Blogging Digital Media Events Worldwide

30Oct08

Now never miss another digital media event be it social, mobile, gaming, film, tv or music. With Content NOW’s comprehensive industry events calendar, quickly find dates and locations of all the places you need to be to get your business done. Whether its NATPE, NAB, SXSW or CES, it’s all here with reviews, links to videos, quotes and an ever-current analysis of the ecosystem and the production, distribution and monetization of content across all connected devices.

Martine Paris
Editor, Content NOW

TV
NATPE Market Guide, I, II, III, IV
Digital Living Room Guide, PlayStation/The Next HBO
HRTS Hitmakers Guide
SD Forum Business of New Media Guide
Streaming Media West, II, Guide, Roku
NewTeeVee Live
Digital Media Conference West
Digital Hollywood, The Guide
Easy to Assemble Premiere
Battle of the Network Stars
NYTVF, IFP, ADWK, Guide
Westdoc
HRTS Digital Chiefs
NATPE LATV Fest
PGA Produced By
Connections
CES I, II, III, IV, V
Boxee Dev
AO Hollywood
NAB Show
Mediaweek’s Upfronts
Future Of Television West
Digital Media Summit, Pathway To Fame
Cable Show, SXSW/MIPTV, Media Summit
DMLF/YouTube-Veoh, YouTube Live
OTTcon

FILM
Future of Film Guide, Summary
AFM Thinking Outside The Box Office, Guide
Animation of Disney Pixar’s Up
Epix Debuts
IFP Filmmaker Conference
New Video: When Do We Eat
BAWIFM Women of Pixar
San Francisco Film Society
RiP Remix Manifesto
Wondercon, II
Oscar.com, Sundance

GAMING
#AGDC/PlaySpan Monetization Forum, Guide
Engage! Expo, Virtual Goods
Social Gaming Summit
Virtual Goods Summit
LA Games Conference, II
SDForum Games Conference
DMLF GamesLaw
GDC, DICE

MUSIC
Bandwidth, II
SanFranMusicTech, Fall 09 Guide, Press Panel
DMLF Rock Star
Industry Noise, Midem, NAMM
MIDEM Guide

MOBILE
DiscoveryBeat Guide
Mobilize
MobileBeat
Mobile Monday
Art Institute Mobile Marketing
Commonwealth Club Mobile World
VLAB Mobile Ecosystem
iPhoneDevCamp
Verizon Developers Conference
PayPal Platform Preview
EconSM, Crunchies
WWDC

SOCIAL
Ypulse
TWTRCON
140 Characters
TeenTechTitans
CrunchUp
WOMMA
UGCX

FUNDING
Sheppard Mullin VC Outlook:  Draper, Chang, Lasky, Hornik
AlwaysOn Summit at Stanford, II
AlwaysOn Venture Summit Guide

TECH
Supernova, Summary
SD Forum Business of New Media
Apple/Rock n Roll/Steve Jobs is Back in Black
Macworld, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII
Churchill Club/Browsers
Maker Faire
TiECON, TED, CES, D7
SF Auto Show


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#OTTcon/The Guide

01Feb10

Take a closer look at the OTT platforms tomorrow as OTTcon swings into town at the Holiday Inn, San Jose at 1740 North First Street.  Here is the agenda:

FEBRUARY 2, 2010
8:00 – 9:00 Registration and Breakfast
9:00 – 9:45 Keynote Presentation
“In With the Old, in With the New—A Pragmatic Approach to Broadband Video Distribution”
Jon Cody, Senior Vice President – Fox Digital Media a Division of Fox Entertainment Group

Traditional media companies are at a cross-roads.  On one side, sits an analog world that is producing billions of dollars of income to our industry.  On the other side, sits a digital world ready to cannibalize the very analog delivery mechanisms and the hefty revenue associated with the old way of doing business.  The old world brings comfort, as the new one brings disruption.  Television and film industry executives have watched a doomsday story play out over the last decade to sister industries (music and newspaper) and early forays into digital media have proven far less profitable then the glory days of the analog world.  The old video industry finds itself in Clayton Christensen’s “Innovator’s Dilemma”–do I stick with the old or do I jump into the new?
9:45 – 10:00 Break and Exhibits
10:00 – 10:45
Panel: OTT Video and the Future of Entertainment
Moderated by Michael Greeson, Founding Partner, Director of Research – The Diffusion Group

Roku – Jim Funk, Vice President of Business Development
TiVO – Jim Denney, Vice President of Product Marketing
Boxee – Avner Ronen, Co-Founder and CEO
Jon Cody, Senior Vice President – Fox Digital Media a Division of Fox Entertainment Group
10:45 – 11:00 Break and Exhibits
11:00 – 11:45 Castilian Ballroom
OTT Strategies for MSOs and Telcos
Craig Bender, Director, Business Development – Home and Networks Mobility, Motorola, Inc.

The television distribution model has evolved from the analog era of basic television services to the digital era now to the internet era of TV.  This new era expands consumers’ options for viewing video content and it also brings new competition for MSO and Telco operators.  This session will discuss the challenges associated with delivering blended services over converged networks and strategies service providers can capitalize on to offer new video experiences and remain competitive.

Granada Ballroom
Monetizing OTT
Steve Christian, VP of Marketing – Verimatrix

As video content becomes more diverse and ubiquitous, today’s pay-TV operators must adapt their service offerings and operations to rising subscriber expectations. Some industry pundits predict that Internet-based delivery, known as over-the-top (OTT) services, may supplant the role of traditional service providers in the years to come. Therefore, maximizing the monetization of content across a multi-network, multi-screen delivery environment becomes the key challenge for today’s operators. In order to make this leap forward, modern pay-TV operators may have to embrace novel technologies that have been designed to effectively scale and solve many remaining IP video issues. By integrating OTT and adaptive rate streaming technology with pay-TV services, operators can enhance ARPU, subscriber loyalty and lure incremental advertising dollars. This fundamentally changes how they view traditional delivery networks and business models. This session will provide an overview on adaptive rate streaming technologies and how they are likely to alter the current framework of managed network vs. Internet delivery within satellite, cable and IPTV delivery networks. This includes a discussion of the key technical advantages of the adaptive HTTP-based approach, as well as the benefits for the consumer. Finally, the session will cover the issues of multiple DRM on a range of client devices and existing approaches available for pay-TV operators.
Rivera Ballroom
It’s not TV Everywhere, It’s Internet Everywhere.
Andrew Kippen, Vice President of Marketing – Boxee

As content producers tout the age of TV everywhere, most have started to realize that TVs are simply a viewing device for content from different sources – over the air signals, Blu-Ray, Game Consoles, and most importantly from the Internet.  1 in 10 Americans is connecting their computer to their TV to get access to Internet content.  Mainstream TV shows and movies break free of their cable/satellite/OTA bonds almost immediately after airing (and often before).  The real question is now that TVs are huge monitors, who is going to win the battle to become the operating system of your living room that delivers all that Internet content.

11:45 – 1:00 Lunch (Castilian Room) and Exhibits
1:00 – 1:45 Castilian Ballroom

Evolving Service Provider On Demand Models to Maximize Subscriber Impact of OTT
Phil Cardy, Product Marketing Director – Latens

A few aggressive, powerful players are currently dominating the OTT market and reshaping the broadband delivery industry by offering competing services at lower costs than service providers. MSOs and telcos have been looking for new revenue-generating methods of deploying and monetizing the advanced IPTV 2.0 services customers are demanding. How can they expand their IPTV offering and provide an OTT video experience that differentiates them from the main OTT players and help them push their high-value programming beyond the TV? Where standalone devices and premise equipment fall short on delivering this capability, dedicated middleware platforms can be deployed within the home to help video network operators cost-effectively compete and securely deliver multiplay OTT video services.
Granada Ballroom

The Digital Bridge: Moving Towards a New Television Ecosystem
Mitch Berman, CoFounder and Executive Chairman  - ZillionTV

Franklin Delano Roosevelt once stated:  “Take a method and try it.  If it fails, admit it frankly and try another.  But, by all means, try something.”  These words ring true when looking at the current television ecosystem which has been recently stirred by the shift in television and film content consumption. Viewers are experiencing content in new ways and on new devices.   In addition to their living room television set, they are turning to their computers and mobile phones to watch television shows and movies.   They are rapidly rejecting appointment-based, linear programming structured around channels.   They want everything on-demand, on their terms.    This shift in television content consumption has forced the entertainment marketplace into two camps.   On one side stand companies that are willing to adapt, try new methods and meet consumers’ demands.  On the other side lie those who remain stagnant and are struggling to hold onto a model that is quickly slipping away.

As the Internet has democratized video to the extent that it has become more ubiquitous than ever, it is critical that the different constituents in the television industry form strategic alliances. These groups include content providers, advertisers and Internet Service Providers, each requiring the willingness to adapt their business models. Mitch Berman will speak to the needs of these constituents and specifically discuss how previously-disparate businesses now have the opportunity to partner and monetize their assets in a way that enables them to cross the digital bridge successfully.

Rivera Ballroom

Service Provider Innovation in a World of OTT Video Content
Tal Givoly, Chief Scientist – AMDOCS

With OTT video creating such havoc in the business and operational models of the traditional service providers, how will this affect their approach to innovation? Until now, service provider innovation meant leveraging significant R&D labs, constantly pursuing the next “killer application”, creating and deploying carrier-grade services that were defined by the service provider, and being consistently perplexed about how to bring small innovations to life. Tal Givoly explains how all these have to change in a Telco 2.0 world.
1:45 – 2:00 Break and Exhibits
2:00 – 2:45 Castilian Ballroom
Optimizing End-to-End Network Transport for Over-The-Top Video Delivery
Wendy Cartee, VP of Product and Technical Marketing – Juniper Networks
Anshu Agarwal, Vice President, Product Marketing – Ankeena Networks

As over-the-top video services increasingly consume the bulk of network bandwidth, service providers must continually adapt their infrastructure to ensure networks do not break under the strain of the content.  Regardless of who delivers the content, it is the connectivity provider who will face the consumers’ scorn for poor services levels and an unacceptable quality of online video experience.  Issues such as optimizing video caching for delivery performance, delivering the best quality of experience that the underlying network connection offers and optimizing the linkage between content delivery behavior and network behavior all pose significant challenges.  By addressing the holistic delivery system, service providers can overcome bottlenecks, latency and loss throughout the infrastructure to improve the quality of experience.  In this session, Ankeena Networks and Juniper Networks will help attendees learn how to optimize the end-to-end network for high quality online video, examining opportunities for caching, storage support and media intelligence from origin site to viewer and every step in between.
Granada Ballroom
How Over-The-Top Technology Can Both Benefit and Threaten Operators
Steve Tranter, VP Interactive and Broadband – NDS Americas

On the one hand, cable operators are able to manage the network connecting to the home via the broadband pipe, which provides users with a way to find content. The threat for pay TV operators with this management will begin to surface from online content providers, who could be a future competitor for TV content. On the other hand, operators can embrace OTT because it can become an extended aggregation of the guide and extend the wealth of content they can provide. Operators have tackled this with the traditional platform, such as TV Everywhere, and will eventually take OTT and apply the content to the STB.

In the end, Pay TV operators can extend the amount of content and have the option to partake in a remote TV experience, accessing the content through their operator and the broadband pipe. This essentially creates a mobile solution on one network structure, which is converting from a network driven technology to a device/person offering.

