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The FreeWheel Viewer Experience Lab

Helping the Industry Improve Ad Environments for Viewers Across All Video Platforms

Content fragmentation has made it increasingly difficult for both brands and publishers to ensure a consistent, high-quality experience across all the TV and video platforms onto which they now serve advertising. To address this growing industry issue, FreeWheel has partnered with MediaScience to launch The Viewer Experience Lab. This initiative is designed to help media companies improve the quality, quantity, and relevance of TV advertising through quantifiable research, solutions, and technology.

2/3

of advertisers say viewer experience is either “Important” or “Very important” when planning TV and video ad campaigns.

34%

of midroll ad breaks last longer than three minutes.

25%

of ad avails are not filled on FAST resulting in an ad “timeout” or slate.

As advertisers and programmers focus on extracting the greatest return on investment possible from streaming audiences, we must prioritize the person seeing the final ad. We must focus on the viewer.

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The State of TV Advertising Viewer Experience

The State of TV Advertising Viewer Experience Report is a comprehensive analysis of viewer experience today and an exploration on how our industry should define – and approach – this important issue.

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Read the Press Releases

Introducing the FreeWheel Viewer Experience Lab

FreeWheel announces the launch of its brand-new initiative, the Viewer Experience Lab, in partnership with MediaScience, to help the advertising industry improve the ad experience for users across all video platforms.

Press Release

The Delicate Art
of Balancing Ad Load

The latest output from the Viewer Experience Lab, The Delicate Art of Balancing Ad Load, explores the factors that define optimum ad loads for premium video content across several key markets in Europe.

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Global Expansion of the Viewer Experience Lab

FreeWheel has announced the official, global expansion of the Viewer Experience Lab with its latest report that explores ad loads of premium video content in Europe and addresses the unique needs of the market.

Press Release

Why is it so important to get viewer experience right?

Both advertisers and programmers have an important role in tackling the issue of viewer experience for premium video. We spoke to industry experts on why it’s crucial to work towards improving viewer experience across the board. Hear what they had to say.

What we need is a win-win proposition. We need a win for the audience so that they have an experience that they can tolerate and enjoy and we need one for the marketeer so that they can actually effectively market.

Dr. Duane Varan
CEO, MediaScience (Scientist’s Perspective)

In a world of so much fragmentation within the TV landscape, so many different competitive entry points to watch…we want to make sure that viewer experience is what’s keeping them engaged on all of our content and not going different places to watch.

Tyler DeNicola
VP of Programmatic Revenue & Partnerships, A+E Networks (Seller’s Perspective)

It’s important that the advertising industry really understand viewer experience and get it right. If that experience is bad…it can make viewers remember a brand or a company or a message or an ad campaign in a negative way. On the flip side, if the advertising experience is good, it feeds, it enhances, it elevates a brand’s ability to connect.

Daniel Cox
VP of Strategic Planning, Harmelin Media (Advertiser’s Perspective)

How the industry is approaching viewer experience.

Viewer experience is top of mind across all sides of the advertising industry. At Cannes Lions, FreeWheel, in partnership with The Drum, spoke to media executives from MNTN, NBCUniversal, Accenture and more to get their insights on how we can work collectively to address this issue.

“As an industry, it’s collectively important that we work together towards better advertising for the consumer’s benefit. More purpose-built solutions and products that can deliver better advertising experiences that will benefit everybody.”

Amir Malik
Managing Director, Growth Marketing, Accenture