News & Opinion

PRSA Los Angeles’ Board Selects Bob Gold to be Honored at the 2019 PRism Awards in Los Angeles Bob Gold, President and CEO of Bob Gold & Associates, a Southern California boutique public relations and marketing agency, has been voted by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Los Angeles Board of Directors to be honored as the 2019 Communications Professional of the Year to be presented at the Los Angeles PRism Awards celebration on October 15 at the Taglyan Complex in Hollywood.   Bob Gold was selected for the program’s most distinguished individual accolade, Communications Professional of the Year, for his outstanding leadership and management skills, innovation and creativity, and unparalleled impact and outcomes for clients, as well as his commitment to important causes, charities and mentorship of young professionals. His award will be presented by longtime friend, KTLA-TV News anchor, Glen Walker. “To be recognized by peers is the ultimate compliment for every professional,” said Gold. “This honor is entirely unexpected, and deeply appreciated.” With over 30 years of experience in public relations and marketing, Gold’s impact on the industry and results for his clients are internationally recognized. The firm has recently been on a tear, adding new clients, staff and partners around the world. In the past year, the company has been recognized as the #2 Boutique PR Firm by Clutch, #13 PR firm in Los Angeles by O'Dwyer's, #2 B2B Advertising and Marketing Firm in Los Angeles by Clutch, and one of the Most Innovative and Attractive Work Environments by Cablefax. Bob Gold founded and manages Bob Gold & Associates, one of the premier independent integrated communications public relations agencies in the country.  The agency’s specialty is being experts at the nexus where video content meets technology and distribution. He has also helped raise millions of dollars for charities, taught hundreds of students and helped further strategic business plans for numerous businesses and associations. Throughout his career, Gold has helped launch dozens of companies, re-branded many others and created countless successful campaigns for companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Gold is also the Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Hemisphere Technologies Inc., a Nevada corporation, which is dedicated to investing in publicly traded and privately held technology companies. Gold has extensive experience in small and large-scale transactions and works as a key member engaged in all aspects including sourcing, evaluating, structuring, monitoring, and, where applicable, harvesting investments. Gold is also a published author of a popular children’s picture book, The Shiny Penny. Gold holds many honors including being inducted into the Cable TV Pioneers along with Comcast’s Brian Roberts, CNN’s Ted Turner and other notables. He holds a Master’s degree in Communications Management from the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California, where he also sits on the Alumni Board of Directors. When he’s not helping others, Gold can usually be found more than 60 feet underwater on a scuba diving “mancation” with his three sons. PRSA is the world’s largest and most reputable association for public relations professionals. For 55 years, PRSA-LA has been hosting the PRism Awards — the Los Angeles region’s premier awards program recognizing excellence in public relations strategic campaigns and tactical programs. The Los Angeles Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America is comprised of nearly 600 agency, in-house and independent public relations professionals representing LA-area corporations, academic institutions, government agencies and nonprofit organizations.

Empowering HBO Asia To Scale Their Business With Ease And Efficiency, Through The Automation Of Media Workflows By Ooyala Flex Media Platform Ooyala, a leader in content production, distribution and monetization solutions, has signed its latest client, HBO Asia, an award-winning entertainment provider, to drive efficiencies into their content distribution business across linear and OTT channels, and speed up their time to market for Asia. With the Ooyala Flex Media Platform integrating and connecting all of HBO Asia’s existing systems, processes, and tools, HBO Asia can now streamline and automate their video workflows, with a single source of access and truth.   “HBO Asia is an innovative and leading brand for entertainment content in the region, and an important new client added to our fast-growing customer list,” said Jonathan Huberman, CEO, Ooyala. “We are proud to be powering their content distribution business, bringing cost savings and efficiencies to their operations, and supporting them in scaling the business effectively.”   HBO Asia, part of the global entertainment company HBO, brings the best of Hollywood to Asia with its award-winning original series and programs, reaching 23 territories across Asia with five 24-hour commercial-free subscription movie channels. HBO content is distributed via their traditional linear channel partners, as well as to HBO’s own streaming platform, HBO GO. In order to scale and grow the business with momentum, HBO Asia will automate their content and delivery processes to increase the speed and efficiency of their media operations. The network will also leverage and consolidate their existing systems for encoding, quality control, and digital rights management into one platform and access.   The Ooyala Flex Media Platform - the world’s fastest growing content supply chain solution being used by innovative content owners to simplify millions of video workflows - is used to orchestrate media workflows for HBO Asia from start to finish, and as media logistics to prepare and process content for quality control, encoding, and finally, distribution across both linear and Over-The-Top (OTT) channels.   From receiving a content file, validating it, applying QC, approving it, transcoding it, packaging it with digital rights to distributing it, Ooyala Flex Media Platform streamlines the entire process, which is hosted on HBO’s premises.   “Thanks to the open and flexible Ooyala Flex Media Platform, we are now able to automate our processes and distribute content to our viewers more quickly and efficiently, without any additional resources,” said Vincent Teo, HBO Asia's Head of Technology & Operations. “This frees up the team to focus on expanding the business and driving more revenue.”

