Happy Friday! Welcome to Issue 73 of Rerun by Axonista!
In this week's Top Pick, Gary Vaynerchuk shares his thoughts on Instagram Stories and the future of snackable, evergreen and live content.
Also this week we get a look at how Netflix runs its A/B testing, Nielsen finally release Facebook ratings, TV UX is still too complicated, the Olympics is a hotbed of new media technology, and NBC research uncovers the secret to getting people to watch new shows.
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Let's get straight to it!
Top Pick
My two cents on Instagram Stories and the evolution of social platforms
In this article, successful entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk shares his perspective on the possible effects of Instagram's new Stories feature.
In 2013 Snapchat turned down a $3 billion cash offer from Facebook who had previously bought Instagram. Three years later, Facebook has responded with the highest form of flattery. Although, with Snapchat recently adding its Memories feature, one could argue it's going both ways.
Only time will tell how users respond to Instagram's latest feature, but the potential for success is certainly there. Instagram has long been the destination for polished content. This gives them a share of what makes Snapchat so special—more fun and less edited material.
"Anybody who thinks this is going to kill Snapchat is completely out of their mind. It’s a 'no chance' statement."
Features
How Netflix does A/B testing
Netflix is commonly held up as a standard to aspire to when it comes to awesome streaming experiences. Recently two Netflix product designers gave a talk at a Designers+Geeks event at Yelp, where they went through some insights gleaned from years of A/B testing.
If you're not sure what A/B testing is or how it can benefit you, or if you just want a peek into a design process within Netflix, this is well worth a read!
Finally: Nielsen Social Content Ratings add Facebook
Somewhat late to the party, that great giant of audience measurement Nielsen, having first placed all its social TV measurement bets at Twitter's door, has finally added Facebook data to its social content ratings! 🍾
This post by the TV[R]EV team shows us what this new combined Twitter/ Facebook social ratings will actually look like.
Mossberg: TVs are still too complicated
Walt Mossberg is no stranger to technology. He was principal technology columnist at the Wall Street Journal for 22 years and now occupies Editor roles at two of the world's biggest technology publications, The Verge and Recode.
But even with that vast experience behind him, he still gets flummoxed by Smart TV interfaces just like the rest of us. While TV software has improved drastically over the past few years, from this account of Walt's recent Smart TV purchase it's clear there is still quite a way to go when it comes to user friendliness.
"For instance, while I like motion smoothing others strongly dislike it — it's sometimes known as the "soap opera effect." If you don’t like it, the LG's interface doesn't make it at all easy to understand what's happening to your picture or what setting to adjust to turn it off. It’s not even called motion smoothing in the menus — LG calls it "TruMotion.""
Future of TV
NBC figured out why you’re not trying new shows
Hold onto your butts: It seems that people don’t want to check out new episodes of ongoing TV shows they haven’t seen before unless the show’s previous episodes are also easily available to watch first.
Episodes of series available in VOD apps and in on demand sections of EPGs often expire after a couple of weeks, meaning that, if you've just found out about a good show, and plan to watch it, you might be out of luck when it comes to finding episode 1. The result is you never get into watching that series, until it's available on, say, Netflix.
Part bad habit inherited from linear TV scheduling, part bad TV app UX design, Netflix Originals shows like Stranger Things or OITNB have no such problem and viewers can start watching a series at any time they please, (once they've found it of course).
Rio Olympics TV innovations include VR, drones, HD, online streaming
The Olympics have long maintained a reputation for leading innovation in broadcasting—the 1936 Berlin Olympics was the first sporting event to be broadcasted live.
This year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro will be no exception, with NBC and the BBC planning to use some of their most cutting edge technology. Among them being super high-vision (16 times as many pixels as regular HD) and making over 100 hours of events available in 360-degree VR. Who would've thought you'd need your VR headset to watch the Olympics?
Breaking Out of The Box – Decipher 'Off Air' Blog
The STB has emerged as one of the most important device classes in the consumer media landscape and once again is driving disruption and strategic change.
Nigel Walley from Decipher, shares his thoughts on the evolution of the set top box as a key driver of change in the TV industry.
Briefs
- Netflix’s first original VR content is a creepy trip inside Stranger Things
- The NFL and Snapchat make their partnership official
- Six months in: What Sky has learned from VR
- Watch VR help kids lose their fear of water with this 360 video
- Japan's NHK begins world's first 8K TV broadcasts
- For Kit and Ace, Snapchat doubles as a TV channel and customer service assistant
- Disney launches its own messaging app, Disney Mix, aimed at kids and families
You can visit the top of Mount Everest for $25 (and a VR headset)
Gaming company Valve has released a VR game that gives users the experience of climbing, living on, and summiting Mount Everest—all for only $25. Although, it's a lot less of a conventional VR game, and much more of a recreated real-world experience.
Nonetheless, it's the perfect substitute for everyone who's ever wanted to climb Mount Everest without the massive investment and risk one must assume to do so.
"We think we have some idea of what Everest looks like or how it would feel to stand in these locations, but Everest VR actually delivers that sensation to the player."