BuzzFeed
This presentation focused on the dynamics of shareable video content. Among revelations: BuzzFeed has generated 1.08 billion video views since September 2012; CEO Jonah Peretti noted the company had no video business 18 months ago, “so this is coming out of nowhere.” Also noteworthy: BuzzFeed.com accounts for only 15 percent of video views; and just 20 percent of total views of BuzzFeed content come from YouTube subscribers, execs said. Dao Nguyen, BuzzFeed’s Publisher, presented the new video dashboard and data analysis platform called POUND, or the Process for Optimizing and Understanding Network Diffusion. Pound will help BF and its clients better more readily absorb social sharing trends and in turn create better content. “Shares are like a forest, not a tree,” Nguyen explained. “Sharers each plant a root to their own tree, but there are many sharers, which creates a forest of shares. All trees are radically different, and the structure of the forest tells us how content is shared.”

Bloomberg
Responsive.TV, a new platform that gives digital viewers more flexibility in their consumption of video programming, took center stage at Bloomberg Media’s Newfront presentation. The initiative, created with agency Stinkdigital, will offer small bites of longer clips, which is a response to learning that 45 percent of the Bloomberg audience doesn’t want to sit through long videos, execs said. Also noteworthy: four new web-based shows The Morning Brief, The Market Close, original series The Spark and Handmade.

Yahoo
The tech giant rolled out the purple carpet once again for its NewFront event this year. The 18 new series for its live digital magazine and original long-form video collection include: electronic music competition series Ultimate DJ, which counts Simon Cowell as a producer; a second-year extension of live concert and festival streams in conjunction with Live Nation; and The Pursuit, a scripted long-form series from Scott Stuber and Beth McCarthy Miller. In a surprise twist during the showcase, Community star Joel McHale stepped out from the audience to reveal he would take on responsibility as co-host. He wasn’t shy to point out common gripes about the Upfront and NewFront season. “How long is this going to run for? When I came here an hour ago, Yahoo’s Newfront from last year had just ended.”

Conde Nast Entertainment
CNE will produce more than 2,500 new videos in 2015-16, the company announced at its Newfront. New original programming includes two virtual reality series for The Scene through a new partnership with Jaunt Studios; Tyler Zone, a scripted sci-fi comedy series from Keith Schofield and starring Community’s Danny Pudi; and CNE’s first channel dedicated to Latino millennials. “Everyone talks about being premium, but at CNE, premium is defined as making high quality content for the sought-after influential millennials and then distributing it widely across all screens,” Lisa Valentino, Chief Revenue Officer at Condé Nast Entertainment and SVP, Digital Sales at Condé Nast told Cynopsis. “We also define premium as performance: how is partnering with CNE resulting in achieving real business outcomes for advertisers? This is what we talked about to our 700 attendees at the NewFront.”

Hulu is raising its profile. That was the message at its Newfront, where the online video service announced two big new deals: exclusive SVOD rights to all 180 Seinfeld episodes (for a total value that may be as high as $180 million) and a multiyear agreement for all new and upcoming AMC Networks primetime scripted series on AMC, IFC, BBC America, SundanceTV and WE tv. The streaming service is expanding its slate of originals for 2015-16, including: James Franco-starring and J.J. Abrams project 11/22/63; NY comedy Difficult People; dysfunctional family sendup Casual; The Way and comedy RocketJump: The Show, where YT personality Freddie Wong chronicles the filmmaking behind RJ’s newest short. “Is this a NewFront or an Upfront? I will put a stake in the ground and say that our ad model really represents where the TV marketplace will end up going,” Peter Naylor, SVP of Advertising Sales, told Cynopsis.

Refinery29
At its first NewFront, lifestyle media company Refinery29 committed to a suite of 29 video programs in scripted comedies, dramas, documentaries and tutorials for its target audience of millennial women. Among the creative partners plumping up l the pipeline are Lisa Kudrow, Dan Bucatinsky, wifey.tv co-founders Jill Soloway and Rebecca Odes, Jessie Kahnweiler, Planned Parenthood with Lena Dunham, Mae Whitman, Jenni Konner and Jack Antonoff.