Implications For Linear Vs. Mobile Viewing Captured in Recent Doubling of NFL Viewers on Mobile Devices while Linear Viewing Declines Report Highlights: Smartphone-only video starts topped 50% globally for the first time, a 13.2% year-over-year change and the largest in five quarters Mobile-video plays (including tablets) grew 9.8% globally year-over-year in Q2, following slowdown in Q1 For the second time, mobile video (including tablets) starts exceeded 60% Total time watching long-form on smartphones topped 75% in North America Recent NFL report shows 65% increase on digital devices over past year and a 147% 2018 season boom in smartphone NFL content consumption   Smartphone video starts topped 50% globally for the first time, a 13.2% year-over-year change and the largest in five quarters, per Ooyala’s Q2 2018 Global Video Index Report. Despite a temporary leveling-off in the first quarter of 2018, video plays on mobile devices (tablets and smartphones) surged 9.8% globally in the second quarter, exceeding 62% of all online videos for the first time. "We see the Q1 pause in mobile video’s rapid growth curve as a normal transition as consumer habits and content creators’ initiatives get in alignment," said Jim O'Neill, Ooyala principal analyst.  "Q2 represented a reignition of mobile-video consumption coinciding with new content initiatives, season-finale TV events and sports-season finales.” “More content creators, seeing the trend toward greater long-form video consumption on mobile devices -- a trend we’ve been noting since last year -- are now developing content concurrently for multiple platforms and are transitioning beyond snackable mobile-only content,” O’Neill added. Regional Mobile Video Viewing Trends In North America, mobile plays increased to 56% of all video starts, up 4% year-over-year and up 14% since Q2 2016; mobile starts in North America have exceeded 50% for eight quarters; long-form time watched on smartphones topped 75%; In the Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA) region, mobile video hit 54% of all starts, up from 49% a year ago; Mobile video’s share of all plays in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region was 74% -- the highest ever, and up 64% in two years; Latin America’s (LatAm’s) mobile starts topped 65%, an increase of 20% year-over-year and 38% over two years.   “We’ll see a massive uptick in Q3 as more fans watch NFL games on their mobile devices, and, just as legacy TV networks use NFL games to drive traffic to other television content, this promises a spillover effect for other genres of mobile content,” O’Neill concluded.  “Content owners and distributors need to take advantage of this unprecedented period of demand to pivot into treating technology operations much as manufacturing-based industries treat manufacturing operations.  The move to a ‘content supply chain’ is a fundamental, data-driven change transforming the media industry." The full Ooyala Q2 2018 Global Video Index Report can be found here.

