Click on the Video Below and Sample a Session from a previous Digital Hollywood event. For Additional Video Sessions, Click Here Digital Hollywood Tuesday, October 30th 2:15 PM – 3:30 PM Track II: Movies, TV and Video for Mobile - Original Entertainment & Information Programming Jumpstarts the Revolution To be present at the start of a new creative industry is to be a member of a graduate class of a great and fantastic new university. While the unknowns in the mobile TV & video universe may not be as daunting and experimental as was the first generation of TV in the 1950s, the challenge of creating and producing for mobile TV and video is still to be present at the beginning of a new frontier. As hundreds of millions of consumers worldwide begin tuning into a Mobile video universe, the task of reaching them with new ideas, new creative forms, new services – some that will be rewarded with millions of viewers and dollars and some that will fail – will make for one of the greatest and challenging experiences of our lives. Mobile TV, video and film programming will be at the heart of a transforming communications world and we welcome you to being at the start of a new medium. Bernard Gershon, Senior Vice President/General Manager, ABC News Digital Media Group Maureen Fitzpatrick, VP Mobile Development, FremantleMedia Tammy Franklin, Vice President of Business Development, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.) Matthew Feldman, President and CEO, Versaly Entertainment Marie Jacobson, Executive Vice President, Programming and Production, International Networks, Sony Pictures Television International Ralph Simon, Chairman Emeritus & Founder, Mobile Entertainment Forum – Americas, Moderator Maureen FitzPatrick, VP, Mobile Development, FremantleMedia: As someone with a lifelong love of comedy, Maureen was thrilled with the opportunity to launch the Atomic Wedgie channel for the mobile market. Having grown up as the youngest of eight children, Maureen knows something about comedy, and has had firsthand experience with wedgies. Before joining Fremantle, she managed a wide variety of television, theater, and live performance productions, all of which share the common element of humor. Recent projects include producing talk show, late night, and game show series for GSN, Fox Television Studios, King World and Buena Vista, and consulting for the WE Network and the Ellen DeGeneres Show. Previous credits include Whose Line is it Anyway?, The Gong Show, Alright Already, $100,000 Pyramid, and Donny & Marie. Maureen has produced pilots with Bill Maher, Carol Leifer, John Henson, Bob Saget, and Chicago’s Second City. Before moving into television full-time, she served as executive producer of the award-winning Illegitimate Players theater company in Chicago. Maureen lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Doug, who writes flatulence jokes for a living. Bernard Gershon, Senior Vice President/General Manager, ABC News Digital Media Group: Senior Vice President/General Manager, ABC News Digital Media Group: Bernard Gershon is senior vice president and general manager of the ABC News Digital Media Group. In this role, he is responsible for developing revenue opportunities and distributing ABC News content to all digital media platforms including broadband, wireless, cable, IPTV and VOD. Most recently, Mr. Gershon has been instrumental in delivering ABC News content and the 24-hour news channel, ABC News Now, to new digital platforms including digital cable, broadband, VOD and wireless, and on devices like the the Sony Playstation Portable© and Apple’s iPod©. In March 2003 he created ABC News Live, the Web’s first 24/7 streaming news network, and in July 2004, Peter Jennings re-launched the channel as ABC News Now with the start of his gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Democratic convention. Today, ABC News Now is available on digital cable as part of Verizon’s FiOS expanded basic package, and to over 35 million Internet homes through ABC News On Demand and AOL, in addition to Comcast.net, SBC Yahoo! DSL, Bell South DSL and Verizon FiOS customers. In 2002, Mr. Gershon introduced ABCNEWS.com’s first standalone subscription service, “ABC News On Demand,” which offers the latest ABC News video content from programs like “Good Morning America,” “World News Tonight” and “Nightline.” Mr. Gershon joined ABCNEWS.com in 1999 as vice president and general manager. Under his leadership, ABCNEWS.com 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. 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. Mr. Gershon started the first regularly scheduled online web cast with ABC News’ Sam Donaldson, and expanded that offering with the Internet-only web cast, "Political Points,” co-produced with the New York Times. He also oversaw the creation and development of the Internet-exclusive investigative series, "Internet Exposé," hosted by ABC News' Chris Wallace. Mr. Gershon was named #9 on Streaming Media Magazine’s Top 50 Most Influential figures in streaming media in 2003. Previously, Mr. Gershon was vice president of ABC News Radio, responsible for all information programming produced for the ABC Radio Networks’ 140 million weekly listeners. During his tenure, the ABC News Radio staff received the RTNDA’s Edward R. Murrow award for Overall Excellence for four consecutive years. Before joining ABC News in 1993, Mr. Gershon was associate director, news and programming for WCBS NewsRadio 88. He also served as news director of WOR Radio, New York. Matthew Feldman, co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer, founded Versaly in 2000. Mr. Feldman helped launch Paramount into the mobile entertainment world with Star Trek and Endemol USA with Fear Factor. Continuing as an industry leader, Versaly ignited the mastertone remix market with Sir Mix-A-Lot's Baby Got Back Remix hitting Gold in its first 6 weeks. Mr. Feldman is leading Versaly through its current industry-leading focus