Erik Huggers, the former head of the BBC’s Future Media & Technology division, believes his new company will be one of the winners of a rebundling services.
In an IBC Keynote Huggers said the current process of unbundling is due a reversal. Under his analysis there are around 70 different SVOD providers in the marketplace. “The most logical thing to happen next is that someone’s going to bundle it all back together again. The question is who will be the winner in that rebundling process.”
On subscription, Huggers had hope for Amazon, while on ad-supported it was easier, YouTube.
But of course, it was Vevo, where Huggers is now President and CEO, for which he had the highest hopes.
He has good cause. Vevo, founded by Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group, is evolving from just a personal video jukebox to include concerts and for the first time its own VJs. It is also hiring music specialists to curate the playlists.
Vevo worked with ratings specialists Nielsen to get an online metric comparable with broadcast TV.
The audience is split 54% male and 46% female; 13 to 24-year-olds represent a third of the viewers. 25 to 34s another 35%. As Huggers points out these are exactly the people who are stopping watching linear TV. On 18-49 year old demographic, Vevo reaches more than anyone else, so ahead of the major broadcast networks. “Those datapoints have empowered our sales staff to go to market with that data.”
In a surprising agreement, Vevo worked with MTV, supporting the annual Video Music Awards.
The reach of the VMAs went down 34 % year on year, but with the upside for Vevo at least that on some featured artists there was a 14% lift in consumption.