Ad spend rebounding globally
THE CHANNEL
|
MEDIA MARKETS
Advertising spend continues to
rebound globally, though
increases slowed in the first
quarter of 2013. According to
Nielsen’s quarterly Global
AdView Pulse report, global
advertising grew just 1.9% from
the first quarter of 2012.
In Europe, down 4.4%, ad
spend is still declining under the
weight of the region’s economic
problems. It seems unlikely that
the region will recover from
these challenges in the short term.
Spending in the Middle East
and Africa continued to recover
from the spending decline of
early 2012, as ad spend grew
2.9% during Q1. Despite the
upward progression, the region
remains affected by the civil
unrest in Egypt, one of the
Intelsat SA, a provider of satellite
services worldwide, carried out
the first transmission of an Ultra
High Definition signal over
satellite in North America.
Together with Ericsson the
company successfully
demonstrated a true 4K UHD
end-to-end video transmission over
satellite to Turner Broadcasting's
facilities in Atlanta, Georgia.
During the demonstration,
Intelsat's Galaxy 13 satellite
delivered a 4:2:2 10-bit, 4K UHD
signal at 60 frames per second,
which resulted in an immersive
viewing experience. The 100
Mbps video feed was encoded
and decoded in real time by
Ericsson, using its AVP 2000
contribution encoders and
RX8200 receivers, capable of 4K
UHD operations as well as HD
and SD contribution at the
highest quality. Newtec provided
the modulation and
demodulation hardware,
featuring Clean Channel
Technology, and the satellite
downlink antenna was provided
by Turner Broadcasting.
An earlier test between
06
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ISSUE 2 2013
|
THE CHANNEL
region’s largest markets, where
ad spend declined by 20%.
Latin America was top of the
list for the first quarter with ad
spend growth of 11.9%. Spending
grew in all countries in the
region during the period. This
emerging region does, however,
face its own challenges, as some
countries, like Argentina, are
experiencing rising unemployment
and high inflation.
Growth in ad expenditures
steadily continued in Asia-
Pacific, where spending grew
5.8% in the first quarter. The best
performers in the region were
China, Indonesia and the
Philippines, which all saw
roughly 20%.
Japan was the only country
where ad spend went down - by
1.1%.
Intelsat demonstrate
true 4K
Stopping
drop-off
San Mateo-based Conviva makes
stream-monitoring software that
big companies can use to ease
network congestion. Able to
oversee 4bn connections at a
time globally, the software shows
what’s happening with each
video player so broadcasters can
decide what optimisation steps
to take.
Conviva Co-Founder and CEO
Dr. Hui Zhang predicts that as
the online viewing population is
maturing, the new breed of
viewer will lose patience with an
experience that is less than TV-
quality. Conviva's 2013 Viewer
Experience Report reveals that
viewers watch 250% more when
they have an optimal experience
defined as fast startup, little to
no buffering and a high-
sustained bitrate for high
resolution and visual clarity. The
company suggests that fixing
quality has the added benefits of
subscriber retention and ad
revenue uplift, advice which has
attracted customers including
Virgin Media, Channel 4, HBO
and ESPN to improve scalability
and picture. By eliminating
buffering and improving video
quality across all devices, a
typical premium long form Video
On Demand provider (with 10m
views per month) should
increase revenue by just under
£1.9m monthly.
In 2011 a 1% increase in
buffering resulted in three
minutes less viewing time per
session of long-form content. By
2012, that identical 1% increase
led to 8 minutes lost in viewing
time per view for similar
content. Viewers are becoming
more intolerant, but Zhang says
the opportunity for online video
publishers and operators is
unprecedented as the number of
viewers watching streamed
content is growing each month,
especially premium and paid-for
video.
Newtec and satellite
transmission provider PSSI
Global Services, which was
conducted in preparation for the
UHD demonstration, achieved
140 Mbps over a 36 MHz
transponder on Galaxy 13 to a
4.6-meter antenna.
Demonstrations such as this
show operators that it is possible
to start building the necessary
ecosystem and a library of UHD
TV content now as the industry
readies itself for the roll-out of
commercial services in the
coming years.
