Vevo Expands CTV Ambitions With Programming and Revamped TV App

Turn on the TV and suddenly you’re in a world where Michael Jackson can alternate between movie date and werecat, or one where the smell of spirit can devolve a high school pep rally into chaos. Vevo, the music video network founded by Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, wants to turn this experience from a relic of MTV’s heyday to a 21st-century mainstay with its revamped TV app, which will allow users to watch a constant feed of videos programmed by Vevo, alongside the app’s original search function. Previously, someone using the Vevo TV app would have to search for the music video they were interested in, reflecting the platform’s original distribution on YouTube. With the revamp, available on Amazon Fire TV since December 2021` with plans to roll out to other partners like Comcast Xfinity X1 and Roku later this year, viewers will also have the option to tune into auto-play based on previous viewing habits. The app now offers channels, such as Vevo Country and Vevo 80s, with curated viewing blocks. “You jump into your television .... and it’s curated content with a programming slate, so you can see what’s playing between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m.,” said Natalie Gabathuler-Scully, senior vice president, revenue and distribution operations at Vevo. “It’s the complement to the on demand side.” Growing CTV ambitions The update to the TV app arrives as Vevo has become increasingly dependent on CTV for ad revenue. Currently, CTV makes up 50% of Vevo’s total revenue, up from 4% in the first quarter of 2020, according to a company spokesperson. Vevo’s entire revenue is derived from ad sales, Gabathuler-Scully said. The figure encompasses all viewers watching Vevo’s content on connected TV, via modalities such as Vevo’s app or from YouTube’s CTV app, and excluding those watching on desktop or mobile. Vevo also has secured significantly more upfront commitments for the 2021 to 2022 season compared to the year prior, according to its spokesperson, although 2020 was the first time Vevo pitched advertisers on its CTV inventory as a standalone inventory source, so that increase could be from a small base. Still, there’s room for growth. CTV ad spending is anticipated to grow 32% year-over-year in 2022 to $19.1 billion, according to Insider Intelligence. Further, 70 million viewers in the U.S. are watching Vevo on CTV each month, less than half of its total U.S. audience of 150 million across all platforms, according to its spokesperson. Globally and on a monthly basis, Vevo generates 25 billion views and 1 billion unique viewers, he said. The new auto-play format could potentially make Vevo’s platform more attractive to advertisers, says David Mirsky, group director at Media Kitchen, who has not partnered with the platform, because it could encourage consumers to watch more of Vevo’s content. “When you have more eyeballs for a longer period of time, you become more valuable because you're not jumping elsewhere,” he said. But Vevo still needs to prove to advertisers the viability of this format change, said Jess Brown, director of digital investment at GroupM, who has partnered with Vevo in the past. “We want to make sure the viewer is engaged, that they’re actually seeing the ad and that someone is in front of the television when the ad is playing,” Brown said, noting that a programmed feed could lead to more passive viewing compared to the original on-demand format, where a viewer sought out a particular video. Unique pockets of reach Brown said that another important piece of Vevo’s pitch to advertisers is their unique audience, when media buyers might already be investing in platforms Vevo participates in. “In the CTV space, I’m already buying Roku, I’m already buying Samsung and I think that part of the work that we do as an industry is understanding where there are unique pockets of reach,” she said. Brown noted that given the uniqueness of Vevo’s offering—music videos—there is potential for a differentiated audience. Gabathuler-Scully said that Vevo’s presence on several platforms is an asset. “Our offering has unduplicated reach that allows a brand to reach more users through multiple endpoints instead of focusing on one platform against another,” she said. She added that Vevo partners with measurement providers like Nielsen, Comscore, TVision and iSpot to prove return on investment—and that the platform relies more heavily on direct sales than programmatic exchanges. Roku Sees Slowdown in Account Growth as Supply Chain Issues Dent TV Market Vevo’s new format comes on the heels of a partnership with Roku, announced in December, whereby Vevo offers several genre-specific channels on The Roku Channel, the platform's free-ad supported TV linear-programmed channel. Vevo also exists on other free ad-supported services, such as Pluto TV. These channels exist separately from the company's TV app. MediaKitchen’s Mirksy said that while Vevo’s inventory is attractive, investor interest comes down to having the data to prove out a data-supported audience. “Vevo has been able to talk a lot about having global audience and that they have a reach,” he said. “Yes, everyone loves music videos. Show me someone who uses my service, who is going to be there.”