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A round-up of this week's media stories

Boom in video-on-demand ad market

INVESTMENT BY broadcasters in online catch-up services is beginning to pay off, judging from the proliferation of unskippable “pre-roll” advertisements postponing users’ appointment with the opening credits.

The video-on-demand advertising market is “booming”, according to Dermot Hanrahan, chief executive of Electric Media, the online sales house he jointly owns with The Irish Times Ltd. “Quite frankly, it sells out. It’s one area where there is a shortage of inventory.”

TV3’s director of online, Stephen Grant, believes the value of online video advertising will double this year from an estimated €4 million last year. “It’s still an exception to have an online ad to accompany the TV campaign, but I’d like that to be the rule,” says Grant.

TV3’s 3player, the new version of its catch-up service launched in October, attracted more than one million plays per month in January and February, up 40 per cent on the previous year, he says. “We are delivering almost four million video ads per month and growing as we seek to add inventory in this increasing market. But even at that we believe there is greater growth in demand than supply, leading to upward pressure on prices,” says Grant.

Crucially, the broadcaster hasn’t seen any cannibalisation of its television advertising sales. “We see it as add-on viewership,” he says. Grant cites the medium’s ability to offer both the brand-building potential of a traditional television campaign with “click here to learn more” calls-to-action in display advertisements to the side of the video stream.

There is an “acceptability limit” with the amount of video-on-demand advertising that can be applied to each video stream, says Hanrahan, who believes advertisement counters – “message one of three”, for example – will become more popular in future. “You don’t want ad fatigue.”

Currently, 3player informs viewers of the length of each spot, but not how many advertisements they can expect before their programme begins. Not knowing how many advertisements there are makes it more likely that users who don’t want to miss the start of a programme will keep their attention focused on screen. RTÉ Player, meanwhile, boasts a timer-free “Advertisement: Video to follow” message on screen.

Electric Media, which sells the video advertising for TV3's 3Player, IrishTimes.comand Entertainment.ieamong others, also holds the Irish contract to sell video advertising for Brightroll, a US firm that aggregates video content from major branded websites.

Hanrahan believes a push from clients to advertise in the video medium will encourage traditionally print-based media outlets to boost their video activities, as their digital operations become steadily more commercially central.

RTE goes +1 with the help of digital

MISSED THAT BIT at the start of The Frontlinewhere Pat Kenny frames the parameters of the week's heated debate?

UPC viewers will now be able to watch it all kick off again one hour later.

Timeshift channels – that lovely compromise between watching linear TV as it goes out and watching it whenever you fancy on digital video recorders or online catch-up – are about to become a more visible feature of the Irish television market following UPC’s addition of RTÉ One +1. It’s one of three RTÉ channels – the others are RTÉ Two HD and RTÉjr – developed primarily for digital terrestrial television service Saorview but now available to 380,000 UPC digital customers.

Veteran viewers of Channel 4’s digital offshoot E4, one of the first UK channels to launch a timeshift companion back in 2003, will know that its +1 channel effectively meant there was once no time of the day when you couldn’t find a Friends repeat on your electronic programme guide. For broadcasters, however, the delight comes with the ability of +1 channels to do wonders for ratings of flagship shows.

Panasonic needs to up its game

STRUGGLING JAPANESE electronics firm Panasonic is making the most of its sponsorship of the London 2012 Olympics by also signing up as official audio-visual partner of the Paralympic Games. It will supply equipment for the event, including LED large screen display systems, digital video cameras and broadcast equipment.

“The Panasonic AV systems will deliver the passion and excitement of the games to spectators around the world,” according to the release issued by the company.

Unfortunately, what the company needs is some of the games’ passion and excitement in its own loss-making television business, which is lagging behind the performance of gold medal contenders Samsung and LG, the largest television manufacturers.

Like fellow Japanese company Sony, Panasonic is being comprehensively outrun by its leaner South Korean rivals, which are proving somewhat faster at developing 55-inch organic light-emitting diode (OLED) televisions that are thinner than an iPad 2.

PR body lobbies against 'lobbyists'

PUBLIC RELATIONS Consultants Association Ireland isn’t too happy at the number of organisations that are lobbying the Government to the effect that they’re not lobbyists at all and that it’s all been a terrible misunderstanding.

In its submission to the public consultation on a proposed registration system for lobbyists, the association argues that the register must keep exemptions to a minimum. Otherwise, those who want a quiet ministerial word without the matter going on a register could simply send their exempt accountant or solicitor to lobby on their behalf, bypassing the PR companies that formally provide such a service.

The association also highlights the wisdom of requiring the other half of the conversation to keep records, citing the obligation on UK ministers to publish quarterly diaries of who they meet: “The industry welcomes the Government’s intention, but the burden should not be placed entirely on industry,” says chairwoman Laurie Mannix. “There needs to be transparency on both sides.”