Two days of in-depth discussion & big-screen demonstrations devoted to exploring

• The New User Experience
• Keys to Monetization
• New Business Relationships

Hollywood’s state-of-the-art screening and meeting facility provides digital ecosystem stakeholders a unique opportunity to view firsthand the applications, advertising and technology innovations that are essential to actualizing their visions.

Who

Marty Roberts, VP of Sales and Marketing

September 27, 2010
2:00-3:15 p.m.

Track 3 – The New Consumer Experience – Concepts in Content and Applications

TV Everywhere: What Does It Really Mean and Where Is It Going?

Comcast has taken the lead with other service providers close behind, but TV Everywhere is an open-ended concept that remains to be defined as ever more programmers and new entrants such as Web portal aggregators pursue their interests in multi-device content distribution. Key players will explore the implications of new technology solutions and business models for all concerned.

Ian Blaine, CEO

September 28, 2010
2:00-3:15 p.m.

How to Maneuver in a Multi-Device World.

Consumers expect to see their favorite TV shows and movies on their favorite device – whether that’s the hottest new tablet, the smart phone they always have in their pocket, their connected-TVs, laptops, or their gaming console of choice. Media companies and device manufactures are left to tackle the complexities of ensuring a seamless end-user experience, including: negotiating content rights for multiple platforms; measuring audience size and use patterns; optimizing the playback on each new smart phone, set-top-box, over-the-top console, etc.; and monetizing the premium content at comparable rates across platforms. In this session, learn how content producers, distributors, technology companies and device manufacturers are working together behind the scenes to navigate this increasingly splintered multi-device world.

Company Publishes New Security White Paper on Best-case Practices, Including Securing Content Assets Through the Entire Video Management Lifecycle, From Ingest to Playback

SEATTLE – Aug. 3, 2010 – Media companies and content owners face an expanding challenge trying to publish their video assets across multiple devices with varying rights restrictions and advertising obligations. Today, thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company, launched a suite of new features to enhance its customers’ ability to enforce video business policies, monetization models, and content restrictions using the company’s mpx Beta video management system.

Specifically, mpx Beta now includes new tools for creating and managing curated video feeds, integrated support for applying advertising policies, and additional capabilities to enforce viewing restrictions for TV shows, live events, movies, clips, and more. In addition, the company published a new security white paper on best- practices, including methods of securing content between storage and the CDN (content delivery network), and in various playback scenarios.

“Today’s fractured video environment requires content owners to juggle an expanding list of requirements to deliver and protect their assets,” said Marty Roberts, vice president of sales and marketing for thePlatform. “The new enhancements to mpx Beta provide our customers with robust, flexible, and secure tools to protect and monetize their growing premium video libraries across a multitude of devices and platforms.”

Introduced by thePlatform earlier this year, mpx Beta offers features to make managing large content libraries easier; versatile tools to enable more business models across an ever-expanding number of websites, mobile devices, and set-top-boxes; and a continuing commitment to enterprise class performance. The new enhancements to mpx Beta features include:

Curated Feeds Drive More Video Views

Feeds provide instant presentations of the playable content catalog, including metadata such as title, descriptions, and thumbnails. The new Feeds service in mpx Beta provides additional capabilities to give content owners more power and flexibility over how content is presented. Specifically, mpx Beta customers can set editorially and dynamic playlists within the feed. Customers can increase their video views by pinning popular content to the top of the playlist and promoting additional videos based on what’s new or a content category.

Customers using Feeds to syndicate their video to partners can also use mpx Beta to apply advertising policies and restrictions to all the content in the feed. This ensures the right ads are played for partners and that content delivery requests are limited to the syndication partner.

Advanced Restrictions

Many shows, especially sporting events, have specific, location-based viewing restrictions associated with them that content owners need to manage online in order to comply with content rights obligations. Previously, thePlatform enabled customers to set broad geo-restrictions, but the new mpx Beta enables customers to set much more granular policies.

For example, with mpx Beta customers can now restrict content viewing by country, region, metro code, city, area code, postal code, and set blackout areas for specific audiences within those regions. mpx Beta also gives customers the ability to restrict content by expiration date, referring domain, IP address, and keys. Customers can apply restrictions on content as a global account default, within feeds or on individual videos.

