The Dan Rayburn Podcast

This episode offers a deep dive into the murky waters of ad fraud, detailing the allegations against YouTube. Dr. Fou, an expert in ad fraud, joins me as we head straight into the eye of the storm, exploring the latest report alleging Google's TrueView ads appear muted and on autoplay on third-party websites. Discover how these misrepresentations are impacting advertisers' trust, why You...

This week, we discuss FAST and how, as an industry, we have almost no details on revenue growth across FAST platforms. With Plex’s recent round of layoffs and too many FAST channels in the market, we argue that popularity without profitability is a problem for FAST operators. We also discuss YouTube TV's business, including its outage during the NBA playoffs, its decision to drop SNY and MLB...

This week, we peel back the layers of the NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV, dissecting the potential implications and benefits for the streaming media industry. We discuss the criticality of promptly addressing technical glitches before mainstream media taints the image of streaming technology. Learn how YouTube TV's new 'multiview' feature could amp up the NFL Sunday Ticket experien...

What do TikTok's video lengths and user engagement tell us about the future of content consumption? Join us this week as we uncover the surprising data behind this social media giant and its innovative audience. We'll also dive into the growing trend of long-form content, including movies and TV shows, being chopped up into bite-sized pieces for a more interactive and engaging viewing ex...

This week we discuss the recent increase in Netflix's stock price, which hit a 52-week high, all based on "assumptions" about new sign-ups, drawn from four days’ worth of data from the third-party firm Antenna. We also question whether YouTube TV is cracking down on password sharing ahead of the NFL Sunday Ticket, with more users reporting pop-up messages reminding them to return to...

This week, we discuss the Netflix password-sharing notifications that have started rolling out in 103 countries and territories, and the challenges users are having understanding how Netflix will enforce the rules and what exactly constitutes a violation. We also detail the rollout of Max, with less than 0.1% of HBO Max accounts experiencing technical issues and highlight new details from YouTube...

This week, I discuss the technical issues that YouTube TV, Apple TV and Netflix all had during a live event/stream on their platforms in the past 30 days. I also break down all the key numbers from Disney’s earnings, including the 3.8 million sequential decline of Disney+ Hotstar subs, their comments that the price increase for Disney+ without ads had no meaningful negative impact on churn, and th...

This week we highlight the Q1 earnings news from Brightcove (will lay off 10% of company), Vimeo (CEO could get $800,000 bonus), Paramount (+  added 4.1M subs), Comcast (Peacock subs up 2M), Warner Bros. Discovery (expects DTC business to be profitable this year) and the latest cord cutting numbers with over 1M pay TV losses in Q1. We also discuss problems we are seeing with many resumes and Linke...

This week, we highlight some of the news from the NAB Show and detail the technologies and business models we heard discussed most. We also discuss the trends we saw at the show, vendor messaging, specific data shared from speakers and what impressed us. We also cover some numbers you need to know about cord cutting, P&L and ARPU from earnings reports for Roku, Comcast (Peacock), Amazon, Veriz...

This week, we break down Viacom18's 16 million concurrent streams for the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Jio Cinema, noting that the bitrate was around 1 Mbps, making comparisons to other events difficult. We also discuss potential new DTC streaming strategies that the WWE and UFC could pursue, since their rights deals with ESPN, FOX and NBCUniversal all expire by 2026. We recap some industry...

This week, we discuss the recent price increase at YouTube TV, which will now start at $73 a month, which in some cases, is only a few dollars cheaper than cable TV in a triple-play bundle. We also highlight some recent news from Apple including rumors they may be partnering with studios to put more titles in theaters; Paramount+ announcing it will offer mobile-only plans in Brazil and Mexico; a d...

Eric Black , who for more than 20 years was a leader in NBCUniversal’s media technology strategy across a host of digital properties during pivotal moments in the evolution of live streaming, joins me for a discussion about the sports streaming market. We discuss licensing costs, bundling and packaging of sports content, user personalization, the impact of low- and ultra-low-latency streaming, and...

This week, we review Netflix’s first live event from both video quality and user interface standpoints and discuss what live streaming means for Netflix’s business, since most consumers are not going to regularly tune in to Netflix at a scheduled time. We also highlight many interesting comments from Disney’s CEO on the pricing and bundling of Disney+, how they are "very carefully” studying t...