Google/YouTube
YouTube emphasized its pop culture influence over a hyper-engaged fan base at the Google-owned company’s Brandcast event, with testimonials from executives including YT CEO Susan Wojcicki and creative talent ranging from Grace Helbig to John Green. “YouTube is, has been, and always will be about video, video, video – that’s our core,” Suzie Reider, Managing Director of Brand, Google told Cynopsis. “One of the things unique to us is our fan engagement. Creators on YouTube form deep connections with their viewers, which means that brands can reach their most valuable, hard-to-reach audiences with us. But it’s more than that. The billions of people who watch video on YouTube engage and connect back with video responses and spin up the viral nature of the commercials/content; we think of the commercials as content.”

DigitasLBi
As one of the founding NewFront members and the only non-publisher in the 33 events that made up this year’s NewFront market, DigitasLBi’s program revolved around a recent study conducted in partnership with the IAB called Content Revelations. Scott Donaton, DigitasLBi North America Chief Content Officer, introduced “prophets” to speak during the event: Tom Freston, Principal of Firefly3 and former CEO of Viacom; Kathleen Grace, Chief Creative Officer of New Form Digital; Judy McGrath, Founder and President of Astronauts Wanted and former MTV veteran; Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia and co-founder of MTV; Ben Rubin, Co-Founder and CEO of Life on Air, which created Meerkat; and Shane Smith, Co-Founder and CEO of Vice.

Vevo
The music network returned to the NewFronts for the fourth consecutive year with a showcase that included performances from Tori Kelly, Halsey and Magic! In a post-performance surprise for Halsey, Vevo revealed that she would join the company’s emerging artist program, LIFT; it’s helped launch artists Sam Smith, Lorde and Rita Ora. Vevo also introduced new CEO Erik Huggers. “This is quite literally my first day on the job,” Huggers said in the stage’s spotlight.

PopSugar
At POPSUGAR’s NewFront held at New York’s Cedar Lake, execs unveiled a new slate of series and updates to its current shows to cater to the millennial woman. New programming includes three style series: Hannahgram with fashion influencer Hannah Bronfman, Upstaged with home stager Cheryl Eisen, and Knock Knock with designer Rachel Antonoff; two food series: Eat, Sleep, Repeat with foodie Eden Grinshpan and Ingrid Dishes with YouTube celeb chef Ingrid Nilsen; lifestyle shows Find Your Happy and Choose Your Challenge, Change Your Life!; plus Facebook-exclusive daily pop culture show POPSUGAR Rush.

Vice
CEO Shane Smith announced 20 new shows to debut on the gritty millennial network in the upcoming year. Titles include Gaycation with Ellen Page, Huang’s World, hosted by chef Eddie Huang, Weediquette, Vice Portraits with Marc Maron, Noisey, Motherboard, Fashion Week International, Black Market With Michael K. Williams, Vice World of Sports and F— That’s Delicious, hosted by the rapper Action Bronson. Talk is that the network will actually be a linear rebrand of A+E cable channel H2, but there’s no confirmation as of yet. A+E owns 10% of Vice.

Fullscreen
The multi-channel network announced its acquisition of social-media studio McBeard, which has created branded content for such clients as Netflix, 20th Century Fox, NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures. Fullscreen, which is owned by Otter Media, a joint venture between AT&T and Chernin Group, also plans to get involved in full-length films and is working with measurement companies Nielsen and Millward Brown to figure out ways to track custom content and influencer marketing reach. “Fullscreen reaches one in four millennials under 35 years old, with 60 percent of viewership on mobile tablets,” Founder and CEO, George Strompolos said. “This is a generation who grew up with mobile TVs and production studios in their hands. It’s what we call cell phones.”

