Wednesday, January 4 10:45 AM - Noon Track I - ME2: Mobile Music & Video Make-Over – As Mobile and Entertainment Industry Merge – TV, Music and Movies Who would have suspected that the world of mobile – that cell phone phenomena of a few years ago would emerge as the most powerful force in the entertainment industry, rivaling TV and DVD as the front runner in consumer choice. Mobile as a communications device has now been superceded by mobile as a fully functional entertainment provider, emerging as a primary source of music, sports, music, news and video. And video is now only beginning to take shape, from the mobile device as a video phone player to distributor of video clips, sporting events and TV shows specifically designed for mobile delivery. In this session, we will bring together a group of executives from the TV, music and mobile industry who are on the front line of investment and development in the key mobile and entertainment projects in the world. Video, music and mobile are our future – in this session we will get a glimpse of what that future will look like. Bernard Gershon, Senior Vice President/General Manager, ABC News Digital Media Group Lucy Hood, President, Fox Mobile Entertainment, and Senior Vice President, Content and Marketing for News Corporation Rob Chandhok, Vice President Engineering, QUALCOMM, MediaFLO David Bluhm, Chief Executive Officer, GoTV Networks Ted Cohen, Senior Vice President, D3 – Digital Development & Distribution, EMI Music Ralph Simon, Co-founder Zomba/Jive & Chairman, The Mobilium Group, Los Angeles & Chairman, Mobile Entertainment Forum, Americas, Moderator Lucy Hood is President, Fox Mobile Entertainment, and Senior Vice President, Content and Marketing for News Corporation, one of the world’s largest media companies. She currently oversees wireless strategy and licensing for Fox Entertainment worldwide, structuring partnerships with Vodafone, Cingular, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and Nokia. Hood guides Fox’s creative, digital and marketing councils, and has built international alliances for divisions including 20th Century Fox Film and Fox Television. Lucy Hood has held leadership positions across Fox companies in television channels and distribution, new media, and publishing. Lucy Hood has overseen a number of new media industry firsts, including the successful ATTWS-Fox partnership for American Idol that introduced text messaging widely in the US. Setting an industry record in May, the program generated over 40 million SMS messages. Most recently, Hood invented the program format of video "mobisodes," short-form 3G mobile content, which have rolled out on wireless carriers worldwide in 2005. The Fox Mobile unit has four mobisode series playing, including 24: Conspiracy, based on the hit TV series; The Simple Life, Sunset Hotel and Love and Hate. Hood is a regular keynote speaker at industry conferences, including 3G, Milia, CTIA, Mobile Entertainment, iWireless, Mobile Marketing, Digital Media, NATPE, CTAM and Digital Hollywood. She is a member of the GSM and US CTIA wireless trade association’s advisory boards, as well as a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Lucy Hood is a graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business and Yale University. Rob Chandhok is vice president of engineering and market development. In this role, he is responsible for the technical architecture and development of the MediaFLO System. He also oversees marketing and international business development. Chandhok joined QUALCOMM in 2000 as director of engineering in QUALCOMM’s Eudora Products group, where he was responsible for supporting strategic development for a variety of Eudora products. He then served as senior director of business development for the QUALCOMM Internet Services (QIS) division, followed by his role as vice president of technology for QChat, a push-to-talk VoIP technology for 3G CDMA networks. Before joining QUALCOMM, Chandhok served as president of Within Technology for seven years after founding the company in 1993. He worked as a research computer scientist at the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science for more than 10 years, before leaving to found Within Technology. While at Carnegie Mellon, Chandhok was published in the research areas of programming systems and computer-supported collaborative work. Chandhok holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. Bernard Gershon, Senior Vice President/General Manager, ABC News Digital Media Group: Bernard Gershon is senior vice president/general manager of the ABC News Digital Media Group, responsible for developing revenue opportunities and distributing ABC News content to all digital media platforms. He oversees all business initiatives in the narrowband, broadband, wireless, cable, video-on-demand, home video and international markets. ABCNEWS.com, ABC News Productions, and ABC News Video Source report to him. Mr. Gershon joined ABCNEWS.com in 1999 as vice president and general manager. In the last 5 years he has guided ABC News to a leadership position in the programming, marketing and delivery of streaming media. Under Mr. Gershon’s direction, ABCNEWS.com has marked several important milestones, its first two years of profitability and numerous prestigious awards for online journalism, including the RTNDA Edward R. Murrow award for Overall Excellence. In 2002 Mr. Gershon introduced ABCNEWS.com’s first standalone subscription service, "ABC News On Demand," which offers the latest video news content from ABC News programs including World News Tonight and Nightline, and exclusive interviews from Good Morning America, This Week, and news magazines 