Online video viewers have a much greater tolerance for higher ad loads than most of the premium publishing business is delivering right now, said speakers on a panel at the BRX Video Summit last week in New York.
“I don’t think there are nearly enough ads in online video,” said Mark Trefgarne, Co-Founder and CEO real-time online video platform LiveRail, in this discussion of real-time bidding, ad exchanges and inventory for online video. “It can be much closer to TV and among premium publishers with long-form content, user tolerance of ads remains very high and I think publishers need to be bolder about the ad load they put in.”
Ustream has tested ad tolerance and found there was no difference in views when showing a pre-roll before the program or not, says Colin Carrier, VP of Monetization at Ustream, also on the panel that was moderated by David Kaplan, managing editor TVExchanger.com. “People still watched because the content was what they wanted to see,” Carrier says during this video of the session. He adds that engagement rates are high for pre-rolls and mid-rolls.
Online video buying also needs more standards, both Carrier and Trefgarne emphasize during the session. That includes better communication between tech vendors around standardization of ad prices and varieties, as well as greater transparency on auto play, above-the-fold inventory and other aspects of brand safety.
“I would also like standards for what data needs be passed through as well as the content type,” Carrier says. Trefgarne adds that standards can reduce the friction that comes with having so many demand-side vendors.
Online video buying is never going to be simpler than TV, so at the very least the business needs better measurement and standards, Carrier explains.
For more insight into these topics, please check out the session in its entirety.
Daisy Whitney
Disclosure: Beet.TV produced video from the BRX Video Summit as part of custom publishing arrangement with Brightroll.
