Archive for the ‘Media Control’ Category

How TV Media Companies Can Get Ahead of Channel Management – Broadcasting & Cable (blog)

Last year, Cirque du Soleil simultaneously produced 20 different shows that were staged around the world, seen by more than 10 million people. To ensure these productions are profitable, the company started using logistics software from SAP, centralizing business management from their headquarters in Montreal.

Today, TV media companies are also grappling with how to manage the logistics of their business. TV content is beginning to be distributed across OTT, VOD, mobile, and social. Advertisers want a piece of each of these channels, and are interested in targeted audiences and addressable content placements that break down standard GRP pricing. Many media companies are creating new channels and subdivisions and are partnering with new vendors in order to keep up. These actions, while they have good intentions, can backfire if they are not coordinated across process, technology and strategy. Media companies must follow several broad strategic principles to ensure their long-term success across new channels.

Centralize Control Over Your Assets

Media companies should start with a centralized audience and product strategy. Earlier this year, NBCU announced Audience Symphony, to stitch together the different flavors of audience targeted advertising that they have created across their various advanced TV content distribution channels. This is the right move. Media companies who are not as far ahead as NBCU should do what they can to start out with a centralized approach. Without centralization, new channels are not as scalable, and it is harder to gain cross-channel insights.

Centralizing an audience and the products sold against it gives media companies control over ad sales, an understanding of frequency and better insights for the entire business (such as which channels deliver the most value or have the highest engagement.) This starts with buy-in of a single strategy, and a champion that can rein in rogue experiments that dont add scalable value. This is why many companies, Comcast and Charter included, have installed veterans of targeted TV at the helm of their ad revenue businesses.

A centralized strategy also requires technology that can knit together disparate forms of data. Some DMPs like Lotame are starting to manage TV data as well as digital data. However, media companies must also be on the lookout for new forms of data management that might fit better with advanced TV advertising, which includes audiences, channels, formats, metrics, pricing and other important elements. Recently, for example, retail companies have started to use something called a CDP or consumer data platform, which focuses on building rich profiles of individuals with first party data, rather than cookies.

Be Easy to Work With

Consumers are not the only ones that have gotten used to convenience through technology. While linear TV media companies have a relatively opaque negotiation process with advertisers that can last for days between rounds, digital alternatives like Google and Facebook offer automated audience targeting. Advertisers are not going to wait around for even longer just to get a proposal from a TV company that also includes a small addition of programmatic TV or OTT delivery when they can get audience reach with the press of a button from companies like Google and Facebook.

Turner, Fox and Viacom address another issuecomplexityin their letter about the Open AP initiative where they stress the need for consistently defined audience targets and standard measurement and reporting.This is one area where media companies will do well to work together and push back against advertisers who inadvertently make it harder for everyone to do business by layering on a variety of new metrics and performance targets. Digital medias issue with too many metrics is an example of the problems caused when media companies allow complexity to overshadow their offerings.

Maintain Control of the Ship

Digital publishers did not focus enough on maintaining control in the market. Programmatic prices are low even though they are more targeted than direct sold. Advertisers bring their own audience data, leaving publisher data to languish. Buyers require a variety of metrics and quality standards that are governed by expensive and arbitrary vendor relationships. Even reporting standards favor advertisers, allowing discrepancies in the buyers favor up to 10%, with their own ad server as the source of record.

TV media companies must have a loud voice as advanced TV standards are hammered out in order to avoid industry norms that hurt them. Media companies should start talking now about what they want in a future targeted TV equivalent of the IAB standard digital advertising Terms and Conditions.

Media companies must also start protecting internal assets and revenue controls. Centralized product information in a single catalogue gives sellers control over the proposal process and gives delivery teams control over campaign execution. Yield optimization teams ensure that prices and campaign delivery is maximized. New vendors should be scrutinized for transparency and fair payment practices.

With Facebook and Google dominating the publishers whose businesses have already transitioned to a digital realm, it is clear that TV media companies will be faced with new threats. Channel management is a philosophy and a discipline that ensures media companies stay in control across new channels as their advertisers, viewers and even their content changes dramatically.

Lorne Brown is president of SintecMedia, which offersmedia business management solutions.

