Mediaboss Marketing

Memes from the NSW election campaign. Photo: Supplied

Cats and politics. Not a usual association but it didn't stop NSW Labor from pairing the two on its Facebook page, with cat pictures captioned "Cuts to hospitals? You've got to be kitten me", and "Mike Baird says prices won't go up LOL".

Such is electioneering in 2015.

Both Labor and the Coalition have invested heavily in social media this campaign. For the first time, the state parties hired agencies to focus solely on digital advertising.

But is the NSW poll shaping up as the election in which social media campaigns play a decisive role? Once again the answer is: probably not.

Advertisement

Five years after the 2010 federal poll was declared "the social media election", experts say there is little evidence that "likes" lead to seats. At the same time, they say many politicians remain too guarded online to be considered "authentic".

It is a case of no social-media risk, no social-media reward. But can politicians, in this age of absolute image control, ever really let their digital selves go?

NSW Liberal Party director Tony Nutt says "an election or two ago social media was just another billboard", whereas now it needs to be "deeper", "more complex" and specialised.

Memes for Facebook or Twitter are far quicker to make than traditional ads, allowing for greater experimentation. But Deloitte Digital's lead partner Frank Farrall warns that whatever the content, "you can't really control your message on social media".

Go here to see the original:
NSW state election 2015: the battle for 'likes' on social media

Is Emilio Azcarraga Jean set to become the king of media in the Americas?

The looming IPO of U.S. Spanish-language media giant Univision Communications Univision Communications has put the focus on a consortium of private equity firms that could be in for a big payday, but the person probably best set up to profit from it is Emilio Azcarraga Jean, the billionaire who controls Televisa. While regulations barring foreign ownership of media assets has limited his control over Televisa, Azcarrga Jean controls nearly 40% of Univision taking into account direct and indirect ownership. Hes also one of the broadcasters main providers of contents, earning his Mexico-based Televisa rich fees which could increase in tandem with the ever-growing Latino population of the United States. Soon enough, Azcarraga Jean could become the king of Spanish media in the U.S. And the way things are going, simply, the king of all media.

Univision hired a group of banks including some Wall Street heavyweights to explore a public offering expected for the second half of 2015 which aims to raise more than $1 billion at a $20 billion valuation that includes debt, a report by Reuters revealed on Tuesday. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley, and Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank will be responsible for the IPO of Univision, which according to Moodys generated $2.9 billion in sales last year.

Univision Communications Univision Communications is one of the countrys largest broadcasters, sometimes beating English-language giants like ABC, CBS CBS, NBC, and Fox Fox during primetime, according to the FT. And the future looks even rosier: according to U.S. Census Bureau, there were roughly 54 million Hispanics living in the U.S. in 2013, or 17% of the total population. That figure is set to rise to 128.8 million by 2060, they estimate, or about 31%.

Univision is right there to profit from it. According to Fitch Ratings, Univision benefits from a premier industry position, with duopoly television and radio stations in most of the top Hispanic markets, with a national overlay of broadcast and cable networks. They indicate Univisions EBITDA margin is between 38% and 40%, which translates to as much as $1.16 billion.

That puts Azcarraga Jeans Televisa in a position to continue to make bank from the U.S. Their latest annual report, for 2013, shows they made at least 5.15% of their revenue from Univision, where they reveal they control 38% of the company. As I wrote in 2010, the deal inked by Azcarraga Jean and Univisions management only increased the U.S. companys reliance on the self-proclaimed largest media company in the Spanish-speaking world, feeding more of Televisas soap operas and other programs into Univisions platforms. It also cleared up some legal issues pertaining to digital distribution, which is expected to continue growing as more and more users access content through smartphones and tablets; today, Univision derives 5% of their revenues from digital.

Azcarraga Jean had actually tried to buy Univision in 2006, but was outbid by a group led by Saban Capital along with Madison Dearborn Partners, Providence Equity, Thomas H. Lee Partners, and TPG Capital, which took it private for $12.3 billion. As is the norm, they loaded the company up with debt, which stood at $10.5 billion by the end of 2014.

