Posts for 'Events'

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As many of you know, there are countless early stage and established broadband video-related companies in the Boston area. For a while I've been eager to get this community together to mix it up. VideoSchmooze will be a premier opportunity for executives, entrepreneurs, investors and other decision-makers to meet up and swap ideas. And yes - out-of-towners are welcome!

VideoSchmooze is generously underwritten by Flybridge Capital Partners, Atlas Venture, Goodwin Procter and Silicon Valley Bank.

Yesterday I moderated a panel at the NATPE LATV Festival Digital Day entitled, "The Syndicated Video Economy: Expanding Broadband's Reach." The Syndicated Video Economy or SVE, is a concept I introduced back in March, to help articulate the trend toward widespread video distribution online, and the ecosystem of companies facilitating it.

The session was a unique opportunity to hear from four executives whose companies are very much on the front line of the trend toward syndication. They shared many insights based on their experiences, and I thought it would be worth passing on a synopsis of these today.

The four panelists were:

• Greg Clayman, EVP, Digital Distribution and Business Development, MTV Networks
• John Fitzpatrick, Director of Business Development, blip.tv
• Jonathan Leess, President and General Manager, Digital Media Group, CBS Television Stations
• Brian Shin, Founder and CEO, Visible Measures

Here are four key takeaways:

1. Syndication is required to capitalize on the significant fragmentation of online audiences. John summed this up well, suggesting that content creators need to think in terms of their "total potential audience," not just viewers that may come to their web sites. Particularly for established media companies, steeped in traditional destination-oriented, "must-see" mind-sets, this is a crucial point of adaptation to the online world. Jonathan's group gets this, as he reported 60% of its 25 million monthly are already coming from third parties.

2. Syndication is operationally complex. Jonathan made the point that, for all of syndication's appeal, it poses daunting tactical challenges, particularly with an "always-on" news gathering/dissemination ethos. Challenges he cited include integrating video players with partners' sites, implementing ad management across heterogeneous environments, distributing content correctly and promptly, measuring results and honoring financial obligations. Until the ecosystem of companies enabling the SVE significantly matures, scaling the model will cause ample headaches.

3. Retaining full control of advertising sales is crucial. While the SVE opens up new audiences, Greg reminded us that nobody is better equipped to sell MTV's inventory - wherever it may be generated - than MTV's own sales team. This is one of the reasons content providers seek to syndicate not just their video, but also their player as well. Jonathan echoed this point from the local perspective. Lack of tight advertising control leads to chaos for media buyers and sub-optimization of pricing. A bonus, as John pointed out, is that distributors will often be happy to just collect their revenue-sharing checks and not have to sell themselves.

4. Analytics are the ultimate key to fully exploiting the SVE. While traditional web analytics have focused on on-site performance, SVE analytics must encompass video performance over many distribution points. Brian noted that making sense of how a video performs in varying environments - and then adjusting ongoing syndication strategies accordingly - is necessary to optimize viewership across the total audience. Inevitably viewership and engagement will vary by distributor. Collecting, understanding and acting on the data optimizes syndication and monetization.

Ok, that's a mouthful. Like the panelists I remain optimistic about the SVE's potential, but I'm also clear-eyed about the challenges the SVE raises. I'll continue to track its progress and share findings.

What do you think? Post a comment now!

Please join me on August 6th at 11am PST / 2pm EST for a complimentary webinar, "Profiting from the Syndicated Video Economy." I'll be sharing thoughts about the trends in broadband video syndication which I first introduced in this post back from March 2008.

Also presenting will be Greg Clayman, Executive Vice President, Digital Distribution and Business Development, MTV Networks, who will explain his company's successful syndication experiences, and Suzanne Johnson, Akamai's, Senior Industry Marketing Manager, who will detail how their offerings are helping facilitate syndication.

It promises to be a packed agenda, full of best practices and useful data. I hope you can join us!