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How TV Media Companies Can Get Ahead of Channel Management - Broadcasting & Cable (blog)

Benchmark is suing Travis Kalanick (and Uber) over board control, claiming a ‘selfish’ power grab – Recode

One of Ubers biggest shareholders, Benchmark Capital, has sued co-founder and ousted CEO Travis Kalanick, claiming he has not honored the terms of his resignation and has been trying to change the makeup of the board to advantage himself.

Along with claiming he wanted to entrench himself for his own selfish ends, the high-profile Silicon Valley venture firm has alleged that the pugnacious entrepreneurs overarching objective is to pack Uber's Board with loyal allies in an effort to insulate his prior conduct from scrutiny and clear the path for his eventual return as CEO.

Non-legal translation: Steve Jobs-ing it, except meaner. Really mean.

A Kalanick spokesman decried the lawsuit: The lawsuit is completely without merit and riddled with lies and false allegations. This is continued evidence of Benchmark acting in its own best interests contrary to the interests of Uber, its employees and its other shareholders. Benchmarks lawsuit is a transparent attempt to deprive Travis Kalanick of his rights as a founder and shareholder and to silence his voice regarding the management of the company he helped create. Travis will continue to act in the interests of Uber and all of its stakeholders and is confident that these entirely baseless claims will be rejected.

Sources said Kalanick only found out about the lawsuit earlier today, which is just the way you knew this fantastically awful corporate drama about Silicon Valleys most famous and infamous startup would go.

In addition, the rest of the Uber board not suing each other, which includes Arianna Huffington andDavid Trujillo from TPG, also only found out about the lawsuit after it was filed in Delaware.

(Update: The six board members who are not part of the lawsuit met tonight to discuss what to do about this mess, including how to best proceed with its CEO search despite this tension. They will likely release a statement tomorrow, said sources.)

According to sources, what prompted the lawsuit was Kalanick not yet signing an agreement he made with investors including Benchmark, which owns about 10 percent of Uber when he was forced out by them 52 days ago. (Yes, 52 days!)

He agreed then to give up his ability to appoint an additional three seats to the board, a power he held both directly or indirectly via ownership in common and preferred shares. Kalanick promised this in his resignation letter, said the sources.

Benchmark wants a preliminary injuction to remove Kalanick from the board. Which it apparently left him on after the ousting, since he was talking to candidates to replace him.

In fact, he definitely appeared to have occupied one of those seats, after giving up the ex officio seat he had held as CEO, which Benchmark is claiming it did not agree to, either. There are then two remaining seats and Kalanick has apparently not signed the document that would then return those seats to the boards control.

Got it? Me either, but it is completely safe to say a very big mess just got messier (if possible).

A spokesperson for Uber which is nominally named in the lawsuit for legal reasons I have no interest in explaining declined to comment. (Excellent move!)

As to the current search for a CEO to replace Kalanick, as Recode previously reported, there are still three candidates to take over top leadership at the car-hailing company. Before this, the board had hoped to make a decision within two weeks.

But now, those directors are in full-scale war, so who knows if that will happen? Attention Jeff Immelt, the outgoing General Electric CEO who is still in the running for the job: You might want to duck.

Such a legal attack is, I think it is safe to say, unprecedented for any tech venture firm, as well as for Benchmark, especially since it concerns one of its most high-profile and lucrative investments.

By the way okay, I will explain: The reason Benchmark also had to add the company to the suit is due to Delaware law, but it is not seeking any relief from Uber itself.

Just from Travis, whom the firm appears to want to decimate. Also dismember. Also smash into the ground. But just legally, so bygones!

Nonetheless, the lawsuit is potentially damaging to Uber, because it contains an awful lot of information about internal woes at the company, confirming a cornucopia of reporting done on Kalanicks dysfunctional management. So, while it aims at him, Uber is obviously going to get strafed too, one source close to the board pointed out.

This is only going to hurt Uber, said the source. Its incomprehensible why Benchmark did this, although Travis should have signed the document.

But which comes as a surprise to absolutely no one who knows him even passably well Kalanick did not. And here we are!

