Newsletter June 27: Global SVOD, Instagram goes TV, Why AT&T acquires an ad platform & more

27 June 2018

Summer is definitely here and for many, this also means time to catch up on SVOD series. So, this week we look a bit closer at the quantity of titles available on local vs global OTT services. It is also interesting to follow the global giant Facebook/Instagram, that recently announced reaching 1 billion daily users. Last week, IGTV (Instagram TV) launched; a clear Youtube rival. And right after finalizing the acquisition of Time Warner, AT&T announced its’ entrance into programmatic advertising, through platform Appnexus. It seems there will be no slow summer for online video this year.

As revealed in Mediavision’s report Swedish TV Market, streaming services are sweeping across the Nordics at an increasingly rapid rate (see press release from June 18). Both subscription-based (SVOD) and ad-based (AVOD) streaming services are seeing an upswing.

Another perspective to this development, is to look at supply of content. Mediavision recently published The Inventory Insight, encompassing all streaming services in Scandinavia (global and local). In terms of volume, the American giants are clearly dominating – with a considerably larger supply of content. They have a content library almost twice the size of local actors (sports and news excluded). Genres such as scripted series and movies are especially skewed in their favor. E g, +70 percent of all movie titles on the Swedish streaming market belong to Netflix, Amazon or HBO.

Combined number of titles available on American vs local streaming services*The picture changes somewhat when looking at non-scripted content supply. Here, local services are a lot closer to the likes of Netflix. This is also reflected in runtime (quantity measured in minutes) where the majority can be credited the local services. Documentary/factual and entertainment make up the majority of total runtime, mainly for local AVOD services whereas the “globals” dominate the scripted genres (both in titles and runtime).

Mediavision blogs:

Enter the age of consolidation – highlighting mergers on the global media market
In this blog post, Mediavision describes the eventful times of consolidation on the global media market, by disentangling the conundrum that is Fox and Sky’s future ownership. In December 2016, 21st Century Fox made a bid on Europe’s largest pay TV […].

Mediavision press releases:

Web TV takes an increasing share of the Swedish TV market
In its recently published report “Swedish TV Market” Mediavision concludes that the Swedish TV Market reached new record levels during 2017. Web TV drives the growth during 2017, and now represents close to 25 percent of the commercial TV […].

Industry news:

Instagram launches Youtube rival IGTV
Instagram announced its user base now has reached one billion worldwide, as well as the launch of its Youtube rival Instagram TV. IGTV can be accessed through the Instagram app as well as a standalone app. Here users can publish videos of up to an hour in length.

AT&T acquires ad platform Appnexus
AT&T has confirmed that it is buying the programmatic advertising marketplace AppNexus, probably in order to monetize its content following the 85b USD Time Warner acquisition which just closed weeks ago. AppNexus is reportedly valued at about 1.5 billion USD.

Amazon Prime Video added to BT TV
Amazon Prime Video is now available through BT’s set-top boxes in the UK. Consequently, BT is the only operator that can provide access to all three Premier League rights holders from the 2019/20 season.

Discovery and Prosiebensat1 join forces
Discovery and Prosiebensat1 are launching an integrated streaming platform in Germany, incorporating Eurosport Player, 7TV, Maxdome among other services. The platform is to launch during the first half of 2019.

Hulu inks exclusive Viacom deal
Hulu has picked up rights to stream full series from Viacom, including Daria, Nathan for You and more. The deal also includes content from Nickelodeon as well as 20 films, including School of Rock.

NENT Group inks deal with Adult Swim
NENT Group has inked a deal with Turner-owned network Adult Swim. In the US, Adult Swim is claimed to be the leading network in basic cable with audiences 18-34 and 18-49. On August 1st Adult Swim will be available on Viafree in the Nordics.

China blocks HBO after parody of Xi Jinping
HBO’s website is blocked in China following British comedian John Oliver’s parody of president Xi Jinping. HBO has not responded to requests for comment on the censorship. In the show John Oliver compared Xi Jinping’s figure to Winnie the Pooh.

Mediavision in the news:

Webb-tv ökade intäkterna med 20 procent
De totala intäkterna för traditionell tv och webb-tv uppgick till nära 24 miljarder kronor förra året. Tillväxten drevs av webb-tv, som ökade med 25 procent och nu står för 23 procent av intäkterna […].

Svenskarna är de största piraterna i Norden
Mediavision har genomfört en undersökning på uppdrag av Film- och TV-branschens Samarbetskommitté (FTVS) där man har kollat över hur den illegala fildelningen ser ut i Sverige, Norge, Finland och Danmark.

Webb-tv står för en allt större del av svenska tv-marknaden
Svensk tv-marknad nådde nya rekordnivåer 2017 konstaterar Mediavision i den nyligen publicerade årliga analysen ”Swedish TV Market”. Tillväxten under 2017 drevs av webb-tv […].

Industry events

*Events where Mediavision will be presenting