with Vmbc.tv (Versaly Mobile Broadcasting Company), a mobile video operator that currently operates 6 mobile video-on-demand channels in the USA, including Vmbc.tv's flagship channel, Fast Lane, that is streaming over 1 million files per month to mobile handsets. In addition to his corporate duties, Mr. Feldman works directly with Versaly's major brand partners. Prior to Versaly Entertainment, he previously founded, managed and successfully sold two companies to publicly-traded companies. Feldman holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University and a M.S. in Computer Science from Stevens Institute of Technology. Marie Jacobson, Executive Vice President, Programming and Production, International Networks, Sony Pictures Television International: Marie Jacobson serves as Sony Pictures Television International’s (SPTI) executive vice president, programming and production, international networks. Based at SPTI’s headquarters in Culver City, California, Jacobson is charged with the overall program strategy of all Sony owned and majority-owned channel investments. She oversees program and format acquisitions, original series production, program development and all program planning for the international networks group. She is responsible for delivering launch strategies for all new network ventures as they pertain to programming as well as sourcing the highest-caliber Sony and third-party programming on offer for the benefit of SPTI’s international networks. Jacobson also has oversight of digital programming for SPTI. This includes the management of mobile and digital program development and production, mobile games and the strategic planning and implementation of SPTI’s mobile networks. Jacobson also oversaw the acquisition and deployment of Afterworld, SPTI’s first multi-platform content initiative spanning TV, web, wireless and gaming. Besides being responsible for acquiring the rights to many scripted series from both SPTI and other studios for broadcast on SPTI’s international networks, Jacobson has led the team responsible for acquiring rights to produce local-language versions of third party formats such as The Amazing Race (AXN Asia), Big Brother (SET India), Pop Idol (SET India and SET Latin America), Yo Soy Betty, La Fea (SET India) and Dancing With The Stars (SET India). Jacobson previously served as senior vice president, programming and production, international networks, since 2003. Prior to that she was senior vice president, programming, international networks, since 2000. Prior to joining SPTI, Jacobson served as chief executive of TV1, the FOXTEL – AUSTAR Pay-TV channel partnership of Sony, Universal and CBS Paramount in Australia. She assumed the CEO position after serving as the channel’s head of programming and acquisitions. Before TV1, Jacobson served as director, programming and special projects for Comedy Central in New York. She joined Comedy Central as manager, program planning and scheduling. Jacobson also held positions at Columbia TriStar Television Distribution (now Sony Pictures Television) in Los Angeles, including manager, sales administration, and analyst, television research. Jacobson’s career began as a television research associate for Paramount Domestic Television in Los Angeles. Ralph Simon, Chairman, Mobile Entertainment Forum – Americas: 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, the leading advocate for the Mobile Entertainment industry and principal global trade association established to represent the commercial interests of content, application and service providers, and telco operators. Prior to his involvement in the global mobile entertainment and content business, where he has taken a leading role since its inception, he had a distinguished career in music, music publishing and mobile technology industries. Mr. Simon has proven expertise in strategic company development, content & copyright usage, mobile rights architecture, super-distribution, mobile platforms, copyright usage and mobile business development. He is in a unique position of being able to apply vast knowledge and experience to a nascent industry that is daily expanding existing business paradigms and creating new frontiers. Currently, he advises prominent companies, entertainment properties and artists (including U2) in the US and internationally, on ways to maximize and develop their mobile businesses and create opportunities globally. Last year, he conceived the mobile strategy and organized the mobile messaging layer for the Live 8 world concert event that took place during 11 hours and across 10 cities on July 2, 2005. Over 3bn people attended or watched/listened to the global television, radio and cyber-simulcast that integrated interactive mobile messaging as part of its own content. The overwhelming mobile response from live audiences and distance participants established the validity of cross-platform mobile strategies, which contributed heavily toward convincing the G8 governments to commit $50bn to reduce global poverty. In December 2005, he was named as one of the world’s Top 50 Mobile Executives by the influential Mobile Entertainment Magazine, alongside thought-leaders from companies as diverse as Apple, Nokia, Google, China Mobile, Cingular, Verizon and News Corporation. In 1998, he co-founded and funded the USA & UK’s first ring tone company, Yourmobile/Moviso (today known as Infospace Mobile – the US market leader in mobile aggregation). Before starting the mobile entertainment revolution, he co-founded the Zomba Group and Jive Records – which grew to become the world’s most successful independent record and music publishing company. In the mid-1990s as Executive Vice President of Capitol Records and Blue Note Records, , EMI’s New Media business. Ralph Simon is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in the UK and a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences in the USA. He maintains offices in Los Angeles, London and Berlin.