Robert Andrews

LAS VEGAS — Can Dolby do for eyes what it’s done for ears? The San Francisco-based firm is best known for its audio developments, but recently unveiled Dolby Vision, its system for encoding pictures with more colors, brightness and more dynamic range than the current TV grading standard. “The way that content being graded today […]

A single currency for measuring the impact of social interactions with brands would help eliminate confusion in the marketplace, says Viacom Media Networks’ integrated marketing EVP. “There’s a collection of third-party data reporters in addition to first party,” Dario Spina tells Beet.TV. “There’s a lot of confusion on … the data results you want to […]

LAS VEGAS — America’s patchwork TV provider landscape means linear’s move to data-driven digital ad trading is not happening as quickly as in some other parts of the world, says video ad tech vendor Videology. “We’re very complex (in the US), there’s a lot of people involved in that change,” says the company’s north America development […]

LONDON — More advertisers may soon buy synchronized video ads on multiple digital screens to continue reaching TV viewers distracted by secondary devices. Group M’s data and audience unit Xaxis has already operated the scheme, dubbed Xaxis Sync, in the Netherlands, buying social mobile ads corresponding to TV spots identified by data partner Civolution. Now […]

Publishers and brands spend a lot of money trying to draw audiences from other sites and services, whether through social awareness-raising or through marketing efforts. But what audiences do on your site depends very much on where they came from, says an exec from a content discovery engine. “Referral-based information can have a really big […]

SAN FRANCISCO — Programmatic ad trading techniques could eliminate costs and cut time by bringing ad buying in to the digital 21st century, says one ad tech vendor. “The way that TV is bought has been the same way since the Mad Men days – I pick up the phone, I do a deal,” says […]

SAN FRANCISCO — IPG’s insight agency Magna Global is using the current TV upfronts, the annual process by which TV networks sell advertising inventory for the year ahead, to push cable networks to adopt programmatic trading techniques. Says Magna Global USA president Kristi Argyilan: “We are pushing for our planning teams to reconsider cable television and think […]

SAN FRANCISCO — Data-driven buying processes beget data-centric advertising. At least, that’s how the evolution of the collection of automated and algorithm-heavy trading techniques dubbed “programmatic” has played out so far. But are things changing? “We’ve put it in to a box of it only being performance-driven – that was a mistake,” says programmatic SVP […]

SAN FRANCISCO — Automated, “programmatic” trading of digital ads in linear television may have a long and bright future ahead – but it will need some adoption victories in the here and now before that dream becomes a reality, says an ad tech exec. “It’s about what can be done today,” says David Miller, VP Product […]

The popularity of editorial video amongst mobile web users is growing fast at Time magazine’s website. “About 20% of video views on Time.com are happening on mobile web,” GM Craig Ettinger tells Beet.TV. “That’s up from just over 10% a year ago.” Ettinger credits the site’s recent responsive redesign, which makes the site more attractive […]

The Boston Globe says it will move to differentiate its two websites – one, free; the other, part-paid – as it undertakes a marketing effort around a new metered digital payment requirement on one. “(Boston)Globe.com and Boston.com – they are two separate sites, very confusing – we are in the process of removing that confusion […]

LAS VEGAS — Time was, viewers grumbled about TV broadcasts being unavailable online and about digital delays on transmission. Now, however, the broadcasters are getting their act together, according to one analyst. “The rights restrictions have often lagged behind the technological capabilities,” says ABI Research practice director Sam Rosen. “What we’ve started to seen in […]

LAS VEGAS — Take more than one video management software suite in to the shower? Now a new breed of company wants to wrap them all in to one package. One such outfit is Las Vegas-based iStreamPlanet, which just announced it will use Microsoft’s Azure cloud hosting to locate its product offering that runs software […]

LAS VEGAS — Semiconductor firm Broadcom is watching the evolution of a video distribution industry quite different to the one it entered two decades ago. “You’re familiar with the channel guide … that is about to change in a very big way,” says Broadcom’s broadband marketing associate director Joe Del Rio. “Now we’re talking about  […]

LAS VEGAS — Combine Adobe’s Primetime video suite and thePlatform’s mpx video management service and what do you get? Customers “can get to market faster”, says Adobe’s business development principal Kevin Towes. “We have entered in a non-exclusive agreement to co-sell each other’s products,” Towes says, after the pair announced technical integration, which gets each […]

SAN FRANCISCO — For David Algranti, it’s all or nothing. “For programmatic to scale to the levels we expect it to (in TV), it’s going to need to avail itself of all the TV (advertising) inventory, not some subsets of it,” says the product innovation SVP of video measurement supplier Rentrak. Algranti’s firm licenses return-path viewing […]

SAN FRANCISCO — The onset of automated video ad buying is prompting traditional job disciplines to be re-thought, says one exec in the space. “There is a transition of talent,” says  Adap.tv‘s programmatic TV SVP Dan Ackerman. “You see people who have been in trading desks start to cross-polinate in to TV. There is a science in (traditional […]

SAN FRANCISCO — New, automated ad-trading techniques termed “programmatic” have loomed on to the TV industry’s horizon – but have a little way to go before widespread adoption, according to one exec. “It’s a wonderfully exciting time,” says ad connectivity platform Mediaocean‘s business development VP Fraser Woollard. “Agencies are experimenting with different technologies, different ways of […]

SAN FRANCISCO — When are we going to see an industry in which a healthy slice of TV advertising is bought using so-called “programmatic” trading techniques? “For the major networks, it’s going to take a long time to eventually go over to this stock exchange process of being able to use data and being able […]

SAN FRANCISCO — With the imminent spinoff from its parent company Time Warner, magazine publishing unit Time Inc. is steadily stretching its legs in the “programmatic” trading of its advertising space, after already spending three years in the space. Time Inc. and its UK sibling IPC Media recently pooled inventory in the Time Inc. Global […]