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I'll be moderating an exciting panel at the NATPE LATV Festival's Digital Day on July 30th entitled, "The Syndicated Video Economy: Expanding Broadband's Reach" with a great group of panelists including:

Greg Clayman, Executive VP, Digital Distribution and Business Development, MTV Networks

Mike Hudack, Co-Founder, President and CEO, Blip.tv

Jonathan Leess, President and General Manager, Digital Media Group, CBS Television Stations

Brian Shin, Founder and CEO, Visible Measures

These companies are all leaders in building out the "Syndicated Video Economy" which I introduced back in March. It's a very cool space and I expect a lot more activity going forward. Please join us in LA for a stimulating panel discussion and overall event!

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At the OMMA Video Summit yesterday in NYC, I moderated a panel entitled "Branded Entertainment." Readers of VideoNuze know that I have been tracking brand marketers' varied broadband initiatives which are whittling away traditional demarcations between advertising and content. Broadband is opening up a whole new frontier for brands to engage their audiences.

We had a stellar group of panelists who have been on the front lines of branded entertainment, including three from agencies (Jeremy Lockhorn from Avenue A Razorfish, Joe Frydl from Ogilvy Entertainment and John McCarus from Digitas/The Third Act) and two from independent video sites making a strong push into this area (Rob Barnett from MyDamnChannel and Peter Hoskins from ManiaTV).

The whole area of branded entertainment is still in its infancy, meaning different things to different people. The panel's consensus was that these projects must provide "entertaining consumer experiences in which brands receive 'permission' to market their products." Joe, who's produced the Hellmann's "Real Food" campaign (now back for its second season on Yahoo), emphasized the importance of presenting content that's authentic to the brand while also finding partners who can deliver big audiences.

Those partners can vary as John mentioned that in a recent 45 webisode series it created for Holiday Inn Express, 90% of the series' views came from 10% of its overall distribution sites and that these were mainly smaller outlets. That sparked a consensus that when picking distribution partners, those with narrower but more passionate audiences were preferred to larger, but less focused outlets. Peter and Rob both noted that there smaller size and focused audiences allow them work more closely with brands to tailor content for their audiences' interests.

That synched up with advice from Jeremy (and seconded by others) that when it comes to branded entertainment, brands must be involved from the start of the creative process. Content companies still tend to look upon brands as little more than checkbooks, with products to be written into scenes after the creative is essentially complete. That bias needs to change fast if branded entertainment is to succeed. To increase the odds of success, Peter noted that ManiaTV focuses on episodic content, as consumer relationships build slowly over time.

The role of agencies is certain to change as branded entertainment gets more traction. Since it's still so early, panelists concurred that agencies need to "embrace ambiguity" and focus on "earning attention, not buying attention" for their clients. Listening to the panelists, it seemed to me that agencies looking to operate successfully in this area will also need significant business development/partnership skills as pulling distribution into these campaigns is quite important.

Branded entertainment is yet another greenfield opportunity that broadband is opening up. Given how many agencies and others are setting up branded entertainment specialty units, it's certain to get more priority by brands.

Last week I moderated 2 panel discussions, one for Streaming Media East in New York, and the other for MITX, the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange, in Boston. In the former, "Reinventing the Ad Model Through Discovery and Targeting" and the latter, "Driving Audiences to Your Online Video Content: Strategies for Success in a Crowded Market" panelists discussed many of the key themes I continue observing in the broadband video market.

If you're in the Boston area next Thursday, May 22nd, please join me for a great panel I'll be moderating, "Driving Audiences to Your Online Video Content: Strategies for Success in a Crowded Market." The session is being presented by MITX, the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange and includes a terrific group of panelists from Boston-area video companies:

• Murali Aravamudan, CEO/Founder, Veveo
• Michael Kolowich, CEO/Founder, DigiNovations
• Bob Lentz, CEO, PermissionTV
• Brian Shin, CEO/Founder, Visible Measures
• Tom Wilde, CEO, EveryZing

Session details are here. Hope you can make it!

Further confirmation that the TV landscape is evolving is The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' (the organization that puts on the primetime Emmys) recent announcement that the Primetime Emmy for Interactive Media will include two new areas of competition that tie user experience to either fiction or non-fiction programming.

This is not a technology award, but rather an award that honors outstanding creative achievement. In addition to having been distributed by the traditional broadcast, satellite or cable platforms, the recipient of this award could have been born from a variety of new platforms including broadband and mobile, or a combination of platforms.

