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Advertising | Industry-Research | Video

Understanding youth’s video diet so you can satisfy their cravings

Defy Media undertook a study to explore the complete “video diet” for today’s youth. They sought to understand the role of video in youths’ everyday lives, how each source—be it digital, terrestrial, paid, free, new or old—is used, and if advertising impacts use of any particular sources.

For this research , Defy Media partnered with Hunter Qualitative and Kelton Global. From greater Chicago, Raleigh-Durham, and Seattle, they selected 54 youth ages 13-24 years to complete 14-day journals chronicling the videos watched daily and supplying opinions and information on their habits. They then interviewed 27 of these youth in-person—eighteen ages 13-17 in “buddy pairs” and nine ages 19-24 individually. Finally, they followed with an online survey of 1,300 youth ages 13-24 representative of the U.S. population by age, gender, ethnicity/race, and parental education.

The resulting Defy Media Acumen Report “Youth Video Diet” found that video is not just about entertainment. Given its broad content offerings and on-the-go accessibility, video satisfies needs beyond amusement and passing the time. Video is educational, stress-relieving, and helps keeps youth connected.

Unsurprisingly, Defy Media’s research confirms that that youth don’t like watching ads any more than adults do. However, they did discover that “not all advertising leaves an unpleasant aftertaste.”

The report looks at several areas of digital video consumption patterns among young people including:

  1. The most popular channels for video consumption: YouTube and Netflix top the list.
  2. Social video consumption habits, with digital celebs dominating social video viewing.
  3. What times dominate video consumption, as well as time spent on free and fee content.
  4. Reasons youth watch videos—from offsetting boredom to how-too tips and mood lifting.
  5. Youth’s perception of advertising and the need to pay for video: They don’t like it, but there are strategies that can help make it palatable.

DigialMenu

Industry-Research | Perspectives | Revenue | Video

Explosive digital video growth in 2015 spawned unprecedented opportunities

Consumer demand for sight, sound, and motion ignited mobile and
programmatic video advertising growth; new challenges emerged

Digital ad spend in the U.S. is projected to top $58 billion this year and $93 billion by 2019, according to eMarketer. Much of that growth is coming from digital video, with the category poised to absorb significant television ad spend.

Digital video is on an explosive growth track, showing no signs of slowing – more dollars continue to pile into video and new opportunities are emerging. Yet, with unprecedented growth comes unprecedented challenges, and many are beginning to realize just how truly disruptive digital video will be.

What’s fueling digital video’s tremendous growth?

“Sight, sound, and motion” advertising dollars are moving across screens. Viewers are fragmenting across video distributors and programmers as advertising technology races to evolve, and marketers are realizing just how powerfully digital video can tell their stories. Under pressure from marketers wanting to find their consumers across devices, media buyers are pulling from TV budgets to fund digital video growth.

For our sixth annual State of the Video 2015 Report, we surveyed 300 brands, agencies, and publishers to examine these dynamics and learn how key players are adjusting to newly emerging challenges.

Here are our key findings from this year’s State of the Video Report.

Marketers are reprioritizing traditional ad budgets, adding dollars to digital video.  TV budget growth is stagnating, with a sizable portion of dollars being moved to video advertising. Nine in 10 buyers are shifting dollars from linear TV to digital channels, reallocating on average 10% of television budgets. Of marketers moving TV dollars towards digital channels, 88% are shifting that television spend to video, including desktop, mobile, or over-the-top (OTT).

Mobile and video are converging, posing new opportunities and challenges.  Bolstered by faster network speeds and more screens, the growth of mobile video content consumption has been meteoric. This year, more than 191.5 million Americans watched more than 50.5 billion videos via mobile, according to comScore.

Marketers and publishers are attempting to keep up. According to industry estimates, desktop video spend grew 27% from 2014 to 2015, while mobile video grew 75%, eMarketer data shows – trends that align with buyer optimism. Our survey showed overall mobile video advertising spend increased 18% since 2014.

