Events
MIT-EF ... The Future of X

The Future of X ... Television ... lead participants ... March 2014 ... New YOrk

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

LEAD PARTICIPANTS: THE FUTURE OF TV

While The Future of X think tank sessions know no designated panelists, we invite seasoned and fresh innovators, entrepreneurs who are currently monetizing the changing landscape, marketers and representatives from within the industry as well as investors who provide the capital that moves the needle. Here are some of the lead participants:

Steven Asherman is President and CTO of ContentGalaxy.com, which has developed an innovative publishing platform for monetizing video. It’s a streaming service that helps publishers pool independently created videos into well-edited, flat-priced subscription channels and pay providers and affiliates based on actual subscriber usage. … Steven’s specialty has been the design and programming of large scale, commercial web services, with an emphasis on complex financial systems. His consulting clients have included IBM, Citibank, Marsh, DealerTrack.com, Fidelity Information, Columbia Pictures, and The New York Times. Steven has a number of computing technology patents and has a patent pending on a scalable architecture for supporting many independent parties collaborating on shared subscription-based Over-the-Top channels. The idea is to enable publishers to combine premium content from multiple sources, especially instructional, entertainment and news videos, and build large, targeted channels that are both affordable and profitable.

Douglas Carr, President, Carr Capital Co — Doug began his media career with his first job out of Sloan with CBS in 1979, a time when the broadcast networks commanded a 90% audience share. Later he was an investment banker on pacesetting media and information transactions involving MTV Networks, Storer Communications, ESPN, Time Inc., Dow Jones, Reuters, and others. He subsequently served as an executive with Internet content companies ALFY and Daily Voice, founded the Animal Planet Club with Discovery Communications, and is currently serving as an advisor to Tubifi, creator of a system for cost-effective production of online video.

Linda Evans, VP, Cross Platform Strategy, Time Warner Cable Media

Metodi Filipov – Co-Founder & COO – Flipps Media Inc. Metodi is co-founder and operations manager at Flipps, an innovative mobile-to-TV content delivery platform with over 8 million users. With 20+ years experience developing technology solutions, he spearheads the Flipps platform product development.

Rick Howe is a cable and television veteran, elected as a Cable Pioneer in 2011. He writes a column for itvt.com as The iTV Doctor, and provides consulting services to distributors, content providers and app developers in the enhanced television space. Will Kreth – Multiscreen Strategist/Columnist atITVT.com/. Multiscreen app strategist Will Kreth is a leader in the interactive media industry – crafting business strategy for the coding and launch of advanced advertising and enhanced content apps across devices and platforms (TV, broadband and mobile). With a diverse background in early multimedia; interactive TV/games; magazine publishing; web content; broadband services; cable TV and back to interactive TV (e.g.- Apple Multimedia Lab, PF Magic, Wired Magazine [1st employee], HotWired, Prodigy, Road Runner, Critical Metrics, Time Warner Cable, A Different Engine), he’s a listed inventor on 1 approved and 2 pending patents around multi-platform audience measurement + analytics, TV to Mobile eRFI/QR codes, and social media messaging & notification. A juror for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Primetime Emmy® Interactive Media Awards + the Engineering Emmys® and winner of the 2010ITVT.com award for Individual Leadership in Interactive Television, he’s a guest columnist forITVT.com on the future of connected TV and mobile marketing / advertising tech. More at http://www.linkedin.com/in/willkreth

Gerard Kunkel, Media and Entertainment Technology Consultant – Gerard is a digital media executive with extensive experience in leading company vision and strategy in the development of new products in media and entertainment, and has been involved with interactive TV since the early 1990s. …Currently, Gerard serves as media strategy advisor to Microsoft, where he works with the executive team shaping the product plans for television and other media with Microsoft’s many entertainment products. From 2003 to 2011, held executive roles at Comcast. Gerard joined Comcast as president of GuideWorks, a joint venture of Comcast and TV Guide. Gerard was also SVP, User Experience and Product Design. In this role he championed a quality user experience as a core business imperative, and established the Comcast User Experience Department (CUE), bringing together the product design efforts for television, voice, data, and wireless products …Prior to Comcast, Gerard was President of WorldGate Communications, an Internet TV technology company. Earlier, he was President of Broadband Applications Development Company, Director of Design and Electronic Publishing for PC Magazine, and was an award winning art director for various New York City based magazines, including: Business Week and World Business Weekly of the Financial Times of London….He is the author of two technical books and over 100 published articles on computing and technology. He is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and is also an active member of the NCTA, CEA, and CTAM

Ruth J. Morrison is CEO and founder of What’s The 411 Networks, an integrated sports, entertainment, and lifestyle news/media, marketing, and events company focused on under-served audiences globally. Employing a social strategy, the company currently produces two television shows for a variety of platforms including the Dish TV satellite network; and in preparation for the 2016 Olympics, the company is working on a U.S. – Brasil content creation and distribution strategy. A video streaming pioneer, Ruth developed and launched from conception the City of New York’s multi-channel cable television network. For three years, she worked in Brasil advising an American company, as an entertainment and television programming licensing consultant. She subsequently spent several years advising other companies on international market entry including recruiting and accompanying several companies on trade and business development missions most notably to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, the UK, and Brasil. Ruth is the first African-American independent television producer to distribute a weekly television show on broadcast channel WNYC-TV and she also licensed that show to a broadcaster in South Africa. She is also the first African-American woman to cover the New York Knicks as a beat reporter. Ms. Morrison earned a master’s degree in Interactive Telecommunications from the prestigious Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and she was a Communications Fellow at the Annenberg Washington Program of Northwestern University. Regina Rossi, Founder of Sport Mantel.Sport Mantel was founded by Regina Rossi in July 2013. Prior to Sport Mantel, she worked in Disney and ESPN’s strategy team (launching new content networks like ESPN3D and Disney Junior), in Google’s YouTube division focused on programming strategy, and in business development at an American Express backed e-commerce start-up (vente-privee). You can reach her at Regina@sportmantel.com

Jim Turner, SVP, Market Development, Net2TV – I have been in the midst of the evolution of TV for many years, starting with CBS and founding and leading companies in traditional linear television, interactive television, digital media, advanced TV advertising, and now OTT TV. …I was co-founder of one of the early leaders in disc-based interactive television, created one of the first MPEG encoding facilities on the east coast, was Executive Producer and General Manager of an ITV production facility for domestic and international clients, and was head of product (including one of the first web-original broadband video networks) at Women.com. More recently, I ran Digital Media for A+E Television Networks, was VP Product at Synacor where I created their successful TV Everywhere product for MVPDs, was SVP Product and Business Development at Canoe Ventures where I was back once again in ITV, VOD and advanced advertising among other things, and I am now at a startup where we are creating new long form TV programs and channels by partnering with great online original content producers for multiplatform and Connected TV distribution. The innovative intersection of technology, video and business has always been my sweet spot.