Why is this newsworthy? Because the door is now open for many broadband video-only programmers, such as Revision3, TikiBarTV, or perhaps LonelyGirl15, who haven't yet inked a deal with a studio, network, or pay TV operator. As long their content fits the interactive criteria, then programs like these could be submitted and become an Emmy contender. A seismic change from yesteryear's Emmy considerations.

To qualify, entries need to be an original program or series that were deployed commercially between June 1, 2007 and May 31, 2008. The Interactive Media Peer group will be judging in June and will select 5 finalists in the aforementioned categories. The Peer Group is looking for submissions that have participatory interactive features and demonstrate overall creative excellence, interactive storytelling, and a compelling user experience.

If you're reading this and you've produced a program or a series that fits this description, the May 30th deadline is fast approaching. And if you don't have content that fits these qualifications, get your game on for 2009. These are exciting times where the democratization of being a Primetime Emmy winner may no longer mean that you're of network ilk. Cool!

Any question you may have had about whether the broadcast and broadband worlds are converging would be put to rest after spending a couple of days at the NAB Show being held in Las Vegas this week.

This year's NAB Show heavily emphasizes content in a technology-transformed world. For starters, NAB has set up "Content Central" a showcase section in the Main Central Hall featuring a cluster of new media vendors. Within the Content Central area is a specially created "Content Theater" where back-to-back discussion panels run throughout the show, including one I'll be moderating this morning entitled "Broadband Media Workflow: Hitting the Viewing Window," with executives from MTV, CTV and Akamai.

Elsewhere at the show, there are numerous sessions with titles like "The New Hollywood! A New World of Entertainment!", "TV 2.0 - Video When, Where and How You Want It" and "Video Search for Unlimited Channels." In short, NAB has gone full throttle toward content, which in my opinion is a very good thing. That's because a key NAB constituency, local television broadcasters, have seen their market positions impacted by broadband, particularly as network TV programs are now widely accessible online. Broadcasters today are feeling the beginning of what local newspapers have felt as the Internet's use has become pervasive.

But by elevating the focus on content, NAB is helping local TV broadcasters better understand how broadband presents opportunities, not just challenges. With strong expertise in video production, deep local roots and longstanding advertising relationships, local TV broadcasters are in some ways actually well-positioned to benefit from broadband.

The key challenge for local broadcasters is to take a fundamentally different view of their businesses. No longer constrained by their local market's boundaries, local broadcasters can play on a bigger stage, distributing compelling content to viewers living thousands of miles away. One syndication example, between CBS's stations and Yahoo, already generates over 13 million video views per month, all incremental to those at CBS's own site.

NAB's focus on content in a technology-driven world, follows a similar focus by the Consumer Electronics Association and NATPE at their respective shows over the past few months. Taken together, local broadcasters are being given many opportunities to understand the changing video landscape and how to profit from it.

Next week I'll be at the NAB Show in Las Vegas on Tues and Wed and still have a few gaps in my schedule if you're interested in meeting up. I'll be moderating a session on Wed morning at 9:30 in the Content Theater entitled, "Broadband Media Workflow: Hitting the Viewing Window." We have an excellent group of panelists from CTV, MTV and Akamai and we'll be doing a deep dive into the opportunities and challenges of melding on-air and online video. If you're attending NAB Show, give me a shout and let's try to find time to meet up. Separately, I'll also be writing some posts for the NAB Show blog located here.

Yesterday Magnify.net, a company I've previously written about, released its version 3.0, introducing new social features and also Pro and Enterprise versions. Magnify's CEO Steve Rosenbaum gave me an update.

A quick final reminder that I'll be making a short presentation during a webinar at 2pm ET today entitled "Setting the Bar for Online Video 2.0: Best Practices You Can Use Today." PermissionTV is sponsoring the webinar moderated by Streaming Media's Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen and will be providing best practices examples based on its customers' activities.

After the presentations, we'll have ample time for Q&A and discussion. Please join us!

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Today's a holiday for many in the U.S. and I'm preparing to head out to FAST Forward '08, so for now I'd like to just offer an invitation to an upcoming webinar I'll be participating in on February 28th. The title of the webinar is "Setting the Bar for Online Video 2.0: Best Practices You Can Use Today." PermissionTV, a VideoNuze sponsor, will also be providing insights based on its customers' experiences. The webinar will be hosted by Streaming Media.