Ooyala and LOGIC Partner to Streamline Video Operations for Network Co-Owned by Disney and German Media Giant RTL   Ooyala is streamlining video operations for SUPER RTL, a joint venture of RTL Group and Disney, with the Ooyala Flex Media Platform -- a video  content supply chain solution being used by innovative content owners worldwide to simplify millions of video workflows. Ooyala’s flexible and configurable content supply chain optimization platform automates tasks, simplifies workflows and speeds up the time-to-market for content creators and distributors.   Ooyala is delivering an end-to-end solution with Germany-based LOGIC media solutions GmbH, built using Microsoft Azure Media Services that will optimize SUPER RTL’s operations and simplify content delivery to OTT platforms.   “Today’s broadcasters and media companies typically face the question of whether to build or buy a solution to manage and deliver their video content,” said Jonathan Huberman, CEO, Ooyala. “By migrating to the Ooyala Flex Media Platform, SUPER RTL has the best of both worlds – a solution that’s quickly and efficiently deployed off-the-shelf, but is also highly customizable and that seamlessly integrates with existing technology.”   SUPER RTL is a Cologne-based German television network operated by RTL Disney Fernsehen GmbH & Co. Launched in 1995, it was the first German television channel aimed mostly at children, and today is the country’s most popular TV station for children.   The project grew out of Ooyala’s collaboration with Microsoft, who had been in talks with SUPER RTL on migrating its digital video platform to the cloud. Microsoft introduced Ooyala to SUPER RTL to provide the workflow and content management components. For the implementation and local support, Ooyala subsequently brought in its local partner LOGIC.   “The media landscape is evolving faster than ever, introducing new and growing challenges that left our existing technology obsolete,” said Boris Bolz, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer, SUPER RTL. “We needed a solution that could provide greater flexibility and deeper insights across our entire operations, all while future-proofing our services. The Ooyala Flex Media Platform has allowed us to build the best solution for our needs, and being implemented on Microsoft Azure, it can easily be scaled as our service grows and new technology is introduced.”   “As part of the media industry’s digital transformation, we are seeing many media customers migrate their online video platforms to the cloud,” said Rainer Kellerhals, Media & Entertainment Industry Lead EMEA, Microsoft. “Microsoft Azure Media Services and Azure CDN provide a complete set of cloud services for this scenario. The project at SUPER RTL is an excellent example for how we work with customers and leading industry solution providers like Ooyala to help customers migrate their services to the cloud for improved scalability and shorter time-to-market.”   Ooyala, a leading provider of software and services that simplify the complexity of producing, streaming and monetizing video, developed the Ooyala Flex Media Platform to connect the entire video content supply chain for broadcasters and content owners, from production to profit. The platform provides central workflows, shared metadata infrastructure and open APIs to integrate with existing systems and to provide a single source of truth for the content owners.

Ooyala Among First Media-Technology Firms to Provide Support for Important SMPTE-Developed Standard Across All Stages of Content Value Chain Ooyala will provide extended support for the Interoperable Master Format (IMF) with the Ooyala Flex Media Platform, Ooyala’s flexible and configurable content supply chain optimization platform that automates tasks, simplifies workflows and speeds up the time-to-market for content creators and distributors. With IMF support, customers of the Ooyala Flex Media Platform -- the world’s fastest growing media asset management and workflow automation solution being used by the world’s most innovative content owners to simplify millions of video workflows -- can significantly reduce the costs and improve the efficiency of their multi-version, multi-platform distribution needs. IMF is a file-delivery standard created by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) that reduces the number of different versions of a video file required for distribution to viewers in different markets and on different platforms around the world. Prior to IMF, thousands of different versions of a widely distributed motion picture – reflecting various combinations of subtitles, metadata, audio, formatting and other features -- would be required in order to support multiple-market-segment distribution. The efficiencies offered by IMF – increasingly embraced by major studios and SVOD services -- have been estimated to achieve savings of 25% or more in storage and “versioning” costs. “Ooyala is precisely aligned with IMF’s goals, helping content creators and distributors streamline their operations to be more profitable,” said Jonathan Huberman, Ooyala CEO. “Unlike other technology partners, Ooyala provides end-to-end support for IMF across the entire content supply chain. And with seamless integration of existing tools into the Ooyala Flex Media Platform, we’re enabling IMF strategies for companies who would otherwise lack the necessary technology. The technology community has been listening to content providers, and we’re equipped to help them truly capitalize on global monetization opportunities.”  The Ooyala Flex Media Platform will enable an IMF workflow while still working with existing business-critical technologies. Among other features, the platform natively supports receipt of Interoperable Master Packages (IMPs) and transcodes them into renditions required for streaming to customer devices. Ooyala will provide clients IMF support across all stages of the content supply chain -- addressing a range of IMF requirements from asset management through processing, distribution and digital playout. Ooyala, a leading provider of software and services that simplify the complexity of producing, streaming and monetizing video, developed the Ooyala Flex Media Platform to connect the entire video content supply chain for broadcasters and content owners, from production to profit. The Ooyala Flex Media Platform provides central workflows, shared metadata infrastructure and open APIs to integrate with existing systems and to provide a single source of truth for the content owners.