From a business and carriage point of view, it is clearly easier for traditional operators to supplement their existing content line up using OTT than it is for a niche OTT provider to try and add traditional, premium content to the their OTT offering. For the viewer, the greater choice would remain with the traditional operator, supplemented by OTT.
Rivera Ballroom
Bringing OTT Into The Fold
Steve McKary, Chief Executive Officer – Entone

The tipping point for IPTV is behind us, with more than 20M homes now paying the phone company for their television service.  While success stories abound, the first generation of IPTV services has essentially equated to me-too CATV services delivered over telco networks. In a parallel universe, Internet television has taken hold, with billions of videos viewed online each month, and millions of television episodes consumed online rather than via a managed Pay TV service.  So-called over-the-top (OTT) services create a major threat to Pay TV service operators, whether Cable, Satellite, or Telco, as they make content available online and on-demand without the monthly subscription hurdle.

This session will explore the threats and opportunities that OTT services present for today’s Pay TV service operators.  The speaker will present a vision of next generation IPTV services, or IPTV 2.0, which will need to embrace OTT offerings in order to enhance the value of a managed service offering in contrast to a growing array of free online video delivery models.  The speaker will also touch upon the challenges of supporting next generation TV services in increasingly networked homes.
2:45 – 3:00 Break and Exhibits
3:00 – 3:45 Castilian Ballroom
Cables Lost Generation
John Gilles, VP of Media & Entertainment – Method

The battle between young Internet video upstarts and industry stalwarts like Comcast and Time Warner is becoming one of strategy and approach. It turns out that it is a missing persons case – 30 million missing persons. Young adults ages 18 through 24 are happy using OTT to satisfy television needs. You might call them cable’s lost generation.

According to Boxee CEO Avner Ronen, the average Boxee user is not someone who canceled their cable subscription to over the top. It is someone who has never had cable in the first place. Even senior industry executives admit a very large hole is developing in the youth market: “The reality is, we’re starting to see the beginnings of cord cutting where people, particularly young people, are saying all I need is broadband,” said Time Warner cable CEO Glenn Brit during a recent company earnings call.

The real battle here is how we reach the Lost Generation.
Granada Ballroom
The OTT Universe
Dhimant N. Bhayani, Founder & CEO – Triveni Multimedia, Inc.

This presentation will cover the expanded definition of what OTT Content is and the device universe that can deliver it.  Both traditional and new devices will be covered with the role of each device based on demographics and location.  OTT content services will be covered with business models including free, local, global, paid and ad supported and finally, opening the world of OTT with a call to action to keep OTT an open standard available to all users on all devices.
Rivera Ballroom
It’s about “ANY TV”  not “TV Everywhere”
Glenn Algie, CoFounder – Mediality Corporation

TV Everywhere is about the TV service on devices other than the TV screen. ANY TV is about other existing interactive multimedia services stuck on the other screens of a consumer life that can now be brought to “ANY” TV screen.  ANY TV is something that Providers need to learn about as well as Over The Top application startups. This presentation shows the real shorter term opportunity providers  are missing out on if they leverage their installed media infrastructure and media related services to existing subscriptions. The presentation shows some low hanging fruit for existing  multimedia related services that consumers would love to have access to from the comfort of a couch at  their big screen TV,  rather than squinting in front of a 3″ mobile screen or  at a desk on a hard chair in front a 15″ PC screen.
3:45 – 4:00 Break and Exhibits
4:00 – 4:45 Castilian Ballroom
Cable/IPTV and OTT – Friends or Foes?
Mr. Kshitij Kumar, CEO – TellyTopia

Cable and IPTV providers have two guaranteed QoS IP pipes running into most of their customer homes. One is today used for video, and another is used for high-speed Internet. A question in every MSO and IPTV provider’s mind is – can OTT be used effectively as part of a CATV provider’s strategy for the future? Or are such providers destined to become “dumb-pipe” providers? This presentation will use real-world experiences to show what MSOs/IPTV providers are doing in the OTT space, and will use case-studies to demonstrate how these two are working together today. The speaker will conclude with the future of some of these approaches, and possible end-game strategies.
Granada Ballroom
Blu-Ray: A Bridge From Disc to Digital
Hervé Utheza, President – RCDb

“Blu-ray is not a movie platform, it’s a software platform which happens to play movies”.

With this studio executive quote, the content industry points us at the power of the Blu-ray system, a hybrid platform capable to play high resolution content based on a physical disc, as well as stream video over the broadband Internet. With about 20 million Blu-ray players deployed by end 2009 in the United States, Blu-ray is fast emerging as the leading contender for video distribution to the TV. It enjoys very strong assets in its favor: a standardized software API, bountiful hardware horsepower, broadband connectivity… and more importantly, it fits in a product category which the consumers already understand: the movie disc player.

We’ll explore why and how Blu-ray is the perfect bridge from disc to digital, capable to bring consumers worldwide from the old days of disc to Over The Top video, en masse”.
Rivera Ballroom
True Personalization of Over-the-Top Video
Rob Foley – Director of Sales Engineering for Amdocs ChangingWorlds

While it might seem that over the top video content is inherently personalized – by virtue of specific, and explicit, choices that consumers make as to when, where, and which content they will consume, this is far from the end game of personalization, which we call “True Personalization”. True personalization will incorporate a variety of algorithms based both on implicit user’s behavior and explicit selections by the user brought to create a truly personalized experience. The true personalization will be reflected in the way users will then discover, select, and interact with their video content. However, the question remains, how can this true personalization be realized in a market that is essentially “over the top” and there’s seemingly no logical place to introduce such personalization? The speaker will review the challenge and opportunities to bringing these capabilities to OTT video content.
FEBRUARY 3, 2010
9:00 – 9:45 Keynote Presentation
The Balancing Act:  Managing Quality, Quantity, Security – And (Most Importantly) the Consumer Experience
Peter Ludé, Senior Vice President, Solutions Engineering – Sony Electronics, Inc

It’s here:  we’ve now fully entrenched in the brave new world of digital content distribution.   But is this an extension of the time-tested broadcast business model?  Web applications on steroids? …or something else altogether.  Content creators, distributors and device manufactures must make some hard decisions about technology and platforms.  Are there lessons learned from the technology transitions during the last few decades of traditional media?  What new value propositions – such as 3D content or user-generated narrowcast – might be enabled?
9:45 – 10:00 Break and Exhibits
10:00 – 10:45 Panel: Winners and Losers in OTT
Moderated by Colin Dixon, Practice Manager, Broadband Media Strategies – The Diffusion Group

MediaD.tv – Tom Morgan, Chief Executive Officer
Cisco – Numani Murali, Director, Service Provider Video Marketing
FIDM/The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising – Marcia Zellers, Director, Web Marketing
Peter Ludé, Senior Vice President, Solutions Engineering – Sony Electronics, Inc
10:45 – 11:00 Break and Exhibits
11:00 – 11:45 Castilian Ballroom
Delivering on the Quality Promise: HD Internet Video over Broadband
Kevin Walsh, Vice President of Marketing- Zeugma Systems Inc.

This session examines internet video delivery ecosystems that satisfy consumer quality expectations and business models that allow telcos to monetarily benefit by delivering the final ingredient: QOS over broadband networks. The day of the internet video surfer has arrived. Telcos contemplating their first video offerings may be able to bypass IPTV and move directly to the simpler, less expensive internet video offerings that are better aligned with consumer viewing trends. Telcos that already offer linear video can add internet video offerings in order to further increase revenue and expand broadband market share.

Three key points that attendees will learn from the presentation:

1. Telcos contemplating their first video offerings may be able to bypass IPTV and move directly to the simpler, less expensive internet video offerings that are better aligned with consumer viewing trends.
2. Telcos that already offer linear video can add internet video offerings in order to further increase revenue and expand broadband market share.
3. How to monetize the over-the-top (OTT) video opportunity.
4. This presentation will examine internet video delivery ecosystems that satisfy consumer quality expectations and business models that allow telcos to monetarily benefit by delivering the final ingredient: QOS over broadband network.

Granada Ballroom
The Internet Wasn’t Built For This… How to Build an Internet Infrastructure to Support Your Content
Michael Linos, EVP Business & Corporate Development – BandCon

Delivering true HD video directly to the desktop presents its own technical challenges due to the incredibly large file sizes and the difficulty of transferring those files across the uneven patchwork of the Internet.  So how does a content owner build a network configuration that provides the optimal performance and cost efficiencies?  Learn how BandCon has helped companies like NeuLion, one of the largest live streaming companies in the marketplace; build a backbone infrastructure to deliver the live action NHL, NFL, Indy and college football to viewers all over the world.  Discussion will focus on the challenges a content owner faces to balance the ongoing network requirements with its ever growing viewership demands.
Rivera Ballroom
Blending Pay TV and OTT TV
Mauro Bonomi, CEO Minerva Networks, Inc.

Content is increasingly cominfg into the home from multiple sources and through many different paths. Consumers are leveraging a variety of dedicated devices and content silos to enjoy a rich, personalized media experience. There is not yet a simple way to consolidate all of the available media into a single view, with a single interface and with a unified search tool and deliver it to the television set. Can legacy Pay-TV service providers offer a solution to this problem? How can they break out of the current walled-garden model and provide “blended Pay TV and OTT TV” services at a time where nearly a million Americans have “cut the cord” to TV services just as they have done with wireline phone services.
11:45 – 1:00 Lunch (Castilian Room) and Exhibits
1:00 – 1:45 Castilian Ballroom
OTT –  Building a sustainable future for the content ecosystem
Krishnan Rajagopalan, Vice President of Digital Media Technologies – MPAA Office of Technology

OTT as a technology capability promises to enable compelling experiences for consumers and enable new business opportunities for both incumbents and entrepreneurs.    However, each of the constituents in the ecosystem face unique technical, economic, and regulatory challenges on the path to commercial success. This talk will highlight the various issues faced by the different constituents and identify outcomes that are sustainable for the long term. Finally, we will talk about recent developments that will change the status quo in terms of consumer expectations and access to online content.
Granada Ballroom
Technologies Enabling Higher Quality OTT Content Delivery – let quality dictate the technology rather than the technology dictating quality
Joachim Roos, CEO – Edgeware

As consumers find compelling content and services outside of the bounds of their service providers offerings OTT Video traffic continues to grow exponentially. However, technology choices for operators that wish to embrace and monetize this trend are extremely limited. Traditional CDN and IPTV technologies based on standard hardware are only suitable for centralized deployments and still require scaling of core and aggregation networks – upgrades synonymous with high capex investments, long lead times and risk. Alternative video caching and delivery technologies provide an alternative option which is much less capital intensive, enables rapid deployment in highly distributed architectures and scales instantly on demand.
Rivera Ballroom
Getting to Devices
John Gildred, President – SyncTV Corporation

Over-the-top television is moving into devices quickly, but only a few service providers are doing it well. White label video platforms are abundant, but so far they have little to offer when it comes to device-centric video services. The market has spoken, people are using OTT video services on a wide variety of AV devices at home and on the go, but still only a few such  services exist. There is a need for next-generation OTT video platforms with broad device integration to enable the vast majority of television service providers to do the same.
1:45 – 2:00 Break and Exhibits
2:00 – 2:45 Castilian Ballroom
The End of Television”  – One Company’s Quest to Create a Business Model for the Multipoint Internet
Ian Stewart, Chief Technology Officer – Worldcast