Having done many webinars over the past several years, I've become a big fan of the format. I think it's a convenient way to share information create a conducive environment for Q&A.

Since the last webinar I did several months ago, there has been a ton of activity in the broadband video market and also a lot of recently-released research. I've heard from many of you that it's hard to stay on top of this activity and understand what's most important. Meeting these two challenges are in fact key goals of mine for VideoNuze: aggregating relevant news into one easy-to-access location and sharing insights about the market.

For this upcoming webinar, I'll be synthesizing some of the divergent activities we've all been observing and translate it into actionable takeaways. Though the broadband video market is extremely dynamic, there are a number of common beliefs guiding many companies' strategies today. After the presentations, we'll have ample time for Q&A and discussion.

As MTV Networks' Executive VP of Digital Distribution and Business Development, Greg Clayman is the company's main digital deal-maker, striving to reach far-flung audiences in the broadband and mobile era. Given MTVN's stable of powerhouse brands and the myriad opportunities that cross his desk daily, Greg's goals, and the strategies he uses to achieve them, have far-reaching implications.

In this interview on the cusp of the NATPE show, Clayman explains how MTVN has organized its digital deal operation for success, why broadband video's benefits can't always be easily quantified, what the company looks for in syndication deals and why advertising is poised to play a big role in mobile video. An edited transcript follows.

Greg Clayman: I'm the EVP of Digital Distribution and Business Development for MTV Networks. I manage distribution of our content across all digital partners, such as AOL, MSN, Bebo - basically our whole digital syndication business. Just prior to this I ran just the mobile group, which I actually I still do. I report to Mika Salmi, who runs everything digital at MTVN.

VN: You have a pretty broad role, how do you organize things?

GC: We have a group of biz dev people, some dedicated to broadband, some to mobile. Same on the operations and product development side. We learn a lot from each other by being all together, though these areas do diverge in certain ways. Remember, video is just one piece of what we do. We're also in ring tones, games, voting, you name it. But there's a lot of things that broadband and mobile video have in common - I'm always amazed.

Also, our partners were a real motivator for us to organize this way. Some of our key mobile partners like AT&T and Verizon started getting into broadband in a big way around a year or so ago. We wanted to make sure we were all aligned so we worked most productively with them.

VN: Let's talk specifically about broadband - what are MTVN's goals?

GC: Well, there are really two. First is to make money - if that isn't too obvious. We think there's a terrific ad-driven business that's growing nicely. We can measure our performance very well and are getting a pretty good handle on how to grow revenues.

Second, we want to use broadband to drive traffic and awareness to our other platforms, specifically on-air and our various web properties. The latter is a significant business now in its own right. So for example, if someone sees a video of The Daily Show somewhere online, that may entice them to come to TheDailyShow.com and maybe start doing searches for other stuff. We also want to drive awareness of our shows in general. The fact is that the TV business is still where essentially all of our revenue comes from right now. So if we can spark interest in shows and move the ratings by even by a little bit, that pays great dividends for us. So we're balancing how to achieve both goals.

VN: How do you measure the success of the promotional stuff?

GC: Admittedly, that can be tough. Certainly we look at ratings, and what we think is contributing to them. For example, we had excellent ratings for the Movie Awards. But it's hard to say, is that because we had excellent talent? Or because we did a big partnership? Or was it billboards? It's hard to know specifically.

VN: Is MTVN's syndication push a recent phenomenon and how important is it?

GC: It's very important, we're embracing it equally, alongside building out our own destinations. Look, MTV has some of the top online brands, obviously growing them further is a top priority. We want to do everything we can to achieve this.

We've always been interested in getting content in front of lots of consumers, but it's really been only the last few years that broadband video has exploded in a significant way and some of these social networking spaces have taken off. So we want to work with lots of people - people we have good relationships with. Where we see eye-to-eye with them. And importantly people who respect copyright - which by the way is becoming more commonplace these days. This is trending in the right direction I'm happy to say.

VN: Talk about business models in these broadband syndication deals - what do you favor?

