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YOUTUBE'S AD REACH GUARANTEE: The competition to bring TV ad dollars to digital is only getting fiercer, with YouTube making especially big promises to ad executives in an effort to gain greater share of budgets, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The enormous video viewing site is guaranteeing advertisers that their ads will be shown on as many channels as it takes until a certain percentage of its targeted audience has been reached. This is how TV networks have operated for a long time says the Wall Street Journal, but it's a first for YouTube. These guarantees "will make it easier for chief marketing officers to feel more comfortable moving ad budgets that weren't earmarked for YouTube or online video to Google," said Jordan Bitterman, chief strategy officer of Mindshare. (Wall Street Journal)
TWITTER'S LATEST SECOND SCREEN ACQUISITIONS: The second screen industry has been consolidating in earnest over the past few months as the competition for the social TV audience becomes a two-horse race between Facebook and Twitter. That trend continues with the latest acquisitions by Twitter. Looking beyond its U.S. borders, Twitter has purchased France's Mesagraph and is also acquiring the UK's SecondSync, both of which are social TV analytics companies. TechCrunch notes that these acquisitions allow Twitter to build upon the audiences these companies already have, rather than Twitter having to start from scratch in new regions. The social network also announced that it is expanding its partnership with Kantar to further measure Twitter's TV reach. (TechCrunch, Twitter)
YAHOO EYES VIDEO SERVICE NDN: Yahoo is in talks to purchase online video news service News Distribution Network Inc. for about $300 million, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Under the direction of Marissa Mayer, Yahoo has been building out its presence as a media property with big-name personality hires. Now the company seems to be eyeing video as its next big platform — and YouTube as its next big competitor.
As we reported yesterday, Yahoo is also recruiting YouTube stars to further expand its online video presence. In the case of the potential NDN acqusition, the "video syndication service that supplies newspapers and other Web publishers with clips about news, sports, politics and other topics, would help Yahoo expand its video offering to thousands of new sites and potentially create lucrative opportunities for marketers to work with Yahoo," according to the Journal. (Wall Street Journal)
MACHINIMA HIRES NEW CEO: The gaming-centric YouTube channel Machinima has hired former TV executive Chad Gutstein to be its new CEO. Despite falling viewership numbers, the channel recently attracted $18 million in funding from Warner Bros. and other investors. (Re/code)
STRONG CHROMECAST SALES IN UK, NORWAY: Google’s Chromecast has already achieved strong sales in the U.K. and Norway, just weeks after its European launch. The U.K.-based electronics retailer reported that it sold a Chromecast every 4.5 seconds on launch day. "We’ve sold millions of Chromecasts to date, and we hope to replicate that success in Europe," said a Google spokesperson in an email to Gigaom. We estimate that Google sold about 2.7 million Chromecasts in the U.S. last year. (Gigaom)
Chromecast boasts an expanding library of supported apps. Rdio, Crackle, and Vudu have all recently announced support for the streaming device. (9To5Google)
DECLINE IN VIDEO BUFFERING: The percentage of online video views that required buffering dropped to 26% in 2013, down from 40% in the previous year, according to Conviva’s 2014 Viewer Experience Report. (Conviva via VideoMind)
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