Adaptive Medias Inc (fka ADTM)

[newelong]

Irish62 ... I know ...

"Yap yap yap...so now YouTube should be secondary?"

deciphering what Mr. Shareef says in some of his articles is not all that easy; in fact, there was one that I sent to Mr. Padnos in the event he hadn't already seen it. I told him that I didn't understand a word of it, and in his reply to me he said that some of it was even over his head.

That being said, I believe I've learned enough to at least get the gist of them. Here are excerpts from some related articles that should be helpful as they relate to this particular article ...

"If you're looking for a case study on how a successful independent content provider with its roots in YouTube is looking to diversify its distribution through other devices/outlets, "The Young Turks" (TYT)) is a great example. Yesterday the company announced the availability of its Roku channel and its intention to launch standalone Android and iOS apps soon. TYT's COO Steve Oh told me these direct-to-consumer initiatives are part of a broader plan to augment - but by no means abandon - its traditional distribution through YouTube.

Despite all of YouTube's advantages, Steve points out that TYT doesn't want to become overly reliant on just one distribution partner, and that's why diversification is critical. Steve also notes that YouTube's revenue split - 55% to the content provider and 45% to YouTube, is the most onerous in the industry, and so other outlets offer potentially richer payouts.

One of the challenges of moving beyond YouTube is that TYT needed a more robust content management and monetization solution, and so it has turned to OneScreen. Atul Patel, OneScreen's founder and CEO, told me that OneScreen has replicated TYT's entire library for use on Roku, which will also support the iOS and Android apps that OneScreen is building. In Roku, ad serving is also available, though ads have not yet been placed.

For now, YouTube is TYT's main outlet, driving 100-120 million minutes/month of viewership. But a month into a quiet launch of the Roku channel, it is already up to 300K minutes of viewing/month, and Steve expects that to grow with further promotion and awareness. It's still early days for TYT's migration beyond YouTube, but, like so many other MCNs these days, TYT is committed to exploring new distribution paths. This is already a broad trend and one that I see becoming even more significant going forward.

http://www.videonuze.com/article/case-study-the-young-turks-expands-beyond-youtube-to-roku-and-beyond

The following are excerpts from an article addressing the same thing, but with some different information ...

"TYT's new direct-to-consumer strategy is enabled by its partnership with OneScreen® who provides the entire digital video technology stack for content management, publishing, advertising, marketing, and services for developing rich video experiences for audiences across all screens.

"Audiences are now expecting that the quality content they have come to enjoy on YouTube should be available everywhere else," said OneScreen CEO Atul Patel. "We are excited to see the most renowned YouTube news network utilizing our capabilities to reach their audience off YouTube and to do all this in a single system."

http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/the-young-turks-network-expanding-to-roku-android-and-ios-devices-1815915.htm

We know for a fact that The Young Turks are listed as a customer of Adaptive Medias, so I get the distinct impression that TYTs were quite satisfied with what the Media Graph provided for them then. So, why wouldn't they be even more pleased with the new and improved version of the Media Graph which we know is now powered by Ember technology and is a vital part of ADTM's true end-to-end content management, syndication and content monetization platform ?? Also, their platform is available in just one stop, and from what I gather from the Conference Call, it provides a "self-service experience for users" which in my mind tells me it gives users total control of all their content.

I also heard Mr. Shareef say that ADTM is directly targeting a significant gap in the market place. That seems to tell me that with Adaptive's focus on mobile and video, the two fastest growing segments in the entire digital online ad market, they just might be at least one of the first and I'm guessing perhaps could even be the best ad service provider currently available. Everybody knows the potential of this particular segment of the market, but with Mr. Shareef's foresight, he obviously some time ago decided to concentrate the Company's efforts on developing technology to address solely the mobile and video segments.

Now, according to the "Competition" section of ADTM's 10-K it explains why AOL is the only other company with a complete end-to-end ad serving platform with all those other companies mentioned being just "fractional" players in the game. That's the reason we keep seeing more and more of them being acquired by larger companies at ridiculous premiums in their effort to put together a platform similar to ADTM's ... those companies know very well the stakes involved and are willing to pay just about anything to obtain just part of what they need.

This Seeking Alpha article is a must read for anyone really interested in a comparison of AOL's and ADTM's platforms. It also gives one a pretty good idea of just how well AOL has fared in this essentially untapped market segment ...

http://seekingalpha.com/article/2339575-one-stack-to-rule-them-all-aol-and-the-value-of-choice-in-end-to-end-ad-tech

This recent article that follows indicates that TYT are not just any little player here, but one to be reckoned with, and one which could provide ADTM with some definite opportunities.

http://blogs.wsj.com/cmo/2014/06/27/the-young-turks-rule-news-on-youtube-over-giants-like-cnn-and-abc-news/

Finally, here's a very recent article about Roku which I think may also provide ADTM with other opportunities. The reason I say that is because today video content is comprised primarily, if not exclusively, by the short form generally anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes in length. Now, in the Conference Call Mr. Shareef stated something to the effect that ADTM will be testing for opportunites for syndication of long form video content in the coming months ... I believe meaning videos lasting more than 1/2 hour. Immediately that made me think that would be more in connection with big screens as opposed to the smaller mobile screens. Of course I'm just guessing here, but Roku has just introduced their own branded Smart TV which I said some time ago they were planning to bring to market in the fall.

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/roku-tv-debut-tcl-hisense,news-19353.html

By definition, a smart tv is basically the result of the convergence between computers and television sets and set-top boxes. Now, unless something has changed drastically, and according to this ...

http://www.rokuguide.com/channels/the-young-turks

... it hasn't, and to me, at least, it stands to reason that The Young Turks Network channel which is billed as the, "Largest Online News Show in the World" will now become a channel on Roku's branded Smart TV.

In the final analysis, The Young Turks did take its network of shows beyond YouTube to Roku, and I see no reason why they would discard the power of the Media Graph which combined with Ember's and Adaptive Medias' technology has even more to offer them now than before.

I honestly try to let articles and the undeniable facts contained therein do most of the talking to get my point across, and leave my opinions to a minimum. However, it always seems that people prefer to contest my opinions rather than pay attention to what is really most important, that being the irrefutable facts.

I really hope you don't consider this to be another one of my long-winded "pumps" or "cheers", because it was only intended to shed some light on what I believe to be the meaning of Mr. Shareef's article. I hope you do find it of some value.

ADTM