But marketers say measurement and attribution remain key pain points with mobile video. Mobile performance is more difficult to track than desktop due to reliance on deterministic or probabilistic identifiers. Both have benefits and flaws, but neither method can replicate the accuracy of desktop analytics – yet.

Programmatic is ubiquitous – and the sell side is rising to meet buy side demand. Over 90% of brands and agencies report buying some portion of video programmatically. Eighty-eight percent of publishers report selling video inventory programmatically, up 37% from 2014.

Not surprisingly, buyers remain concerned with premium/quality inventory and scale, noting that there still isn’t enough premium video inventory accessible at scale. Addressing these concerns, two-thirds of sellers are establishing standards for video content and ad quality, and are adding in-house support for inventory quality control.

Brands are also building momentum around in-house video strategy and programmatic buying. Twice as many brands have already brought programmatic buying capabilities in-house, compared to last year – a move that can be easier said than done.

Programmatic TV is gaining popularity as audience fragmentation hits an inflection point. This coming year, 41% of television buyers – a three-fold increase since 2014 – plan to rely on programmatic to make TV investments – a threefold increase since 2014, signifying that change is coming to linear buying practices as well.

Marketers moving television spend to digital video cite the ability to target consumers more granularly and superior measuring capabilities as reasons. Similarly, programmatic TV brings the benefits of digital advertising to linear television.

But this is still a nascent space. Buyers express concern with premium, quality inventory and scale. Brands are concerned with issues like integration and qualified personnel.

Branded video is taking hold.  Advertisers and agencies devote over 30% of overall video budgets to branded video content – defined as digital video content co-created between a brand marketer and a publisher. Still a maturing marketing tactic in the digital world, advertiser interest and spend are significant.

Both buyers and sellers cite cost as the biggest obstacle for investing in branded video. Due to the nature of the form, it’s still traditionally thought of as a kind of custom brand messaging that requires a heavy investment of talent, time, and dollars. As for distribution, the majority of publishers rely on their owned and operated sites and social media, indicating that branded video distribution remains limited.

2015 has been a year of significant shifts: as consumers demand sight, sound, and motion everywhere, marketers and publishers are increasingly investing in mobile video and programmatic.

For the first time, television has shown signs of stagnation, though TV dollars are fueling video growth in other formats.

Considering how much movement we’ve seen in such a short time, there is little doubt that 2016 will bring more of the same: consumers are constantly evolving, and brands, agencies, publishers, and technology providers must evolve or risk extinction.

JoAnna Foyle has a passion for both technology and creativity, with nearly 20 years of experience in executive leadership, go-to-market strategy, client business management, TV and digital media, and advertising technology. She has worked with some of the best agencies, publishers and technology companies in the world, driving innovative and holistic technology solutions. As senior vice president of enterprise platform services for AOL, she is responsible for ONE by AOL technology engagements, driving activation, adoption, and expansion for AOL’s biggest partners.

Industry-Research | Video

Streaming video quality impacts viewer engagement

The quality of the playback experience is a vital consideration for any streaming video provider: viewers abandon quickly, often remember having done so and avoid offending providers in the future, according to a survey conducted by Video analytics and optimization company, Conviva. They also found that different genres have different sensitivities. While entertainment viewers demand smooth playback but are forgiving on picture quality, news and information viewers demand both a great picture and uninterrupted streaming. Additionally, age demographics appear to be significant in establishing how deeply to focus on quality of experience.

In the Fall of 2015, Conviva surveyed 500 Internet video users across the United States to understand their sensitivity to playback experience on streaming videos across the entertainment, news/information, education, self-improvement and product research genres.