GC: In the majority of cases we provide video streams and a player and we serve ads on top of that content. We're experimenting with ad formats - lower third, bugs, pre-rolls, etc. For the most part we sell the ads and give a revenue share to the partner. That's the most basic model. Getting to a point where we have multiple partners and we can turnkey this stuff is a goal. But there's a lot of integration work still to do.

VN: Let's shift to mobile video - how developed is it really, particularly compared to broadband?

GC: Look, we're still very early in both, but certainly earlier in mobile. For example, look at MediaFLO (Qualcomm's initiative) - it's only supposed to launch this quarter. But what's interesting in the mobile space is that people pay for things. I think that matters. So it has the potential to become a pretty material business quickly. And for better or for worse, there's a finite number of players - both carriers and providers. So it's more akin to the cable model in some ways.

Contrast this with broadband - in that world there are tens of millions of users, but they're dispersed across so many different properties. And they don't want to pay. So actually making money can be a lot more difficult.

VN: You're touching on the "closed" nature of mobile video today - how and when will that change?

GC: One of the things we'll start to see more of soon is direct-to-consumer, off-deck video. But platforms for this don't necessarily exist in a big way right now. We're years away from a huge critical mass. In the next few years we'll see developments around open platforms like Google's Android, but it's not going to be material for a while to come. And remember, carriers have tens of millions of happy subscribers, who are willing to pay for services. There's a strong incentive to maintain that. To make this market really take off, we think standards are needed, the same as we've seen online and in broadband to some extent.

VN: So net, net, do you think mobile video remains largely a paid medium?

GC: I think advertising can and will play a big role. We're seeing a big movement in mobile ads. That's because there's a role for advertisers to play in subsidizing content development. But advertising has to be done in a way that's not incredibly annoying to the user.

Where we have done research, we've found people really like mobile video, and they watch it everywhere. The bathroom. The bedroom. Waiting for the schoolbus. Even at work! People are doing it. Bite-sized clips work very well. We see this all the time. So no question, there's a bright future for mobile video.

VN: What's your panel about at NATPE?

GC: I'm moderating a session with a great group of folks who are driving mobile video forward. They have tons of experience and love to talk! Attendees are sure to gain a lot of insights about the mobile video opportunity.

VN: You've been gracious with your time. Thanks and good luck.

(Note: Greg Clayman will be moderating "Mobile Content: What's Hot? What's New? What's Next?" on Tues, Jan. 29th at 3pm)

Bob Pittman will be presenting at next week's NATPE conference. A long time media executive, he is a founding member of Pilot Group LLC, a consumer brand focused private investment firm based in New York. Among other prior roles, he's served as President and COO of America Online and was also a co-founder of MTV and later CEO of MTV Networks.

Yesterday I caught up with him for a pre-NATPE briefing. Read on to learn why he's bullish on broadcast TV stations, skeptical about broadband video's impact on the TV business and emphatic that convenience rules.

VideoNuze: Pilot has been a buyer of broadcast stations. That's somewhat contrarian. What do you see in the industry?

Bob Pittman: Broadcast stations are greatly unappreciated. TV is America's hobby. Look at any category, the biggest is always the most important. So we want to invest in place where most people are. It is a fantastic advertising medium. There's no substitute for TV advertising. It works like nothing else. It's still wildly cheap - for the most part it's a $7-8 CPM, compared with newspapers and magazines which are $25-30, and it outperforms by every measurement - reach, time spent, effectiveness. It's still wildly underpriced.

We have focused on small market television, where local advertising is the predominant revenue stream. We have done that because we believe national advertisers will slow down spending in economic downturns, whereas in local market when you're dealing with a local retailer he still has to sell everything that's on the shelf, come good times or bad. And we believe that in small markets, newspapers and yellow pages are getting wildly disproportionate share of the revenue, so we think there's a great growth opportunity as well. In smaller markets the station's coverage area nicely matches the advertiser's reach goals. It's also a fantastic free cash flow business.

VN: Is broadband video a net positive or a net negative for broadcast stations, or is it not clear yet?

BP: We have to be really careful about broadband video, it's still a very small percentage of use for most people. Most of what people talk about is still 3 minutes or shorter clips on YouTube, many sent to you by a friend in email. The idea of people sitting down and watching their computer is a small part of the overall audience. So we have to be careful not to talk about fringe uses as if they're going to be major uses.

