Kimmel Move May Seal Fate of ‘Nightline’

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Monday, August 27, 2012

Kimmel Move May Seal Fate of ‘Nightline’

By BILL CARTER

Jimmy Kimmel’s ascent to the main stage of late-night television — the hour directly after the 11 p.m. local news — was greeted last week with widespread congratulations for a performer who had paid his dues and for a network willing to shake up the late-night status quo and bet on a comedic challenger to David Letterman and Jay Leno.

But there was little outcry over the corresponding demotion of “Nightline,” the 32-year-old institution of ABC News that is being relegated to the 12:35 a.m. slot to make room for “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” nor any public denunciations from the hierarchy of ABC News.

Instead, the network’s appraisal that it simply can make more money with Mr. Kimmel — the president of the Disney/ABC Television Group, Anne Sweeney, evaluated the move in terms of an advantage in advertising sales — was accepted as both reasonable and sensible.

Several longtime late-night producers praised Mr. Kimmel’s talents, predicting he would find success, even competing against the entrenched titans of that hour, Mr. Letterman on CBS and Mr. Leno on NBC.

Lloyd Braun, a former ABC entertainment chief who selected Mr. Kimmel for the network 10 years ago, said: “Jimmy is young. He could have 10 or 20 years in late night — and he’s a brand. We’re going to live in a world where brands are going to mean everything.”

Tom Bettag, the longtime “Nightline” executive producer who now works with the former “Nightline” anchor Ted Koppel on “Rock Center” on NBC, expressed deep regret that his old show was being elbowed out of its perennial spot.

But, he said, “it had lost some of that indispensable quality” it had when first conceived by former ABC News president, Roone Arledge.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

Political Conventions Can Learn From Reality Shows - Media Equation Joe

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Monday, August 27, 2012

Political Conventions Can Learn From Reality Shows - Media Equation

By DAVID CARR

If the political conventions were managed like a typical television show that was losing audience, think of the meetings that would be held during the run-up.

TV Boss: “The cast is uninspired, the plots are unbearably boring and if I see one more man-on-the-street interview with someone covered in buttons wearing a funny hat, I’m going to snap.”

The tribal rituals of conventions — “Mr. Chairman, the people of the great state of Iowa, home of the finest hybrid seed corn ... ” — have their charms, but don’t seem relevant given that we’ve already been immersed like so many tea bags in a permanent presidential campaign through dozens of debates and thousands of dispatches on the Web and on cable television.

Both parties know they have a problem on their hands — they are making a television show that networks are reluctant to broadcast and viewers are reluctant to watch — and they have responded in different ways. The Democrats have gone leaner, cutting the number of days from four to three, and for a second consecutive cycle are leaving the convention hall for the final day by moving the president’s speech to a stadium.

Meanwhile, the Republicans are shining up the programming side of the equation for an event that was scheduled to start on Monday, but has been pruned by a day by Mother Nature and Tropical Storm Isaac. The G.O.P. has built a richly appointed $2.5 million stage and hired a former news producer from NBC to make sure things proceed in a television-friendly fashion.

But everyone knows that what is under way is not a news event so much as reality television. The conventions feature all the preening of the Westminster Dog Show, but none of the drama or actual competition. No matter how shiny the production, it will not satisfy a growing public need for verisimilitude and authenticity.

“A big part of the pleasure of reality TV, the bulk of television programming these days, is in the teasing out of what is real and what is not,” said Susan Murray, a professor of media, culture and communications at New York University. “Live political debates can give us these real moments, but the conventions do not. They’re so tightly scripted and rehearsed that there is little room for that kind of pleasure for a viewer.”

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

Huffington Post Begins an Online TV Channel

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Huffington Post Begins an Online TV Channel

By BRIAN STELTER

The Huffington Post on Monday began what it hopes will be a never-ending news talk show on the Internet, HuffPost Live.

The online channel is one of the most ambitious attempts yet to rethink what television should look and feel like when streamed over the Internet. Accordingly, a chat box took up the same amount of space as the live video, and a bright red button labeled "join this segment" let viewers sign up to participate through their own webcams.