Oh yeah, lest we forget, Uber employees still at the company have to run its complex business operations in a deeply competitive market as if nothing were wrong.

Now, all we need in this legal wrangling is the Holder report which chronicled a lot of this corporate disaster and more to be part of the discovery in this case and it will provide an entire season of drama for the media.

Indeed. Already, five claims that Benchmark makes in the 38-page lawsuit to substantiate what they call Kalanicks gross mismanagement are pretty gnarly and sometimes based on reporting done by Recode and others.

Largely, this allegation centers on failure by Kalanick to disclose much of anything to the in-the-dark board. Such as:

In closing, your honor, all I and my friends in the media (as well as Lyft) can say to Benchmark for dropping this nasty legal bomb on a Thursday in August: Thank you so very much.

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Benchmark is suing Travis Kalanick (and Uber) over board control, claiming a 'selfish' power grab - Recode

Aubrey Plaza has ‘self control’ over social media | divine.ca – Divine.ca

Aubrey Plaza has self control when it comes to social media. The 33-year-old actress plays the Instagram obsessed titular character in her upcoming movie Ingrid Goes West, and whilst she admits that she allowed herself to indulge in the photo sharing app in preparation for her role, she insists she knows when its time to get off in real life. Speaking to People magazine, Aubrey said: I did allow myself to indulge in going down those rabbit holes of Instagram and to really look at other peoples stuff way too long. In my real life I dont do that, I have enough self control to go, Okay, Ive been on here too long I dont need to be looking at my ex-boyfriends girlfriends page. When I find myself looking at strangers pictures and going, Oh, I wish I was doing what they were doing, Im like, Okay thats enough, time to get off. It comes after the Parks and Recreation star said earlier this year that she feels bad if she spends too much time online. She said at the time: Im familiar with going online and spending hours on there that ultimately make me feel bad about myself. So I think there were definitely times on set when I would just allow myself to go there, to exist in that space that we all are familiar with, but some of us dont really go into full force. Meanwhile, Aubreys co-star Elizabeth Olsen who plays Instagram celebrity Taylor Sloane who is stalked online by Ingrid in the comedy previously said she would enjoy using social media more herself if she wasnt famous. Asked if she likes using social media, she said: I think Id enjoy it if I werent an actor. There are a lot of funny things that are shared on it, and a lot of my friends, especially during the election year, would show me really funny things that were being passed around the internet that like, went viral I dont know what qualifies something as viral.

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Aubrey Plaza has 'self control' over social media | divine.ca - Divine.ca

Transcript from Tim Tebow’s media session at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa – Tampabay.com

Tim Tebow spoke with media at George M. Steinbrenner Field on Thursday night, before his team, the St. Lucie Mets, played the Tampa Yankees. Here is how it went.

Q: Have you ever played in Tampa, in any sport? Isn't your mom from Tampa?

Tebow: "Yes, Plant (High). And my grandma lived here until she passed away. I know I played here in a lot of baseball tournaments when I was young. But we didn't play in any state championships (here). Never played in the Bucs stadium."

Q: Do you enjoy meeting the fans you're drawing to games?

Tebow: "It's always nice to have support from fans or fans come out here and try to get entertained in a ballgame. But it's honestly not something that I really try to worry about or pay much attention to. I just try to stay focused on playing the game, having fun, and then if you get an opportunity to see the fans and say thanks, that's good as well."

Q: Is it an added bonus that you're playing in the Florida State League, in the state where you were raised?

Tebow: "Florida is home for me. I get to see family a lot more. I get to see friends a lot more. Just knowing people all over the state, it's nice to be able to catch up, so that's pretty cool."

Q: How committed are you to pursuing baseball until the end of the season, given your responsibilities to ESPN and the SEC Network?

Tebow: "I feel if you look at my actions and what I've been doing, I feel pretty committed."

Q: Will you play next season?

Tebow: "Yes, sir."

Q: Talk about the minor league grind.

Tebow: "The minor league grind, it isn't as much of a grind in this league as the last one, because of the traveling. But it's really not much of a grind if you really enjoy what you're doing every day. I try to have the mindset of remembering why I play the game and how fun it is every day, enjoy every moment and not just think about 'we're just going through the motions' or 'it's another BP,' or it's another long-toss session, but actually remember why I'm doing it and have fun. I think that takes away the edge of it being a grind and being a daily routine and just lets you have fun."