Key findings from Conviva’s Beyond Entertainment Report include:

  • As many as one in five viewers will abandon poor experiences immediately, while significantly fewer will wait endlessly for the stream to come into focus
  • Having had a poor experience one in five will never return to that service, while just one in ten will return regardless of the quality of experience
  • Over ninety percent of respondents actively choose to return to services that deliver a superior experience
  • There is significant variation across genres, as the immediacy, relevance and exclusivity of content impact patience and brand loyalty
  • Different age groups have markedly different responses to quality of experience, with the oldest respondents being three times as likely to abandon a poor experience than the youngest

The paper reports the findings and provides commentary on what they mean for streaming video providers seeking to build, maintain and grow successful OTT businesses.

Innovation | Video

Great Big Story: CNN-backed, newsworthy content that’s not news

Big media companies are investing in content that attracts younger audiences, as evidenced by Time Inc.’s purchase of Hello Giggles this week and NBCUniversal’s recent investment in Vox and Buzzfeed. Now Turner-owned CNN has announce its own bid for this massive and attractive segment with the launch of Great Big Story, an independent video network, focused on “unparalleled and optimistic storytelling.” According to co-founder Chris Berend, CNN’s Vice president for video development, “our internal mantra is ‘humans are capable of incredible things.’”

And that, according to Berend, includes the Great Big Story (GBS) team, who he has tasked with “showing me something I’ve never seen before in terms of the stories themselves and the way the stories are told.” At launch, this will take the form of three to five videos of varying lengths each day (with a short film due out in November). Subjects include: The Untold Story of the Kool-Aid Man, Perfect is Hard, Featuring Misty Copeland, and What it’s Like to Fly Into a Hurricane (On Purpose), and a profile of Lisa Frank, the reclusive creative mind behind iconic rainbow and unicorn-centric designs featured on a slew of familiar products.

GBS launches with a staff of about 30, including recruits from BuzzFeed, Vox, VICE, MTV, ABC, NowThis, Amazon, and Yahoo!. The unit will operate as an independent company inside CNN. Yet, while GBS’s funding comes from CNN, Berend says that they are very clear with themselves and others that they’re not a news brand, though he points out that the type of stories they plan to tell function as news for this audience in many ways.

Berend believes that there is a vast audience that has been given short shrift in terms of appealing and appropriate content: “We have been seeing a huge underserved audience that traditional media is not resonating with and that wants more than the silliness and cynicism that is out there.” Their target audience is 25-35-year-olds who are well-educated, live in cities and, by nature of the way they operate in the world, are globally-savvy. They live on mobile and social and have an affinity for civically-minded, lifestyle, socially-conscious and, yes, entertaining content.

Given this demographic’s content consumption habits, GBS focuses its distribution strategy on mobile and social channels. While the brand debuts with a website—and iOS and Android apps—the primary distribution focus is social so they can find audiences where they are already consuming content. This includes Facebook and plans for YouTube, Apple News, Snapchat and more in starting in November. Connected TVs are also on the near-term roadmap.

GBS launches with a multi-year investment from CNN and a focus on branded content as the primary revenue stream. Eschewing traditional pre-roll advertising, the plan is “to collaborate with brands to figure out what kinds of stories they have to tell.” According to Berend, initial sales calls have been very positive because “we are hitting a very desirable audience,” but also because brands increasingly understand that content helps them forge more meaningful connections with consumers.

For CNN, which green-lit the project in February after quietly testing the concept through its social channels, Berend says this offers a way to engage an audience that “is growing fast and moving quickly.” In turn, CNN offers the GBS team “a lot of advantages that any startup would kill for” including deep video acumen, amplification and traffic driven from its owned and operated properties as well as its strong social presence. The relationship with established parent, CNN, also opens doors, according to Berend. We are able to get people to talk to us because they know we’re affiliated with CNN, which is legitimate and reliable.”

“We have a giant brand that does news, but also an audience that is starving for content in their social feed and on their phones.” And GBS will be there to feed that need with content that is “enjoyable, entertaining, and helps them learn something.” Because that’s what they read and, perhaps even more importantly, “that’s what they share.”

Perspectives | Video

The rise of live

From as early as 1953, when millions of people around the world watched the live coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey in London, the need to watch an event as it unfolds has been there.

