Vevo Looking To Supercharge OTT Distribution

Vevo sees itself as the largest ad-based business in today’s music industry, the company’s SVP of sales, Jesse Judelman, told Tubefilter during an interview at the second annual NewFronts West, which took place earlier this month in Los Angeles.

And looking to the future, Vevo — which was founded as a joint venture between Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and EMI — is looking to OTT and connected TV distribution to supercharge its growth. While YouTube remains its primary distribution channel, the company also operates pacts with Roku and Apple TV. And the music video-hosting company is on the precipice of inking deals with even more platforms.

Judelman also spoke to the unique cultural power of music videos — especially at such a politically and socially-charged moment in our country. “It’s the audiences that we bring and the fact that we are at the heart of culture-shaping,” Judelman explained. “As goes our society — the United States Of America — so go music videos and music content: the diversity of our audience, the diversity of our artists. Vevo music television is where we are today and where we’re headed in the future. It’s not a looking back type medium, its really about thinking about the future.”

You can check out our conversation with Judelman below, as well as the rest of Tubefilter‘s interviews from our ‘2019 IAB NewFronts West’ video series right here.