Alliance Powers New One-Stop Solution to Get Content onto Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, YouTube and Other Platforms Easily, Meeting All Regional Requirements ODMedia Signs up for Ooyala Flex Media Platform to Streamline Operations Ooyala has collaborated with the ODMedia Group on a new strategic partnership, integrating ODMedia’s video localization and delivery capabilities with Ooyala’s video production, management, distribution and monetization services. The strategic partnership is a major step in helping content owners reach global audiences and markets realizing new revenues more quickly. The combination of Ooyala’s Flex Media Platform and ODMedia Group’s established position as preferred delivery partner with most global platforms, including the likes of Netflix, Google Play, iTunes and YouTube, will enable broadcasters and content owners to deliver content to any platform, any time, in any format, cost effectively. In addition, the partnership will address scale and complexity in producing different local versions of content by streamlining the processes for content companies seeking to deliver local experiences across traditional and new media platforms. “Increasingly, content owners and distributors are targeting global audiences, but there are significant costs involved in ensuring the right format requirements are met,” said Jonathan Huberman, CEO, Ooyala. “Through this new partnership, we’re able to provide a best-of-breed solution for delivering content to today’s top platforms, everywhere in the world. This means getting content to market faster, and at a lower cost – unlocking opportunities for content owners in every region.” ODMedia also has deployed the Ooyala Flex Media Platform to streamline time and resource consuming workflow processes. The Ooyala Flex Media Platform, the world’s fastest growing media asset management and workflow automation solution being used by the world’s most innovative content owners to simplify millions of video workflows, will help ODMedia automate and better manage internal media workflow tasks that are multiplying along with ODMedia’s rapid growth. Netherlands-based ODMedia Group is a leading video-on-demand (VOD) company, offering content management, encoding and extensive distribution services to enable VOD, linear TV and catch-up TV offerings. ODMedia processes hundreds of hours of content every day and distributes content to over 120 countries and 1000 platforms, including most IPTV/ cable operators, VOD platforms and OTT providers such as XBOX, Netflix, iTunes, Google Play and Amazon. “Delivering video to a global audience is often easier said than done. It can add a lot of manual processes, time and costs to a project,” said Sjef Pijnenburg, ODMedia Group. “Partnering with Ooyala – and leveraging their expertise – has significantly added to our capabilities, allowing us to better serve the demands of media companies seeking to grow and improve their operations.” Ooyala, a leading provider of software and services that simplify the complexity of producing, streaming and monetizing video, developed the Ooyala Flex Media Platform to connect the entire video content supply chain for broadcasters and content owners, from production to profit. The platform provides central workflows, shared metadata infrastructure and open APIs to integrate with existing systems and to provide a single source of truth for media companies.

Best in Class Ooyala Flex Media Platform-- Shortlisted for an IABM BaM™ Award at IBC --  Becomes the Preferred Global Solution The Ooyala Flex Media Platform, the world’s fastest growing media-asset-management solution, has been shortlisted for a BaM™ Award from IABM – the International Association for Broadcast & Media Technology Suppliers, at IBC 2018 in Amsterdam. Ooyala will demonstrate the solutions which underpin its dramatic business growth since last year’s conference. “From script to screen -- no matter where in the world it’s happening, from the first day of production to the final broadcast -- our customers rely on Ooyala to power their content. We cut the complexity of content creation, management, and distribution, so customers get content to market faster at lower cost. That’s the magic of the Ooyala Flex Media Platform: fast, smart, and flexible, it integrates seamlessly with any environment,” said Jonathan Huberman, CEO, Ooyala. “It’s why we are becoming the leading media asset management and workflow orchestration solution.” Ooyala Flex Media Platform provides a unified framework that optimizes the entire content supply chain, which customers can customize to meet their specific needs. The platform leverages automation and artificial intelligence to streamline video workflows and processes, connect teams and tools for greater collaboration, and enable richer metadata and analytics that power critical new insights and a single source of truth throughout the entire content supply chain. New products and features will include: Streamlined VOD content delivery: This includes rail curation and metadata-tagging of content with OoyalaMAM, a media asset management (MAM)-based content management system (CMS) that enables sophisticated processing, multi-platform delivery and tracking of VOD assets. Sports Video Workflows: Sports workflows have been reimagined with the Ooyala Flex Media Platform -- from live streaming with OoyalaLIVE, live clipping of growing files with OoyalaMAM, and syndication to multiple platforms including social media, OTT, and apps. The platform enables automatic workflow rules, reducing manual steps and delivering content within seconds, and can power viewing experiences with OoyalaPLAY and content recommendations with OoyalaLIVE. Intelligent Archiving: The Ooyala Flex Media Platform is enabling new ways to monetize archived content. Years of archived content can be automatically indexed leveraging Microsoft Video Indexer’s AI capabilities for content recognition and speech-to-text transcription, enabling customers to automate the process of tagging their archive, managing its life cycle, and delivering content to audiences. Interoperable Master Format (IMF) support: Ooyala has extended its support for IMF-centric workflows across all stages of the content supply chain, including Digital Video Playout. Among other features, the Ooyala Flex Media Platform now natively supports receipt of Interoperable Master Packages (IMPs) and transcodes them into renditions required for streaming to customer devices. An open and integrated ecosystem: Ooyala continues to expand its partner ecosystem with integrations such as Interra Baton for Auto-QC, Telestream Vantage for transcoding, MPP Global for e-commerce needs, Microsoft cognitive services, and 24i for AppCMS experiences.   IBC attendees can schedule a meeting with Ooyala at Hall 14 Booth #G02, by email sales@ooyala.com or registering here.

