Andy Plesser

AOL has announced 15 original new shows at the company’s Digital Content NewFront event yesterday.  For an update on the slate and the opportunities for brand, we spoke with Karen Cahn, general manager of AOL On Originals, in this interview with Beet.TV  

AOL has sold out its just announced new shows “Funded” and “Acting Disruptive,” to an agency group led by Razorfish with fellow Publicis Groupe units Digitas and LBI, says Charles Gabriel, VP for Sales, AOL Video, in this interview taped at the AOL NewFront event in Manhattan yesterday.  

Television is moving from being organized around channels to brands, says Susan Lyne, AOL Brand CEO, in this video interview with Beet.TV at the AOL Digital NewFront event in New York.  Commenting on opportunities around branded content, Lyne, a veteran television executive, explains the value of deep brand association versus 30-second commercials.  

Today at the AOL Digital NewsFront  event, AOL and Nielsen announced an overnight ratings system for digital video, which is more TV-like but is drawn from a vast audience of Web users, says John Burbank, President of Nielsen Strategic Initiatives, in this interview with Beet.TV AOL is the first digital publisher to be part of […]

Goviral, the London-based, global  distribution platform for branded video, which was acquired by AOL in 2011, is launching today as part of “Be On,” the company announced at the AOL Digital NewFront event in New York.  Be On incorporates Goviral along with production and analytics services, the company said today. Last week in London, we […]

At the first day of the Digital New Fronts in New York today, Microsoft presented its video portal of lifestyle channels called StageDoor,  unveiled a series of new programming including an an 8-part documentary series about the impact of climate change, and touted its cross-device platform for video programming which includes MSN, Xbox and Windows […]

LONDON – Performics, the Chicago-based unit of  Publicis Groupe, which has been implementing paid text search on YouTube channels for clients, is going to introduce direct response videos to these pages, says Michael Kahn, Global President of  Performics in this interview with Beet.TV We spoke with him last week at the Publicis Groupe investor day […]

HuffPost Live, the daily live talk and interactive program, will debut on the  AXS TV cable network, according to The New York Times.   The announcement of the new distribution deal is to to be made at the AOL Digital NewFronts event on Tuesday in New York. Earlier this year, we interviewed Huffington Post Media CEO […]

LONDON – WPP is eying investments and acquisitions around technology platforms which power media buying, says CEO Sir Martin Sorrell in this interview with Beet.TV.  He says we are now “math men not Mad Men,” a reference to the popular television show about advertising. In this extended conversation taped at the FT Digital Media Conference, […]

The much anticipated convergence of television and digital video ad buying agencies is becoming the norm in the U.K. where media agencies have consolidated video and television buying operations — and where as much as 30 percent of television advertising is now being bought for digital devices.  These are some of the stories and trends we […]

Digitas, the global digital agency unit of Paris-based Publicis Groupe, is readying its annual  NewFront event on May 2.  The overarching theme this year is around “real-time marketing,” says John McCarus, SVP, Practice Lead, Brand Content, in this interview with Beet.TV He says as video content and social media have come together there is an […]

CANNES –  A comprehensive branded program involving digital video and events created for Intel by Vice won the “Brand of the Year” award at the MIPTV conference earlier this month.  For an overview on the program, called the “The Creators Project,” we spoke with Vice’s President Andrew Creighton.  In the interview, he speaks about the value […]

CANNES – The traditional role of a documentary or news show host – the “presenter” in the parlance of British television – is over, says Liz Warner, founder of  Betty productions, the highly successful producer of reality TV which was purchased by the Discovery Networks two years ago. Warner is a former commissioner of programming […]

CANNES – While streaming or broadcasting super high quality  4K (four times the highest HD) by  the world’s broadcasters is still in the working stage, and as the industry seeks to adopt compression standards, the camera and editing of the new format is beginning to take hold with both Hollywood producers and some broadcasters, including […]

LAS VEGAS – Akamai is expanding its video analytics product that allows publishers to understand video viewing down to the individual, says Barrett Mononen in this video interview at the NAB conference last week. In this interview with Beet.TV, he explains and demos Akamai’s ability to encode quickly and render video into a number of formats […]

CANNES – VICE, the fast-growing, New York-based video programmer of edgy lifestyle and entertainment, is readying the launch of a global news organization this year in the company’s “biggest commitment” says Andrew Creighton, president, in this interview with Beet.TV.  The project involves the opening of bureaus around the world with a big expansion of staffers […]

CANNES, France – Television has been “reinvented” with fast consumption of video via IPTV, mobile and tablets, says Laurent Frisch, VP of digital at FranceTV, the nation’s largest broadcaster, in this interview with Beet.TV  He says that fully half of the broadcaster’s views are delivered via digital devices. In this wide ranging conversation, he outlines […]

CANNES –  The “Entertainment Experience,” a film project lead by Dutch-born Hollywood actor Paul Verhoeven, consisting of user generated material, won an International Digital Emmy at MIPTV on Monday.  At the award gala, we spoke with  the project’s producer Rene Mioch. The UGC project has lead to the creation of theatrical film which will debut […]

Programmatic buying of media including display, video, radio and soon digital out-of-home, comprises the “biggest push” around media buying at WPP’s giant media agency GroupM, says Christina Beaumier, VP at GroupM’s Xaxis unit, in this interview with Beet.TV Beaumier explains how data around consumer behavior is driving effective media buying in real-time – and how […]

The Washington Post, an early innovator in Web video, which won awards but was “not necessarily Web friendly,” is developing video programming that both works in the context of articles and “stands on its own” outside the article page, says Washington Post Chief Digital Officer Vijay Ravindran in this interview with Beet.TV We spoke with […]