These days, live video is on the rise with news consumers increasingly expecting to see events as they actually happen. They are still looking for breaking and key news events but now they also want to see political, cultural and religious events, red carpet coverage, product launches, technology shows, sports news and more. However the television platform is far from the only place people are consuming video. Today’s digital publishers are responding to increased demand, integrating video into their websites and thereby bringing richer storytelling to their audiences.

Never before, though, has there been such experimentation in live video content. Improvements in streaming technologies and increased Internet speeds have made it easier than ever to stream live content across digital platforms, and digital publishers, approaching live video from a fresh perspective, have been quick to adapt.

It was in 2013 when digital publishers really saw the power of live video. Ahead of the birth of Prince George, AP streamed a shot of the hospital’s front door to many of the UK’s online newspaper sites. The results: a stark increase in site visitors and engagement levels that was more akin to traditional linear TV viewing times than the usual brisk online viewing. Viewers gathered online to watch and wait, be there the moment the birth was announced, and to chat with one another during this exciting event.

It’s a formula that’s proven successful time and again, with events that take days or even weeks proving incredibly popular. From full coverage of the Oscar Pistorius trial, to 24/7 coverage of the Hong Kong protests, these breaking news events have proven live video’s capabilities to attract and engage an audience on an ongoing basis.

These are the kind of events where audiences can lean forward and get real insight into the story, or lean back and keep an eye on events while continuing with their day-to-day tasks. It’s a concept we call “slow news”.

In addition, streaming planned live events – like awards shows or technology events – gives publishers the opportunity to promote ahead of time on their site and across social media to attract an audience. It also gives important time to sell advertising or sponsorship around an event.

The experimentation continues as sites try to determine what works and what doesn’t—and the fact is that there is no one size fits all for live content. Digital publishers need to see what resonates with their audience while also staying true to their brand voice. In a social media world where Facebook and other platforms are becoming increasingly important to the overall news experience, staying true to the brand regardless of the medium used to tell the story has never been more important.

The needs of broadcasters are also changing when it comes to live video, along with the audiences they serve. Not only do they now have more television channels to fill, but many of them also have a digital offering. They are reaching consumers across several platforms and audiences want a different experience on each one. As a result, live video is playing a significant role in broadcasters’ strategies and they need to remain focused and flexible in order to retain and attract audiences across all platforms.

As technology continues to evolve and consumers consider watching live news unfold with video, rather than just text and images, understanding how to develop a story with live video will become more important than ever. At AP we’re offering around 400 live events a month and we’re continuing to invest in technology and newsgathering that will ensure we keep up with the continued growth in the importance of live video news.

As technology continues to evolve and consumers consider watching live news unfold with video, rather than just text and images, understanding how to develop a story with live video will become more important than ever.

Paul Shanley (@psshanley) is director of international business development and partnerships at AP (@AP). He joined the company in 2011, as part of the team leading the business strategy for the development of AP Video Hub which launched in 2012. Since then he has gone on to drive the global strategy for the platform as well as a number of other international products, focusing on revenue growth and customer engagement.

Innovation | Press | Video

Here’s What the Top Innovators Say About the Future of Video

In celebration of its annual Watch Awards honoring the best in Web video content, Adweek partnered with DCN to host a dinner conversation on the present and future creative and business opportunities associated with video.

The dinner, which was held at Gramercy Tavern in New York on August 18, was attended by several Watch Awards jury members as well as other senior executives who are paving the videosphere’s way forward. The conversation, which was led by DCN CEO Jason Kint, took a decidely future-leaning tack regarding disruption of traditional approaches, the forces that are shaping content generation and monetization, how branded video efforts evolve and who is leading the way? Real-time streaming and, of course, Facebook were on people’s minds in a big way too.