Networks need to focus on the consumer experience and not use B2B language says Bob Gold, CEO of Bob Gold & Associates. This is one of the pearls of wisdom from Gold's recent survey of industry professionals about streaming media services like Netflix, Hulu and start-up video brands.   [embed]https://youtu.be/7vpAE8UHwaw[/embed]   Gold points out that, with so many choices, a strong brand becomes more important than ever to gaining consumer eyeballs. To that point, in an OTT world with a seemingly infinite number of video choices, a strong brand will be more important than ever. This should be to the local operators’ advantage, as they have a recognizable brand in the communities they serve and can provide value by making these services easily accessible with payments integrated into a common billing mechanism.   He likens today’s environment to the early days of cable when people who had “free” broadcast television, asked why they needed cable and its additional channels.   His survey indicates that people are frustrated with the bundle and the seeming chokehold of the traditional set-top box and associated DVR fees. Integrating streaming services into more traditional offerings, as many providers are just beginning to do, could reduce churn and cord cutting and satisfy consumers.   As in the early days of cable when operators would provide free premium service weekend previews, this HBO veteran says that free service trials are critical to showing prospective customers the value proposition of any given service. It goes beyond a free offering, however, as the ease of signing up for and, as importantly, cancelling a service is important. Gold stresses the importance of having a trusted brand in this process.   In the interview, Gold indicates that online and streaming video is at an inflection point, and now is the time to really put the consumer first because they are no longer limited to the traditional linear video bundle.   Join the conversation on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/viodi?lang=en    

Ooyala Flex Media Platform Helps Turner Automate and Orchestrate Workflows, Reducing Content Processing Time by 85% Ooyala is powering content syndication for Turner Asia Pacific with the Ooyala Flex Media Platform, a flexible and configurable content supply chain optimization platform that automates tasks, simplifies workflows and speeds up the time to market for Turner. With increasingly complex content formats and requirements, Turner’s technology and operations team needed a single platform to power their syndication workflows. Turner required greater visibility into campaigns and projects in order to manage, add and deliver content to new and existing partners quickly, and expand revenue opportunities. The Flex Media Platform manages all campaigns, content, metadata and business rules, providing Turner with complete visibility into its operations, reducing manual tasks, saving time and freeing up resources. With the solution deployed in the cloud, Turner’s operation teams across the Asia Pacific region have seamless access and control anytime, anywhere. “Our syndication business in the Asia Pacific region is both fast-changing and complex, requiring us to get content to our partners quickly and efficiently,” said James Crossland, Turner International’s Regional Vice President of Technology & Operations. “The Ooyala Flex Media Platform, with its flexibility and strong orchestration capabilities, allows our team to configure workflows according to our business rules and automate manual processes to reduce repetition and unnecessary delays.” “Television companies today are dealing with accelerating complexities and time pressures in delivering content,” said Jonathan Huberman, CEO, Ooyala. “We are delighted to partner with Turner, to streamline their media operations with the Ooyala Flex Media Platform, and to bring them cost savings and efficiencies. Together, we’re expanding their business with the same resources while increasing revenue from their partners.” Ooyala, a leading provider of software and services that simplify the complexity of producing, streaming and monetizing video, developed the Flex Media Platform to connect the entire video content supply chain for broadcasters and content owners, from production to profit. The Flex Media Platform provides central workflows, shared metadata infrastructure and open APIs to integrate with existing systems and to provide a single source of truth for the content owners. For Turner, the Ooyala Flex Media Platform keeps track of content that has been processed and archived so that newly on-boarded licensees can immediately receive content from Turner’s existing catalogue. This provides not only greater visibility, but also opportunities for rapid expansion. “To be ready for tomorrow’s media and entertainment world, we must be agile and adaptable. We expect our technology solutions to be future-proof and scalable,” added Crossland.