This week, we detail the numbers you need to know from the Q4/full-year earnings of Warner Bros. Discovery, Vimeo, fuboTV, Vizio, Brightcove, DISH and Altice. We highlight revenue growth, free cash flow, pay TV subs lost, streaming subs gained and ARPU. We also cover news on sports streaming and OTT services from MSG+, RSN licensing, the NFL Sunday Ticket and the Indian Premier League. Companies a...

This week, we break down the problems Netflix is having in Canada with its new account-sharing rules, which are confusing, incomplete and conflicting. We also discuss the latency of the Super Bowl stream and why lower latency doesn’t equal more viewers, longer viewing times, or more ads delivered. Also detailed are all the numbers you need to know from Paramount, Roku, Akamai and Fastly’s earnings...

Gil Rudge , SVP, Video Products and Solutions at Harmonic, joins me for a discussion about some of the latest deployment trends for cloud-based video workflows. We discuss the lack of adoption of 4K; the complexity of live sporting events; the trade-off between on-premises and the cloud; and the success Harmonic has shown in diversifying its revenue from hardware to the cloud. Podcast produced by...

This week we breakdown all the numbers from Disney's Q4 calendar 2022 earnings including subscriber losses with Disney+ (2.4M); Gains at Hulu (800K) and ESPN+ (600K); announcement of 7,000 layoffs; loss of $1.1B from DTC business; latest ARPU numbers; the re-org of Disney into three divisions and the CEO's comments that Disney is not considering a spinoff of ESPN. We also discuss Sling&a...

This week we highlight the key numbers you need to know from Q4 2022 earnings results from Google (YouTube revenue growth declined), Amazon (AWS revenue growth of 20%), Comcast (now has 20M Peacock subs but lost $978M), Apple (Revenue down 5% y/o/y), Verizon (Lost 80, 000 pay TV subs), Charter (Lost 145,000 pay TV subs) and additional news around Netflix, Paramount+, World Cup, Liliac Cloud and Ha...

Kevin McGurn , President of Sales and Distribution at Vevo, joins me for a discussion around Vevo's FAST strategy. Kevin discusses the success Vevo is seeing in its content programming and how it varies by region; its monetization strategy through advertising; how they are achieving such high engagement numbers; the importance of multi-platform distribution; and why the largest share of their...

This week, I highlight all the key numbers you need to know from Netflix’s earnings, including subscriber numbers, free cash flow, paid sharing and projected AVOD revenue. I also give my review of HBO Max's first live sporting event on the platform with the US women's national team soccer match against New Zealand. Finally, I run through all the new sports licensing deals with NBCUnivers...

This week we highlight the price increases from fuboTV, DirecTV Stream and HBO Max’s ad-free plan, with many live linear plans now being more expensive than cable TV. We also discuss news from FOX Sports, which said its NFL Playoffs/Super Bowl broadcast schedule will not be broadcast or streamed in native 4K, but will instead be captured and produced in 1080p HDR and upscaled to 4K. We break down...

This week, we highlight some of the layoffs across the industry (Vimeo, Amazon, Kaltura, Amdocs, JWP) and why getting to positive cash flow for vendors is and should be the number one goal in 2023. We also detail the latest ARPU numbers from OTT services and some TV news from CES, including Roku announcing the first-ever smart TV designed and built by Roku and a still-unnamed partner. Finally, we...

This week, we highlight some of the tech details released around the NFL Sunday Ticket package coming to YouTube TV, which won't allow consumers to purchase the package per team or per game. We also discuss YouTube confirming that 4K video quality was not required as part of their deal with the NFL and what we think that impact could be. Also covered are the acquisitions of eCDN Ramp by Vbric...

This week, I highlight some recent news about Netflix's AVOD business and the media's ridiculous suggestion that Netflix is struggling after only six weeks. I also discuss why Warner Bros. Discovery has recently decided to license certain HBO and HBO Max original programming to third-party FAST services, as a smart way to save on residuals while earning money from syndication. Also detai...

This week we breakdown the launch of AVOD on Disney+; the news by Paramount’s CEO of declining advertising revenue in this quarter; Netflix’s comment that licensing sports content isn’t profitable; NBCU’s announcement that Peacock has more than 18 million paid subscribers; how Netflix’s open source deal with GPAC gives them a competitive advantage for video packaging; and we detail Caesars streami...