For Multipoint communications to be a success it needs at a minimum ::Backbone Security:: Television networks need assurance that goes well beyond point-to-point encryption and decryption. ::Enanced Reliability::  The ability to send a solid picture on wireless networks without overly bloating the backbone signal with redundant data  ::Multipoint Bi-Directionality::  A method to addresses high speed channel surfing (dynamic accelerated buffering), targeted commercial insertion, a scalable log of who’s watching, and quality of signal reporting.
Granada Ballroom
Ten Billion screens: OTT Client Architecture for a Connected, Fragmented Device Universe
Dilip Kenchamanna – Nokia

The next Ten Billion screens will be found on desks, in pockets, backpacks, cars, planes, trains, and so on. They will range from HDTVs, STBs and DMAs, to Netbooks, In-vehicle entertainment, E-books, Mobile phones and other portable internet devices. Clearly, a good User Experience keeps users engaged, entertained and loyal, while a bad UX does quite the opposite. But delivering a UX consistently across different chipsets, OSes, input methods  and form factors challenges the state-of-art in UI technology. In this talk we will review a promising Web-Native hybrid architecture that uses only commonly found, open-source technologies, i.e. HTML5, Webkit and Qt.
Rivera Ballroom
Achieving Video Nirvana! A Contemporary Saga of Disruption and Strategy
Pankaj Gupta, Director IP Video – Cisco Systems

Consumer behavior, content consumption and business models are changing across the video ecosystem, and online video appears to be the primary source of disruption. In fact, Cisco’s annual market research report discloses that, by 2013, ninety percent of all consumer IP traffic will be video. In this presentation, the Cisco speaker will address the real-world dilemmas for service provider company executives as they confront the transformations taking place in the video market. The speaker will cite real-world examples of how service providers and their ecosystem partners are developing strategies to address and profit from the coming dominance of online video.
2:45 – 3:00 Break and Exhibits
3:00 – 3:45 Castilian Ballroom
Net Neutrality in the Home – Don’t forget about the Home Network!
Dr. Anton Monk, Co-founder and V.P. Technology – Entropic Communications

OTT discussions generally  deal with issues such as content aggregation, devices in the home, digital rights management, advertising, net neutrality and available bandwidth on the access network, and more. However, even if all these problems are solved and the ideal solution is created, it will never see broad-based adoption if there is insufficient bandwidth or lack of robustness on the in-home network to support OTT services. In fact, the home network may be the single most critical piece of the OTT puzzle if it is to move beyond the PC and the hobbyist to mass-market success. By now it should be well known that the US service providers either have now or will soon have multi-room DVR solutions based on high-speed home networking solutions. Perhaps less well known is that the standard being adopted by the vast majority of these service providers is a coaxial cable-based solution known as MoCA (Multimedia over Coax Alliance) which is essentially Ethernet over coax. Within a couple of years, MoCA home networks capable of carrying more than 150Mbps will blanket the US service provider landscape. What this means is that a key ingredient for OTT success – high speed access to the television viewing location – will be in place. OTT services will be able to share this network with other services giving rise, naturally, to questions about net neutrality not just outside the home, but also inside the home. This talk will discuss home networking in general with a focus on converged OTT and Incumbent services. In particular, options are proposed for dealing with potential net neutrality concerns in the home.
Granada Ballroom
Adaptive Streaming – Critical Enabler for OTT Delivery?
Steve Francis, CEO – Avtrex

Whether Apple’s “HTTP Live Streaming”, Microsoft’s “Silverlight Smooth Streaming”, or alternatives from Adobe or Move Networks, the key approach of adaptive streaming has changed the landscape for OTT video.  Adaptive approaches provide the best possible user experience, offering resolutions up to full HD and down to QVGA depending on the receiving device and available bandwidth.  Furthermore, the use of HTTP allows standard Internet infrastructure approaches to cache and deliver the content in a distributed manner.  This session will review the core technical precepts and discuss the similarities and differences of alternative approaches and survey the key vendors in the field and issues found in field implementations.
Rivera Ballroom
Launching OTT Services Today while Complementing Existing Service Offerings
Tom Lattie – Director, Broadcast & Satellite Solutions- Harmonic Inc. (for MPEGIF)

Today’s Over-the-Top technology landscape is still evolving, with no single approach to satisfy all end-user devices or business models. It is critical that service providers select an architectural design that allows rapid deployment of services and flexibility for the future. Next generation headends must support live and on demand services, a myriad of delivery protocols and an increasingly mixed array of consumption devices, available now and in the future. This presentation will review design approaches that build upon existing standards to leverage as many common components as possible, regardless of the service type or delivery method, focusing on architectural solutions that enable rapid deployment and optimal economic efficiency.
3:45 – 4:00 Break and Exhibits
4:00 – 4:45 Castilian Ballroom
HDMI: Connecting the Next Generation of OTT Devices
Steve Venuti, President- HDMI Licensing LLC.

HDMI is widely deployed and well-known as the industry standard in providing an uncompressed, all-digital, audio/video/data interface while simplifying cabling and enabling the highest quality home theater experience.  However the new HDMI 1.4 specification has taken a huge step forward in powering the connected living room experience and enabling device manufacturers and consumers with access to over-the-top content with the addition of the new HDMI Ethernet Channel feature.  This feature enables high-speed, bi-directional Ethernet networking at up to 100 Mb/sec over the single HDMI connection.  The HDMI 1.4 specification also enables whole new experiences to the consumers with added features such as 3D over HDMI and 4k which will bring a whole new class of experience to the home.  Understand how deploying OTT-capable devices with HDMI 1.4 will enable the next generation of over-the-top content and home theater experiences.
Granada Ballroom
Differentiating Your Device or Service – Where is the Value Add?
Chen Landau – PeerTV

PeerTV is experiencing in its numerous projects with customers around the globe the constant tension between turn-key, fully functional solution vs. tools and frameworks allowing self development and extensions by operators. Established broadcast platforms developed their own customization and extension tools, yet these cannot meet the needs of OTT projects. Targeted media sources and services change frequently, adopt completely different communication standards and strive to implement diverse business models.

PeerTV’s believes that a combination of efficient client software and powerful app development framework tailored to TV and to Internet standards is highly needed, open and standardized so that industry momentum can be built so that end users enjoy increasingly more exciting and satisfying TV experience. The trends and proposed rules to build such framework are discussed.
Rivera Ballroom
Integrated Multiplatform Approach to OTT
Stacy Cook, President & CEO – Qtv, Inc.

The number of mobile and TV networked entertainment devices is rapidly expanding to take advantage of the vast entertainment options available through the Internet.  Supporting multiple platforms and devices creates significant opportunities and challenges.  Stacy will discuss some of the challenges in developing a multiplatform media player, as well as the incredible advantages of an integrated solution for consumers, content providers and hardware manufacturers.

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#CES #NATPE/Platforms + Players/Epic Imagination

28Jan10

#CES and #NATPE kicked off the year with keen insights into ubiquitous connectivity and content. Awashed in fantastical visions, the theme of imaginative wonder, optimism and excitement permeated the events marking the awakening of a magical many-to-many era. Enter SyFy’s House of Imagination and Alcatel-Lucent’s LTE world - rich, frictionless space for magical personal experiences.  Car as platform, toaster as platform, life as platform, and screens everywhere with everyone participating as producer and consumer.  And because shift happens, we’re reminded to use this downtime to dream it and make it happen for the future is now.

Here are the tweets:

(Progressively posting…stay tuned…)

#NATPE

Kris Soumas, AETN
AETN study found most women join FB to play games, replacing daytime tv watching. It is believed that Zynga is making and spending $50mm/month on Farmville.

Daryl Evans, AT&T
AT&T is providing free texting in Haiti.  Like all major advertisers we have econometric models and understand the ROI of each platform and media choice.  The better measurement gets in one area, the more pressure for accurate measurement and ROI in all areas.  American Idol may have introduced most people to texting, one of the best at product integrations.  We safeguard data and will move mountains to protect consumer privacy.  Calls Michael Kassan Dos Equis, the most interesting man in the world.

Chris Schrembri, AT&T
AT&T already owns a massive distribution network:  85mm handsets, 18mm monthly uniques on the web, 2.5mm Uverse subs.  We spend on upfronts and integrations. Like working with Michael Kassan, Media Link.  The industry needs a multi-platform metric.  Hard to resonate with Boomers, they’re jaded, important target, they spend disposable income.  Another important group is 35-54y.  Development is different.

Jillian Michaels, Biggest Loser, Losing It With Jillian
New show with Curtis Stone, move into house for 7 days, provide 3m support, to get change from within.  If you want to lose weight, count calories.  Women should eat 1200 til goal then 1600. Men should eat 1600 til goal then 2000.  Favorite show:  Six Feet Under.  In this business I have learned there is no such thing as freedom of speech because it is financed by advertisers.  Transfat and HFCS are deadly -but it’s almost like I need to speak in code to the audience because the show is ad-supported.

Andy Cohen, Bravo
Favorite show – Oprah.

David Verklin, Canoe Ventures
Must respect the TV business model, content has to be paid for, 4 ads for 1 hour on Hulu doesn’t cut it.  TV is going online and online on TV, its happening, just need a fair buck to get paid for content.  Addressable ads exist online today in the form of cookies. Interactivity allows for engagement, data, T-commerce potential.  Canoe is a joint venture of the 6 largest cable systems with the goal of making them interoperable.

Curtis Stone, Celebrity Apprentice, Losing It With Jillian..
NBC has been marching this Aussie around many of its properties to build brand.  Food keeps you alive and can kill you.  Many viewers are 3 steps away from McDonalds and 3 steps away from a hospital bed. SWM seeking funny smart hot women.  Reply @bravoandy.

Donald Trump, Celebrity Apprentice..
If it weren’t for Jeff Gaspin, NBC, I wouldn’t be in showbiz, he made me a celebrity.  On casting – We got on TV because we were already good at what we did, me real estate, Jillian fitness, Stone cooking…  Thrilled to have a cameo on Oliver Stone’s Wall Street II.  Favorite show:  Law & Order.  Loves Lady Gaga.  Radio City concert -best ever!  TV business is all about ratings, you could be the most horrible person but if you get good ratings, they’ll be kissing your a**.  Trump was hired for big bucks for Superbowl Oreo commercial.  Joan Rivers at age 76 had more energy than anyone, an inspiration to all.  Fan of Jeff Gaspin, Jeff Zucker, Marc Graboff at NBC.  Wouldn’t want Dennis Rodman running your business but he was a great character for the show.  Owns Blackberry and iPhone but doesn’t use it.  Kids do.  Has a ghost tweeting for him.  On Michael Jackson – he used to call me Trump, we were friends, at the end he lost his confidence, the plastic surgery ruined his face.

Bill Lawrence, Cougar Town, Scrubs
with J Max Robins, Paley Center
Grant Tinker was mentor.  Favorite shows:  Arrested Development, NewsRadio.  Likes to check WGA register just to see how many times the same idea has been pitched.  Advice to young writers – get to LA in your 20s, can’t make it elsewhere, the goal is to get an agent, hit the grind, produce material, write write write, get to know the WGA.  There is no overnight success, must work on shows.  TV is an execution business, must prove you can turn in a $2.5mm episode.  Got fired off of Boy Meets World for not understanding the emotional spine of the show.  Don’t burn bridges during your pitches.  And be inclusive in your vision, let others feel creatively involved.  There should be fewer hoops to get things done.  You can’t do it alone, be open to others who will determine your fate.   Scrubs got greenlit after ABC executive fell asleep during pitch and snored.  They didn’t want a single cam comedy.  Cougar Town got picked up quick because Courtney Cox was attached, same thing for West Wing, because Michael J Fox was attached. On Scrubs Episode 4.17, My Life in Four Cameras, it was a love letter to the multi-camera live audience format of TV yesteryear.  Secretly an I Love Lucy junkie.  There’s a belief that multi-camera only works on CBS but its not true, it works on Disney as well. Today, you package escapist entertainment in 6-7 scenes.  Because NBC got Scrubs from ABC, NBC had no interest in it other than ad revenue, ABC owned it and had the syndication rights.  The 8th year of Scrubs was cheaper than the 1st year on Cougar Town, the price made it easy for ABC to pick up Scrubs. Wife Christa Miller is music supervisor and co-star on Cougar Town.  Cougar Town co-producer Randall Winston, the hooked arm security guard and Death in Scrubs, greeting fans (more pics)

Alex Bogusky, CP+B
Creative director of the decade.

