Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Bundle Of Joy
Broadcasters and studios have enjoyed a long, lucrative run with the mass multichannel TV bundle.
But the bottom is falling out of the bundle, writes media and tech equity research firm LightShed Partners.
But don’t lose heart. “While it is beyond scary to give up the bundle that has been so successful and profitable, it would enable all types of new packaging,” according to LightShed.
For instance, if broadcasters abandon the old mass-bundle approach, it would create interesting opportunities for specific networks, programs and streaming services to partner on more targeted packages. Think a kids and family bundle, an entertainment bundle (comedy, action and lifestyle shows) or sports. Consumers would likely pay less overall and get a more curated selection, while programmers might also increase ad value with more contextual relevance.
LightShed clarifies that there’s no way broadcasters will willingly go a la carte and allow viewers to cherry pick channels. Even within their own portfolios, broadcasters can’t bring themselves to unbundle networks. But someday they might have to.
“Creating new bundles that are still overly bloated or that cannot be offered beyond a minority of subscribers is pointless,” according to LightShed. “Either rip the Band-Aid or don’t bother.”
The Upfront Down Low
Amazon crushed its first-ever upfront this year, agency sources tell ADWEEK.
Its upfront stage featured the new “Lord of the Rings,” a “Legally Blonde” follow-up and Thursday Night NFL broadcasts. Flashy. But advertisers really care about two things: scale and cost.
Streamers like Netflix and Disney have a highfalutin sense of their inventory and role in the zeitgeist. They’ve also had unrealistic CPM goals.
While Netflix or Disney may have greater total watch time than Prime, Amazon defaulted all subscribers to ads and in general does more to increase supply. Netflix, meanwhile, prides itself on carrying fewer impressions or having one advertiser sponsor an uninterrupted period of watching.
For an agency buyer, scale usually means total addressable reach. But they also want an ocean of supply to fish in.
But there’s another reason buyers like Amazon Prime Video, which is that it’s a point of leverage in negotiations with pricier streamers that are more precious with their inventory.
“You can’t put that much supply in the marketplace and expect it to not have an impact,” says one buyer. “We knew that when we did our deal last year with [Amazon] – they did everybody a favor, at least from a buying standpoint.”
You Who?
You.com, an AI-powered search engine startup, raised $50 million from a group of backers, including Salesforce Ventures, Nvidia and DuckDuckGo, Bloomberg reports. This brings its total fundraising to $99 million.
But You isn’t the first well-financed search startup with impressive supporters. Remember Neeva?
Neeva was a search engine founded by former Googlers, including Sridhar Ramaswamy, who previously led Google’s search and ad products. It flipped the script by attacking Google’s overly sponsored search engine.
You’s founder and CEO, Richard Socher, was formerly chief AI scientist at Salesforce. But his former employer is a backer and key customer.
Still, just as with Neeva, You must fight to prove that it’s worth paying for the online text searches that most consumers now feel in their bones should be a free service.
Neeva is no more, by the way, but its quiet acqui-hire by Snowflake last year led to Ramaswamy being elevated to CEO – of Snowflake. Fun fact: Ramaswamy also provided key testimony in the DOJ’s recently decided search antitrust case against Google.
But Wait, There’s More!
The rise of the pint-size startup is reshaping the American economy. [WSJ]
Is treating elections like entertainment a good strategy for marketers? [ADWEEK]
Canva hiked its team subscription prices by almost 300%, citing the cost of new AI features. [Entrepreneur]
You’re Hired!
IAS appoints former Oracle Advertising global VP Marc Grabowski as chief operating officer and Amazon vet Srishti Gupta as chief product officer. [release]
The Guardian US appoints Sara Badler as chief advertising officer for North America. [The Guardian]