The segments themselves, at least initially, did not stray much from a TV script. The first hour, from 10 to 11 a.m. Eastern time, was dominated by talk about the presidential race and about the actress Jennifer Aniston's engagement to the actor Justin Theroux. But the people talking were a mixture of paid hosts and unpaid viewers at home. "Continue commenting!" a host encouraged chatters at the end of the first hour. "We love it, love it, love it."

The channel will have 12 hours of programming on weekdays, and the effort reflects a serious push within the media industry to produce the kind of online video advertisers are requesting. Cadillac and Verizon are the two advertisers The Huffington Post calls "founding partners" of the network.

"Now that almost everyone in the country is watching online video, it just makes sense that some people would want live programming, too," said Mike Vorhaus, a digital media analyst who heads Magid Advisors. "Of course, with the Web, it will be recorded and replayed forever."

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

MundoFox, New Spanish-Language Network, to Make Debut

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Monday, August 13, 2012

MundoFox, New Spanish-Language Network, to Make Debut

By TANZINA VEGA

LOS ANGELES — The correspondents were on camera and on location in Mexico City, Washington and Los Angeles. Rolando Nichols, the lead anchor, listened intently to the microphone in his ear as he stood in front of the bright red walls of the news studio.

But the news would have to wait: engineers and producers in the control room were having trouble with the sound coming from one of the microphones.

Fortunately, this was not a live news broadcast. It was a test run for MundoFox, the newest Spanish-language network in the United States.

On Monday, the network — a partnership between Fox International Channels, owned by the News Corporation, and RCN Television in Colombia — will make its official debut in 50 cities in the United States, including Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami and New York.

MundoFox will be entering a market long dominated by Univision and the smaller Telemundo as it tries to gain the attention of the millions of Latinos in the United States who watch Spanish-language programming. The effort is estimated to cost $50 million.

By the end of the year, network executives say they expect to be in 60 cities, reaching nearly 80 percent of Latino audiences in the United States. It is the first time RCN will be part owner of a broadcast network in the United States.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

Multimedios Television Chooses Cisco PowerVu Solution & Videoscape TV

PRESS RELEASE

Multimedios Televisión Chooses Cisco PowerVu Solution and Videoscape TV Technology to Expand Channel Distribution

The television division of Grupo Multimedios is at the forefront of video distribution, improving efficiency, security and the quality of transmitted signals

Monterrey, Mexico, 21 March, 2012 — Multimedios Televisión has started satellite transmissions to national and international customers using the IP-centric Cisco® PowerVu® video processing and distribution technology, along with the Cisco Digital Content Manager (DCM), a key component of the Cisco Videoscape^™ TV service delivery platform.

The signal of Multimedios Televisión, Milenio Televisión, Teleritmo, Multimedios USA and Multimedios HD, transmitted to different paid television operators in Mexico and the United States, is based on MPEG4 DVB-S2 capabilities, which will allow a more efficient use of the satellite broadband. As a result, more channels can be distributed to customers.  In addition, services can be controlled for each paid television system and new services, like digital advertising, among others, can be offered.

The Cisco PowerVu architecture is based on the Internet Protocol (IP), which provides more efficiency in signal processing when converting and encapsulating IP Communications, and enables Multimedios Televisión to take advantage of proven redundancy and high-availability schemes. The distribution component is designed with a focus on security requirements and the administration of satellite ground terminals.

The PowerVu system has a codification system based on the next-generation Cisco Modular Encoding Platform D9036.

About PowerVu

• The multiplexing architecture system is based on the Cisco DCM Series D9900 Digital Content Manager, an integral piece of the Cisco Videoscape TV services delivery platform, which applies redundancy and processing schemes to the signals generated by the Cisco D9036 Modular Encoding Platform. The high capacity of the DCM will enable new functionalities in the audio and video systems. Furthermore, PowerVu has monitoring and control systems based on the ROSA EM and ROSA NMS platforms, which allow the implementation of redundant automatic schemes monitoring each of the elements of the platform and the service.