Integrated Advertising Policy Management

Advertising policies establish a set of rules, settings, and connections to advertising sources to ensure video content is monetized properly. mpx Beta enables customers to create and manage multiple advertising policies within the mpx Beta console, streamlining and simplifying the workflow.

With mpx Beta, customers can set policies to call primary and secondary (failover) advertising providers, providing access to a larger selection of ad inventory for any given show or video clip. mpx Beta enables customers to configure specific ad policy settings for advertising bumpers, pre-rolls, mid-rolls, and post-rolls. Customers can also use the console to set the number of ads to appear in any video, the frequency of ads, and whether users can skip ads or not. thePlatform’s new advertising policy management features are integrated with a wide variety of advertising company partners.

thePlatform also added additional capabilities to mpx Beta today, with full details available at www.thePlatform.com.

New Media Security White Paper

Concurrent with today’s announcement, thePlatform published a free, new white paper outlining best practices to secure content at both the media file and playback levels. The white paper discusses security considerations for storage, content delivery, feeds, URL tokens, availability windows, IP addresses, geo-restrictions, domain referrals, device identification, digital rights management (DRM), and entitlements.

Separately, thePlatform also announced today that it was selected by the Outdoor Channel to manage the programmer’s online video publishing efforts. Additional details about that announcement can be found here.

thePlatform publishes video and other media to PCs, mobile devices and TV. Media companies rely on thePlatform as their open, central hub for managing, monetizing and syndicating billions of professionally produced video views annually. thePlatform currently provides online video management services to numerous programmers, leading media companies, and five of the top cable TV service providers in North America, including the largest “TV Everywhere” deployments.
In order to support the increasingly complex needs of customers to manage cross-platform video publishing, thePlatform provides robust customer support, including professional services, account management, and industry-leading 24/7 technical support.

SEATTLE – Aug. 3, 2010 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video management and publishing company, announced that its mpx Beta video management system has been chosen to manage and publish online video for Outdoor Channel’s popular website, OutdoorChannel.com. In addition, the network is using thePlatform’s video player technology, including features for sharing video across social networks.

Outdoor Channel, America’s leader in outdoor TV, broadcasts prominent outdoor programs focused on hunting, fishing, shooting, off-roading, adventure, and conservation. The network is available through a multitude of cable, satellite and telco providers across the United States, reaching 36 million homes, according to Nielsen Media Research. OutdoorChannel.com, Outdoor Channel’s comprehensive online platform, is the premier digital destination for outdoor enthusiasts, offering in-depth show and host pages, useful information on state hunting and fishing licenses and destinations, and an interactive community section where fans can connect and share their passion. The centerpiece of OutdoorChannel.com is a state-of-the-art broadband video player that enables users to watch an extensive library of thousands of videos – the majority in an HD viewing experience.

“Our website is an established community hub for our fans, where they can view clips of their favorite outdoor shows, like Savage Wild, Duck Commander, or Jim Zumbo Outdoors, and discover new shows, such as Buck Commander, Field & Stream’s Gun Nuts, and Dream Season Celebrity,” said Todd Merkow, president of digital media at Outdoor Channel. “OutdoorChannel.com is currently attracting approximately one million unique visitors per month. thePlatform’s proven video publishing system will provide us with a simpler, scalable and robust back-end to serve our viewers’ appetite for our authentic outdoor content.”

“Outdoor Channel is a recognized leader in creating and delivering video content for outdoor enthusiasts,” said Marty Roberts, vice president of sales and marketing at thePlatform. “mpx Beta will serve as an efficient online video platform as their content library grows and their audience increases.”

In addition to using thePlatform’s centralized video management system, mpx Beta, Outdoor Channel is also utilizing the social media capabilities of thePlatform’s video player. The player includes 10 integrations with leading social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Yahoo! Buzz, and provides Outdoor Channel with the flexibility to add more.

thePlatform publishes video and other media to PCs, mobile devices and TV. Media companies rely on thePlatform as their open, central hub for managing, monetizing and syndicating billions of professionally produced video views annually. thePlatform currently provides online video management services to numerous programmers, leading media companies, and five of the top cable TV service providers in North America, including the largest “TV Everywhere” deployments.

