Televisionation

ITVT/TVOT is pleased to present a new episode of “Televisionation,” our video/audio podcast exploring the advanced/interactive-TV industry.

This episode features interviews with three senior executives from measurement company, Comscore: Chief Research Officer, Michael Vinson; CEO and Executive Chairman, Bill Livek; and Chief Commercial Officer, Chris Wilson.

Among other things, Vinson discusses the difficulties inherent to audience measurement even with today’s digital technologies, explains how Comscore attempts to overcome those difficulties, and outlines how the company seeks to drive innovation. Livek, meanwhile, explains how he believes Comscore is differentiated in the measurement space, how the the company has adapted to the post-Covid environment, how it is embracing opportunities for greater transparency, innovation and collaboration, how it approaches the issue of attribution, and more. And finally Wilson discusses Comscore’s recently announced deal with Google to provide deduplicated connected-TV measurement for YouTube and YouTube TV.

This episode Julie Saltman, Lead Producer and Costume Designer of “Taking Wing,” a new VR/AR experience, loosely based on Shel Silverstein’s famous children’s story, “The Giving Tree.” Among other things, she provides an overview of the project and of the team of creators and technologists that have made it possible, and outlines future plans, which include creating a “VRoadway show."

URL: https://www.takingwingofficial.com/

ITVT/TVOT is pleased to present a new episode of “Televisionation,” our video/audio podcast exploring the advanced/interactive-TV industry.

This episode features Erik Langner, Co-Founder and CEO of the Information Equity Initiative (IEI), which describes itself as “a non-profit organization that believes everyone, regardless of geography or income, needs access to high quality digital learning resources if they are to compete and thrive.”

Langner, who was previously president of the public benefit corporation, Signal Infrastructure Group, and of the public TV and radio non-profit consultancy, Public Media Company, discusses IEI’s work databroadcasting educational programming and learning resources to schools and other organizations; explains the cloud-based, interactive library-tech platform the organization has developed to facilitate the delivery of these resources; outlines how he believes the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard will help it extend its offerings; and shares his thoughts on IEI’s goals for the next two years.

Televisionation: Friday Fireside features Rick Howe, The iTV Doctor, in conversation with prominent figures from the advanced-TV/video industry.

Some people always get the best gigs! Today’s Friday Fireside welcomes industry visionary, Jim Riley, President of US Operations for Stingray. Moving from his background at TVN, VUBIQUITY, Whip Media and BITMAX, Jim has taken a clue from his Wall of Guitars (he still plays in a band!) and is officially in the Music Business: Audio, Video and everything in-between. Next time you are singing Karaoke in your #Car or your #Shower, Jim probably made it happen.

ITVT is pleased to present the latest episode of Televisionation: Screen Culture, our new video series exploring the symbiotic relationship between culture and filmed content—television, streaming, and cinema. Hosted by fandom expert Lisa Crawford, Screen Culture was created for thoughtful discussions about the impact of premium filmed content on today’s society.

Matt Brennan is Senior Editor for Television and Pop Culture at the Los Angeles Times. Before joining the Times as television editor, Matt served as Paste Magazine’s TV editor. His writing has also appeared in Indiewire, Slate, and numerous other publications. Born in the Boston area, educated at USC and an adoptive New Orleanian for nearly 10 years, he currently resides in Los Angeles. Matt can be found on Twitter as @thefilmgoer, and recently spearheaded the launch of the LA Times’ Screen Gab newsletter.

In this episode of Screen Culture, Matt shares the realities of a career in entertainment journalism, his focus on covering television not solely as a product or “artifact” but instead as “the conversation around the artifacts,” and his belief that we’re now in a “Gilded Age” of television.

Expressing his view that the widely regarded “Golden Age” of television in the aughts was more an “aesthetic movement” than time period, Matt compares the era of Don Draper and Walter White against the large ensembles of Succession and The Crown. He envisions today’s “Gilded Age” of TV content as one where forms—drama and comedy—are melding together and shows more closely reflect contemporary societal issues. In a brief discussion of an essay by critic James Wolcott, Matt suggests that we must adapt further to recognize and respond to TV’s cultural dominance and the way it’s being consumed and understood.

Matt and Lisa also cover:
The need for accurate and effective depictions of the working class on TV;
The importance of greater diversity and representation in writers’ rooms;
The underrated status of The Americans, and Matt’s ongoing love for The Good Fight as his “favorite show on TV right now.”

Televisionation: Friday Fireside features Rick Howe, The iTV Doctor, in conversation with prominent figures from the advanced-TV/video industry.

Today’s episode of the Friday Fireside is a fascinating discussion with Teresa Phillips, Co-Founder and CEO of Spherex. Teresa has a unique product that informs content owners and distributors about international cultural norms that impact the marketability of their products. If you sell internationally, you need to watch this! Just remember that it wasn’t Ronald Reagan that brought down the Berlin Wall; it was MTV! (and Teresa has a piece of the wall to prove it!).

Televisionation: Friday Fireside features Rick Howe, The iTV Doctor, in conversation with prominent figures from the advanced-TV/video industry.

This week’s Friday Fireside topic: “Whither Goest Thou, Nielsen?” Answers provided by former Magnite/Telaria/Sling TV/DISH Network exec, Adam Lowy: the future belongs to the Programmatic and Automated advertising pipe for all television advertising, with a vastly diminished fraction coming from the traditional “Hand-to-Hand Combat” sales process. Can Nielsen step up, now that their dominance has been challenged? Adam has the answers!