• The PowerVu control and conditional access system is designed so that only authorized customers can decrypt the signal and distribute it via their television system. The customer database and integrated receiver/decoders allow Multimedios to manage each one of them properly. 

• The satellite receptors, or integrated receiver/decoders, contemplated as part of the solution cover the needs of all the multiservice operators. The PowerVu Model D9858 Advanced Receiver Transcoder allows the transcoding of signals from MPEG4 to MPEG2 to facilitate the current cable systems, which are based on MPEG2. The flexibility of the D9858 allows the signals to be converted from HD into SD and from MPEG4 to MPEG2.

Supporting Quotes

"The solution supplied by Cisco allows us to use the maximum broadband in the satellite and to have eight signals, two of them in HD, where we had only four SD signals before," said Guillermo Franco, general director, Multimedios Televisión.

"Multimedios subscribers will have multiple benefits, such as three levels of sophisticated internal security based on a series of hierarchical encryption designed to withstand failure or a security breach. The PowerVu conditional access system is a proven platform for more than 20 years, and is implemented currently in more than 175 countries," said Rogelio Velasco, general director, Cisco Mexico.

Younger Shoppers Using Technology

Excerpt from an article in

The New York Times

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Younger Shoppers Using Technology, Not Salespeople

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

When Nadia Karim goes shopping, she doesn’t wait around for salespeople. She saves items from apps and Web sites on her cellphone as a shopping list. And as she browses one store — recently trying on Sam Edelman flats at Nordstrom — she uses the phone to check out styles at competitors like Macy’s.

“In all honesty, because I shop so much, I feel sometimes I know the brands better than some of the associates,” said Ms. Karim, 26, an analyst at Intel in Phoenix.

For a generation of shoppers raised on Google and e-commerce, the answer to “Can I help you?” is increasingly a firm “no,” even at retailers like Nordstrom that have built their reputations around customer service.

But instead of getting defensive, some stores and brands are embracing the change by creating new personal touches that feature gadgets rather than a doting sales staff. Bobbi Brown has touch-screen televisions to demonstrate the perfect smoky eye, something that was once the exclusive domain of makeup artists. The basketball star LeBron James’s shoe store in Miami has 50 iPads to describe its merchandise. Macy’s is testing cosmetics stations where tablets offer reviews and tips. And at C. Wonder, shoppers use a touchpad to personalize the lighting and music in dressing rooms (there is also a button in case, olden-days style, they need to call for help).

The self-service theme, which started years ago with checkout at groceries, has progressed to the point where shoppers can navigate entire stores without once having to say, “Just looking, thanks.”

Companies are adding the technology now because it has gotten cheap enough to make it feasible and because Apple and other tablet and touch-screen makers are increasing their sales efforts. Stores also don’t want to risk losing those customers who are not content shopping from home but nonetheless prefer Pinterest recommendations, Zappos reviews and Fashism feedback to interacting with someone behind the counter.

Video Content 'At the Beginning of the Future'

Excerpt from an article in The New York Times
Friday, February 17, 2012

Video Content at ‘the Beginning of the Future’ 

By STUART ELLIOTT

THE nascent state of the business of providing consumers video content — whether on television or on so-called second screens like computers, smartphones and tablets — is not unlike the nascent state of the television business six decades ago, when this newspaper ran an article carrying the headline “Coast-to-Coast TV Appears Certain.”

That was the message offered by speakers on Thursday in New York at the 2012 TV and Everything Video Forum presented by the Association of National Advertisers. The conference was sponsored by Google, whose YouTube division is a reason the video-content business is offering marketers opportunities amid the struggle of adapting to the most significant shift in media habits since, well, the dawn of television.

“It’s a head-spinning time to be in video,” said one speaker, Justin Evans, senior vice president for emerging media at Collective, an online advertising network. “I guess that’s what it feels like when you’re at the beginning of the future.”

Another speaker, Mike Proulx, agreed.

“It is early days,” said Mr. Proulx, senior vice president and director for digital strategy at Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, whose new book, “Social TV,” explores how social media like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter seem to encourage consumers to watch television shows live so they can share comments and content.