Oren Katzeff, Demand Media
Audience does not equal community.

Alex Albrecht, Diggnation
NASA is now tweeting from outer space!

David Zaslav, Discovery
It’s the Content Stupid – everything else doesn’t work if we’re not engaging people with great content.  On free content: it is not just the younger generation. We started that train. Now there is a pullback of free content.  Can’t afford to make Life without people watching it on TV.  Gating with authentication, Hulu paywall.  Twitter Catch Captains tweeting what they’re doing at sea, Jamie/Adam all over Twitter.  Consumer is the expert and social media is changing the way we market.  Twitter great tool to build fan base.  On Planet Green – we’re not going to be talking about “green” as much. Look for lighter fare.  Most sucessful shows on Discovery in US are most successful worldwide. Survival exploration curiosity is universal, Mythbusters successful everywhere but TLC is not, it’s US centric.  TLC viewer is 42y woman married w kids, brand is about real stories w/ heart, strong women – reason why Jon & Kate was a hit.  International is key to growth, WW is US 10 years ago, growing aggressively, made $100mm in 173 countries, will make 4x that this year.  Discovery is sticking to distinctive brands, if can get a .6 in the demo on brand better than reaching outside for a .7 like History/Ice Road Truckers.  Strong brand = loyal audience, easier to program. However other stations A&E have diluted brand and are still successful.  Oprah ends 5/2011, OWN in 75mm homes, Discovery will launch OWN in 80mm homes, network will be about owning your challenges and opportunities in life and moving forward in a positive way.  Oprah brand (OWN) on Discovery will fill an unfufilled niche.  Oprah has been involved in developing and approving shows.  Oprah giving up her show to develop OWN, identifiable brands.  There will be more info on OWN at upfronts. Discovery can repurpose the 25y Oprah library after 5/2011.  Discovery also acquired howstuffworks.com for DIY viewer.  Tend to be lemmings, networks, watching YouTube for fresh talent.  NBC is struggling now but that’s how this biz works.  HD tier is like the new analog tier, Discovery has 7 channels, excited about launching 3D IMAX – closer to real.  A 20 year library of Discovery content in 3D is fairly compelling.  Sony TV retail, HW/SW, IMAX theatres promote Disc channel, HD cost significant 3y ago, now nothing.  At CES I was struck by the power of 3D gaming. Gaming will be big driver for HD (gaming & sports).  Need to place your bets before tech proves out, movie biz success around 3D is driving interest in home, thank Avatar and gaming.  FN grew 20% after changing recipe – engage with great content, need quality content for growth.  Expecting for good carriage acceptance for Cash Cab  (more)

Albert Cheng, Disney/ABC
Disney’s greatest original web production success, The Dharma Initiative.

Illeana Douglas, Easy to Assemble
It’s time to think beyond celebrity eating a candy bar and time to practice conscious capitalism.  Web is another platform for artists to do things they can’t do in traditional networks like being funny.  If I have to go house to house to entertain – I’ll do it!  Had to create show on web, was being marginalized by Hollywood who shun 40 year old women central characters.  Premise of show are unemployed Hollywood actors showing up to work at IKEA Burbank.

Brent Friedman, Electric Farm
There is a consensus about Nielsen, but it doesn’t make sense, there is no objective reality.  Web content contains layers for audience to explore the experience. (David Bloom:  Narcissistic vampires can’t see themselves in the mirror).

Drew Buckley, Electus
Electus means the chosen in Latin.  Name picked for its global appeal.  Open to all OTT platforms.  (Partnering with Jason Bateman, SNL’s Will Arnett, CollegeHumor and Yahoo! for web productions – see CES coverage below for details)

Justine Bateman, fm78.tv
If old media can’t let go, they will not survive new media.  You have to have more than one skill to survive, i.e. Final Cut Pro.  Looking forward to video clickthroughs to add more subtext of what characters are thinking.

Peter Murrieta, fm78.tv
(Disney’s Wizards of Waverly Place showrunner)  Screenwriters should think in terms of creating worlds rather than just storylines. Working with Warner Premiere on The Clique.

Dana Walden, Fox
When started career at Fox in 1982 drama was dead, it became the year of X Files.  Production company has done Arrested Development too.  Hears hundreds of pitches each year.  Ed’s character grounds the show. Everyone is looking for the next Modern Family but derivative development never works.  Show wasn’t pitched to Fox.  Steve/ Chris needed break from Fox after Back to You was cancelled.  Fox produces for all, gave Glee to Fox.

Laurel Bernard, Fox
Watches live tweets while Glee airs. Glee was last year’s most tweeted about show.

Keith Hindle, Fremantle
Consumer habits are already changing.  It is our job to adapt and find a way to monetize it.  Production costs are coming way down, $3500 for 5 minute pitch.  Idol got 630mm votes, outside the US Fremantle makes more on votes than the show.  Family Feud is huge on mobile.  People love to play games and we’ll see TV evolving more as a platform for interactive gaming.

Ross Levinsohn, Fuse Capital
Missed opportunities:  Boxee.  Didn’t make the investment initially, wish we had. StudioNow just bought by AOL for $36.5mm, Fuse would have put in $1.5mm.

Jordan Levin, Generate
The young creative community relates differently to brands because of how they were raised.  The early adopters 12-34 are important to reach because they are leading the change in how we consume content.  Kids identities are tied up with their favorite brands.

Shishir Mehrota, Google
People are starting to use YouTube as an on demand tv as evidenced by the serach terms they type.  Half of YouTube video views are for videos more than 30 days old.    Tweets are now part of real time search through a partnership Google has with Twitter.

Irwin Gotlieb, Group M
Controls over $84B in media budget, considered so powerful that each year the industry asks Gotlieb where to hold the Superbowl. Winner of the Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award. Knew Brandon and worked with him, both born 1949, met when they were 26.  In 1981, Brandon was the youngest NBC executive at 31.  We have to understand how technology and creativity converge.  Disruptive technology is challenging economy but content drives everything.  Media is nothing more than content interesting enough to attract large audiences.  If creativity and technology are deployed at the same time, well all prosper.  TV is still the most effective medium.  The more relevant the ad, the less likely it will be skipped or ignored.  Look at magazines, consumers spend more time on ads than editorial.  I would love to see TV budgets increase but there are too many other places to spend, it’s a function of supply-demand.  Upfronts are nothing more than a futures market, split is irrelevant, when scatter is high, money goes to upfronts, the only thing that counts is the total market size.  On CIMM, Nielsen hasn’t always served the interests of the industry.  They pitted one side against the other. On Comcast/NBC – expect to see Verizon get into the game.  Industry needs to welcome new talent.  Looking forward to Apple event, want a 9″ paper thin rollup tablet.  The sports rights fees are out of control.  Likes digital wallets, wants ubiquitous currency.  The big challenge for TV is to stem decline while in a deflationary period.  Without content, media is nothing.  On 3D – active glasses with LCD shutters hurt, why use them unless they add to the narrative, makes sense in gaming and computer rendered animation.

Phil Gurin
Sometimes they option it for 3m – 1y at $5 – 15,000 and don’t make it, not too cool.

Barbara Fisher, Hallmark
Martha Stewart is taking her daytime series The Martha Stewart Show to Hallmark Channel this September. (more)

Nancy Dubuc, History
We are in a business where each year has to be the best year ever.  Development is a numbers game but an imperfect science.   The factors are: 21 primetime slots, one out of four pilots will get a series and one in three will return. So team stays very focused on goal.  History will pilot a show up to two or three times to make sure it’s right before placing an order for more episodes. It’s more important for the show to become a franchise than viewers know they are watching the History Channel with the logo covered up.

Frank Biancuzzo, Hearst
Accepting the Digital Luminaries Award for Leadership.  Hearst now in 20mm households.

Hugh Laurie, House
Just finished directing his first episode of House.  Kept House as American because the iconoclast role didn’t fit a pompous Brit.  Accent is a challenge so he doesn’t strain, takes foot off the gas and lets it come to avoid sounding contrived, doesn’t go in and out, stays in accent all day on set.   It doesn’t ever get any easier.  The American dialect is hard.  Checks every syllable.    Would like to improv but word is respected.  Showrunners pretty strict about sticking to the script.

David Shore & Katie Jacobs, House
House is based on Sherlock Holmes.  Medical mysteries are highly franchisable.  The networks want to know it will run 100 episodes when you pitch.  France loves House.  On hiring women – look for best talent not necessarily diversity.  Her career path – went to NYU, directed shorts, was a PA, then a sales agent. Important to forge ahead with creative insight.  Need agent to get spec script seen.  Killed off Kal Penn at his request, wanted White House job, was very involved with Obama campaign.

George Ruiz, ICM

Judith Sheindlin, Judge Judy
Winner of the Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award.  Met Brandon Tartikoff 13.5y ago, wonderful visionary, demanded excellence on programming, good faithful friend.  When kids were born you gave this one a stethoscope and said you’ll be the doctor.  Gift of gab destined me to become a judge and have a career on tv.  Every once in awhile, I check out the competition, but I don’t care what others think. When you’ve had a rockem sockem career, you know when it’s time.  Life is supposed to be a happy journey, not a struggle. Deal is up 2013 but CBS’ John Nogaski invited her to the dance anytime.   Will not run for political office, likes a monarchy.  In family court the judge is the ultimate fact finder, there is no jury.  The US is a mess because it is ruled by committee.  Family court never gets old, there are no repeat customers, sees a lot of fraud from the web like the Nigerian prince scam, frustrating seeing these women out of a need to nest hook up with losers, they break up and he’s texting like mad on her bill.  When a judge gets a private bathroom with white towels its the big time, not so in the entertainment business.  Don’t recommend the entertainment business, need a strong ego, even the most talented are subject to constant rejection, go to college and have as your day job a career, don’t just wait tables.  Prepare yourself to be well-rounded, a whole human being. (Book:  Don’t Pee On Me and Tell Me It’s Raining)

Gavin McGarry, Jumpwire Media
PPT deck: http://ow.ly/10Fpr

David E Kelley with Melissa Grego, Broadcasting & Cable
Winner of the Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award. Brandon believed in storytellers and writers, he loved TV and watched it, gave him LA Law. The road to success is inexact and mostly unfair.  It’s pure folly to tell anyone how to do it, you can only tell them how you did it.  He got his break when a client of his law firm got his script optioned and made.  It was an abysmal film that had his name on it and taught him to doggedly stick to one’s own vision. First job was with Steven Bochco.  Need lottery to win fame and success, rather find what you want to do, not be, and then don’t not do something for fear of failing.  If you don’t have passion then don’t be in this business.  Wife is in the business (Michelle Pfeiffer) but kids who are teens are not heading toward entertainment.  Has been living in Northern California for 5 years. Misses Hollywood.  Shows are chaotic and it’s hard not to be in the nerve center, the eye of the storm.  Those 8 second conversations add up to something.  Film is nomadic, crew comes together for a short while, but TV is a family. Casting is an exhaustive process, time intensive and you must be in the room.  You can’t cast from tape.  Must publish script on first day or everyone starts asking for it, including the grocer.  Writes long-hand, can’t type.   Social media functions like a focus group but in the end it’s not as much about the show as it is the community relating to each other and generating social currency around the show.  I create characters I adore, sometimes I get called on a despicable character.  There has been the death of debate in this country, didn’t use shows as soapboxes in the past but now feel obligated to show dissent , will present both sides both not with equal weight.  News affects our lives.  Prefer cable deals to broadcast nets, there are less restrictions on content and 22 episodes is a bear, 13 is more attractive.  TV today is a richer landscape with the advent of cable.  It’s an industry that is now dominated by writers.  Shows like Braking Bad and Mad Men wouldn’t have been made 10 years ago. Ratings are now more important than 20 years ago, industry is much more focused on numbers.  When there were just 3 networks you were guaranteed 13-22 episodes and audience came by default even if the show was no good.  Harder to cultivate a show these days.  New NBC show is about a disgruntled patent attorney, need to watch a few shows to get it, but NBC is well-positioned to take some risks. Content matters, happy NBC 10 spot is going back to scripted.  Feels good to be going home to NBC.