Joining the conversation were: Shelley Venus, director of media, Mic; Tennille Teague, head of production, Pereira & O’Dell New York; Taras Wayner, co-svp/executive creative director, R/GA (Wayner and Chris Northam, executive creative director at R/GA, were also on hand to accept the Watch Awards’ overall Originator honor for their work with The Ad Council on the Love Has No Labels campaign); Michael Klein, evp, programming/content strategy, Condé Nast Entertainment; Paul Marcum, head of global digital video, Bloomberg LP; Troy Young, president of Hearst Magazines Digital Media; Mark Fortner, head of innovation and branded content, MediaCom; Yale Wang, head of marketing at DramaFever; Lee Sosin, svp at Hearst Digital Media; and Liza Ryan Howard, evp, chief of consumer strategy, WebMD.

Adweek captured the night’s conversational highlights on video—take a look.

AdweekDCNDinner

Industry-Research | Video

Consumers Pay More for More Online Video

As overall online viewing continues to, so has consumer willingness to pay a premium for content according a new study from Vimeo, “Online Video Viewing and Purchasing.” The research examines consumption habits of online video viewers today as compared with a year ago to provide insights into the purchasing habits of digital video content viewers in an effort to help filmmakers market and sell their work more effectively.

Among the nine key insights provided:

  1. People are spending more money on online video than they were a year ago.
  2.  Viewers will pay double or more for longer form content as compared with shorter form content.
  3. Having both Buy and Rent options is optimal.
  4. Niche content is worth a premium.
  5. Ad-free viewing is also worth a premium.

Vimeo, which conducts studies in order to provide best-practices to the community of filmmakers who sell their work on the Vimeo on Demand platform, worked with independent international research consultancy Latitude to produce the study, which surveyed more than 1,000 people in the U.S. ages 18 to 54 who self-reported as online video viewers.

Perspectives | Video

Facebook Pushes into Video as Creators Cry Foul

Social domination is not nearly enough for Facebook so it decided to take on YouTube with omnipresent auto-play videos in News Feeds. But a funny thing happened on the way to world video domination… While Facebook says it is hitting 4 billion video views per day and gaining on YouTube, there’s been a backlash from video creators on YouTube who believe Facebook is cooking the books. And all this is happening while Facebook is expanding video options for publishers with a slew of advertising updates.

It begs the question: What does it take to dominate video and catch YouTube? And perhaps more importantly, does Facebook have to play by the same rules? And where does that leave publishers and creators who can’t simply ignore Facebook and hope it will go away?

“Theft and Lies”
Hank Green, a professional YouTube creator, raised these questions in a recent Medium post in which he scorned Facebook and its claim to video fame. The post, titled “Theft, Lies, and Facebook Video,” raised a number of issues, a fundamental one being the standards around metrics. A video posted natively on Facebook will get much more views than a YouTube or Vine video on FB. That makes sense. But, Green argues, Facebook counts a “view” at the three-second mark of a video, not after the 30 seconds of viewership that YouTube counts as an engagement.

“When Facebook says it has roughly the same number of views as YouTube, what they really mean is that they have roughly 1/5th of YouTube’s views, since they’re intentionally and blatantly over-counting to the detriment of everyone except them,” Green wrote.

Not only that, but the vast majority of the social network’s high-volume traffic has also been stolen content, according to a recent report from Ogilvy and Tubular Labs. “Facebook’s algorithms encourage this theft,” Green wrote, because its staff will take down the video after it’s been reported — but that’s also after it received most of the views it will ever get.

Others have pointed out that auto-play on Facebook is akin to “cheating,” because a video will play automatically if a person has fast Internet and pauses just long enough for it to be considered an engagement. That doesn’t necessarily mean a person wants to engage with the video in the first place. (And YouTube has its own version of auto-play, with videos playing continuously, by default, after the one you watched.)

Benefits for Publishers
However, what’s problematic for some content creators could also be a boon for publishers and brands who rely on Facebook to help them promote content. Publications such as the New York Times and BuzzFeed participate in Facebook’s Instant Articles program, for instance, because they want to have better performance on the social giant. “That’s where the audience is,” former Twitter exec Vivian Schiller told the New York Times when FB launched Instant Articles. “It’s too massive to ignore.”

