I can’t tell you how many times I’ve visited a magazine publisher’s website and was unable to find a meaningful video experience. This isn’t just a problem with the small guys. As an experiment, go to the websites of these major titles: Reader’s Digest or Taste of Home. You’ll either find that they don’t have any video, period, or you’ll have to really dig to get to it. 

My guess is that these publishers aren’t using video because they don’t have their own video content, but this shouldn’t be an excuse in today’s digital era where video is so easy to acquire. This is especially critical when you consider that print circulation and ad revenue has experienced a steep decline for almost a decade now and more magazine publishers have made the move to digital or closed shop (2012 in memoriam). Publishers must do everything in their power to keep audiences engaged and relate to the ways they consume content, starting with video. 

Read the rest of OneScreen’s article featured on Min Online here.

OneScreen enjoying a day at OMMA Video. 

To reduce the burden on audiences of having to determine legal online videos for themselves, MPAA has released WhereToWatch.org, a living list of trustworthy video search tools and sources for TV shows and movies. Internet television services have introduced unprecedented freedom for audiences to search, discover, and watch almost any type of video online.  However, this new-found access to unlimited video content online sometimes requires digital audiences to choose from legally distributed content and pirated videos, often unknowingly. Distinguishing legal content from pirated content was rarely a challenge audiences faced when broadcast, cable, and the video rental stores were the only ways to watch video. Pirated videos were usually very obvious because of the source (the guy selling videos out of the back of his truck) and the visual evidence of a perpetrator’s shaky recording from inside a movie theater. But when stealing a film or television show can be as easy as the uploading files online, pirated videos are not always easy to identify. Yes, the low-end still exists (as evident from the screen recordings on YouTube), but there are also illegal streaming video sites that on-first look appear as reputable as Netflix, asking the user to create an account and offering high-quality versions of the latest movies and television shows.

MPAA’s Where to Watch should be seen as an important first step in the industry for improving audience experiences with online content. So far the directory has information and links to 67 US video services available from video streaming services, broadcast networks, cable and pay TV operators, search sites, and other companies. However, challenges will likely arise. 67 services is a relatively small list when you consider the tremendous growth the industry has seen in just the past three years. It’s likely that valuable sources will be overlooked. For the time being the site only lists services available in the US, and services and applications for niche video content from smaller publishers are almost nonexistent. On top of listing limitations, adoption will likely be slow simply due to audience blindness. However, as audiences continue to consume more content online it’s foreseeable that demand for content verification services will continue to grow and sites and services like Where To Watch will be the first of many.

OneScreen had a blast at ICS at UC Irvine yesterday! Thanks to everyone for stopping by and participating!

OneScreen’s set up at UC Irvine for ICS Day! Thanks to everyone for stopping by!

I may be dating myself here, but I still remember when families sifted through the print TV Guide that lived on their coffee tables to track down their favorite shows. Audiences today rely on a much larger store of digital resources to find what they want to watch: digital guides within cable boxes, social networking, and a slew of new TV recommendation startups. You can still find program scheduling on TVGuide.com, the magazine, and the cable channel, but the focus has become much more editorial. With CBS’ recent $100 million purchase of a 50% stake in TVGN (TV Guide Network) and TVGuide.com, all I could think of were the Internet companies that missed the boat on this tremendous opportunity.

Read the rest of OneScreen’s latest in MediaPost here.

A few OneScreen team members at the OC Color Run this past weekend. Thanks to everyone for coming out!

OneScreen is proud to be named a finalist for the ABA Stevie Awards Best New Product or Service category of 2013!

You can read the full list here!

OneScreen had a great time at HITS in Malibu yesterday. Here’s a panoramic view from Pepperdine University. 

We spent some time setting up our booth and networking with some fascinating people in the industry, and we didn’t forget to enjoy the view! What do you think of our booth?

We listened in on some interesting panels and OneScreen CEO Atul Patel presented with our partners The Young Turks and PowerBlock TV. Thanks to everyone who participated and helped make this a great day!

As digital video continues to grow exponentially, magazine publishers are moving to video to fulfill audiences’ insatiable appetites to watch content. When magazine publishers deliver a balance of interesting content in as many media formats as possible (image, text, and video), then they are likely to notice it translates to more web traffic and more revenue. 

The latest move comes from Conde Nast’s Entertainment Group, which introduced 30 programs at its first presentation made during the Digital Content Newfronts. President of Conde Nast Entertainment Dawn Ostroff presented shows that are already on Glamour’s Web site, such as “Fashion Week Ride-Along” and “Elevator Makeover,” where audiences can watch women receive fashion makeovers during elevator rides. Ostroff also announced 10 more programs that are slated to begin on Vogue’s website: “Vogue Weddings” and “Vintage Bowles.” Other publications, such as Wired, GQ, Vanity Fair, Teen Vogue, Epicurious, and Style.com are expected to introduce their video lineups by the end of the year. 

According to Conde Nast, the publisher hopes to distribute content through partnerships with Yahoo, AOL, and Twitter.

OneScreen recently published an article in MinOnline, discussing the emergence of cross platform partnerships. NBC and Hearst’s Esquire magazine partnered to rebrand G4 as the Esquire Network in April. The network, which targets men between 18 and 49, debuted in 60 million homes and expanded the channel’s content topics from video games and gadgets to entertainment, travel, style, and food, with original programming and acquired NBC shows. 

The beauty of these cross-platform partnerships is that they harness the strategies and capabilities of two media companies, without either having to build the other’s capabilities from scratch, and simultaneously build a wider footprint across more channels for both parties.

President of Conde Nast Robert A. Sauerberg said that although the company is founded in print, the video initiatives are “an extension of what we are doing. We see this as a new business that is not in lieu of but in addition to.”

You can read the full article here.