NewFronts Are A Rookie Success Story by David Goetzl

Whether the NewFronts will spark a TV-style upfront market isn't clear. But, the first-annual event series has already been a huge success from a marketing perspective. The NewFront brand has been established. It already has meaning. It has drawn the attention of industry executives, the press and even Wall Street. The discussion about how - if -- a NewFront sales marketplace will form is a victory in itself. The worst fate would have been to be mostly ignored. The ad community now knows that starting each April, Hulu, Google/YouTube and others will hold a series of presentations touting their programming ...Read the whole story

  • beverages Trop50 Extends Products -- And 'Girlfriends' Campaign by Karlene Lukovitz

    PepsiCo continues to build on the impressive success of its half-the-calories juices brand, Trop50, with (more) new extensions and new "Girlfriends"-themed TV spots starring "30 Rock"'s Jane Krakowski. ...Read the whole story

  • TV Incentive Social Media Programs Gain Ground by Wayne Friedman

    ACTV8.me -- which has deals with Fox Broadcasting (for "New Girl"), Mark Burnett Productions, Oxygen TV, Virgin Produced -- says early data shows users of the TV apps are interacting an average of 10 times per episode and accepting over two offers per episode. ...Read the whole story

  • Aspire Signs Launch Sponsors by Wayne Friedman

    Aspire, the new cable Comcast cable network which will offer African-American programming under ownership of Earvin "Magic" Johnson, has signed deals with Universal McCann for a number of clients, including Nationwide Insurance and L'Oreal USA brands L'Oreal Paris, Maybelline New York, as well as Garnier and Soft-Sheen Carson. ...Read the whole story

  • Barry Diller Tells Senate: Online Video Same As Trad TV by Wayne Friedman

    New digital video services should be permitted to operate on a level playing field with broadcasters and other traditional programming services, former TV and movie studio executive Barry Diller told a Senate committee. Diller is an investor in Aereo, a new digital video service that delivers over-the-air TV via the Internet. ...Read the whole story

  • With New Video Portal, AOL Puts The 'On' Back In America Online by Ross Fadner

    Sometimes, what's old is new again. AOL, whose robust content syndication strategy has helped distance itself from its aggregator past, is once again touting itself as a portal - this time for all things video. The new hub, dubbed "AOL On," was dubbed Tuesday evening during its portion of the digital "NewFront" to advertisers, agencies and the press in New York City. ...Read the whole story

Confusion By Design -- Or How I Learned To Hate My Program Guide by Mike Bloxham

So counterintuitive is my new MSO interface, it took us as a family 10 days to work out how to record programs and another two weeks before we could find them. ...More

  • Episode 506: I Dream of Janie -- Or, It's Not Over Till The Vodka Bottle Sings by Barbara Lippert

    Things fall apart; the center cannot hold. Boy, was that William Butler Yeats guy onto Matt Weiner! Yeats' description of a world gone mad, with the beast slouching toward Bethlehem, was in answer to the near-apocalypse of World War I. In this episode, there are "Sopranos"-ish flashbacks and Tarantino-like screwings with chronology. They're weird and jumpy but somehow work, when dealing with the dropping of beans, acid, and fecal bombs. ...More

  • Netflix Finds Promise In Video 'Seams' by Wayne Friedman

    TV is a land of plenty these days - especially when consumers are in a rush to get to the next big thing. At least it would seem that way to Netflix. ...More