With the proliferation of TV Everywhere type services, phase one of cross-platform application development is well underway. Throw in mobile services and applications, such as this summer’s World Cup coverage, and there seems to be momentum building toward the “any content, anywhere, on any device” mantra we’ve been hearing about over the past few years.

Read the rest of the article here.

Read the rest of Ian’s article here.

Read the rest of the article here.

Read the rest of the report here.

Company to Provide Support for Google TV When New Service Launches

SEATTLE – June 23, 2010 – thePlatform, the leading white-label video publishing company, announced today that its video publishing system can enable customers to publish video across a wider range of popular over-the-top (OTT) services and IP-connected set-top boxes, TVs and Blu-ray Players. With a decade of experience managing cross-platform video publishing initiatives for leading media and entertainment companies, thePlatform outlined its intent to help customers leverage the expanding number of IP-connected home entertainment systems, including the upcoming Google TV platform.

According to The Diffusion Group’s (TDG) report, Broadband-Enabled TV: Evolution of OTT Hardware Platforms, more than 360 million households worldwide will own the components necessary to enjoy OTT video services on their TVs by 2014 – across games consoles, Blu-ray Players, hybrid set-top boxes, Internet set-top boxes, media-centric PCs, and networked digital TVs. Today, thePlatform enables hundreds of media companies to publish and monetize billions of professionally produced video views annually across PCs, TVs and mobile phones. While the majority of the video managed by thePlatform is now delivered to PCs, thePlatform expects that mix to shift dramatically in the coming years with the advancement of more IP-connected devices in the home and more video-centric mobile devices.

“Media and entertainment companies are looking well beyond today’s PCs and conventional set-top-boxes to reach their audiences,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “At the end of the day, our customers produce and distribute compelling video that they want to monetize, and it’s our job to alleviate the complexity to make that happen across any device or platform. Our support for these OTT services is just the beginning, and we look forward to assisting our customers’ efforts across any number of next-generation, IP-connected devices.”

“Boxee’s mission is to create the best experience for enjoying TV shows, movies, and video from the Internet on a TV, no matter what the source,” said Avner Ronen, CEO and co-founder, Boxee. “This new relationship with thePlatform means that media and entertainment companies can now easily add Boxee as a distribution point to expand their audiences and generate more revenue from advertising and rentals/purchases.”

mpx Beta Publishing Profiles, Feeds Service, and Player Development Kit: Support for OTT

Unlike other video management systems, thePlatform’s mpx Beta allows customers to upload multiple media files simultaneously and easily distribute video to websites, mobile phones and other IP-connected devices with a few simple clicks. For example, thePlatform was the first online video publishing company to introduce a profile for the newly released Apple® iPad™ back in February of this year. Today, the company unveiled publishing profiles for several new OTT platforms and stated its readiness to support publishing profiles for Google TV when that service launches.

mpx Beta uses a unique and highly efficient, non-linear “publishing profile” approach that considers a video’s destination point first – in effect, reversing the common workflow for video publishing. Once configured, this “smart publishing” methodology automates the required steps for video management, including file creation, transcoding, thumbnail generation and more. In the end, this intuitive design eases video publishing requirements, simplifies the process, and makes the system more accessible to a broader set of users.

In addition, customers can use thePlatform’s Feeds Service to deliver video into various playback environments and thePlatform’s Player Development Kit (PDK) to build their own HTML5- or Flash-based experiences for consumers.

With today’s announcement, thePlatform has enabled premium video management and publishing to the following OTT services, catering to the varying software and hardware offerings by each:

• Boxee, Inc. (video service and upcoming Boxee Box by D-Link) with details at www.boxee.tv;
• DivX, Inc. (IP-connected consoles, TVs, Blu-ray Players and more) with details at www.divx.com;
• Free Stream Media Inc.’s FlingoTV™ (upcoming video service) with details at www.flingo.tv;
• Roku, Inc. (line of Roku players) with details at www.roku.com;
• Syabas Technologies (upcoming popbox) with details at www.popbox.com;
• TiVo Inc. (line of IP-connected boxes including the TiVo Premiere) with details at www.tivo.com;
• VUDU Inc. (line of VUDU-enabled TVs and Blu-ray Players from LG, Mitsubishi, Samsung, Toshiba, and VIZIO) with details at www.vudu.com.

thePlatform currently provides online video management services to numerous programmers, leading media companies, and five of the top cable TV service providers in North America. In order to support the increasingly complex needs of customers to manage cross-platform video publishing, thePlatform provides robust customer support, including professional services, account management, and industry-leading 24/7 technical support.