Kevin Beggs, Lionsgate
Network TV is broken.  How is cable outperforming them with quality shows on lower budgets?

Xavier Kochar, MediaLink
Marketers will pay a premium for metrics that hit, they don’t have dozens of branded entertainment initiatives.  Walmart and P&G talk a lot about mom.

Russ Axelrod, Microsoft
At BEET we work on 25-30 campaigns a year creating great content for brand managers.  We start with the brand.  Created The Guys Manual – living a better life with more nuts. Sits on MSN.   Took risks, Grape Nuts is a conservative brand.  But got a 78% completion rate that watched video.

Steve Levitan with cast of Modern Family
Levitan – Fortunate position to have a hit show the best in the business wants to work on.  It’s been mind-boggling the level of stars who’ve asked to guest star, top talent solicit us at award shows.  We’re writing our lives, that’s why it feels real.  On Just Shoot Me, I loved all 13 time periods we were in over 6y+, it was the little show that could and almost got Seinfeld spot which went to Frasier. 18 shows in a season, shoot 5 days episodes over 8 hour days, one-camera makes it easiest job ever.  Costco was not product placement – unfortunately – they were cooperative but didn’t pay us. Used Apple Keynote software to present pitch to Fox.  Hollywood is 10,000 people running to where lightning just struck.  SophiaVergara – well known in Latin America, fans think its weird that voice is redubbed.  Julie Bowen – on ratings, now a 4.1 is a hit, before it was on life support, a 30 share used to be ok, now it would make the room explode.   Was pregnant during the pilot, reason fo the laundry basket always being front and center.  Thinks she accidentally started rumor that she’s returning to Lost.  Ed O’Neill – After 10y and 260 episodes of Married with Children, didn’t want another 30m sitcom but likes that it’s an ensemble.

Tony DiSanto, MTV
MTV will spend on awards, critical acclaim generates a lot of noise that is priceless.  Linear TV stream is primary but ancillary life is huge bonus.  Spending $400 – $500,000 on pilots.  Looking at 6-8 pilots to make 204 scripted series. Experimenting with Warren The Ape.

Jeff Gaspin, NBCU
Winner of the Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award. Brandon was a mentor, put him in the NBC management training program.  Brandon was a G-D, a mythical figure.  Opened with – I asked Rick Feldman if we could move this back 30 minutes and it cost me $45mm. Not laughing he continued –  We thought it was a reasonable way to keep both Leno and Conan.  It didn’t work.  I underestimated the emotional impact of the late night move on Conan.  Didn’t realize people tweet as I talk.  It’s important not to second guess decisions, but to learn from mistakes.  Yes, image is tarnishing bottom line but have a robust development slate with Kelley, Bruckheimer, Abrams.  Rebuilding and moving on. NBC will be fine, just need more hits: Thursday night lineup is strong with 4 comedies, Law & Order and Biggest Loser – great, committing to 20 pilots this year, spending on big talent.  Spent $250mm on Olympics, it was worth it, we only have until 3/1 to reboot, cleanse, referesh that 10 spot.  Olympics gives NBC 200mm people to showcase new shows and lineups.  Olympics are important in driving re-transmission fees.  Next time, yes, bidding has to be at the right economics.  Fox knows its audience, they’re doing well letting House launch other shows, always lead with hits.  In the end the best content wins, serialized shows burn hot, episodic has afterlife, NBC didn’t invest in backend, 55% NBC Entertainment/45% third party.  On dissing the upfronts – It was worth it, shook up the market, will continue to talk to advertisers before the upfronts but going back to traditional timing to allow the pilots time to be completed.  There are 60 metered nets, USA is up 14%, one hit can change face of net.  Cable has better margins. (more)

Cameron Death, NBCU
NBCU’s greatest original web production success:  In Gayle We Trust.

Roma Khanna, NBCU
North Americans are very inward looking.  It’s a recent trend for businesses to look outward internationally.

Jonathan Prince, Novel Adventures
The Cleaner showrunner on webisode success.  Novel Adventures production budget was $600,000 for first season/8 episodes on CBS.com sponsored by GM, #1 traffic driver for activations on site.  GM just renewed for $700,000.  Don’t put deleted scenes on web, rather create new mystery, don’t put on rejected A&E pitch, be audacious.  Web branding is additive, budgets are small, its marketing money brand would use for a party, it’s not media buy money.  There’s a difference.

Geoff Stedman, Omneon
Accepting the Digital Luminaries Award.

Shelly Palmer
Social media is a two-way conversation, stop broadcasting.  Home page hits are useless, HITS = how idiots track success.  No more valuable than knowing tv is on.  Homes pages are so last century.  Listen for brand sentiment at oomph.com, use Google Analytics for loyalty, recency and bounce rate.  If bounce rate is at 50% shut down the site.  TV is an art form not a platform, its the beer, the remote, the sofa for 35y+, under 35y its the quad-split first person shooter.  Remotes brought in the era of channel surfing.  Read Nielsen disclaimer on accuracy.  Atomized viewers are findable.  Brands won’t get involved with anything that’s not at scale.  Need to earn your way into the trust circle.  There are only three business models – I pay you, you pay me, someone else pays.  Scarcity creates immense value.  Th 9pm a 30s spot is the best time to get scale because F is payday, because of scarcity it has been most valuable spot to buy.  LTE long term evolution – the analog spectrum the broadcasters just gave up.  @aplusk with his 4mm Twitter fans makes him a broadcaster but mommy with her 100 friends is an influential thought leader in her community.  US experts in one to many storytelling, 30s messaging. Moving to a many to many society.  Packaging attention, easy to create exceptional value in the 21c but the web sucks at translating value into wealth.

Karrie Wolfe, RDF UK
Secret Millionaire has been successful.  Seeking a 360 play.  Food is hot around the world, have done well with popup restaurants.  Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy does well abroad, Bachelor making a come back.

Howard Owens, Reveille
Buried Life and Biggest Loser have big messages, don’t distinguish content from branded content – they share thematic values.  Reveille creates entertaining IP that’s not a schill for the brand.

Elisabeth Murdoch, Shine
Ignoring social networks would be like ignoring the switch from B&W to color.  Those who use two screens at once are the most engaged audiences.  Fans remain the best salesmen of our content, even if that behavior is on the borderline of piracy.  Social networking is nothing less than Web 3.0.  Youths are willing to pay for premium experiences.  FB and Twitter mark a profound paradigm shift.

Hugh Forrest, SXSW
Talking with Brian Cain, Campfire and StevePeters, No Mimes.  Best way to watch 24 on DVR is 20 minutes later to skip commercials.

Dave Howe, SyFy
Dual revenue streams/affiliate fees are important.  Ad sales right now are challenging.  7 to 10 top films each year are sci fi fantasy genre.

Michael Wright, TBS. TNT, TCM
Wouldn’t hesitate to buy syndication rights from another network if its not in its first run, and if it is still running, would crete a window. For fresh talent, likes to hire new showrunners who had some experience as a senior staff writer on someone else’s show.

Felicia Day, The Guild
Thanking Microsoft while accepting the Digital Luminaries Award.  Just inked deal with Netflix, iTunes.

Marc Juris, TruTV
Several hundred hours a year of programming.  Looking for character, context and comic relief.   People don’t pay attention to network brands, they watch great shows.

Brady Brim-DeForest, Tubefilter
Double whatever production budget is to have money for  advertising and marketing of your content.  Own your show, not just 10% of it.

Ryan O’Hara, TV Guide Channel
Now in 84mm households, Curb, Susan Boyle & Ugly Betty now stripped and living in syn on TV Guide Channel.

Chloe Sladden, Twitter
NBC Olympics open API allows for lots of possibilities.  Quirkier shows like Glee doing better because of support from online audience.  There were over 1mm tweets during VMAs.

Bill Kispert, Universal Studios
Just launched House game.

Jesse Redniss, USA
Check out Windex game with Monk spritzing germs on www.characterarcade.com. Hilarious viral ads as well.

Jason Nadler, United Talent Agency

Jeff Wachtel, USA
USA wants to be in the cultural conversation but what’s better:  great ratings and crappy reviews or critical acclaim and no one watches.  International co-productions make it possible to afford mor production value onscreen.  Quincy ME is huge in Europe, Monk too.  Looking at 7-8 day shows per episode.  The biggest challenge is in finding the next big thing.  Trying for something more provocative.

Christian Taylor, Valemont
The heart of a web series is the story.

Michael Eisner, Vuguru
There is a death march of sorts for traditional media now that broadband has gone mainstream.  Broadband is cheap and ubiquitous.  Expect an advertising explosion.  On TV the Simpsons has 520 seconds of commercials at a $30 CPM, same show has 37 seconds on the web at a $60 CPM, it can’t not happen, it’s low hanging fruit.  37% of viewing is on the web but right now only 8% of ad buy is there.  3% of attention is going to newspapers and yet they still have 20% of ad buy.  Vuguru’s properties include Prom Queen, All For Nots, Foreign Body, Back on Topps and The Booth, a very exciting thriller starring Xander Berkeley and his wife, Sarah Clarke who played the unforgettable CTU agents George Mason and Nina Myers from the first season of 24. Might make Prom Queen into a musical.  Has a high output deal with Rogers for 20 shows a year.   Prom Queen was made for $1000/minute, distributed in 45 countries, got license fee from MySpace, 80% of its 20mm views was from MySpace, missed opportunity to developed platform into a media destination.  You can now create 90 second shorts for $3000 with SAG actors.  No production deficits.  Likes that the union recognizes the importance of web video.  SAG gives it legitimacy.  All the actors got paid, points are worthless.  Shot 150 minutes of The Booth in 2w, 20+ 5m+ segments.  Short commitment so top talent likes these projects, spent about 3 hours.  30 minute format will emerge as online standard.  Consumer doesn’t have ADD, they will watch good content for long periods.  Remembers making Movies of the Week with Barry Diller on ABC, 26 original movies for $375-425,000.  Universal was selling there’s to NBC at $800,000 a show.  Secret to success is making shows below the industry average.  Advice:  make great shows, someone will distribute it.  Not sure of the business model yet but great shows win.  YouTube has draconian rev share.  Loves Boxee.

