9:00 AM - 10:15 AM
Track A:
Transforming Television: From Reality TV, HDTV and Interactive TV, to PVR TV and VOD TV
While the television industry – from content producer to content deliverer - continues to serve as a punching bag for the media critics - with such success stories as Reality TV - consumer support for the future of TV as a whole appears to be more than secure. The future of TV may well be typified by an increasingly personalized experience for the consumer, in both on-screen content as well as the delivery system and display. As on-demand and interactive television continues to emerge, the viewing experience will be nearly unrecognizable. Along with the home theater, as plasma HDTVs move into the home, the viewing experience will feel more like a screening room – better, or certainly more comfortable than most cinemas. Content will be controlled at will, coming from cable, satellite, telco, wireless and broadband sources. Programmers as well as advertisers will have a much more personalized relationship with the consumer. The future of television, we will continue to probe the question of how the new technologies in the home, from DTV, VOD, PRV to broadband and home networks will change the nature of TV – from content, technology developed for the home as well as consumer’s relationship to the new choices. Major change is now in process. What will the TV experience look like in two years, in five years. In this session we will try to find out.
Frederic V. Bien, SVP Advanced Media Technology, Turner Broadcasting System
Larry Namer, President & CEO, Reality Central
Matt Cohen, VP Strategy and Business Development, TVN
David Ernst, Executive Vice President, Director, Futures & Technologies, Initiative
Edward Lichty, Vice President, Business Development, Tivo
Richard Sherrill, Playground Media Group
Luis Ubinas, Director, West Coast, McKinsey & Co, Moderator
Frederic Bien is senior vice president of advanced media technology for Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.) since November 2003. Bien is ch
arged with leading the digital transition strategy for the company's cable TV networks and the integration of new technologies such as digital video recorders, video-on-demand, broadband video, HDTV and advertising localization, and interactivity. In addition, he is a founding member and current chairman of the Time Warner Media Asset Management Committee, which develops strategy and architecture and fosters creative alliances across the Time Warner portfolio of networks and businesses. Previously, Bien was senior vice president of media technology for Turner Entertainment Networks. In this capacity, he oversaw long-range technology planning and technology capital budgeting for TBS Superstation, TNT, Turner Classic Movies, Cartoon Network and Boomerang, as well as the NASCAR.com and PGA.com businesses of Turner Sports, Inc. He is based in Atlanta. Bien joined Turner Broadcasting in January 2001, from the online movie store BigStar Entertainment, where he was vice president of communities and marketing technology and later chief technology officer. Previously, Bien founded the company which produces and markets one of the very first online dating and relationship web site: Flirt.com. Bien managed the technology and business development teams that forged partnerships with Elle.com and Roadrunner, among others. When Flirt.com was acquired by Playboy Enterprises Inc. in 1999, Bien joined that company as vice president of business development. From 1993 to 1997, Bien was CEO of Bien Logic Inc., an Internet software company he founded, and whose clients included Netscape, Oracle, Wal-Mart, Xerox, Hewlett-Packard and the Smithsonian Institute. Bien Logic was the largest Web design agency in San Diego and Orange County, California when it was sold to SiteLab International in 1997. The software product line of Bien Logic - web traffic analyzers SurfReport and ProxyReport - was sold to Netrics, also in 1997. From 1986 to 1996, Bien was an assistant professor at Princeton University, then a tenured associate professor of mathematics at the University of California at San Diego. He has published a book: D-Modules and Spherical Representations, and 13 papers in international mathematical journals; has been honored with the President's Award for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton University; was named Presidential Young Investigator by the National Science Foundation; and was awarded two Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowships. Bien earned undergraduate degrees in mathematics and education at the University of Brussels, Belgium and a doctorate in mathematics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Larry Namer, President & CEO of Reality Central: Larry Namer is a n
