SANTA MONICA, CA / ACCESSWIRE / July 13, 2018 / The impact of video streaming today is more profound than at any time in history. Baby boomers have the hang of it. Millennials and Generation Z-ers are experts at it, with many not even looking to traditional television for entertainment anymore. As legacy TV media looks for ways to hang on to subscribers, innovative companies are developing new ways to capitalize on the seismic shift towards streaming videos, a shift succinctly summarized by Apple CEO Tim Cook in 2015 calling apps ''the future of TV.''
YouTube epitomizes the explosive growth in video over the last decade. In June 2007, six hours of videos were uploaded to YouTube every minute. That grew to 20 hours in May 2009 and reached a stunning 400 hours of video being uploaded every minute in July 2015, according to the statistics portal Statista. The latest stats from YouTube say that number is currently at 600 hours every minute. That's a mind-blowing 864,000 hours of videos per day. While it seems that nearly ever video eventually makes its way to YouTube, other popular services, like Vimeo, Daily Motion and Facebook Video, add thousands of hours of video to this total.
At the same time, over-the-top (OTT) media is displacing traditional cable services, as consumers cut the cord in favor of streaming services and apps available through smart TVs, mobile devices, sticks, computers and other digital streaming devices accessing online apps. This is exemplified by data aggregated from an expansive customer base by Conviva, which showed 103% growth in concurrent streams from 2016 to 2017 and 71% growth in viewer time per device (Xbox, Roku, Android, iOS, etc.) equating to 38.8 billion plays and 12.6 billion hours of view time across 2.4 billion devices last year. This usage underscores Grand View Research estimating that the global OTT device and services market will reach $165.13 billion by 2025.
Cord-cutting is not a surprise, as consumers have more choices than ever to watch what they want when they want, including videos that never would be considered for traditional television. The problem is that the billions of hours of video across different platforms remain somewhat chaotic. What if all of these videos were aggregated into one diverse service, expertly curated into a licensed library and packaged as premium ''best-of-the-web'' short-form video for multiscreen distribution? It would be a substantial value add to the industry and consumers.
That is the motivation driving QYOU Media (TSX-V: QYOU)(OTCPK: QYOUF) and its founders, a team of highly successful media executives. The ability to see the future of youth brands and media is in the DNA of the leadership team, consisting of Curt Mavis, Les Garland and G. Scott Patterson.
Amongst other things, Mavis was President of Lionsgate Digital, where he oversaw its digital business portfolio; co-founder and CEO of CinemaNow, for which Lionsgate was the lead investor; and co-founder and CEO of The Company, where he launched productions for icons like The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Janet Jackson and Bon Jovi. He's been honored at the Grammy Awards, American Video Awards, Billboard Awards, MTV Video Awards and earned the MTV Video Vanguard Award for his lifetime of achievements.
Les Garland is an accomplished executive and entrepreneur, co-founding MTV, VH1 and The Box (MTV2), as well as serving as the President of Atlantic Records.
In addition to being a respected philanthropist and venture capitalist, Patterson was a Director at Lionsgate and Chairman of the Lionsgate Audit Committee; Chairman of the Toronto Venture Exchange; and Chairman and CEO of Yorkton Securities.
Safe to say, these men know a thing or two about media and business and have a Rolodex of global media connections like no other nanocap company. It's also fair to say that Mavis, Garland and Patterson have impeccable foresight in how to reach target audiences, which in the case of OTT and video is the younger generation.
In a recent presentation, Mavis said the genesis of QYOU stemmed from recognizing that media companies, whether incumbent providers or next-generation mobile carriers, are going to need bundled and packaged content delivered to them to reach the Gen Z-ers. These video packages can be in the form of constant running ''channels'' of aggregated videos, original programming or custom platforms for the provider to dictate the material. In turn, this attracts brands and advertisers to monetize the audience, including utilizing the influencer marketing component of QYOU that leverages popular online personalities for creating brand awareness.
In June, QYOU won ThinkLA's IDEA award for "Best Social Campaign" for its influencer marketing campaign with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment for the DVD release of the DreamWorks Trolls movie.
This is relevant because advertisers are devoting significant resources to the OTT space, as measured by OTT media advertising accounting for 26% of total video ad spend in October 2017, up from only 8% a year earlier.
To reach the masses, in only a few years since inception, QYOU has forged distribution partnerships with Tata Sky, Vodafone, 21stCentury Fox, Liberty Global, Telenor, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Super Channel and more. As such, the QYOU network, a 24/7 linear feed featuring exclusively digital content and creators, is now available in more than 20 countries on six continents, with more coming online soon. In the U.S. alone, ''the Q'' (as it is shortened) is now available in more than 50 million homes across multiple platforms.
Furthermore, QYOU is focused on producing original digital content, including the recent launch of HUD (acronym for ''Heads Up Daily,'' a spin on ''Heads Up Display'') into 13 territories in Eastern Europe. HUD is to gamers and e-sports as ESPN's SportsCenter is to sports like football, baseball and basketball, an hour-long program as an authority on highlights, coverage, commentary and analysis of the exploding global electronic sports industry.
The attractiveness of the model is manifesting as growing sales. During Q1, QYOU posted revenue of C$1.75 million, up 60% from C$1.09 in the year prior quarter.
The momentum is starting to build, as the growth to date has been nearly totally organic with minimal advertising, marketing or even full distribution in select markets where the Q-suite of products is available. There is tremendous upside for market penetration by reaching more consumers. As additional licenses are acquired and more providers become partners to distribute the content, exponential growth is possible, especially given the fact that mobile video consumption, the target market for QYOU, is growing at a whopping 47% compound annual growth rate.
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