Roku Rescues Quibi’s Content; OpenAP Launches SSP for TV

In this weekly segment, ExchangeWire sums up key industry updates in ad tech from around the globe. In this edition: Roku forges a deal to rescue Quibi's content; OpenAp launches an SSP for TV; Google admits to carrying out an 'experiment' in Australia that saw some media sites omitted from its search results; and mobile apps saw 218 billion downloads over 2020, the highest number on record.

Roku buys rights to Quibi content

Roku has reached a deal to take exclusive ownership of Quibi’s former content. The purchase, which is the streaming service’s biggest move in procuring original content, gives Roku the global distribution rights to the short-lived short-form video platform, which shut up shop last year just 6 months after launching.

Whilst the deal excludes some Quibi content, such as its daily news shows, as well as its infrastructure, it’s the folded platform’s star-studded portfolio of original shows from the likes of Idris Elba, Anna Kendrick, and Chrissy Teigen that makes the move worthwhile for Roku. Whilst the financial details remain undisclosed, insider sources value the deal at under USD $100m (£74.1m). News of the agreements saw Roku’s shares climb 5% last Friday (8^th December).

It’s understood that US-based streaming powerhouse will make the former Quibi properties available to viewers for free from the Roku channel later this year. As they did during their initial run on Quibi, the adopted shows will feature advertising.

The deal ends Quibi’s short life-span on a more positive note. Founder and former CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg has said that he is “thrilled” that Quibi’s content has been picked up by Roku.

OpenAP launches SSP for TV

TV networks consortium OpenAP has launched its first technology product offering. The supply-side platform (SSP), made available from yesterday (11^th January), will connect directly to OpenAP Market, making it easier for TV networks to buy advertising inventory by allowing them to view available ad spots in real time.

An integral part of programmatic advertising, SSPs are only beginning to make their way into the still linear (and largely manual) TV advertising buying process. Omnicom Media Group is the first agency client to use the new SSP, having integrated the solution into its own platform. As OMG’s preferred vendor, software and data platform VideoAmp will be the first partner to integrate with OpenAp.

According to OpenAp CEO David Levy, the technology is applicable to upfront markets, and not just the scatter markets – wherein the demand side buys ad slots closer to the intended air date – that the SSP is currently predominantly working within.

The launch of OpenAp’s SSP marks a first step towards automating the TV ad buying process. With the sector still on the rocky road to recovery as advertising budgets make their gradual return, this could be an important development that spurs buyers to invest in TV.

Google conducts ‘experiment’ which excluded some media sites from search results

Google has been removing some Australian news websites from its search results in what it calls ‘experiments’. According to a report from the Australian Financial Review, the US-based search giant had deliberately adjusted its news and search algorithm to stop the links to some commercial news sites from appearing to some users.

A spokesperson from the Alphabet Inc. subsidiary confirmed the report, stating that Google was “running a few experiments that will each reach about 1% of Google Search users in Australia to measure the impacts of news businesses and Google Search on each other”.

Google has tried to assuage criticism by asserting that they carry out “tens of thousands of experiments in Google Search” every year. However, critics argue that the move is a demonstration of the tech behemoth’s “extraordinary power” as Google continues to butt horns with Australian lawmakers over the prospective News Media Bargaining Code. A spokesperson from publisher Nine called the latest discovery a demonstration of “how easily [Google] can make Australian news providers who fall out of their favour effectively disappear from the internet”.

The Code, which stipulates that digital platforms must arrange a financial agreement with news publishers in order to share their content, has received consistent resistance and criticism from Google. Some are naturally incredulous that the latest move is unrelated to Google’s dismay with the new regulation, which was introduced to parliament last month.

Record 218 billion app downloads in 2020

App stores saw 218 billion downloads in 2020, the highest volume ever recorded. This figure comes from App Annie’s annual “State of Mobile” report, which found that the number of mobile app downloads rose by 7% year-on-year, with Android users alone racking up 3.5 trillion minutes of app usage.

The report also found that consumer spending also grew by an impressive 20%, reaching USD $143bn (£104.8bn) by the end of the year. Growth came predominantly from China, the US, Japan, South Korea, and the UK, and was bolstered by consumers’ appetite for entertainment as COVID-19 forced them to stay indoors.

Notably, the research found that consumers are spending more time watching content on their mobile devices than watching live TV. This trend was detected across developing markets, such as Brazil, India, and Indonesia, as well as in developed mobile markets, including China, Japan, and South Korea.

Unsurprisingly, mobile gaming also saw a surge amidst the pandemic, with casual games accounting for 78% of app downloads. Video platforms also enjoyed higher adoption, with leading short-form content platform TikTok achieving 325% year-over-year growth in spite of its ambiguous status in the US and an outright ban from India.

Recognising the rise of mobile, investors increasingly gave their backing to mobile businesses, with funding for such companies up 27% year-over-year to USD $73bn (£53.5bn).