coaching talent

As a general best practice, be sure to focus on the end result when you’re on set. By coaching your talent through the lens of “this is what this video needs to be to hit X goal,” you can encourage alignment and offer a gentle reminder that any feedback you provide isn’t personal. 

And be sure to take the pressure off of them (and onto you!) whenever possible. For instance, let’s say you’ve ran through a certain section a few times and it still isn’t just right, but the talent feels comfortable with their performance. Consider blaming an outside factor—like a distracting sound or an equipment snafu—for wanting to do just one more take.

Overall, it’s important to remember that your internal talent will have varying degrees of experience and comfort on camera. When producing videos with your team members, be sure to assess every situation to determine what tools and coaching each individual needs to produce the best possible performance.

With the right guidance, your talent may even become video rockstars like our CEO Jeff Ray and CRO Rick Hanson:

Interested in more video tips and tricks? Check out our Video 101 roundup .

To view our Partner blog, click here

In today’s media landscape, consumers are becoming more accustomed to accessing news content online for free. And publishers have responded by serving ads as a way to earn revenue. But there is a downside to this type of monetization strategy: ad fatigue. According to recent research, 47 percent of internet users around the world use an ad blocker, making it increasingly difficult to achieve a high ad viewability rate.

As such, it’s critical for publishers to develop a monetization strategy that empowers them to combat ad fatigue, while also maximizing their advertising revenue and retaining a desirable roster of advertiser clients—who have a vast range of media outlets to choose from. Here’s where video advertising comes in. Whether you start with simple pre-roll ads or get a little more creative with options like sponsored content, video advertising offers a variety of revenue opportunities through which you can deliver a non-intrusive ad experience and stand out from your competitors.

Introducing Brightcove’s Video Revenue Guide for Publishers 

Interested in learning more about the different monetization options you should explore? You’re in luck: We just released our Video Revenue Guide for Publishers , which provides an overview of  15 different revenue streams. These strategies are broken down into five main categories:

• Programmatic advertising

• Sponsored user experiences

• Interactive videos

• Sponsored content

• Sponsored content amplification

This quick guide is a useful resource for any publishers who want to optimize their video advertising portfolio and any advertisers who want to get creative with their brand outreach.

Interested in learning more about your monetization options? Download the Video Revenue Guide for Publishers .

To view our Partner blog, click here

Think channels, people, as in the TV channels you grew up with. Whether they were delivered over the air or via a cable/satellite/IPTV pay-TV service or even across a virtual pay-TV service like SlingTV or YouTube TV, we all grew up with channels.

And that is what we’re seeing in the evolution of the SVOD ecosystem. Channels. There are channels that consumers can hang around and binge years of content on. And, channels that can be flipped through to watch a single season of a particular show (Homeland on Showtime, for example). Even channels that can be visited occasionally for particular content (ESPN+ during college football season) and then changed (what we now call churn).

It’s just TV channels.

As the channel universe expands—Disney+ and Apple+ and the slew of offerings from AT&T/HBO and NBCUniversal’s Peacock—consumers will do what they’ve always done: Vote with their remotes. Change channels, churn, and build their own bundles and micro-bundles that will include content as specific as This is Us and Black-ish, subscribed to on a per-episode basis.

And that, really, is next-gen TV or TV 2.0 or simply TV (which is very likely to be watched on mobile devices, as we found with out with our Q2 2019 Global Video Index ).

New ‘TV channels’ add choice, not saturation

Much ado has been made over new entries to the market in the United States and globally. Pundits have been wringing their hands (or clapping gleefully) that the Big Three, Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu (OK, maybe the Big Two, sorry Hulu) were doomed. Apple TV+ and Disney+, they say, will unleash a flood of subscriber defections of biblical proportions.

Or, not.

I’m pretty firmly in the “or, not” camp, because Apple and Amazon are just two channels of an incomplete entertainment lineup that individual users are building for themselves.

• RELATED: Q2 2019 Global Video Index: Long-form content dominates all devices

Subscribers who are used to the massive catalogs of content from either Netflix or Amazon are not going to leave them for the nascent catalog of content Apple TV+ is offering, nor will they discard those channels for the slightly broader, but still limited catalog from Disney+. Instead, they’ll add a new channel. Or, two, or, three.

Because even as those pundits wring/clap their hands about the over-saturation of SVOD services and the rising costs, subscribers continue to build their bundles.

A survey from Piper Jaffray found that only about a quarter of Netflix subscribers had any interest in the new services from Disney (28%) and Apple (23%).

Said Piper Jaffray Analyst Michael Olson: “For those (Netflix subscribers) that do expect to use one of these offerings, the vast majority expect to also maintain their Netflix subscription.”

Instead, they’ll continue to trim their spending on traditional TV offerings, Olson said, adding, “most existing Netflix subscribers appear to be trending toward multiple streaming video subscriptions.”

Ah, the heavy price of streaming… or, not

You’ve all heard this: “The cost of streaming is higher than the cost of a typical pay-TV subscription.”

The rationalization? A Netflix HD subscription costs $16/month. YouTube TV, for live sports and access to the Big Four networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox) is $50. Of course, you’ll want HBO, Showtime, Starz, and Cinemax, and that’s another $45. Want to watch Man in the High Castle on Amazon Prime? Another $10 a month. Then, Disney+ will land for $7, you’ll need to add ESPN+ if you’re a big college football fan, for example. Another $5. And don’t forget about Apple TV+, because it’s going to be very cool: $5. Need more content? How about—as USA Today suggested would be a typical bundle upgrade for consumers—CBS All Access ($6), NBA League Pass ($29), PBS Kids ($5)? Let’s add a couple of niche streaming services, say three at $5 each.

The total for a typical streamer using this rubric? $193. AND, you’ll need an Internet service for another $70. OMG! Streaming will cost you $263 a month! Way more than pay TV, right?

Bad math is just bad math

Nope. It’s bunk. Because no one (except maybe me and it’s for work, really) has that many streaming services. In fact, a recent survey by Cord Cutters News found more than 91% of their audience have four or fewer paid streaming services . About 54% of the respondents say they subscribe to two or three services. And, unless you’re one of the 20% of Americans who don’t have the Internet, you’re not getting online just to stream… it’s part of your daily life.

More realistic? Netflix, YouTube TV, and Amazon Prime (because of the 2^nd day shipping) are your core. That’s $71 a month. And, if you’re like most Americans, you can add another $15 a month because you churn through services as you discover and binge content. I mean, who keeps HBO after they’ve watched all of GoT, right? That’s $86 and you’re watching the channels you want to without paying for the 300+ channel package typical to pay-TV bundles.

Just to clarify something, if you’re a pay-TV subscriber spending $107 a month and you want HBO, and Starz, and Showtime, and Cinemax, you’re going to pay for them anyway. Don’t want to miss what’s on Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix? Cha-ching! You’re digging into the wallet again to the tune of $185. Add another $70 for that pesky Internet and it’s $255. (Adding Apple TV+, Disney+, PBS Kids, NBA League Pass, and CBS All Access takes it well over $300.)

So, let’s agree the cost argument is a moot point. Because it is.

Stay tuned.

Ed. Note: This post first appeared on the Videomind  blog.

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