The same reasoning holds true for video ads. With 68% of marketers already planning to increase their digital video offerings in the next year, according to a July report from eMarketer, Facebook’s plan to bring a host of video advertising offers to its Audience Network is no surprise. Click-to-play ads, auto-play video ads, multi-image carousel ads and Dynamic Product Ads (which analyze a user’s shopping habits) are all part of this new endeavor. It will certainly help both Facebook and advertisers — and publishers who might be splitting revenues.

So, what’s a creator to do? As Green acknowledges, most content creators will just shrug at all of this — because it’s Facebook. It echoes Schiller’s statement of how publications now have no choice but to work with the social giant.

Perhaps the question now is less whether Facebook will continue this kind of work, and more whether it will help subscribe to a certain code of ethics that Green and others have pointed out are missing. Facebook has said it will look closely at the issue of piracy of videos. Most likely, it will have to change metrics as advertisers demand something more meaningful. Meanwhile, most publishers will remain wary of what comes next, while also hoping to grab hold of the monster video growth while it lasts.

Advertising | Industry-Research | Video

Online Video is the Fastest-growing Category of Internet Advertising

Online video advertising revenue is estimated to reach 16.2 billion worldwide with the US by far the largest market at $8.5 billion reports ZenithOptimedia’s Online Video Forecasts 2015.

Given the rapid penetration of smartphones and tablets, worldwide total video consumption is expected to increase by 20% in the coming year from 48.1 minutes per day this year to 57.6 minutes per day in 2016. Mobile devices are expected to be the main platform for viewing online videos growing from 46.8% (22.5 minutes per day) share of time spent this year to 52.7% (30.4 minutes per day) in 2016.

timespentvideo

Online video viewing globally skews to young adults and is slightly more male (14.2% males 18-24 and 13.8% males 25-34 vs. 8.5% females 18-24 and 8.4% females 25-34) based on comScore (Video Metrix, September 2014).  Understanding online video consumption habits and the video publishing infrastructure is important to marketers in identifying the right short- and long-form advertising and branding opportunities for their target audience.

Industry-Research | Video

Solving Digital Video Advertising’s Premium Dilemma

Recent research commissioned by Teads and conducted by Forrester in May 2015 notes that while digital video advertising continues to show strong promise for marketers, agencies and media companies there are a few notable challenges that must be resolved in order for it to deliver value for everyone involved.

Five key findings from the report, conducted among 529 advertisers, agencies and media companies in Argentina, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Span, UK and US:

1. All market participants expect digital video spend to increase in the next two years.

2. Lack of premium inventory — and disagreements about the definition of premium — hold back video’s
growth.

3. Video is still a work in progress to fulfill its promise.

4. Advertisers, agencies, and media companies must build an accountable, transparent video ad market.

5. Outstream advertising offers one solution to these challenges.

Industry-Research | Video

TV is Now the 2nd Screen for Kids

In our latest study on kids’ preferences in viewing TV content across devices and platforms, we find that in a majority of family households with tablets and smartphones, TV is no longer the first choice for entertainment, with 57% of parents saying their child prefers a device other than the TV to watch video content.  Mobile devices offer versatility, simple user interface and a ‘personal’ viewing experience.

As such, in households where tablets and smartphones are accessible, they’ve now taken the lead with kids as the preferred way to enjoy, explore and discover video content. In fact, 58% of kids in households with tablets have their own, making it even easier for them to watch the video content they want to watch, whenever and wherever they want.

TV as Punishment?
TV has become the ‘second’ or even third screen of choice for many of these kids – so much so that nearly 50% of parents say that when their kids misbehave, to punish them, they take away their tablet and make them just ‘watch TV instead’– creating a generation of kids for whom ‘TV is punishment.’

Additionally, when given the choice between dessert or more time on their tablet, 41% of parents say their child would choose the tablet over dessert, compared to just 33% choosing dessert over the tablet.