20/20 and Primetime Live. Acknowledged within the industry as a pioneer in streaming media, as early as 1995 Mr. Gershon started ABC’s first streaming media Internet site—ABCRadioNet.com. In March 2003 he created ABC News Live, the Web’s first 24/7 streaming news network. "Politics LIVE," a political newscast and the first regularly scheduled programming on ABC News Live, premiered in August 2003. In July 2004 ABC News Live was re-launched as ABC News Now—a groundbreaking service available on digital cable, broadband and wireless. Peter Jennings anchored gavel-to-gavel convention coverage and will contribute to special election night programming. This expanded news channel is available to more than 36 million Internet viewers, including AOL, Comcast.net, SBC Yahoo! DSL, and BellSouth FastAccess subscribers—plus over six million digital cable viewers. David Bluhm, Chief Executive Officer, GoTV Networks: David Bluhm has been at the helm of technology companies for the last 20 years. Bluhm has been involved in more than 20 start-ups that have achieved a combined "high water" equity value of over 36 billion dollars. Prior to joining GoTV, Bluhm was the CEO at WUF Networks, which allowed mobile users to access and stream rich media to their mobile phones. WUF helped pioneer mobile music and was acquired by Yahoo! to power their Yahoo! Music Mobile service. Prior to WUF, Bluhm co-founded MFORMA, serving as President of Americas and Executive Vice President, Corporate Development. Before this, Bluhm was CEO of NearMe where he guided the development and initial licensing of a suite of location technologies used by AT&T Wireless, Sprint PCS and U.S. Cellular to deliver Directory Assistance and other localized information to mobile phone users. Bluhm also founded 2WAY Corporation and served as President and CEO. Additionally, Bluhm has held executive positions at Motorola, Mosaix International, Davox Corporation, Realtor.com, BondHub.com, and Mammoth Micro Productions. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington. Ralph Simon, Chairman, Mobile Entertainment Forum - Americas & President/CEO of The Mobilium Group: Ralph Simon is recognized as one of the founders of the modern mobile music and entertainment business in the USA and Europe. He is chairman of the Mobile Entertainment Forum – Americas, and President & CEO of The Mobilium Group, the leading mobile strategic advisory firm that guides US and international companies, networks and brands to grow revenues and market share from the application of mobile content, mobile entertainment properties and technologies. Simon’s proven expertise on content usage, mobile rights architecture, super-distribution, mobile platforms, copyright usage issues and emerging international mobile trends brings together skills acquired from a distinguished career in the music and music publishing business as well as being at the genesis of the US mobile entertainment and content business in 1998 – when he co-founded and funded the USA’s first ring tone company Yourmobile/Moviso (now America’s current market leader in mobile aggregation, Infospace Mobile). He had previously co-founded the Zomba Group and Jive Records – which became the world’s most successful independent record and music publishing company. In the mid 90’s, he was instrumental in developing Capitol Records’/EMI’s new media business. He currently advises prominent global artists and entertainment companies on all things mobile - including U2. On July 2, 2005, he organized the global mobile layer for the Live 8 world concerts that led the G8 governments to commit $50bn to reduce global poverty. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and member of the National Academy of Recorded Arts & Sciences. He has offices in Los Angeles and London. Ted Cohen, Vice President, Digital Development & Distribution, EMI Music: As Vice President of Digital Development & Distribution for EMI Music, Ted Cohen oversees worldwide digital business development for this "big five" record company, which includes labels such as Capitol, Virgin, Angel/Blue Note, Parlophone and Chrysalis. Under Cohen’s guidance, EMI has led the industry with its initiatives in new technologies and business models such as digital downloads, online music subscriptions, custom compilations, wireless services, high-definition audio and Internet radio. In addition to seeking out, evaluating and executing business opportunities for the company, Cohen serves as both a strategist and key decision-maker for EMI’s global new media and anti-piracy efforts. He has worked to establish company-wide policies, which have allowed EMI’s artists and labels a substantial advantage in the digital music arena. Cohen served previously as the Executive Vice President of Digital Music Network Inc., where he co-founded and served as Chairman of the Webnoize ’98 & ’99 conferences. He currently chairs MidemNet, an international music/technology conference convened in Cannes each year. Cohen also held senior management positions at both Warner Bros. Records and Philips Media. Additionally, Cohen lead two highly successful new media consulting operations, DMN Consulting and Consulting Adults, attracting clients such as Amazon.com, Microsoft, Universal Studios New Media, DreamWorks Records, Liquid Audio, Wherehouse Records/Checkout.com and several other entertainment, computer and new media organizations. A 25-year industry veteran, Cohen serves on the NARAS (Grammy) Los Angeles chapter Board of Governors, the Board of Directors for the Neil Bogart Memorial Fund, Co-chairs the new media arm of the T.J. Martell Foundation, and lends his time and talents to the Grammy In The Schools Program.