Q: You've been struggling at the plate lately. Have you hit a wall?

Tebow: "I just think facing good pitchers and also some days it just doesn't go through for you, too. I don't think I ever want to get comfortable to where I feel I'm in a rhythm, because this is the ultimate goal, you want to keep continuing to improve. I'm continually changing things, too, in my swing and rhythm and my timing in things, so sometimes when you're working on things, you might have to take a step back to a couple of steps forward when you get it done."

Q: What do you think about your critics, those who want you to fail?

Tebow: "I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it. If people want you to fail, then there are probably other things that are the root issue of that, and it's not me. I want to be someone who's a believer. A believer, first and foremost, in my God. A believer in my teammates, my abilities, why I'm here. A believer in people. I want to bring the best out of people, bring the most out of people, whether it's in relationships with my family, friends, everybody.

"You want to be someone who uplifts people. I want people's lives to be better because I'm in their life. I don't want their lives to be worse because I'm in it. That's something I take into every relationship, everything that I do. It doesn't matter that I'm talking to you right now. Hopefully, your day is better because of how I answered your questions. Hopefully, my teammates are better because of the way I'm going to go out and stretch with them for a minute. Everything you do, you have a chance for influence, which is one of the greatest things we can do in life, have influence over other people."

Q: Who was your biggest influence in convincing you to try baseball?

Tebow: "My dad. No question. He's probably the biggest influence on my life from when I was a little boy. He has the most passion and courage. He's the bravest person I ever met. He has given his life to helping people every single day. He just got back from Southeast Asia two nights ago. He's the man."

Q: You're about to turn 30. Do you feel 30?

Tebow: "I feel very young. I feel like a kid because I'm playing a kid's game."

Q: Did you see Michael Jordan play baseball in Jacksonville when you were young? Do you think you have something in common with him?

Tebow: "No. I would've loved to have seen him play. I don't know if we have something in common. We have a competitive itch that you have, and there's also a drive, that you don't want to live with the regret of why you didn't do something because of the thought of failure. I think that's something that hampers a lot of people, and it holds people back because they're afraid of the unknown, they're afraid of tomorrow, they're afraid of what people are going to say, they're afraid of what you all are going to say.

"And because of that, a lot of people won't strive for something. Striving and failing is not the worst thing. But one day, when you're looking back and you're 50 and you're thinking, 'Man, I wish I would have tried this and this,' in my opinion, that would be a pretty big regret."

Q: What do you want to say to your doubters?

Tebow: "I don't really have a message, because I don't have to let those people control me. They don't control my actions, what I get to do or how I treat people. I'm so thankful for that. That I get to pursue my dreams and my passions, to live out my life. You don't have to let other people control you."

Transcript from Tim Tebow's media session at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa 08/10/17 [Last modified: Thursday, August 10, 2017 6:20pm] Photo reprints | Article reprints

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AAFP Awards Third Round of Tobacco Control Mini-grants – AAFP News

The third class of recipients of the AAFP Tobacco and Nicotine Prevention and Control Chapter/Family Medicine Residency Program Mini-grants -- like their predecessors -- created novel approaches to controlling tobacco use at the state and local levels.

The Academy awarded $10,000 each to the five 2016-17 mini-grant recipients whose innovative programs addressed tobacco and nicotine prevention and control by focusing on clinical practice, social factors or public policy.

Supported in part by a grant from the AAFP Foundation, this will be the mini-grants program's final year; after careful consideration, the AAFP has decided to reallocate this funding to support its new Center for Diversity and Health Equity.

"We were very happy with the mini-grant funding model and hope to use that model in the future with other projects and programs, where appropriate," said Ashley Poole, global population health specialist in the AAFP Health of the Public and Science Division.

The Kansas AFP partnered with Tobacco Free Wichita(118 KB PDF) to test strategies for engaging physicians and other health care professionals in health messaging and advocacy on tobacco control initiatives. Specifically, the groups developed traditional media and social media training opportunities for physicians seeking to become tobacco-control advocates.

