Plus: Screen size doesn't matter to video content streamers; real-time bidding explained; and Yahoo! gets more personal with online content
Size doesn't matter to streamers of video programming: Screen size, that is. A survey of 1,500 consumers by CMB found that 58% of people who viewed video programming on a tablet did it at home----and of these, 63% watched on tablets, even though the program they were watching was available on their televisions. The growing acceptance of smaller screens could be an ominous sign for the cable and satellite industries; 43% of those surveyed said they'll probably cut back on cable spending this year.
Real-time bidding explained by brainy English people: The Economist is one of those magazines that I wish I read—or could be seen reading--especially after perusing its entertaining take on real-time bidding titled "Mad Men are Watching You." RTB is a "clever, nosier way to sell online advertising" that is shaking up the online media business, says the U.K. newsweekly, going on to explain how it works, how it disrupts current business models, and how it's here to stay.
Yahoo! rolls out new ways to personalize online content: Ask the people what they want---that's the driving principle behind new improvements that Yahoo! will introduce over the next few months to create more personalized content on its sites. In this interview with Ad Age, Mike Kerns, Yahoo!'s VP of Social and Personalization, reviews some of these new features---including sites that let users customize results based on various demographic categories--- and how personalization can increase viewer engagement and benefit advertisers, too.
Mobile devices will outnumber people by 2012: Cisco's new report on mobile Internet shares some staggering stats on growth. In 2011, mobile data traffic was eight times the size of the entire global Internet in 2000. Globally, mobile data traffic increased by 133% over 2010, more than doubling for the fourth year in a row. By the end of this year, the number of mobile-connected devices will exceed the number of people on earth (approximately seven billion). Read more findings on video, mobile, tablets and smartphones here.
--- Bob Pickard