Chris Hardwick, Web Soup, @nerdist
Hilarious as always.  Giving Xbox love at Digital Luminaries Awards.  Chatting up UCB at cocktails.

Gary Vaynerchuk, WineLibraryTV
On finding sponsors, solicit those buying Google keywords.  Said no to $250,000 kitchen from sponsor, holding out for 7 figure deal.  Making $1mm on book, $25,000 on parties.  Put your passion into production.  If your not interested in being the talent in front of the camera, then write.

Pete Thompson, Xbox
Accepting Digital Luminaries Award in New Media for Marc Whitten, Microsoft.
Winners, Best of Schwag
Treasure Hunters Roadshow – Rare Coin Scratchers, Chocolate Coin Treasure Chest
Texas Roadhouse Music Legends – Playing Cards
HISCOX – Director’s Cut Magnifying Glass

Sales
E1 sells Canadian content to Latin America pay-tv networks
MTV sells True Jackson to Mexico, iCarly in Peru, Panama, Bolivia
Toei Animation sold Dragon Ball, Digimon Frontier into Latin America
20c sold Don’t Forget the Lyrics into US synd despite Fox dropping it

Pics
http://www.flickr.com/photos/natpe/

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*NATPE has it all on video.  Check it out at: www.natpemarket.com

#CES


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#NATPE/Donald Trump Steals The Show

26Jan10

There were many laugh out loud moments today with Hugh Laurie and Judge Judy in the morning, and Chris Hartwick of Web Soup at the Digital Luminaries Awards, but no one could top Donald Trump who won over many fans when Andy Cohen of Bravo asked Jillian Michaels, Curtis Stone and Trump their thoughts on handshaking. Stone replied germs make you stronger, I’m not afraid. Michaels recovering from the flu took a pass. And Trump told us the story of a man who came to his office, shook his hand, kissed him on both cheeks, and hugged him. When Trump asked how he was doing, he replied sick as a dog. With the delivery of someone who has done schtick all his life, Trump shot the audience a look and said he would have preferred bowing. Then he rolled the tape for the opening of “Celebrity Apprentice” saying to his chaffeur, I’d rather walk. A new and improved, downright lovable Donald Trump – the audience burst into a booming cheer.

The day rocked on with fascinating insights from David E Kelley, Jeff Gaspin, Irwin Gotlieb, Fremantle, Electus, ATT, Microsoft, Generate, Reveille, Jonathan Prince, History, TVGuide, SyFy and others. There were a great group of tweeps following including Broadcasting & Cable. (Thanks for the RT, I’m honored.). I’ll be posting a detailed summary of all that was fit to tweet post-NATPE.

My day ended as I was treated to a demo and dinner by Metranome, a venture-backed platform that helps creatives take advantage of open SDKs to get their shows seen on mobile, OTT, etc. Metranome builds beautiful low-cost apps that can be ported to Blackberry, iPhone, and Android, and soon Roku, Boxee, Yahoo! Connected TV, and others. They offer ad-serving, in app transaction support, a content management system, and have a track record of getting features on Blackberry. Now at just $1000, content producers can execute with elegance their mobile strategy. The RingToons Dilbert app charted with their calendar template. Check it out at www.metranome.net. For those who can’t navigate rent-a-coder, Metranome just might be the answer. Turnkey app development promises to do for video what Tunecore and others have done for music – create universal access to digital distribution and monetization.

Tomorrow, the morning opens with an NBCU coffee, Elisabeth Murdoch’s keynote, a games panel with Lucasfilm, USA, AETN, and Universal Pictures, Then Tim Street speaks on online video ad inventory, E1, Reveille, Fox and Tandem speak on international co-productions, there’s a session with Diggnation, a masterclass with ICM CAA UTA Abrams Artists Agency on packaging the pitch. Phil Gurin on international formats, DMA on slashing sizzle reel budgets (she’s good), and NBCU on a monetization panel. And that’s just a small sampling of what’s available. Luckily all sessions are available for free streaming for NATPE attendees. Still I regret not hanging out with the Weinstein reps in the lobby of THE Hotel, or spending time in the Pro Pitch and the floor. Well there’s always Miami! Follow all the fun at #NATPE #N10 @contentnow.


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#NATPE/Vuguru’s The Booth Sizzles

26Jan10

Yesterday was action-packed all day long. From David Zaslav’s IMAX 3D visions and outlook on OWN, to the interesting details of how Fox’s Modern Family wound up on ABC, onto Shelly Palmer’s advice on loyalty, recency and bounce backs, then a tour of the floor. And that was just the morning. Michael Eisner gave a fantastic keynote for the afternoon. I’ll post more later on his hot new show, The Booth, starring cast from the first season of 24. After Eisner, there was a hilarious master class with Bill Lawrence, showrunner for Cougar Town and Scrubs. Panels wrapped with a look at cable 360 where MTV, USA and TBS/TNT/TCM made interesting announcements (MTV spending big money on scripted). I met up with the gang from Easy To Assemble at the Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Awards, which by the way was very moving and a must-attend when at NATPE. This morning begins with a coffee session with House, then it’s award recipients David E Kelley, Judge Judy, Irwin Gotlieb and Jeff Gaspin. Andy Cohen of Bravo interviews Donald Trump and Jillian Michaels. And then we go digital for the rest of the day with Electus, fm78.tv, Eady To Assemble, Electric Farm, Generate, Jonathan Prince and the Digital Luminaries Awards honoring Xbox and The Guild. Of course, lots of other activity as well. I’ll also be popping in on AETN/History and SyFy, interviewing Pepsi, and ending the day with Metronome. A detailed summary will be posted post-NATPE. Til then follow along at #NATPE #N10 @contentnow.


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#NATPE/Kicks Off SXSW Style

24Jan10

The lemon drops and quesadillas kept coming as my table traded  success stories of getting premium content onto OTT platforms.   It was an exciting kick off to NATPE 2010 as guests from all around the world started to filter into the opening night party sponsored by SXSW.  And it was only fitting to have Rick Feldman of NATPE share the stage with Hugh Forrest of SXSW.   After all the two organizations are at the forefront of bringing buyers and sellers of content to the nexus of all that is happening in digital.   As an ambassador of the creative community, NATPE will be making an appearance at SXSW this March similar to the presence it had at Macworld, HRTS and Advertising Week last year.  Hopefully next year we will see the  imprint at CES as well.  Over 5000 are expected for three days of panels, pitching and parties.  I’ll be in Islander B all day tomorrow for Michael Eisner, the showrunners of Modern Family (Steve Levitan) and Cougar Town ((Bill Lawrence), and execs from  Discovery, MTV, USA, TBS, and Lionsgate.  Then its onto the show floor for Celebrity Chef Kitchen, topping the day off at the Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Awards honoring David E Kelley, Jeff Gaspin, Judge Judy and Irwin Gotlieb, with an afterparty at House of Blues.  That said there is so much more going on today.  Chloe Sladden of Twitter as well as Shelly Palmer have their own panels, and there are several mentor round robins available for producers to get facetime with Hallmark, MGM, Disney/ABC, ION, Lionsgate, CBSi, ITVS, CAA, Phil Gurin, LMNO, Wikked, Revision3, Break, YouTube, etc.  Follow along at #NATPE, I’ll be tweeting live @contentnow.


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#NATPE/The Guide

22Jan10

With Midem, Sundance, and Grammy’s, January is still bubbling over with places to go, people to see, but the one stop shop for premium professional content is at the NATPE Market next week at Mandalay Bay on the Las Vegas Strip, where on the floor, in suites, and on panels programming executives, brand managers, and showrunners wheel and deal the good stuff, and mentor indies on sizzle reels and pitch packages. From Michael Eisner and Donald Trump, to Illeana Douglas and Justine Bateman, to the Modern Family cast & crew, Jonathan Prince, etc. there’s never a dull moment.  Here’s the guide to what’s going on:

Sunday, January 24
2-3, Islander I
Selling Telenovelas with The Bold and the Beautiful, Telemundo, Dori Media, Globo
3:30-5, Islander I
Screening:  India – A Love Story
5-7, Border Grill
SXSW Kick-Off Party

Monday, January 25
8-10, Four Seasons, Level 2, Acacia Ballroom
Globo Breakfast Screening:  India – A Love Story
9-10, Islander B
Keynote:  David Zaslav, Discovery
10-10:30, Digital Theatre
Grow Your Audience with Stickam, MTV, CBS Radio
10-6, Show Floor
10:30-12, Islander D
Mentor Round Robin (Unscripted) with Paul Buccieri, ITVS, Andy Stabile, CAA, Bertram van Munster, Earthview, Eric Shotz, LMNO, Philip Gurin, Gurin Co, Douglass Ross, Evolution Media, Stella Stolper, Wikked, Ken Mok, 10×10
10:30-11:30, Islander I
What TV Needs to Know about Social Media with Shelly Palmer
11:30-12, Digital Theatre
Formatting Content for Digital Delivery
11:30-12:30, Islander B
Anatomy of a Hit:  Modern Family with Dana Walden, 20c Fox TV Chair, Steve Levitan, Ed O’Neill, Sofia Vergara (Gloria), Ty Burrell (Phil), Julie Bowen (Claire), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Mitchell),  Eric Stonestreet (Cameron)
11:45-12:45, Tradewinds C
Fans & Brands with Fox, Demand Media, Omelet…
12:15-12:45, Digital Theatre
Twitter TV with Chloe Sladden, Twitter, Daisy Whitney, Beet.tv
12:15-1:45, Islander D
Mentor Round Robin (B &C)
Barbara Fisher, Hallmark, Tom Zappala, Disney/ABC, Jon Helmrich, IBC, John Moczulski, KTLA-TV, Sandra Stern, Lionsgate, Gary Marenzi, MGM, Leslie Chesloff
12-3, Islander I
Pitchfest – The Agency, Lone Star Opera, Vicious Circle
(last year’s winner sold show to History)
12-4, Theatre on the Floor
Reality Food TV – Top Chef Quickfire Competition, Paul Bartolotta, Wynn
1-1:45, Tradewinds C
TV as Branded Business with Brian Seth Hurst, ATAS, Lisa Hsia, Bravo, Kim Niemi, NBC, David Norton, Ladder Up, John Couch, Titanium Sky
1:15-2, Islander I
Digital Spectrum, Revenue Resource with Brandon Burgess, ION…
1-1:45, Digital Theatre
Mobile Monetization on TV with Jim Beddows, MEF, David Kruis, Metranome…
1:30-2:15, Islander B
Keynote with Michael Eisner, The Tornante Company
2-2:45, Digitial Theatre
PGA Toolbox:  Unlocking Mobile Content for Interactive TV with John David Heinsen, Bunnygraph..
2:30-3:15, Islander I
Profit in Recovery with Sean Compton, Tribune, Emerson Coleman, Hearst, Brooke Spectorsky, Gannett, Doug Lowe, Meredith
2:30-4, Islander D
Mentor Round Robin (Digital) with Lori Schwartz, IPG, Curt Marvis, Lionsgate, Anthony Soohoo, CBSi, Keith Richman, Break, Nathan Coyle, CAA, Kevin Yen, YouTube, Jim Louderback, Revision3, Michael Kernan, NuMedia
2:45-3:30, Tradewinds C
Online Advertising with VideoNuze, GroupM, Google
3-3:45, Islander B
Storytelling with Bill Lawrence, Cougar Town, Scrubs
3:15-4, Digital Theatre
Mobile Video with FLM, Babelgum, FLO TV
3:30-4:15, Islander I
Global Entertainment Development with Charles Kenny, World Bank
4-5, Tradewinds C
Lights Camera Lawsuit! with James Lichtman, NBCU, Kirk Schenck, RDF Media
4-6, Theatre on the Floor
Happy Hour Cocktail Competitions, Blind Wine Tastings, Art of the Drink, Network Executive Mixology
4:15-5, Islander B
Cable 360 with Jeff Wachtel, USA, Michael Wright, TBS, Tony DiSanto, MTV, Kevin Beggs, Lionsgate
4:30-5, Digital Theatre
Leveraging GMX (Global Media Exchange)
4:45-5:30, Islander I
Nonfiction Budgeting with Donna Michelle Anderson, Planet DMA
5:15-6, Digital Theatre
NY Video Start-Ups Awards
6-8, South Seas Ballroom F
Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Awards – Jeff Gaspin, NBCU, Irwin Gotlieb, GroupM, David E Kelley & Judge Judy
10-12, House of Blues
Party with El Bambino