 More Please…
TV as 2nd Screen for Kids_HighResAnd, in true ‘more is better’ fashion, kids are not limiting themselves to just one screen at a time – 56% of parents say it’s not unusual for their children to be watching different content on different devices at the same time – and 39% are, at times, watching the same content on different devices simultaneously.

This trend in media and platform preferences has implications for TV networks, cable and satellite companies, streaming services and content creators as they market and develop entertainment for the next generation.

Self-Directed Viewing is Here to Stay’
|As TV content providers watch their audiences rapidly shift from traditional viewing to streamed and digital, this study shines a light on kids as the ‘canary in the coal mine,’ showing a need to redefine audience reach expectations, programming and creative development, as well as measurement and monetization strategies sooner rather than later.

In effect, streamed content services are now eating into linear TV audience share, just as a large percentage of audience share shifted from broadcast to cable only a couple of decades ago – but at a more rapid pace and without a solution in place to measure viewing on new and preferred platforms.

In a meeting with a major network client the other day, I was earnestly asked – ‘Don’t you think that when they grow up, they’ll want to watch live TV just the way we do – or just turn the set on and channel surf?’ my response was ‘when they grow up, you’ll want to provide them with access to your content however they want to access it – on any platform or device, at any time and on their own terms – and the time to figure out how you’re going to do this is now.’

 

Robert Miner is the CEO and Founder of Miner & Co. Studio, an audience insights based strategic consultancy with a focus on trends, innovation, show concept development and brand positioning serving major television networks, content creators and digital video providers.

*Study included in-home ethnographies and a survey fielded among 800 moms and dads of kids ages 2 to 12       who live in the United States and watch at least some video content on a tablet and/or smartphone.

The margin of error is +/- 3.46% 3.4

Innovation | Revenue | Video

Passion Play: Lifetime Launches Movie Classics Subscription Service

Boasting classics like Sexting in Suburbia, Flowers in the Attic, and Mother May I Sleep With Danger, it is an understatement to say that Lifetime has a passionate fan base. With an increasing number of networks experimenting with standalone digital services, A+E has deliberately taken a different route with the debut of its Lifetime Movie Club subscription video service—one that aims for the heart of their ardent audience.

“We view the Lifetime Movie Club as complementary to our Lifetime channel,” says Evan Silverman, SVP of Digital Media at A+E Networks. While the network has no plans to disrupt its existing relationships with television providers and distributors, Silverman points out that “A+E Networks has been very aggressive in delivering on a lot of different platforms,” which include iOS and Android apps, Apple TV, Roku and Amazon Fire. The network takes pride “in finding new ways to deliver our long form content to audiences.”

FlowersInTheAtticWith its latest digital move—their first direct-to-consumer subscription service—A+E will offer subscribers access to a rotating library of Lifetime movies without commercial interruptions for $3.99 a month. The app features more than 30 movies about four new titles cycled in on a weekly basis. Silverman says that the decision to cap the number of movies enables A+E to maintain its flexibility in using its library in other environments. In fact, the Lifetime Movie Club idea arose as a way to leverage the depths of the Lifetime movie library.

But that was definitely not the only reason. “When we were thinking about what subscription product to launch we wanted to find a library of content that had a passionate audience,” Silverman says. And the Lifetime audience fit the bill. He describes them as a truly devoted group of fans who will be willing to pay to watch the classics they love. And given that the monthly price is about that of buying a single movie through iTunes, Silverman believes that Lifetime’s loyal fans will ante up for access.

A+E plans to continue to explore a range of models to distribute its content including a recent move to become part of the Dish Sling TV offering and exploration of other subscription products with its networks. “We’re open to models that make financial sense and serve our viewers well,” says Silverman. And while we may see similar offerings that “leverage library content to super-serve fans,” the additions to its digital offerings are intended to complement and round out the company’s range of offerings. “We’re not trying to blow up the television industry.”

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