Google’s Adoption Of New Instream/Outstream Standards Could Spell Disaster For Some Online Video Platforms

Google AdX will update its video policy on April 1 – April Fools’ Day – to reflect new industry standard definitions for instream and outstream video.

Connatix, which has long specialized in what’s now considered accompanying content, isn’t backing away from the format, said Luca Bozzo, the company’s director of programmatic operations and partnerships.

But Connatix is trying to grow its share of instream by giving users more control over playback and by working directly with publishers on creating content that’s similar to the YouTube experience, he said. Currently, around 10% to 15% of Connatix’s inventory would qualify as instream.

EX.CO continues to offer a service that generates monetizable video content from existing publisher assets, but it stopped actively selling it last year to focus more on monetizing professionally produced video, according to a company spokesperson.

Another video platform that asked not to be named said it would focus more on instream if accompanying content becomes too hard to monetize, and it might even consider rolling out an outstream offering for no-content/standalone placements.

Meanwhile, publishers will have to wait and see how things shake out on the demand side – and they might have to deal with yet another revenue stream getting squeezed until the situation resolves.

A Google company spokesperson told AdExchanger that Google expects AdX’s adoption of the new video standards to “positively benefit both publishers and advertisers by providing clarity on requirements for accurately representing inventory.”

So there you go. Google says everything will all work out just fine. No foolin’.