4:00 PM - 5:15 PM
Session B:
Is There a Winner in the Digital Revolution? An Entertainment and Technology Industry Roundtable
With the consolidation in the entertainment content space, the failure of many companies and the downsizing of others, we look to experts in the field to help us understand what is actually going on. Is anybody a winner here? The marriage between the entertainment and technology industries has never been a complete success. One side has always been skeptical of the other. The technology industry loves to exist for its own sake and the entertainment industry is ultimately a bottom line industry. Only a computer geek could love his first 128K machine. And from the minute he went to work in the field, it has been a self-sustaining success, building platforms, experimenting and expanding applications. The entertainment industry on the other hand, requires stable platforms and massive markets to monetize its content. And that’s the rub. Entertainment and technology industries are uneasy partners and it is worth discussing.
Brian Bowman, General Manager and Vice President, ABC.com
Nicholas Wodtke, SVP of Interactive Television, Sony Digital Entertainment
Scott H. Ehrlich, Vice President Programming, RealNetworks
Alex St. John, President, CEO and co-Founder, WildTangent
Craig Ullman, Chief Creative Officer, ACTV
David Mandelbrot, GM Entertainment Group, Yahoo!
Tim Swanson, LA Reporter, Variety/eV, Moderator
Brian Bowman, Vice President and General Manager, ABC.com: As vice president and general manager of ABC.com, Brian Bowman is responsible for overseeing all aspects of ABC.com, including editorial, content,design, production and marketing. He supervises teams in both New York and Los Angeles. Previously, Brian was the director of new media for Disney Channel, a job he held since April 1998. In that capacity, he served as the chief architect of Disney/ABC Cable Network's Internet and enhanced programming strategy, and oversaw Zoog Disney - an innovative block of programming that combines the network's on-air and online worlds into a complete entertainment package. During his tenure, DisneyChannel.com's page views increased 1000% and Zoog Disney acquired more than 1,300,000 online registrations. Prior to joining The Walt Disney Company, Brian worked in business development for various companies, including Turner Broadcasting, where he worked from January 1996-March 1997 as director of development, Intervista and Electric Communities. From 1993-95, Brian worked for Metrolight Studios as director of new media. He began his career in 1990 with Wavefront Technologies in Santa Barbara, California as an engineer. Brian has received several awards, including two Monitor Awards for Best Computer Graphics. He is currently a member of the Digital Coast Round Table and has served as an instructor at the UCLA Department of Visual Arts. Brian attended Purdue University and currently resides in Los Angeles.
David Mandelbrot, General Manager, Entertainment, Yahoo! Inc.: As the General Manager and Vice President of Entertainment at Yahoo! Inc., David Mandelbrot is a key force behind strategic agreements and partnerships in Yahoo!’s media and entertainment businesses including movies, television, radio, broadcast, and entertainment, among others. Before Mandelbrot took the reigns of Yahoo!’s media and entertainment relationships, he served as Senior Corporate Counsel for the company, specializing in mergers and acquisitions. Mandelbrot represented Yahoo! in its acquisitions of GeoCities, Broadcast.com, Online Anywhere, Encompass and Innovative Systems Services Group (ISSG). Prior to joining Yahoo!, Mandelbrot worked in as a business development executive and attorney for Electronics For Imaging (EFI), spearheading the company’s investments, acquisitions and strategic partnerships. Additionally, Mandelbrot worked as an attorney for Netscape Communications Corporation and Venture Law Group before joining EFI. Mandelbrot holds a B.A. in business administration from the University of California, Berkeley and a J.D. from Duke University School of Law.