SEATTLE – May 20, 2010 – Comcast Media Center and thePlatform today announced that they have collaborated with Nielsen to validate that their online video publishing solutions successfully preserve Nielsen’s audio watermarks, allowing online publishing of premium, ad-supported video content. Nielsen’s ratings system uses these watermarks to measure audiences for both video programming and commercials. This system provides the C3 ratings, which are the basis for the majority of television advertising negotiations, and will be extended to video viewing on the Internet this fall. This validation is the next logical step in advancing longer-term efforts to provide multi-platform audience measurement for media and entertainment companies served by thePlatform and Comcast Media Center.

thePlatform’s mpx video management and publishing system will allow networks interested in participating in “TV Everywhere” initiatives to distribute their content online, so that Nielsen can measure eligible cable, telco, and satellite video customers who access video programming via the Web.

“The combined capabilities of thePlatform and the CMC represent a fast, seamless and effective means for television networks and their advertisers to measure the ‘TV Everywhere’ audience, which continues to grow as a result of consumer demand for shows they can watch both when and where they wish,” said Gary Traver, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Comcast Media Center.

“Media companies are now wholeheartedly embracing multi-platform video distribution, and they want to make sure that their viewers are counted in the C3 ratings,” said Ian Blaine, CEO of thePlatform. “Confirmation that the Nielsen watermarks flow through the CMC process is a critical step to realizing this cross-platform goal.”

For this initial implementation, thePlatform and CMC have developed a streamlined process to deliver national television shows to the Web:

• Using the CMC’s Content Distribution Operations Center, or “CDOC” ingest service, CMC first captures the national video feed of a programmer’s show.
• The CMC provides editing functions for its customers and transcodes the file into a format suitable for online viewing with the Nielsen audio watermark still intact. The CMC uploads the new Flash video file into the customer’s video management system.
• Customers can then publish their show to an online video player or website, using a video management system like thePlatform’s, which has been validated to preserve the Nielsen watermark.
• Depending on its customers’ strategy, thePlatform will provide the capability to replace this file as necessary to pursue other business models, such as online video advertising insertions.

Both companies will continue to work with Nielsen as it introduces the Extended Screen ratings program to the industry later this year.

For more information about this new online commercial measurement capability, visit www.thePlatform.com. For specific details about Comcast Media Center visit www.comcastmediacenter.com. For specific details about The Nielsen Company visit www.nielsen.com.

About Comcast Media Center

Denver-based Comcast Media Center (CMC), a subsidiary of Comcast Cable, provides centralized content management and distribution solutions for cable systems, video content providers and advertisers. More information about the CMC is available at www.comcastmediacenter.com.

Comcast and Comcast Media Center are trademarks or registered trademarks of Comcast. Other trade names used in this document are acknowledged to be the properties of their respective owners.

Date: Tuesday, March 16th
Time: 9:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m.
Where: SXSW Conference, Austin, TX

Panelists:

Silvia Lovato Director, PBS KIDS GO! Interactive
Silvia Lovato is the director of the PBS KIDS GO! Web site (http://pbskidsgo.org), PBS’s Web destination for elementary school kids, where she works with media producers in the creation of fun, interactive, educational content for children. Silvia started out in online news and has been a Web producer for over 12 years. She came to PBS in 2000, after completing an MA program in Communication, Culture and Technology at Georgetown University. Silvia is originally from Brazil and is interested in how public media ideas and educational resources can be shared across borders.

Dan Manco Sr. Vice President – Digital Media, 4Kids Entertainment

James Milward Executive Producer, Secret Location

Moderator:

Marty Roberts Vice President – Marketing, thePlatform