The partners offered a half-day training session with a local media firm on conducting quality media interviews. Each participant recorded an on-camera interview addressing tobacco issues and received feedback from the media firm representative.

According to the chapter, this training helped potential tobacco-control advocates communicate their stances and ideas about the importance of tobacco control more clearly and gave them insight on what journalists look for when reporting stories.

The Kansas AFP also provided training with a local oncology nurse and social media expert on using social media networks to expand reach and impact. These trainings were provided both in-person and virtually, and covered the basics of using Facebook and Twitter.

After completing the training, some participants used their established social media networks to promote Tobacco Free Wichita's social media accounts, which increased that group's following by 500 percent.

Tobacco Free Wichita also developed a hashtag -- #KSHealth -- to use when sharing health-related news statewide. The hashtag is now being widely used by organizations across the state.

As fortune would have it, the New Jersey and Delaware AFPs(271 KB PDF) had just teamed up to launch a quality improvement education project(www.njafp.org) in which they sought to address the ABCS of treating type 2 diabetes (A1c, blood pressure, cholesterol and smoking). So, when the AAFP's tobacco mini-grants came available, it made sense for the two groups to add a special focus on tobacco cessation to complement their broader project.

Here's how the groups explained it in their mini-grant project report: "We supplemented our curriculum with additional tobacco cessation education and added a partnership with the local American Lung Association (ALA) to provide additional resources. We reinforced that learning with data collection on cessation-related practice changes and tobacco counseling data from the practice (electronic health record systems)."

The groups trained practices to use a brief, evidence-based intervention and linked them to cessation resources such as the ALA's Lung HelpLine & Tobacco QuitLine, 1-800-LUNGUSA. A trainer from the ALA conducted the intervention training, which used the Ask, Advise and Refer model. Encouragingly, 95 percent of training participants said they intended to implement a new cessation strategy in their practices.

In April 2016, the Minnesota AFP House of Delegates passed a resolution asking the chapter to organize support for legislation in local cities and counties to ban nicotine sales to those younger than 21. The tobacco mini-grant the Minnesota AFP received enabled it to help lead the state's Tobacco 21 initiative(tobacco21.org).

Among the many activities the chapter listed in its project report(107 KB PDF) was recruiting members to act as Tobacco 21 champions, who used grassroots advocacy efforts to reach out to local legislators and media outlets and presented educational programs throughout the state.

The chapter also partnered with the Twin Cities Medical Society and other local public health organizations to host an education program for health care professionals to discuss both e-cigarettes and the Tobacco 21 initiative.

And when the community of Edina showed interest in Tobacco 21, the Minnesota AFP encouraged members living or practicing in the area to engage government officials and urge them to pass the legislation.

Those efforts paid off when on May 2, Edina became the first city in Minnesota to pass Tobacco 21 legislation.

Aultman Family Medicine Residency Outpatient Clinic in Canton, Ohio, caters to urban poor, Medicaid and Medicare patients, as well as some patients who are uninsured and some who have commercial insurance.

Before receiving the tobacco mini-grant, 22 percent of patients treated were smokers, and most of them had co-existing mental illness such as anxiety, depression or bipolar disorder. Additional comorbidities included heart disease, stroke, cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Not surprisingly, hospitalizations and readmissions were higher among these patients.

To complement Aultman Hospital's in-house tobacco cessation program, Aultman Give It Up!, which is run by certified treatment specialists and includes six weeks of multi-session tobacco cessation classes, the group created the AultQuit app(1 MB PDF). Program participants use the app to receive messages during their classes with tips for quitting and reminders about classes. The app also allows for better data collection and retrieval and has greatly streamlined the program's sign-up process.

The mini-grant has also permitted the Give It Up! program to incentivize potential participants with prizes and to enhance the mental health aspects of the existing classes, particularly the cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness components.

Related AAFP News Coverage CDC MMWR Teen Tobacco Use Dropped Significantly From 2015 to 2016 (6/22/2017)

Leader Voices Blog: Not Blowing Smoke: FPs Can Make a Difference on Tobacco(4/4/2017)

AAFP Tobacco Control Mini-grant Recipients Get Creative Again (7/13/2016)

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