Machinima
“We’re back,” said CEO Chad Gutstein at Machinima’s NewFront, held at Arena in Time Square. The company announced several sci-fi and game-inspired digital series. Geared toward millennial males 18-41, the MCN is the 9th largest video destination in the U.S. and the second biggest destination on YouTube, according to their presentation. Highlights included Justice League: Gods & Monsters Chronicles from Bruce Timm, High School 51, created and produced by Transformer’s Roberto Orci, and a reboot of the 1987 hit film RoboCop.

Defy Media
Defy made sure to emphasize its top program, Smosh. The channel, which has more than 20 million subscribers on YouTube, will become a feature film, released this summer: The Smosh Movie. Defy will also produce 30 new series this year and plans to build up relationships with advertisers in order to pitch directly as series develop. “We’re going to produce the content you see in the ‘wild,’ or out in the newsfeeds or even in the primetime news,” DEFY’s President Keith Richman said. “You may go to other NewFronts which promote programming that asserts advertising vocabulary, but we have the content that passes the ‘smell test.’”

Collective Digital Studio
CDS, which boasts more than 1.5 billion monthly views (with 70% of their viewers between 18-34), has hooked up with Insomniac Events to get into electronic dance music (EDM), the company revealed at its NewFront. Also coming down the pike is a new dish from Epic Meal Time called Epic Tool Time. Plus, Good Mythical Morning’s Rhett & Link will launch series ReThink and Charlie Todd and his Improv Everywhere team will debut Fake Company Incorporated. Finally, the MCN introduced CDS Connect, a new solution that marries custom ad units starring top influencers with the re-targeting capabilities of AdWords.

StyleHaul
The lifestyle multi-channel network announced that it will launch its first scripted series, Vanity, on June 11. Maybelline will sponsor the series, which will feature Denise Richards, Karrueche Tran, and Alex Frnka in 12 11-minute weekly episodes. StyleHaul also has a documentary, Fresh Dressed, coming to theaters, CNN, and on Vimeo On Demand.

HealthiNation
Its first NewFront consisted of a seven-minute video showing off the brand’s health, fitness, and cooking content, along with four new cooking and fitness series. Returning shows include Gluten Free Tasty, HealthiHolidays, and Eating by Heart.

IAB NewFronts Insights
To wrap-up the second week of NewFront presentations, the IAB presented research from ShareThis, Tremor Video, true[x], Unruly, Quantcast and MediaSmith along with its own study. Titled the 2015 Original Digital Video Study, the IAB found one in four U.S. adults watches original digital video programming at least once a month. That’s a 13% increase over last year. Digital video is also able to attract the 18-34 year old market of 17 million cord-cutters and cord-nevers. Fifty-three percent of cord-cutters and 63 percent of cord-nevers see original digital video as “very” or “somewhat” important in their decision not to have pay TV.

TheStreet
The publication announced four new shows and touted that their TV team produces more than 600 pieces of content each month. The new programs will be Disruptors, Perspectives From Wall, Financial Fix and The Gamechanger.

Daily Mail
Snapchat unveiled a new ten-second advertising format at the publisher’s NewFront, which will cost two cents per view and run between articles and videos on Discover. Daily Mail North America CEO Jon Steinberg discussed the partnership with Snapchat and its new ad platform; he also unveiled Daily Mail’s special filter for the disappearing-message app. Discover launched in January with media partners such as Daily Mail, Vice, MTV, CNN, and Cosmopolitan; advertisers were originally paying $100 CPMs (the cost to reach 1,000 viewers), twice as much than most online video ads.

Roberta Caploe: Editorial Director @robertacaploe
Diane K Schwartz: Senior Vice President, Media Communications Group 

Cynopsis Ad Sales: Mike Farina | VP, Sales | 203-218-6480
Classifieds Sales: Trish Pihonak | Director of Operations | 203-899-8459

Copyright Cynopsis 2015