Tuesday, January 26
9-9:45, Digital Theatre
Manage Social Media Flow with Jumpwire Media
9-9:30, Islander B
Legacy Talk Back with Judge Judy
9-6, Show Floor
9:35-10:05, Islander B
Legacy Talk Back with David E Kelley
10:10-10:40, Islander B
Legacy Talk Back with Irwin Gotlieb, GroupM
10:45-11:15, Islander B
Legacy Talk Back with Jeff Gaspin, NBCU
11-11:45, Tradewinds C
Syndication with Vivi Zigler, NBCU, Albert Cheng, Disney ABC..
11-11:30, Digital Theatre
Cool Ads with Alex Bogusky and Sarah Szalavitz
11:30-12:30, Islander I
Keynote with Esther Lee, Brand Marketing & Advertising, ATT
11:45-12:30, Digital Theatre
IAWTV with Tubefilter, ICM, Digitas
11:45-12:45, Islander B
Donald Trump, Celebrity Apprentice, Jillian Michaels, Biggest Loser, Andy Cohen, Bravo..
12-4, Theatre on the Floor
Celebrity Chef Competitions
12:15-1, Tradewinds C
Daisy Whitney interviews Ross Levinsohn, Fuse Capital
12:45-1:30, Islander I
Drew Buckley, Electus, Keith Hindle, Fremantle, David Verklin, Canoe, John Ross, IPG
1-1:30, Digital Theatre
From Disney to fm78.tv with Peter Murrieta
1:15-2:15, Islander B
Reality Blockbusters with Jonathan Murray, Bunim/Murray, Lisa Berger, E!, 51 Minds, World Race, Atlas Media
1:15-2:45, Islander D
Mentor Round Robin (Scripted) – Neal Baer, Law & Order SVU, Kim Moses & Ian Sander, Ghost Whisperer, Ted Miller, CAA
1:30-2:15, Tradewinds C
Cross-Media Planning with comScore, Havas, MPG
1:45-2:30, Digital Theatre
Anatomy of a Hit Web Series:  Illeana Douglas, Justine Bateman, Brent Friedman, Electric Farm…
2-2:45, Islander I
Branded Content with Jordan Levin, Generate, Howard Owens, Reveille, Russ Axelrod, Microsoft…
*2:45-3:30, Digital Theatre
NexGen Showrunner:  Jonathan Prince
2:45-3:45, Islander B
Sizzle Reel Secrets with RDF, LMNO…
2:45-4, Tradewinds C
Tribal Leadership with USC
3:15-4, Islander I
Private Equity with Michael Kassan, PwC, Michael Lang, Fox, Ed Wilson, Tribune…
*4-5, Islander B
Cable Superstars with Nancy Dubic, AETN/History, Dave Howe, Syfy/NBCU. Marc Juris, truTV, Ryan O’Hara, TVGuide.com
*4-5:30, Islander D
Mentor Round Robin (Brands) – Michael Herst, EA, Chad Stubbs, Pepsi, Niko Chauls, Bing, Steve Amato, Omelet
4-6, Theatre on the Floor
Happy Hour Cocktails
4:15-5, Tradewinds C
Relevant Ratings in a Distributed Content Ecosystem w Tubefilter, blip.tv, Digitas…
5-6, Digital Theatre
SXSW Transmedia Storytelling
*6-7:30, Show Floor
Digital Luminary Awards Reception honoring Felicia Day, The Guild, Marc Whitten, Xbox LIVE, Frank Biancuzzo, Hearst, Geoff Stedman, Omneon

Wednesday, January 27
*8-8:45, Islander I
Coffee with Roma Khanna, NBCU
*9-10, Islander B
Keynote with Elisabeth Murdoch, Shine
*9:15-10, Digital Theatre
Games with John Roberts, Lucasfilm, Jesse Rednis, USA, Kris Soumas, AETN, Bill Kispert, Universal Pictures Partnerships
9-6, Show Floor
10-10:30, Islander I
Keynote with Andy Duncan, UK Channel 4
*10:30-11:15, Islander B
International Co-Production with John Morayniss, E1, Tandem, Reveille, Fox
10:30-11:15, Digital Theatre
Online Video Ad Inventory with Tim Street, Brett Wilson, TubeMogul…
11:15-11:45, Islander I
Biometrics with NBCU – Telemundo
*11:30-12:15, Digital Theatre
Alex Albrecht, Diggnation interviews Gary Vaynerchuk, Crush It
11:45-12:30, Islander B
Latin Content with beTV, Fox, MarVista…
12-4, Theatre on the Floor
Celebrity Kitchen
*12:30-1:15, Digital Theatre
Packaging for the Pitch with George Ruiz, ICM, Omid AShtari, CAA, Jason Nadler, UTA, Brandon Martinez, Abrams Artists, David Tochterman, Innovative Artists, Barrett Garese, Spytap
12:30-1:15, Islander I
Latino Programming Trends with Warner Artist Management, Fox…
*1-1:45, Islander B
International Format with Philip Gurin, Karrie Wolfe, RDF..
*1:30-2:15, Islander I
Slashing Your Sizzle Reel Budget with DMA..
1:30-2:15, Digital Theatre
3D with Steve Schklair, 3ality
*2-3, Islander B
Making Money with FT, Oglivy, Nokia, NBCU, CAA
3:30-5, Islander D
Mentor Round Robin ($$$) with Greycroft, matrixx, MESA


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#MIDEM/The Guide

22Jan10

For those of you jetting/not jetting off to Cannes for Midem, here’s a guide to follow #MIDEM. Top tweeps among the mix are @iancr, @spinaltap, @msutherlanduk, @amandapalmer, @hypebot, @petewentz, @ginab,@gleonhard, @lyricfind, @JeffreyHayzlett. Watch for brands (Converse, Kodak, Pepsi, Coke…), artists (Pete Wentz, Pharrell Williams, Adam Payne..) and unique opportunities like the Matching Room where bands are matched with brands and the Listening Sessions where music is placed into cable shows like The Hills, Dexter and House, into music trailers, into TV commercials (Pantene), and into video games (DJ Hero).

Saturday, January 23
*10 Monetizing Music, Ted Cohen, Amanda Palmer (Dresden Dolls), Hal Ritson (Young Punx), Paul van Dyk.. (Debussy, Level 1)
*10:55, Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien Video Address (Debussy, Level 1)
11, Global Music Consumption (Debussy, Level 1)
11:15, Eric Steuer, Creative Commons
*11:30, Jeffrey Hayzlett, Kodak (Debussy, Level 1)
*12, Pharrell Williams (Debussy, Level 1)
*2:30, Terry McBride (Debussy, Level 1)
*2:35, Labels & Digital Service Deals – Spotify, WMG, The Orchard, Sony, We7, Deezer, Beggars Group (Debussy, Level 1)
3, Thierry Zemmour press event, cocktails (Blue Lounge)
*4:30, Bruce Houghton, Hypebot (Debussy, Level 1)
*4:35, Owen Van Natta, MySpace (Debussy, Level 1)
*5:05, Fan Engagement – Pete Wentz, Fall Out Boy, Gina Bianchini NING (Debussy, Level 1)
6, NRJ Music Awards Red Carpet (Palais des Festivals)
6, IMPALA Cocktails (Martinez/Salon Macassar)
8, NRJ Music Awards (Grand Auditorium)

Sunday, January 24
9:30, Press breakfast with Dominique Leguern (Press Club, Level 1)
9:30, IMZ Avant Premiere Screenings (Aud A, Level 3)
10, Show Me the Digital Money – Gerd Leonhard (Academy, Hall 01)
10, Future of Digital Licensing – Bob Kohn, RoyaltyShare, ASCAP, SoundExchange, MEF… (Esterel, Level 5)
10:30, Frederic Mitterrand (Palais des Festivals)
11, Celebrating South Africa (Blue Lounge, Level 1)
11, Meet Australia (Networking Village, Level 01, Aisle 11)
11, Monetization of Mobile Music (Academy, Hall 01)
11, Meet USA (Networking Village, Level 1, Aisle 11)
11:30, Direct-to-Fan Social Media (Manager’s Village, Hall 01)
11:30, Pitchfest – 15 Hottest Digital Music Start-Ups incl www.tunewiki.com (Lab, Hall 01)
12:15, Photo call Wayne Beckford (Terrasse Les Ambassadeurs, Level 4)
12:30, MusicDNA successor to MP3 (Blue Lounge Level 1)
12:30, Photos: South African Artists (Terrasse Les Ambassadeurs, Lvl 4)
12:30, International Music Managers Forum (Aud H, Level 3)
2, CAVA Symphonic Suite (Aud D, Level 3)
2:30, Meet Japan (Networking Village, Level 1, Aisle 11)
2:30, What works for Ralph Simon, Mobilium (Debussy, Level 1)
*2:35, Music Apps – Shazam, Interscope/Geffen/A&M, Tapulous, Nokia.. (Debussy, Level 1)
3, Develop Your Artist for Intl (Managers’ Village, Hall 01)
3, Matchmaking with 2010 15 Hottest Digital Startups – Aviary, Awdio, BandCentral, Band Metrics, Digiclef (Lab, Hall 01)
3, IAEL (Esterel, Level 05)
3, Making Money in S Africa – Sony/ATV.. (Aud K, Level 4)
3:30, New Models in a Fragmented Industry (Varriere Californie, Level 5)
*3:30, Peter Gelb, Metropolitan Opera on HD transmission to cinemas.. (Debussy, Level 1)
4, Press event Sophie Mervier (Blue Lounge, Level 1)
*4, David Jones, Havas, Bill Werde, Billboard (Debussy, Level 1)
4, IMZ Avant Premiere Screenings (Aud A, Level 3)
4, Meet France (Networking Village, Level 1, Aisle 11)
4:30, Harvey Goldsmith, Artiste Management Prod (Debussy, Level 1)
*4:35, Monetizing the Concert Experience – Wolfgang’s Vault, Hypebot, AEG, Bonnaroo, The Collective (Debussy, Level 1)
5, AAIM Cocktails (Stand R36.18)
5, SACEM Press Event (Press Room 1, Level 3)
5, MIDEM Classical Awards (MCA Booth R 29.38, Rivera Hall)
5, IMMF Open Council Meeting (Managers’ Village, Hall 01)
5:30, Content Industries Finding New Revenue – Gerd Leonhard (Debussy, Level 1)
*5:45, Mika Salmi,Habbo, Jonathan Klein, Getty Images (Debussy, Lvl1)
*6:15, Daniel Ek,Spotify, Patrick Walker, YouTube (Debussy, Lvl1)
7, Sonicbids MidemTalent Showcase (Carlton, Zephyr)
8, The Fringe – Mafalda Minnozzi, Odette Albani (Morrison’s Irish Pub)
8, La Boheme screening with Mirella Freni (Debussy, Level 1)
8, Opening Party (Martinez Ballroom)
10, Jazz (Carlton, Zephyr)
11, Catalan Jazz (Majestic, Salon Diane-Jazz Club)