oted cable television industry veteran with over 28 years of professional experience. Over the years, he has founded and developed several very successful entertainment companies, including E! Entertainment Television Inc., Movies USA Magazine, and Comspan Communications. As President and CEO, Mr. Namer guided E! Entertainment Television as it expanded to include 11 international markets and a successful radio show, syndicated in over 110 markets. His interest in E! was eventually sought after and purchased by Home Box Office. Mr. Namer began his career in 1971 at Time Incorporated Manhattan Cable where he ultimately became Director of Corporate Development. After leaving Time Inc., he moved to Los Angeles and established Valley Cable Television (VCTV), the nation's first 61-channel two-way cable system. VCTV's accolades included being recognized by Forbes Magazine as the national model for local cable television programming. In 1989, he founded Comspan Communications Inc (CCI), one of Hollywood's foremost strategic planning and consulting firms for the cable television and new media industries. For ten years, CCI has developed the business plans and models for many new niche and enhanced cable television networks. Comspan Communications, Inc. remains one of the industry's premier independent TV network development companies. Mr. Namer's CCI was also the primary consultant to Microsoft's innovative, interactive television project, MiTV. Under Mr. Namer's leadership, CCI continues to explore and develop the interactive television field and has been involved in co-ventures with some of North America's most prominent entertainment companies, including Big Ticket Entertainment, Pacific Motion Pictures and Web TV Networks.David Ernst, Executive Vice President, Director, Futures & Technologie
s, Initiative: In his role as Executive Vice President, Director of Futures & Technologies, David leads the company’s research team in the development and deployment of proprietary research initiatives, providing clients with a distinct advantage in today’s dynamic media environment. David has a broad range of experience that he uses to develop consumer insight and identify the greatest media value that can be leveraged in the media process across all media forms. Prior to his promotion in spring of 2003, David held the position of senior vice president, director of Initiative Solutions, in which he developed research applications, policies and priorities for Initiative clients. David joined Initiative in August 2001 when True North Media merged with Initiative. Throughout his 20-year career, David has developed several methods of consumer-driven brand-building approaches for media planning and buying. Prior to joining True North Media in 1997, he was Senior Vice President, Associate Director of research and strategic media insights at Young & Rubicam (Y&R). He began his career in 1980 in local market television and radio, where he held various sales, programming and management positions at WBFO-FM, WUWU-FM and WIXT-TV. David also has extensive experience in the development of media and marketing models for budget determination and allocation, advertising productivity measures, and optimizing media investments. He has published a number of papers, participated in leading industry panels and also serves on several committees at the Advertising Research Foundation, Media Ratings Council, AMRC and the Interactive Television Association. In 2002, David co-authored a groundbreaking paper on understanding interaction and consumer media value that was delivered at the opening session of the prestigious ESOMAR (World Association of Opinion and Market Research) conference in Cannes, France. David initiated and directs Initiative’s exclusive research partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) School of Comparative Media Studies, which has resulted in breakthrough research on a number of key industry issues, including consumer behavior interactivity and media convergence. In his spare time, David enjoys skiing and biking. He resides in Norwalk, Connecticut with his wife and two children.Tim Hanlon is Senior Vice President/Director, Emerging Contacts for
Starcom MediaVest Group, a global media services network of Publicis Groupe, S.A. He is chiefly responsible for all US client activity and agency initiatives in the field of emerging media technologies, including the firm’s ground-breaking TV 2.0 Practice, centered around evolutionary television platforms such as interactive/enhanced television, video-on-demand, personal video recording, interactive program guide navigation, addressable advertising, and digital broadcasting/datacasting. Hanlon has over a decade of traditional and interactive agency media experience including roles as Vice President/Director, Strategy & Business Development for the Digital Marketing Group of Chicago-based marketing services agency Frankel, and Director of Interactive Media at Creative Alliance in Louisville, KY, USA. He also served as Advertising Media Manager for the in-house agency of credit card issuer MBNA America in Wilmington, DE, USA. Hanlon also has wide-ranging journalism experience, including production and writing stints at CBS News, Sports Illustrated and the Voice of