Craig D. Ullman is Keeper of the Magic of ACTV, Inc. Since 1994, he has been responsible for all software research and development initiatives for both eSchool Online and HyperTV Networks, Inc. In addition, he oversees new content development for convergent media. Over the past five years, he has had an active role in designing the direction of the company’s Internet strategy, and internally staffing ACTV, Inc. with the brightest minds in New Media. Mr. Ullman is an inventor of HyperTV, the first product to converge television with the Internet. HyperTV Networks, Inc. created and designed the concept of marrying television, radio, and other forms of audio-visual programming with the Internet. Through the efforts of Mr. Ullman, and the company’s president Bruce J. Crowley, HyperTV Networks, Inc. has become the most experienced company in the field. Projects for channels within the Viacom and Time Warner families allowed HyperTV to become the first to enhance movies, music, pay-per-view and prime time blocks. Currently, HyperTV remains the only company to provide convergence programming on a 24x7 basis. HyperTV's technology complies with and extends the ATVEF specifications, and can be used for the delivery of Internet convergence in both "one-screen" and "two-screen" embodiments and other convergent devices, current or future He was also instrumental in conceptualizing eSchool Online, a Java-based software suite for distributed learning. Currently, the education company is the leading provider of convergent technology and content for the K-12 market. Mr. Ullman originally joined ACTV, Inc. in 1988. He wrote, produced, and directed Individualized Television entertainment programs for the precursor to the company’s One To One TV™, a patented software solution that allows viewers to seamlessly switch among multiple real-time video, audio, and data feeds using a standard digital set-top box and remote control. His efforts were instrumental in the development of an end-to-end solution that allows the viewer to call up a wide variety of additional video features all accessed at the touch of a button. The proprietary software remembers viewer responses to on-screen prompts, enabling the television to "talk back" to an unlimited number of viewers with individually tailored responses. As the software tracks the choices the viewer makes, it can customize the video content for each and every user. Before coming to ACTV, Mr. Ullman was a Vice President of Paladin Productions, Inc., a New York-based production company. Mr. Ullman received a B.A. in English and Political Science from Bucknell University, and a Master of Fine Arts in English from Brown University.
Alex St. John, President, CEO and co-Founder, WildTangent: Named by Ziff-Davis as one of the "Most Influential People in Multimedia," Alex St. John has devoted his career to evangeliz
ing the adoption of multimedia technologies. Prior to co-founding WildTangent, St. John started out at Boston-based Hell Graphics and Harlequin Ltd. in the UK where he developed a postscript interpreter. Shortly thereafter, St. John joined Microsoft as the general manager for Microsoft's multimedia marketing and evangelism group. He was one of the principal creators of Microsoft's DirectX technology, which became the foundation for all Windows multimedia and the source of over 50% of all Windows retail applications in three short years. Before leaving Microsoft in 1997, St. John worked on creating ChromeEffects, a family of multimedia technologies to extend Internet Explorer to support 3D graphics and real-time interactive animation. Perceiving that multimedia technology was not advancing rapidly enough to meet the demands of the Internet, St. John founded WildTangent Inc. to drive the development and adoption of streaming 3D technology. He is a frequent speaker at Multimedia and Internet conferences, and recently passed the torch as a regular columnist for Maximum PC. A book entitled "Renegades of the Empire: How Three Software Warriors Started a Revolution Behind the Walls of Fortress Microsoft," chronicles St. John's antics and the history of the Manhattan Project and how it changed computing.Tim Swanson, LA Reporter, Variety/eV: Tim Swanson is a Los Angeles reporter for Daily Variety and a staff writer for eV, Variety's digital-entertainment magazine. He has moderated panels for eTV World, MB5, Film IT and appeared on CNN. Before coming to Variety, Swanson worked as a freelance journalist, writing for publications such as Premiere Magazine, US Weekly, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Sacramento Bee. Swanson holds a BA from Willamette University and an MA from UC Berkeley.
Scott H. Ehrlich, Vice President Programming, RealNetworks: Scott H. Ehrlich is a senior consultant to Real Networks focused on the development of programming and programming strategy for Real Networks' subscription content service GoldPass. Prior to his work with Real Networks Mr. Ehrlich was Executive Vice-President, General Manager for Rival Networks (publisher of Rivals.com), where he oversaw all aspects of the business including advertising sales, e-commerce, content, business development, marketing, public relations and creative services. Prior to joining Rivals.com, he was the senior vice president and executive producer of News America Digital Publishing (NADP), a division of News America Publishing, Incorporated. In this capacity, Mr. Ehrlich oversaw all editorial, production, technology and product development for News Corporation's content-based digital publishing ventures, including FOX.com, FoxNews.com and FoxSports.com. Mr. Ehrlich has a decade of television management and consulting experience working with other major broadcasting outlets other than Fox, such as NBC Cable, Twentieth Television, Paramount and McGraw-Hill Broadcasting. Scott received his bachelor of arts degree from Kenyon College in Ohio and his masters degree from The Graduate School of Political Management in New York.