00:00Talk to me about where we stand right now in the connected TV space, because I mean, I'm going to
00:04start with Disney's earnings, because one thing that jumped out at me when I saw them, I mean, obviously, their
00:07streaming business is doing well, or at least much better than what analysts has expected.
00:11Sixty four percent profit growth in that business. I think the revenue growth was like 14 percent ad sales overall
00:17for them.
00:18And I know that kind of mixes streaming with the more linear side of their business.
00:23That was only up like three percent here. Is that a disparity that we should be paying more attention to?
00:27What's going on? Yeah, I mean, well, Disney has a lot of strength, obviously, in ad sales.
00:32They're essentially the largest. So that in and of itself, it's hard to grow when you're already number one.
00:40But the year itself, I think a big theme for this year is bringing live sports to streaming.
00:46There have been so many big events with the World Cup, obviously, tentpole events like the Super Bowl, Olympics, things
00:52like that.
00:53And so that has been the theme of the year. And that has been going extremely well, I think, for
00:58every media company involved in that.
01:00And I think you're going to continue in the future to see live sports on streaming platforms be a big
01:08driver of future growth.
01:10Is that? But I am curious. I know that this has been like the holy grail.
01:13But I mean, I mean, the sports business was kind of a drag for Disney, primarily because of how much
01:17it costs.
01:18So I guess my question is, how does it balance out in terms of what they have to spend for
01:22the rights to air these sports with regards to what they end up collecting,
01:27either through ads or other sponsorships or subscription fees?
01:30Yeah, well, I think for Disney in particular, ESPN has been considered somewhat in recent years under monetized
01:40because it was primarily available on streaming, has live sports and, of course, news, the SportsCenter and others.
01:49And so I think that is considered, you know, potentially a big bright spot for growth for their ad sales
01:56and in particular for sports on streaming.
02:01So I think that's the thing to look for as Disney moves forward.
02:04I want to get your thoughts, particularly on kind of what you do at Mountain, because, I mean, you deal
02:09with a lot of smaller businesses looking to sort of, you know, get exposure at these sporting events
02:14or really just on the connected TVs overall.
02:18Have you seen any sort of pullback in their spending relative to, you know, the gigantic players like, you know,
02:24the Coca-Colas or whoever?
02:25Yeah, not at all.
02:27As a matter of fact, I would say that right now the industry as a whole, there's not any pulling
02:31back occurring.
02:32What you're seeing is that the biggest advertisers are very consistent in how much they're spending.
02:38I see no reason that's not going to continue in the future quarters in the second half of the year.
02:44And then you have small and mid-sized advertisers as kind of the growth driver for the industry.
02:48And Mountain is like basically tip of the spear at that.
02:51That's what we refer to as performance TV.
02:54And we essentially created that concept, that category.
02:57So, you know, it's a very, very healthy environment.
03:00And what I mentioned earlier in terms of live sports and just kind of more people moving to streaming is
03:06just kind of the base that everyone is growing on.
03:09The other thing, one other thing I'll mention is I think, you know, for a while it was Netflix and
03:15then Disney.
03:15And you're seeing all the streaming networks get better at attracting, you know, by producing better content.
03:23They're getting better at bringing more subscribers.
03:26So I expect the whole sector to do really well over the next few quarters.
03:30It's shifting a lot, too.
03:31And I am curious what you think about this idea of kind of, I mean, are we going to get
03:35back into this sort of gatekeeper mode?
03:36Because, I mean, I just even look at my own TV at home and I won't say what brand it
03:41is, but I've noticed some big changes in sort of the portal, if you will.
03:45Obviously, we talk about Roku, Amazon Fire, you know, obviously Samsung Vizio, all of that in there.
03:52Are these companies trying to sort of become, I guess, the toll road, if you will?
03:57Or are you still going to be able to circumvent them if needed?
04:01Or maybe work with them?
04:01I don't know.
04:02Yeah, so things have been transitioning because for a while it was you needed like a Hulu or you needed
04:10a Roku basically to give you the live content.
04:14And then you had all the episodic content, I mean, your favorite shows.
04:19But what's happened is all the live content is now available streaming also.
04:24And so I think that kind of gatekeeper role, if anything, it's kind of declining in importance is less of
04:30a reason to have that gatekeeper.
04:32And so, like, if you wanted to watch World Cup, you could just go directly to the Fox app and
04:37their partners, you know, was available on Peacock and others.
04:40You didn't really need like that equivalent to linear anymore.
04:44So if anything is going the opposite direction where you just have your favorite networks, the networks are putting out
04:50all forms of content.
04:51And they're even partnering with each other to make sure they get the maximum reach.
04:55If someone's not subscribed on their network and they have something, they'll partner with another network to make it available
05:00there, too.
05:01This goes beyond the reach, too.
05:03I mean, we've heard a lot of people talk and brands talk about this idea of wanting better engagement, you
05:07know, not just the eyeballs, but obviously, you know, someone clicking through to buy.
05:11But just the idea of feeling more of a connection.
05:13How do you sort of adjust not only on your end at Mountain, but for all the other players out
05:18there to make sure that it's not just sort of a billboard in front of my face, that it is
05:22something that will draw me in, engage with the brand and obviously translate that into sales at some point?
05:28Yeah.
05:28So it really comes down to one is that very old adage in television advertising.
05:34I know I'm wasting half my money.
05:36I just don't know which half.
05:37You don't need to waste anything anymore because you can target everything.
05:41And so I think even the biggest brands are now expecting very, very targeted campaigns.
05:47They're aligned with the consumer they want to reach, and they can even feel creative, align with that.
05:53So and then now with our platform, you go down to the small, mid-sized businesses that don't have the
05:58biggest budgets.
05:59So really aligning with who's the perfect consumer to get that content, I mean, that ad, it's just vitally important.
06:06It's a big part of our value proposition.
06:08So, you know, all the brands are essentially seeing performance as really key on all sectors.
06:14It can be search social, now television, you know, in the form of performance TV, and they're all bought into
06:20that.
06:20Mark.
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