Univisions IPO could be one of the largest media offerings in the past several years, and it could help make the private equity consortium, along with Azcarraga Jean (collectively Broadcast Media Partners) very rich returns on their investment. The real opportunity, though, is for the Mexican billionaire, who could use the capital to double-down on the U.S. which could soon become the largest Spanish-speaking market in the world. If demographic trends prove to be true, it could also give Azcarraga Jean a stranglehold on Spanish-language media cross the continent, making him the media king of the Americas, from Alaska to Argentina.

Visit link:
Univision's IPO Could Make Mexican Billionaire Emilio Azcarraga Jean The King Of American Media

Media Control and Power Remix
BIS 233 final project.

By: Veronika Zaporojhets

The rest is here:
Media Control and Power Remix - Video

The "Media Industries Transparency Initiative" (MITI) aims to foster openness and accountability in news businesses. It also aims to establish standards for transparency and information disclosure in the media sector in order to boost the public trust and acceptance among stakeholders.

MITI is the first initiative under the Partnership Against Corruption for Thailand (PACT) network designed to expand anti-corruption practices throughout the supply chain of a specific industry.

The Thaipat Institute, an organisation dedicated to corporate responsibility, will be a convenor for the PACT, while NMG will be the media partner of the network.

Pipat Yodprudtikan, director of the Thaipat Institute, said the PACT network began its mission with the creation of an action-oriented platform. To be in line with internationally recognised principles and guidelines, the platform is designed to facilitate the implementation of anti-graft policies and measures in industry-specif?ic targets.

"The launch of the PACT network will be a major milestone in fighting against corruption in Thailand," he said, noting that opposing corruption had been made a hot issue by Thai society and put on the national agenda.

"We need to lay down a strong infrastructure at this moment to ensure that such anti-corruption practices will be successful," he said.

Pipat said the PACT network brought together business organisations and associations from various fields, including the media, retail, insurance and service industries, such as the financial and banking sectors, through their shared goal of combating corruption.

Under this network, they will pursue action-oriented guidelines and measures, from declaring their commitment to fight graft, to formulating anti-corruption mechanisms and processes in their organisations before expanding such practices further to their business partners and those within their supply chain.

"In the media industry, the border between editorial and business becomes blurred. It also allows investment groups to take control over the management of a media organisation and to have a certain level of impact on editorial work," Pipat said.

All listed companies and business organisations are welcome to join the PACT network. More information, including a how-to manual on "Anti-Corruption in Practice" launched by the Thaipat Institute, is available at http://www.pact.network.

Go here to see the original:
NMG, Thaipat Institute jointly launch media transparency initiative

Milwaukee's Summerfest music festival draws an audience of about 900,000 people a year. But now it's looking to expand its audience to people watching away from the crowds and on their couches.

Summerfest has partnered with the Los Angeles company Live Media Group to live-stream the festival on the Web so that viewers at home can see headliners such as Kings of Leon, Linkin Park and Florida Georgia Line perform.

Music festivals have previously been available to online viewers through platforms such as YouTube and Ustream. But Live Media Group -- which does the behind-the-scenes work on streamed events -- is hoping music fans will flock to the see the shows through its app, with "grid view" technology that allows users to preview videos of multiple performancesand choose which one to watch.

"The frustration was that, with music festivals, you've got four stages going on at once," said LMG Chief Executive Brad Sexton, who founded the company in 2008. "The festivals and users wanted user control and multiple feedsthroughout the experience."

This isn't the first time the company -- headquarteredin Van Nuys with 23 full-time employees -- has been involved in the live music space. It has also produced the live streams for Live Nation and Yahoo's yearlong concert series, with one show every day.

The shows in the 365 series included concertsby the likes of Aerosmith, Usher and Lady Gaga, though the companies have not said how many people watched the concerts.

To broadcast the shows, the company employs a crew of freelancers to do the camera and audio work. Producing the live stream for Summerfest will require 18 to 22 TV cameras, LMG said.

LMG started as a production company working with Hollywood movie studios on their film events.Recently, it worked on the live stream of the Independent Spirit Awards red carpet and the "Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part 1" premiere.

It has also done previous work on music festivals including New Orleans Jazz Fest and Tortuga Music Festival.

Follow Ryan Faughnder on Twitter for more entertainment business coverage: @rfaughnder

Read more here:
Los Angeles company Live Media Group helps bring concerts to the Web