Ran Harnevo's posts

In August The AOL On Network launched version 2.0 of its connected TV app and expanded the app onto three new platforms, making our massive video library available for 10 total connected TV devices. Today, we've announced that a native app is being launched for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets to continue our goal of reaching consumers at every touch point. With the announcement, The AOL On Network's 420,000 short-form videos can now reach over 85 percent all of U.S. consumers. We're everywhere now -- on your desktops, smartphones, tablets and connected TVs.

This announcement further showcases AOL's commitment to video and providing viewers with the top content they need to see at the right time. And, the most recent comScore Video Metrix Report indicates that this strategy is resonating with audiences as we climbed up to more than 61 million viewers and again surpassed the 1B marker for total streams of both video ads and content. Since we're now on more mobile devices, including the iPhone, iPad and Android-powered devices from manufacturers like Samsung and HTC, we expect to see our reach continue to climb.

Our viewers will be glad to know that the mobile apps were built with their user experience in mind. Users can search for and "favorite" videos with just one touch as well as share with their social networks. The iOS version is also Airplay enabled, allowing users who have Apple TV to seamlessly display videos from a mobile iOS device onto the television.

And while today's news is great for consumers, it's important to note that this is also a big deal for our content partners and advertisers. They'll benefit not only by taking advantage of the increased exposure, but also because media buyers can now purchase across all of AOL's properties, like Engadget, TechCrunch and HuffPost Live, with just one buy and gain access to all devices.

Lastly, I just want to give a big acknowledgement to Rob Delacruz, our General Manager for Connected TV and Mobile Video, and his entire team for their outstanding work on developing these apps. Rob is just one of many staffers we have at The AOL On Network who works tirelessly everyday to make AOL On the best destination for video!

Check out the AOL On app now by heading to Apple's App store or the Google Play App store.

The AOL On Network - we're pretty much everywhere! New App Launched! aol.it/T2TdUI

- AOL PR (@AOLPR) October 4, 2012

Today kicks off New York Advertising Week, which is one of the most important and exciting weeks of the year here at AOL, and which is why I'm particularly excited to share some very significant news. As many of you know, video has been a key part of our overall strategy over the last few years, and since launching The AOL On Network in April of this year, we've seen tremendous traction in the marketplace. In August, our reach surpassed 60M unique visitors for the first time ever, and we were ranked #1 in the Auto, Business, Style, Home, Health, Travel, Technology and Food categories.

Today, we're sharing the news our entire original video content library will be distributed across 22 curated channels and monetized on YouTube. Viewers will be able to enjoy nearly 20,000 videos from their favorite AOL brands like The Huffington Post, TechCrunch and Moviefone; original series Beyond the Battlefield and Little Women, Big Cars; and vertical content on topics Style and Home. Ad sales will be handled by AOL's sales team, opening up a new revenue stream for the company and delivering a significant amount of brand-safe inventory for advertisers.

According to comScore's Video Metrix for August 2012, AOL and YouTube's parent company, Google, are the two largest video content properties by number of video streams per month, which means this deal brings together the two largest video properties on the web.

YouTube unveiled its new channel strategy in October of last year in an effort to bring more premium content into the mix, which means we'll be joining some of the biggest names in media including Hearst, Lionsgate, Reuters, Slate and Pitchfork. The project has been an immense success so far, with twenty of their premium channels garnering a million views per week.

We couldn't be more excited to bring our video library to a whole new audience of viewers and to contribute to a major milestone in the online video industry.

It's no secret that at AOL, we think video is a hugely important part of today's web experience. In April of this year, I helped to launch AOL's new video arm, The AOL On Network, a major initiative that put our video strategy front and center. The vision behind AOL On is to bring the best of the TV experience – highly curated programming across a variety of channels – to the web. Since then, we've seen incredible traction across the board – with consumers, advertisers, publishers and content producers. Our video library has increased by more than 30% since launch, from 320,000 to 420,000 videos. And through distribution of this content to some of the most popular destinations online, we're now reaching tens of millions of consumers who are hungry for the best of what's on now.

It's for this reason that we're so excited by comScore's Video Metrix Report for August, which tracks the largest video properties on the web. When looking at video streams, we were ranked second only to Google with 725M streams. On average, these viewers spent more than an hour watching our videos. This is a number that we're especially proud of given that the vast majority of our videos are short form. And for the second month in a row, we've also surpassed the 1B marker for total streams of both video ads and content. Lastly, we've been ranked #1 in the Auto, Business, Style, Home, Health, Travel, Technology and Food categories. Our success in this area validates our channel strategy and speaks to the contextual targeting that media buyers in a recent BrightRoll study say is the most valuable form of targeting.

We think this is just the beginning of a very bright future for our video at AOL, and we encourage you to stay tuned for more.

* Source: comScore Media Metrix, August 2012 Content Videos only

The second annual Ad Age Digital Conference took place in San Francisco yesterday, and I was lucky enough to deliver a presentation during the video track. Entitled When Will 'Online Video' Just Be Called 'Video?', my presentation discussed the growing shift of television advertising dollars to online video and the progress that the industry has made in recent months.

With more than 200 people in the audience, I shared how new technologies and a more pronounced focus on quality content has really helped the industry to make significant strides of late. Technologies like the tablet and connected TVs have certainly made time-shifted video more accessible and media buyers are taking notice as these devices become more ubiquitous. I noted that a "new set of pipes" are being developed that allow for a better viewing experience than consumers have seen in the past. At the same time, the industry as a whole has done a much better job of investing in original web series, with "made for web" shows like our own Little Women Big Cars. In a nutshell, I highlighted how online video has matured tremendously from the days where only user-generated content was available and that, combined with new technology, have driven increased viewership.

Finally, the presentation addressed how new forms of measurement are also helping to make more of an apples to apples comparison between online video and traditional television. In the past, online video ads were often measured only in terms of clickthrough rates and completion rates with neither measure translating well to TV marketing. Newer forms of measurements, such as the partnership AOL made with Nielsen earlier this year, help media buyers to take a closer look and have a better understanding of metrics.

To read more about the Ad Age Digital Conference, check out adage.com.

At AOL, we want to bring people closer to the things that matter, while helping them discover and share stories and information that color their lives, especially when it comes to video. Today we announced the launch of The AOL On Network – a new video platform that offers premium content across 14 content channels including food, business, entertainment, style, tech, travel, health and others, and reaches nearly 57 million U.S. consumers.*