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With its recent investment and technology exchange with AppNexus, WPP will  have the technology platform to compete against companies like Google’s DoubleClick and Facebook’s Atlas, says Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP chief executive, in this interview with Beet.TV  He says that Google and Facebook are “media owners” much as Disney or Viacom, and as such should […]

Twitch, the live video platform that allows gamers to interact over  the Internet, will be acquired by Amazon for over $1 billion, the Wall Street Journal reports.   the site was formerly known as Justin.tv, a pioneering platform for personal live streaming. Last year, we spoke with chief revenue officer Jonathan Simpson-Bint about the company’s fast […]

BuzzFeed’s announcement today of a $50m new funding from Andreesen Horowitz comes with a new strategy for the wildly popular publisher’s video ambitions. The release puts it best, in its own words: “BuzzFeed will expand its video division and become BuzzFeed Motion Pictures. Ze Frank will lead the division as President of BuzzFeed Motion Pictures and […]

Hearst has just launched “CosmoBody,” a daily fitness show which is advertiser-free and is  being offered on a subscription basis.  This is the first of what will be a number of Hearst titles and Hearst partners who will be part of a new “Netflix model,” explains Chris Grosso, SVP and GM of Hearst Digital Studios, […]

LONDON –  He told us he would buy companies – and today that guidance came to pass. Charlie Muirhead’s Rightster is taking a big step to consolidate the video ecosystem by buying two of its biggest protagonists. Eight months after going public to raise £22.4m, the firm is acquiring viral video management firm Viral Spiral for up […]

In a big move to expand its video advertising capabilities, Facebook has acquired video ad services company LiveRail, both companies announced today.   Earlier this year, LiveRail CEO Mark Trefgarne explained the company’s business model and plans in the video session with Ashley J. Swartz at this year’s Beet  Retreat.   We are republishing that […]

CANNES, France – While there has been considerable conversation in programmatic media circles about a movement away from open exchanges to private exchanges, it’s not a matter of choosing one solution,  but of both, says Stephan Beringer, President of Audience on Demand at VivaKi, the digital unit of the Publicis Groupe. We spoke with during […]

Mondelez,the giant consumer packaged good company, know for its Oreo brands and other popular  products,  is in an ambitious program with TubeMogul to buy video media programmatically, according to this report in Adweek.   The program is being implemented in collaboration with Mondelez’ global agency MediaVest. Recently, we spoke with TubeMogul CEO Brett Wilson about […]

While low-quality inventory has plagued online advertising for some time, fraudulent advertising is relatively new but is growing, says Scott Knoll, CEO of  brand safety technology firm Integral Ad Science, during an interview with Beet.TV. “Video is a big area because it has higher CPMS, but you’re not always getting what you pay for. Fraud […]

PubMatic, a fast-growing adtech company which provides automated services to digital publishers, has expanded its mobile offering  this week of the $15 .5 million acquisition of mobile ad server Mocean.  Yesterday, we spoke with Kirk McDonald, president of PubMatic, about the acquisition and the expansion of the company to video as well as mobile. Earlier […]

Google is in discussions to buy Twitch – formerly known as Justin.tv, the pioneering life streaming platform.  As Twitch, it is primarily a platform for gamers to interact via a live video platform.  The early talks have been reported by The Wall Street Journal. Variety puts a potential sale number at $1 billion. Last year, […]

With its acquisition earlier this year of Unicorn Media, Brightcove has expanded its video services offering to the advertising space with its cloud-based ad insertion tool. With the recent introduction, customers are finding increased monetization rates of 30 percent, says David Mendels, CEO, in this interview with Beet.TV He also talks about the launch of […]

New York Times media and culture and columnist David Carr has been in the forefront of innovative video creation at The New New York Times for about nine years. We caught up with him after The New York Times NewFronts presentation yesterday. He talks with Beet.TV about his approach to video:  keeping it simple and […]

HitFix, a Los Angeles-based producer of entertainment news and reviews, editorially positioned somewhere between Variety and TMZ, has found an enormous audience for its videos with 90 million monthly video views via Web syndication and outdoor media, says Jennifer Sargent, CEO and co-founder in this video interview with Beet.TV The company has just launched a […]

The newly relaunched Time.com is highly video centric, with increased production of original content, a prominent player and a cross-title “recirculation” strategy which is driving consumption of  videos across all the company’s titles, with customized thumbnails of videos displayed on all article pages, explains Craig Ettinger, General Manger of Time.com in this interview with Beet.TV […]

SAN FRANCISCO — The spread of programmatic buying in media is changing how agencies buy and sell media, but also how they approach metrics, says Gregg Colvin, North American Chief Operating Officer for Universal McCann during an interview with Beet.TV. “This is a mindset change. Planners and buyers are thinking towards a more nuanced approach to KPIs […]

Yahoo is in conversations to acquire the big video news syndicator NDN, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.   The acquisition would resemble in some respects, the 2010 acquisition by AOL of 5Min.   Earlier this year at the Beet.TV executive retreat, we  interviewed  NDN COO Eric Orme on stage about the […]

SAN FRANCISCO –  Netflix is embracing programmatic video as a means to raise visibility of Netflix as an entertainment brand –  not as a service which had been the past marketing objective, explains Mike Zeman, Director of North American Marketing, in this interview with Beet.TV Zeman, who joined Netflix last year from the giant media […]

Comcast has finalized its acquisition of digital video ad services company FreeWheel, according to this report by Peter Kafka up on Re/code.  The deal could be worth as much as $375 million  In August we spoke with FreeWheel co-ceo Doug Knopper about the company and it’s plans for growth.   Knopper will stay after the […]

Vidible, a San Francisco-based start-up, which has created a content exchange platform for video creators and publishers, has received a $3.5 investment in a Series  A round lead by Greycroft Partners with IDG and The New York Times. The role of Greycroft and IDG in the round  was previous reported in TechCrunch.   The participation […]