NEWFRONT UPDATES
A handful of companies, including BuzzFeed and Yahoo, chose to bow out of the NewFronts this year. Studio71, the multi-channel digital media specialist owned by German mass media company ProSiebenSat.1, kept one foot in the door: Officially remaining on the NewFront presenters’ list, the company remotely streamed its presentation in just over four minutes.
Studio71 announced a number of new series from its YouTube creators. Among the new series is a workplace comedy from Seven Bucks Digital Studios, the digital arm of Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia’s Seven Bucks Productions. The series will be made in partnership with the co-creators of the Bro Science Life YouTube channel. (As reported Variety reported Monday, that series will come as part of a pilot program between Studio71 and Seven Bucks; the companies reportedly intend to launch six new pilots in total.) Studio71 also mentioned This Is Mythical, a new channel from YouTube comedy duo Rhett and Link. Series such as Mythicalicious and Ten Feet Tall will feature on the channel later this year. In other news, YouTube comedian Lilly Singh – AKA IISuperwomanII – will create new content, including a return of her 12 Collaborations of Christmas series. And Family Fun Pack – the world’s second largest digital channel – will launch two new initiatives in 2017, including new baby- and music-focused programming.
PLATFORMS, APPS + DEVICES
It’s no secret that Gen Zers and young millennials make up Snapchat’s core user-base. But recent numbers from eMarketer illustrate the phenomenon in full force: According to the research firm, the messaging app has almost as many teen users as Facebook – and that’s despite the fact that Facebook as whole is eight times larger. EMarketer finds that 59 percent of U.S. 12-17 year-olds use Snapchat at least once a month throughout the year. For 18-24 year-olds, the number is 68%. And for 25-34 year-olds, it’s 42 percent. For Facebook, the percentages are 64%, 77%, and 81 percent respectively.
Another striking detail from the report is that the 12-17 year-old demo is present is far more active on Snapchat than on Facebook’s Instagram; there are nearly four times as many monthly active users on the former. With numbers like this, it’s fairly clear why Facebook has essentially declared all-out war on its young competitor, blatantly cloning Snapchat’s features across multiple platforms (to seemingly great success , it must be added). The next generation’s social media allegiance may be at stake, along with all the ad dollars that come with them; for the moment anyway, Snapchat appears to be holding onto those users.
Tubi TV , an ad-based video service based in San Francisco, has raised $20 million in new funding. The round was led by Jump Capital, with Danhua Capital, Foundation Capital and Cota Capital participating. The company says it will use the money to grow its user base and its staff. Tubi TV first launched in 2014. Since then, the company – which features free, ad-supported TV shows and movies – has inked licensing packs with companies including Lionsgate and MGM.
EXECUTIVE MOVES
One face that was missing at AwesomenessTV’s NewFront presentation last week was that of Brian Robbins, the digital media company’s founder. That’s because Robbins stepped down as the company’s CEO in February; now he has a replacement. The CEO role will now go to TV veteran Jordan Levin. Levin’s past roles include positions at The WB Network, Microsoft’s Xbox Entertainment Studios, and, most recently, a two-year stretch as the National Football League’s Chief Content Officer. He’ll officially start at AwesomenessTV on May 30.
Supply-side platform Videa has named Oscar Rondon as its new VP of Product. In the role, Rondon will oversee the planning and execution of the company’s product efforts. He most recently served as Senior Director of TV Stratgy at TubeMogul.
RESEARCH
To determine the TV ads generating the most digital response, the attention and conversion analytics company iSpot.tv measures viewer actions across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and all major search engines. Here, a look at the brands that advertised during the 2017 MTV Movie & TV Awards on Sunday, May 7.
“MTV’s rebranded tentpole movie awards (now fortified with TV awards too) brought out plenty of brands (and even some rare L.A. rain and hail, too). Taco Bell took home the evening’s top advertising honors, leading all online activity prompted by commercials during the show. “ Get Together ” used the dreaded friend zone to tease Taco Bell’s new loaded taco burrito, earning 36% digital share of voice. The spot beat out Warner Bros., Samsung, Diamond Producers Association and Paramount for the program’s most buzzy brand message.” – iSpot.tv
OpenSlate Engagement Data for the Health & Fitness vertical, based on the engagement metric for the week ending May 7.
Channel (Engagement) / Monthly Views / Total Subs / SlateScore
Tiger Fitness (7.2) / 310,311 / 1,634,430 / 532
Strength Camp (6.7) / 1,671,977 / 4,965,330 / 583
ScottHermanFitness (8.0) / 1,298,659 / 9,096,660 / 615
ATHLEAN-X™ (7.5) / 2,649,411 / 25,824,780 / 674
BeFiT (6.5) / 2,499,440 / 8,275,290 / 570
Omarlsuf (6.6) / 589,296 / 4,823,730 / 613
gymvirtual (6.6) / 3,178,532 / 23,404,500 / 654
blogilates (7.0) / 3,529,477 / 22,801,950 / 657
FitnessBlender (7.3) / 3,783,487 / 22,858,020 / 585
Tibo InShape (9.3) / 2,683,226 / 50,275,650 / 700
Source: The Engagement metric is one of OpenSlate’s component scores, and is a measure of a producer’s ability to evoke meaningful interaction with their audience. It is calculated on a scale of 1-10 with higher being better. The OpenSlateEngagement score uses a subset of the data incorporated in the SlateScore to perform a set of unique calculations. It factors in views, comments, likes, and more.
The ListenFirst Television Interest (TVI) Rating (TM) is a standardized measurement of the most buzzed-about TV programs on linear TV and streaming services. A complement to ListenFirst’s other syndicated data products (such as the ListenFirstDigital Audience Rating – TV), the metrics included in the rating capture organic actions that are largely unaffected by paid media. Programs that surface on the TVI leaderboards are the most hashtagged on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Tumblr, as well as most searched for on Wikipedia (used as a proxy for organic search volume).
All Series (5/1/17 – 5/7/17)
Streaming Series (5/1/17 – 5/7/17)
Source: ListenFirst. The TVI Rating aggregates metrics that measure organically generated activity by fans of the TV show. The metric includes total volume of official hashtag mentions on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Tumblr, along with Wikipedia page views (as a proxy for organic search volume) for a show as a percentage of the total volume of the same activities for all shows.
TRIVIA
UK comedy series Catastrophe streams on Amazon Video in the U.S. What network does it air on in the U.K.? Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, and state.)
Our Last Trivia Question: A four-part Gilmore Girls miniseries ran on Netflix last year. What was it called? Answer: Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. Kudos to Andy Pittman-TAMU/TX, Louis Lewow-Lewow Media Group/GA, Barbara Potasky-NBCUniversal/NY, Staci Gonzalez-441 Productions/MA, Matt Meachem-Gracenote/NY, Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/CA, Claire Heinichen-CMT/TN, Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/CA, Alyssa Novak-Jupiter Entertainment/TN, David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union/CA, Lorrie Shilling/CA, and McKenzie Jones-U.S. International Media/AZ