America. Among numerous advertising and television industry activities, Hanlon currently serves as Chairman of the American Association of Advertising Agencies’s (AAAAs) Advanced Television Committee, as a member of the Steering Committee of the Innovation in Digital Advertising (IDiA) consortium, and as a member of the New York Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS). Hanlon holds a BA from Georgetown University, an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and an MA from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. Starcom’s "TV 2.0" (TM) Practice Technology is fundamentally changing the very nature of traditional media messaging, allowing conventional communications vehicles – like television – become more relevant, compelling and measurable. Similarly, the proliferation of increasingly smarter devices is creating a wide array of new consumer-controlled environments that go beyond the traditional boundaries of impression-oriented mass media. The advent of technologies like personal video recording, enhanced television, interactive guide navigation, video-on-demand, digital broadcasting/multi-casting/datacasting, and addressability are all poised to introduce rich consumer data into the traditional mix of TV planning and buying, while transforming the very tenets of advertising and marketing via the medium in the process. Starcom’s "TV 2.0" (SM) Practice is passionately focused on staying ahead of television’s evolutionary curve while helping clients both to understand this important transformation and to prepare to successfully capitalize on it. In the last three years, the practice has helped clients such as Walt Disney Attractions, Best Buy, Nintendo, Discover Card, Kellogg, Miller Brewing, the US Army, Allstate, Kraft Foods, and Kohler navigate the changing television landscape to their competitive advantage. About Starcom MediaVest Group Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG), a subsidiary of Paris-based Publicis Groupe, ranks among the world's largest media and contact specialist organizations. With a global staff of more than 3,500 contact architects, SMG's network of 110 offices fuels brand-building results for many of the world's leading companies.Edward Lichty, VP, Business Development, Tivo: Edward is responsible for
developing and managing key strategic partnerships, for TiVo. He has been with TiVo since 1998 and has helped build, relationships with DIRECTV, Sony, AOL and AT&T Broadband, among others. Prior to joining TiVo, Edward was a member of the finance team at, International Wireless Communications, a wireless service provider with, operating companies in Latin America and Asia. There he helped craft the, company's business model and helped coordinate the company's fund raising., Edward began his career in the investment banking group at Stephens Inc., a, privately-held firm located in Little Rock, AR., where he worked on a, variety of M&A transactions and private equity investments for the Stephens, family. Edward received a B.A. in American Studies from Yale University and holds an, M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.Luis Ubiñas is a Director in McKinsey & Company’s West Coast Media,
Entertainment and Technology Practice, dividing his time between offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles and also overseeing the practice in Seattle and Denver. Since joining the Firm in 1989, he has focused on serving media, communications and technology companies undergoing major change –entering or exiting businesses or redesigning core processes. Luis has extensive experience in the telecommunications and cable industries: helping build consumer high-speed data businesses; introducing advanced digital set-top boxes and services; and, now, helping design the early VOIP trials. In cable operations, he has worked with MSOs across a broad range of activities, including channel line-up standardization, rebuild prioritization, and purchasing. Luis’ work for other media companies has been operations-focused, helping several newspapers improve circulation and advertising sales and working with content companies to improve international distribution and developing digital distribution strategies. For technology companies, Luis has worked with early entrants in the home networking, digital set-top box manufacturers and other hardware providers. In addition, he has served a large number of technology start-ups as part of his work with venture capital firms. Before joining McKinsey, Luis worked at Booz, Allen & Hamilton, concentrating on marketing and strategy assignments. He also worked briefly as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and as assistant to the CEO of the Honduran beer and soft drink (Coca-Cola) monopoly. Luis has an A.B. in government, magna cum laude, from Harvard College, and an M.B.A. (Baker scholar) from Harvard Business School. He currently serves on the Boards of the Digital Coast Roundtable in Los Angeles and the SteppingStone Foundation in Boston.