However, we think it presents an opportunity for our stations and we've pursued that, by setting up what are in essence "newspapers online." And in our smaller markets, we're not competing with Google or MSN, so we can get large local audiences, which allow us to better serve our advertisers. But I don't think broadband is competitive with TV, putting TV shows on the Internet is nice, but you're talking about small audiences.

VN: What will the impact of services like Hulu and CBS's Audience Network on broadcast stations' audience size?

BP: Well, you may occasionally watch a program online if you can't get to your TV, or it wasn't available, or you're a little geeky, but as a replacement offering, I don't think so. TVs are big screen, public viewing devices, computers are not. They're 18 inches away and are private experiences, you don't want people looking over your shoulder at it. They're completely separate uses and devices, so to try to put the wrong kind of programming on either one limits your audience severely.

BP: If it's completely invisible to the consumer then yes things change, but if people have to do a whole lot of work then it's not going to be big. The one thing that motivates the consumer through every product category is convenience. The easiest thing to get is what people will use, even if the quality is lower.

I think it's going to be pretty hard to get something in the home that's easier to use than pushing a button on my TV set that I already know how to do and I'm set up to do. To start connecting a box and moving stuff around, then my rule of thumb is about 10% of the population will adopt new technology because it's cool and neat, but it will be hard to get past that threshold.

VN: So it sounds out like you're not that bullish on these new boxes succeeding?

BP: Right now these require a step or two more, and my experience from the Internet is that just one more click means a lot less response. You think, well it's just one more click. But for example, when I was at Time Warner, we had 2 options for ordering PPV - one to click a button and one to call an 800 number. The response rate for the former was three times the latter - that's the power of ease of use and convenience.

VN: How about broadband's larger impact on the video industry - who's helped and who's hurt?

BP: Short form appears to be working very well. If there's a nifty little video that's great, but get above 3 mintues and you start to lose people - certainly you lose me. So who's advantaged - people who have short clips that they can build a business out of. But I still think the best thing to do online is to read and write, because it's quiet, it's personal, you can do it with others in the room. Importantly, it's not sequential. Internet is like a newspaper - it's random access - if I don't like sports I can skip that section. But video by its nature is sequential, it's linear, you have to have a story arc, you have to sit through the whole thing. So I think you're asking people to make a different sort of commitment.

VN: Your take on user-generated video?

BP: I think it's great. Probably 99.9% of it is crap, but the rest of it is brilliant. If you have a way of editing it down to the brilliant stuff and also allowing people to discover it easily, then it can be very appealing. So when you look at YouTube for example, and you can look at the "most viewed" and can skip my neighbor's kid's birthday party, that's great.

VN: Does user-generated video compete at any point with professionally produced content?

BP: Well, what's happening with the level of technology that's now in the hands of consumers plus their ability and knowledge of how to edit makes you ask the question, "who's really the professional now?" So I think you're going to see some shows on TV by what were once considered "amateurs." Professionals are anyone that has a good idea and other people want to see their stuff.

So I think the world is opening up and that's very healthy. When the studios have a set list of actors, writers and directors, by definition you're limiting the innovation process. When you've got those capabilities in the hands of everyone, you're now opening up to the possibility of some real breakthrough innovations. And that's good for the TV business, because if they do it in a 30 or 60 minute form, the best way to watch it is on the TV. And that's the medium that can pay the most for it, and has the biggest audience.

VN: What's your message to NATPE attendees?

BP: I'll be trying to put broadcast television into perspective. You hear so many negative stories yet I think it's one of the most misunderstood mediums out there today. So the idea is to try to point out how it relates to Internet, newspapers, magazines, what the trendlines are and explain why believe it's actually a very good business with a brilliant future.

People keep talking about Internet as if it's competing with TV. But what the Internet has really done is replace print - things like yellow pages, newspapers and traditional research books. It's also replaced communications - phone calls, voice mail. So when you hear these stories about the Internet replacing TV, I think they've got it all wrong.

VN: Thank you and see you in Las Vegas.