ITVT is pleased to present the latest episode of Televisionation: Screen Culture, our new video series exploring the symbiotic relationship between culture and filmed content—television, streaming, and cinema. Hosted by fandom expert Lisa Crawford, Screen Culture was created for thoughtful discussions about the impact of premium filmed content on today’s society.

In this episode (PART 2) Lisa is joined by Bernie Su, a pioneer of digital and interactive content. Bernie is the founder of 96Next and a three-time Primetime Emmy award-winning interactive creator and showrunner.

His current project is Artificial, the Twitch original live audience-interactive science fiction series now entering its fourth season. The show’s third season was presented under quarantine as weekly two-hour live and interactive episodes that were remotely produced. The series was awarded the Peabody Futures of Media Award and the Primetime Emmy for Innovation in Interactive Media. His other works include The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and Emma Approved, adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels. Known for being two of the iconic interactive series of the era, they represent the first and second Primetime Emmys ever won by YouTube.

Bernie and Lisa discuss his journey from aspiring writer to interactive showrunner, and how the film Big Hero 6 inspired him to take larger and more personal steps in representation—through an Asian American family in Artificial—beyond his initial success with diverse and representative casting of his earlier shows.

The conversation also covers the evolution and future of multiplatform, interactive storytelling and the importance of “consequential” audience engagement—as in Artificial where the audience votes on major decisions that directly impact the series and its characters. Bernie shares how advances in artificial intelligence have already affected the show, and how they might affect artists in the future.

Finally, Lisa and Bernie touch on:

The contrast with scripted television formats that require “story gods.”
How audience interactivity could impact older formats such as multi-camera sitcoms.
How an audience-voted Game of Thrones might have turned out.

ITVT is pleased to present the (PART 2) latest episode of Televisionation: Screen Culture, our new video series exploring the symbiotic relationship between culture and filmed content—television, streaming, and cinema. Hosted by fandom expert Lisa Crawford, Screen Culture was created for thoughtful discussions about the impact of premium filmed content on today’s society.

In this episode Lisa is joined by Bernie Su, a pioneer of digital and interactive content. Bernie is the founder of 96Next and a three-time Primetime Emmy award-winning interactive creator and showrunner.

His current project is Artificial, the Twitch original live audience-interactive science fiction series now entering its fourth season. The show’s third season was presented under quarantine as weekly two-hour live and interactive episodes that were remotely produced. The series was awarded the Peabody Futures of Media Award and the Primetime Emmy for Innovation in Interactive Media. His other works include The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and Emma Approved, adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels. Known for being two of the iconic interactive series of the era, they represent the first and second Primetime Emmys ever won by YouTube.

Bernie and Lisa discuss his journey from aspiring writer to interactive showrunner, and how the film Big Hero 6 inspired him to take larger and more personal steps in representation—through an Asian American family in Artificial—beyond his initial success with diverse and representative casting of his earlier shows.

The conversation also covers the evolution and future of multiplatform, interactive storytelling and the importance of “consequential” audience engagement—as in Artificial where the audience votes on major decisions that directly impact the series and its characters. Bernie shares how advances in artificial intelligence have already affected the show, and how they might affect artists in the future.

Finally, Lisa and Bernie touch on:

The contrast with scripted television formats that require “story gods.”
How audience interactivity could impact older formats such as multi-camera sitcoms.
How an audience-voted Game of Thrones might have turned out.

ITVT is pleased to present the latest episode of Televisionation: Screen Culture, our new video series exploring the symbiotic relationship between culture and filmed content—television, streaming, and cinema. Hosted by fandom expert Lisa Crawford, Screen Culture was created for thoughtful discussions about the impact of premium filmed content on today’s society.

In this episode, Lisa is joined by Jordana Mollick. Jordana is President of Development and Production at Semi-Formal Productions and an Independent Spirit Award-winning producer behind films such as Hello, My Name is Doris. In partnership with director Michael Showalter, she oversees a slate that includes the upcoming film The Eyes of Tammy Faye and series The Shrink Next Door and I Love This For You.

Jordana and Lisa cover Jordana’s early career in theater, which began her journey of connecting with talented writers (initially, a group of women playwrights). This laid the groundwork for a career collaborating with exceptional talent on both sides of the camera.

Jordana’s take on screen culture addresses both the on-screen product and “the culture behind the camera.” Finding “the right collaborators” and creating a strong on-set environment are crucial to Jordana’s comprehensive approach to industry culture.

She shares Semi-Formal’s commitment to amplifying underrepresented talent—“For us it was really important to have actors that were not traditionally going to be the lead roles, be the lead roles”—and the company’s goal of producing pieces of content that “have as much humor as they do heart, and that [are] also entertaining.”

Finally, Lisa and Jordana take a spin through Semi-Formal’s impressive list of forthcoming productions, many of them based on true stories, including:

Jessica Chastain’s transformation into the late televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, to premiere at TIFF and be released September 17th (Searchlight Pictures)
The Shrink Next Door, based on a Wondery podcast, starring Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd (Apple)
The Dropout, about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, with Amanda Seyfried (Hulu)
I Love This For You, co-created by Saturday Night Live star Vanessa Bayer and inspired by events in her own life (Showtime)