So YouTube want better recommendations?
Posted by: David on: August 23, 2009
The Filter delivers video recommendations based on consumption
My team at The Filter have been delivering recommendations based on behavior and consumption (rather than based on key words/tags) for some of the biggest video companies on the web (US TV networks and video aggregators). So, we know that what YouTube are talking about is true – delivering keyword based recommendations creates fatigue, whereas, using behavior and consumption data delivers increases in video views per visit (by over 20%) and in repeat visits.
Huge growth in video consumption
Posted by: David on: August 14, 2009
Just seen the latest Nielsen numbers for video consumption on Mashable. In the US alone, there were 11.2 billion video streams in July – that’s some 31% growth compared to the year before. Mashable dig further into the stats pointing out that “there were 135.9 million unique viewers of online video… that means that the average viewer watched 82.4 streams in July.”
This continued growth in video consumption in the US confirms what we know – that there is a lot of activity in the video related digital market. Traditional media companies are digitising more content and promoting their online video services, and then digital start-ups (like Boxee and Hulu) are gaining traction. This growth in new content and video services is not slowing down any time soon, making it easier for people to find specific content (because it is all available through search) but making it harder to discover new content because there is too much of it.
My team at The Filter have been working closely with some of the top 10 video providers in Europe and the US to increase user engagement by finding ways to help discovery through offering relevant video recommendations. The results have been really exciting – in all of the services we have been working on over the last 12 months, we have been able to deliver uplifts in video streams per visit of 20-50%, and users who get more relevant recommendations also visit more frequently.
eGuiders – curated video done well
Posted by: David on: August 12, 2009
Obama video on eGuiders
I’ve been playing around with a beta of eGuiders. It’s a site that uses industry insiders and pioneers to find great video making it easy for us to just enjoy great video without having to view millions of rubbish videos to find the gems.
There is no doubt that you can start watching great video content within 5 seconds. I was drawn to Obama’s ad-libbed election night speech (Fired Up? Ready to go!) – I never actually got to see this at the time and it is brilliant. And I then went back to the home page and picked another 3 or 4 videos all of which were great. No dross. I then started to look into the individual eGuiders (the curators of the site) and used them as a way of finding good content. I think the site could do more to suggest/recommend video to me once I have started my session – maybe using my behaviour to start personalising the recommended videos.
But other than that, eGuiders is a simple and effective curated video service that delivers what it says it will. I wish it well.
Young adults watching online video at “near-universal levels”
Posted by: David on: July 30, 2009
The rise of online video services has been fascinating to watch. Especially over the last 6 months. Even though video sharing sites like YouTube have lead video consumption online, it is actually the “quality” end of the market (dominated by Hulu in the US and BBC iPlayer in the UK) that has further fueled this growth.
Recent research (by Pew) has found that video watching is nearing epidemic levels among the younger age groups – 9 in 10 internet users in the age bracket 18-29 watch content on video sites. And 1 in every 3 watches video content every day.
The interesting stat I found in this report was that amongst those who watch TV shows or movies online, 23% of them have hooked their computer up to a TV. It is video content that is leading the fabled living room convergence. Make no mistake.
Online video to dominate our living rooms?
Posted by: David on: July 21, 2009
I was reading NewTeeVee’s quarterly review – it highlights two main facts: (i) we are buying more and more “living room” devices that are capable of playing online video (e.g. set top boxes, games consoles) – projections are for 57 million devices to be sold in 2009 in the US, and (ii) cable operators are sensing a threat and responding with their own authenticated services – e.g. Time Warner and Comcast with TV Everywhere.
This all translates to a healthy and active sector in terms of investment and opportunity. Which is refreshing in the current climate.
I can back this trend up with what we have been experiencing at The Filter over the last few months. Demand for our video recommendations and relevance technologies is at an all time high: whether from content owners, distributors or aggregators, they all have a pressing business need to find intelligent ways of connecting more of their content to their customers. Editorial and popularity-based suggestions are better than nothing, but our experience is that it is only when companies start using consumption data and sophisticated and matured algorithms that they get seriously exciting results in terms of increases in dwell time, video streams per visit and visits.
Movies and music to my games console
Posted by: David on: July 17, 2009
- In: Video
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Is the Wii the best for movies?
So, the PS3 is from Sony. That’s a good start. So’s my telly. But, it is a big machine and my kids don’t really play that many games on the PS3. It does have a built-in BluRay player. But, seriously, I can’t remember the last time I bought a movie in physical form.
Xbox 360 is from Microsoft. Not a standard in home entertainment, that’s true, and the box is ugly IMHO. But some of the games are awesome (yes, I had to use an american hyperbole when talking about MS).
And then there’s the Wii. From Nintendo, a gaming giant, but no longer in the hard-core gaming sense, and more in the mass-market kind of way. Nintendo have revolutionised gaming. My kids (5 and 9) do not understand how to use a traditional joypad or joystick, they are used to just waving their arms around and using instinctive movement to control the game. The console is small, fits neatly in the cupboard under my TV and has an HDMI connection. It’s just me, but if I can get access to movies/catchup video on a box that also doubles up as my kids’ favourite gaming console, then I am sold.
Music streaming services – I can count them on 4 hands…
Posted by: David on: July 15, 2009
- In: Music
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ReadWriteWeb just posted a list of 18 music streaming services. Good list, though it is missing a few subscription based services (like Rhapsody) and services that are well known within certain territories (like We7 in the UK). It also doesn’t make a differentiation between the licensed services (legal) and the more questionable services.
ITV looking to charge viewers for clips
Posted by: David on: July 13, 2009
- In: Video
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SuBo on Britain's Got Talent
My jaw dropped when Brand Republic posted a story about Michael Grade, Chairman of ITV talking about charging for video clips of shows like Britain’s Got Talent.
This a classic example of a highly experienced ‘traditional’ media guy struggling with the world of digital. The embarrassment of having missed out on millions of pounds of advertising revenue during the Susan Boyle craze (because Grade and his team had failed to agree on a revenue share deal with YouTube), has lead ITV to leap to the conclusion that the only way forward is to charge between 10p-50p per clip.
I just don’t get this thinking. So, you get a viral phenomenon like SuBo on Britain’s Got Talent. It drives up the ratings, it makes the show even more talked about an popular across the globe. So, next time, instead of finding multiple ways of monetising the viral/exponential growth by maybe doing exclusive distribution deals of the content with one of the many video aggregators or social networks or even providing the content on their own ITV embedable video player – all of which could be monetised through advertising – they are going to but a great big barrier to viral growth. All this will achieve is some very mediocre content revenues and a mountain of legal costs in protecting the content that will inevitably appear on the torrents and unofficial video sites.
Microsoft to launch music service to rival Spotify?
Posted by: David on: July 13, 2009
- In: Music
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The Telegraph have just put out a story about Microsoft launching its own music streaming/download service by end of July! Differentiating itself by using the Xbox as the entertainment hub to the home.
This is getting interesting – what with Virgin Media about to launch a music service in the UK, Nokia building up a head of steam on their Comes With Music strategy and We7 and Spotify gaining traction. It adds weight to my earlier ramblings about digital entertainment content being available everywhere on every device at any time turning the music/video into a commodity. The services that will win, therefore, will not be the ones that just offer access to millions of tracks (they’ll all do that) – it’ll be the ones that can integrate easily on all of our devices (computer, phone, TV, home stereo) and that can make sense of our tastes and moods to offer us the right music at the right time.
About this blogger
Hi, I am David Maher Roberts - digital media expert and CEO of The Filter, a sophisticated recommendation and relevance engine backed by Peter Gabriel and Eden Ventures.