(Bob Pittman's NATPE presentation is Tues, Jan 29th at 10am)

Another reminder: the annual NATPE show in Las Vegas is coming up in less than 2 weeks, beginning on January 28th. If you're involved in content deal-making, whether on traditional or broadband platforms, NATPE promises once again to be a must-attend show. The agenda and registration are here.

I'll be there, hosting a new "Digital Briefing" day-long track on Tuesday, in which a series of broadband innovators will be presenting, including Joost, Vuze, PermissionTV, Digital Fountain and others. It promises to be an extremely informative day, with lots of time for Q&A.

The show will feature a ton of high-profile industry executives in panel discussions, keynotes and one-on-ones. The list includes: Jeff Zucker (NBC), Bob Pittman (Pilot Group), Greg Clayman (MTV), Jason Kilar (Hulu), Matt Strauss (Comcast), Mike Hudack (blip), Shelly Lazarus (Oglivy), Gary Gannaway (WorldNow), Jordan Hoffner (YouTube), Tim Armstrong (Google), Michael Eisner (Torante), Peter Levinsohn (FIM) and many others.

I'll be around the whole time, if you're coming drop me a line if you'd like to meet!

I'll be there, hosting a new "Digital Briefing" day-long track on Tuesday, in which a series of broadband innovators will be presenting, including Joost, Vuze, PermissionTV, Digital Fountain and others. It promises to be an extremely informative day, with lots of time for Q&A.

The show will feature a ton of high-profile industry executives in panel discussions, keynotes and one-on-ones. The list includes: Jeff Zucker (NBC), Bob Pittman (Pilot Group), Greg Clayman (MTV), Jason Kilar (Hulu), Matt Strauss (Comcast), Mike Hudack (blip), Shelly Lazarus (Oglivy), Gary Gannaway (WorldNow), Jordan Hoffner (YouTube), Tim Armstrong (Google), Michael Eisner (Torante), Peter Levinsohn (FIM) and many others.

I'll be around the whole time, if you're coming drop me a line if you'd like to meet!

With CES finishing up, today I've attempted to assemble all of the show's broadband video-related press releases and non-overlapping news coverage. I've been following the announcements pretty closely, and I think as far as news filtered specifically for broadband (i.e. excluding things like Blu-ray, gaming, auto/navigation, etc.), this is an extremely comprehensive list. Apologies if I've missed anything -- just email to me and I'll add.

Click here to go straight to the CES broadband news wrap-up.

This CES broadband news wrap-up serves as a great reminder for VideoNuze readers and visitors that VideoNuze really consists of 2 parts: first, my daily analyses, and second, a roundup/aggregation of broadband video-related news from around the web. I've received tons of great feedback on the value of the analyses, but sense that fewer people understand the news roundup side of VideoNuze. News items are listed in the right column of both the daily email and on the web site, and are also available as an RSS feed.

News aggregation is a key function in VideoNuze, as it allows broadband video decision-makers each day to easily stay abreast of news from 50+ sources (mainstream media, trade pubs, blogs, etc.). In fact, one of the key motivations for me to start VideoNuze was my frustration at having to cobble together -- from various newsletters, feeds and sites -- all the news I felt was relevant. Yet even after undertaking this task, I always felt I'd missed something (and inevitably had!).

VideoNuze's News roundup allows broadband decision-makers to rest easy, as everything they need to stay up-to-date and in-the-know is collected in one place, with easy links to underlying sources.

Beyond staying current, VideoNuze is great for deep vertical research on broadband video. Say you're a product management/marketing/biz dev exec, planning your product's ad strategy and want to know who's been doing what, and also what Will's take is. Simple click on VideoNuze's "Advertising" category for News and you'll see hundreds of informative pieces and insights.

Or you're a busy sales exec, planning a key customer meeting, with say, MTV. Just type "MTV" into the VideoNuze search box and you'll get dozens of analyses and news items related specifically to MTV's broadband activities. In fact, there are already 1,000+ broadband-specific news items in VideoNuze, with the list growing each day!

Hopefully this overview has given you a better sense of the news roundup side of VideoNuze. My goal, as always, is to have VideoNuze be the best possible resource for broadband video decision-makers. If you have suggestions for improvements, just let me know!

Click here to go to the CES broadband news wrap-up.