YuMe Plays The Wait And See Game; Business Insider Updates Ad Tech Rich List

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

YuMe’s Potential Programmatic Progress

The theme of YuMe’s Q1 2016 earnings call: Wait and see. In previous quarters, the video ad company struggled to grow its programmatic revenue, despite platform investments. Last quarter it showed only $1 million to $2 million. This quarter? No update, but CEO Jayant Kadambi hinted at modest improvements to come. In H2 2016 he expects programmatic to generate $6 million to $10 million in managed service revenue, and about $1 million in license fee revenue. “We are not in the point of our programmatic business that we have locked-in recurring revenue to the extent of $6 million to $10 million,” Kadambi clarified. “We hope to get there later on in our evolution.” Oddly, as one analyst pointed out, despite showing a level of transparency on programmatic growth, YuMe was opaque providing guidance around its core direct business. In total, YuMe’s Q1 2016 revenue was $39.2 million, compared to $40.1 million during the same period last year. Read the release.

…Or Die Trying

Business Insider came out with the second in what is now its annual “ad tech rich list” of execs making more than $1 million in total earnings. The list is too hamstrung to be considered representative – only publicly traded companies offer the data, and even then BI cuts out big players like Google, AOL, Facebook and Oracle because they don’t break out ad tech salary packages. Rubicon CEO Frank Addante tops the list again (though that’s because he’s still working through a huge stock payout issued last year).

Living Large In The Living Room

“Hulu is TV, and the fact that 70 percent of our viewing happens in a living room environment just reinforces that idea to the market,” says Hulu ad sales SVP Peter Naylor to Adweek’s Jason Lynch. Hulu has focused on acquiring content and subscribers, but with those things in hand the company is now drilling down on ads and measurement. It dropped a deal with comScore and will work with Nielsen to measure its OTT viewers. Relationships with BrightLine, a smart-TV interactive ad firm, and Havas will support new marketing opportunities. It’s a big shift, considering 100% of Hulu viewing happened on desktop eight years ago. More.

Save A Bundle?

YouTube is working on a subscription TV service it could offer against a network bundle. Bloomberg writers say YouTube has discussed the plan with NBC, CBS, Viacom and Twenty-First Century Fox, but hasn’t secured any broadcast rights. The new service, “Unplugged,” comes less than a year after YouTube opened Red, a less premium streaming subscription. The new “skinny bundle” would clock in at around $35 (not so far off many basic cable bills), as TV programmers and broadcasters push their digital distribution partners to provide more revenue per subscriber than existing partners like Comcast or AT&T. More.

But Wait, There’s More!