Monday, January 25
9:30, IMZ Avant Premiere Screenings (Aud A, Level 3)
*10, Music in Video Games – MTV, Ubisoft, Activision/Blizzard.. (Esterel, Level 5)
10, Smartphone Music Apps (Academy, Hall 01)
10, IAEL Legal Workshop (Aud K, Level 4)
*10:30, Brands Music Strategy – Coke, Nokia, Carhatt .. (Esterel, Level 5)
10:30, Meet IAMA (Managers’ Village, Hall 01)
11:30, SNEP Press Event (Pree Room 1, Level 3)
11, Digital Marketing (Academy ,Hall 01)
*11, NASCAR, Edsel Dope, Banshee Music, Glassnote Entertainment – Sport Music New Revenue Stream (Esterel, Level 5)
11, Meet Korea (Networking Village, Level 01, Aisle 11)
*11:30, Converse, Pepsi, Cornerstone – Music in Marketing (Esterel, Lvl5)
11:30, Multi-territorial Licensing (Aud K, Level 4)
11:30, Pitchfest – Digital Music Startups (Lab, Hall 01)
12, Press event – 3rd Century of Pergolesi’s Birth
*12, Gap – Music to Engage Customers – Adam Payne, Alliance Marketing Partners, Sonicbids (Esterel, Level 5)
12, Local platforms as an alternative to the music market (Aud J, Level 4)
1, Sync & Brands VIP Lunch (Gray d’Albion Hotel, Salon 4)
1:30,SPEDIDAM (Aud J, Level 4)
1:30, China’s Music Business (Aud D, Level 3)
*2:30, Zync Listening Session – Gary Calamar, Go Music (Music Supervisor, Dexter, House, True Blood, Six Feet Under)
2:30, Meet S Africa (Networking Vilalge, Level 01, Aisle 11)
*3, Masao Morita, Sony Music (Esterel, Level 5)
3, Matchmaking with Digital Music Startups GoMix, Kickstarter, Pops Worldwide, Radionomy, Silence Media (Lab, Hall 01)
3, UPFI press event (Press room, Level 3)
3:15, Photo Calls:  Diving w Andy.. (Terrasse Les Ambassadeurs, Level 4)
3:30, Mobile Music Apps (Academy, Hall 01)
4, Press event, SIRE Records (Blue Lounge, Level 1)
*4, A&R in the Digital Era (Esterel, Level 5)
4, I’m with the Brand – Heartbeats Intl (Aud K, Level 4)
4, Meet UK (Networking Village, Level 01, Aisle 11)
4, Cocktails (Argentina Pavilion Stand 14.19)
4, Cuba Disco (Stand 12.29)
4:30, Artist Management from Pop to Classical – UMG (Esterel, Level 5)
4:30, Digital Advertising (Academy, Hall 01)
4:30, Press event ADAMI (Aud J, Level 4)
5, Own the Consumer – Wildlife Ent (Arctic Monkeys)… (Esterel, Level 5)
5, A2IM Cocktails (Stand R36.18)
5, Swiss Cocktails (Stand R38.03)
5:30, Meet Turkey (Networking Village, Level 01, Aisle 11)
5:30, Manitoba Music Cocktails (Stand 18.02/20.01)
5:30, Metadata (Academy, Hall 01)
6, Japan Night (Martinez, Acajou)
6, British Acoustic: Bobby Long, Kay Shotter, Robinson, The Yah-You’s (Martinez, Ballroom)
7, Sonicbids MidemTalent Showcase (Carlton, Zephyr)
8, JETRO Cocktails (Martinez, Acajou II)
8, Makeba Gala Dinner (Carlton, La Cote & Grand Salon)
8, The Fringe (Morrison’s Irish Pub)
8:30, British at Midem (Martinez Ballroom)
9, Created in Taiwan (Martinez, Acajou)
10, Talent Jazz (Carlton, Zephyr)
11, Carte Blanche SACEM (Majestic, Salon Diane-Jazz Club)

Tuesday, January 26
8:30, Billboard Dealmakers Breakfast (Carlton, Salon La Cote)
9:30, IMZ Avant Premiere Screenings (Aud A, Level 3)
10, Role of the Publisher – Andrew Keen, Cult of the Amateur..(Esterel, Level 5)
10, Music & Twitter (Academy, Hall 01)
*10, MTV Listening Session – Joe Cuello, MTV will judge 5 finalists for placement in future episodes of MTV’s The Hills.. (Aud K, Level 4)
10:30, Publishing Summit Imagem, Nichion, PRimary Wave, Fairwood, Third Side..  (Esterel, Level 5)
11, Press event: Chopin Year 2010 (Blue Lounge, Level 1)
11, Meet China (Networking Village, Level 01, Aisle 11)
11, Digital Marketing on a Shoestring (Academy, Hall 01)
*11, Matching Bands to Brands – Valerie Chollet, The Matching Room, Natasha Kizzie, Euro RSCG – brand coaches advise managers on getting artists’ sponsorship deals (Managers’ Village, Hall 01)
*11:30, David Renzer, UMG (Esterel, Level 5)
11:30, Pitchfest – Digital Music Startups (Lab, Hall 01)
*11:30, RipTide Listening Session – get your music into movie trailers (Aud K, Level 4)
11:45, Photo Calls:Black Swan Effect.. (Terrasse Les Ambassadeurs, Lvl4)
1, MIDEM Networking Lunch (Les Ambassadeurs, Level 5)
2:30, Political Initiatives (Blue Lounge, Level 1)
2:30, Artists’ Online Presence – 360 Approach (Academy, Hall 01)
*2:30, Grey Listening Session – become the anthem of Pantene (Aud K, Level 4)
3, Focus Germany – Edgar Berger, Sony Music.. (Esterel, Level 5)
3, IAEL on Live Shows (Aud H, Level 3)
3, Matchmaking Digital Music Startups – Songkick, Streamjam, Theslytyone, Tracks & Fields, TuneWiki (Lab, Hall 01)
3, Manager Summit  with Peter Jenner, fmr mgr Pink Floyd (Managers’ Village, Hall 01)
3, Meet Brazil (Networking Village, Level 01, Aisle 11)
3, IMZ Avant Premiere Screenings (Aud A, Level 3)
3:30, Social Media to Promote Music – Gerd Leonhard  (Academy, Hall 01)
4:30, Press event – Sweden Top Jazz (Blue Lounge, Level 1)
*4, Michael Gudinski, Mushroom Group (Kylie Minogue) (Esterel, Lvl5)
4, IAEL Publishing (Aud K, Level 4)
4, Mack Avenue Records (Foyer Aud D, Level 3)
*4:30, Denzyl Feigelson, AWAL (brand advisor – iTunes, Coke..) (Academy, Hall 01)
*4:30, Indie Models – SellaBand, Downtown Music, Anglo Management, DFSB, Rocket Science (Esterel, Level 5)
4:30, Meet Germany (Networking Village, Level 01, Aisle 11)
*5,  Y Factor, Music Wins on YouTube cocktails (Press Room 1, Lvl3)
5, A2IM Cocktails (Stand R36.18)
5, Mack Ave Label Presentation (Aud D, Level 3)
6, Sonicbids Showcase – Black Swan Effect.. (Carlton, Zephyr)
6:30, Austrian Music Box (Martinez, Acajou)
7, Duo Zikr Voice Message Concert (3.14 Beach)
7:45, MIDEM Classical Awards (Debussy, Level 1)
8, The Fringe – Canadian Blast (Morrison’s Irish Pub)
9, K-Pop Night (Martinez, Acajou)
*9, DJ Hero Party (Martinez, Ballroom)
10, Talent Jazz (Carlton, Zephyr)
11, MIDEM Jazz Club (Majestic, Salon Diane-Jazz Club)

Wednesday, January 27
*10, Timothy Riley, Activision (Blue Lounge, Level 1)
10, Digital Music Ecosystem (Academy, Hall 01)
10, Digital Visions from Indies – Roadrunner Records, Essential Music.. (Aud K, Level 4)
11, IAEL with Sony Ericsson.. (Academy, Hall 01)
11, Breaking the Japanese Market – JVC…(Aud K, Level 4)
11, Scandinavian MMFs (Managers’ Village, Hall 01)
12, Marketing, Measuring, Managing Data – Topspin (Academy, Hall 01)
2:30, Digital Communities in Classical Music – John Kieser, SF Symphony (Academy, Hall 01)
*2:30, DJ Hero Listening Session – get your song mashed up in the next DJ Hero (Aud K, Level 4)
3, IMZ Screenings (Aud A, Level 3)


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Fancy Food Show/The Content Story

19Jan10

It took a thundering downpour and the threat of hail for me to drop in on the final moments of the SF Fancy Food Show, after all I’m on a diet, but it occured to me that these small specialty food companies might have a content story worth telling. Turns out – yes and no. A quick survey of the floor had Purity as the most progressive with two viral videos up on their YouTube channel at www.YouTube.com/purity. They traded me a bottle of Cranberry Harmony for the link to the Roku SDK (www.Roku.com/developer). Acme was beaming about being featured on Martha Stewart and Color-A-Cookie was really happy with it’s recent coverage by Food Network. They gave me a SpongeBob Gingerbread Pineapple Kit and an Iron Man 2 Color-A-Cookie. I’ll post those twitpics later. As a matter of fact I didnt even have a chance to ask Ford’s Gourmet Foods about their digital marketing strategy before they handed me tins of their delicious A Lese Tois Chocolate Blueberry Pecan Brittle (raspberry too). By now, I was stuffed, Clover and Ghiradelli were gone, and Knott’s, now owned by Smuckers, told me to check back in a year or two. Clearly, I was not going to break any story on branded entertainment initiatives at this show. As I was exiting I took the popchips tossed my way but was proud that I declined Eleni’s tempting cookies from the Golden Globes gifting suite. Although all the vendors I spoke with reported a bustling show with orders and press coverage, there were simply too many cookies and not enough content to bellyache about in this post.


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#CES/Schwagless, Schmoozing, Steve Wonder

09Jan10

As the sun went down, it was schmooze-o-rama at Digital Media Insider. I felt like Snazzy Sheridan, ETA Spazzy’s sister, tweeting live the mixer. Got Twit Pics of Avner and Illeana, Dominik and Wilson, Rob and Warren. The panels were great too as the jam packed concise wisdom of Tim Chang came out faster than any of us could tweet and interesting insights were shared by Game Stop, IBM, OWN, Oxygen, and others. There were some grumblings about the fragmentation of OTT devices, and I put IMHO that NATPE should host the CAC content track next year. Had a great time winding my way out of the Venetian with the guys from Social Game Universe, and then it was time for Monster’s John Legend concert which went on for 90 minutes before Stevie Wonder took the stage ina huge surprise. The whole evening was monstrously delicious! Tomorrow I’ll be on the floor searching for best of schwag, but not expecting anything, there’s simply no toys, no nothing this year. At 12pm Sony has a 3D MJ tribute in their theatre, Revision3 is speaking before, and Kodak has stuff happening round the clock on South Hall (www.kzonelive.com) Watch for Tommy Lee on the floor at 4. Then it’s back to SF for Wharton and getting ready for NATPE.


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