News & Opinion

In the evolving world of TV advertising, where the shift from traditional to digital formats challenges revenue goals, Charter Communications has made a groundbreaking move. By integrating ShowSeeker's innovative Pilot system, Charter is setting a new standard in ad-order management, potentially reshaping the industry's future.  Charter's Spectrum Reach, handling ad sales across 91 markets in 36 states, has already seen remarkable results with Pilot, generating 290,000 orders for its diverse clientele. This cloud-based solution not only streamlines the order management process but also enhances inventory accessibility and sales efficiency. Chris Faw, Senior VP of Operations at Spectrum Reach, emphasizes the system's impact: "What it does is make us better at mining that existing pool of audience that we’ve had all along," highlighting the system's ability to "unlock" and make inventory more "salable, usable."  With around 60,000 linear channels to sell against daily, even a slight efficiency improvement could unlock significant opportunities. Pilot's flexibility and vendor responsiveness make it an ideal tool for selling converged campaigns, offering a one-stop-shop experience that could set a new industry benchmark.  For a detailed dive into how Charter and ShowSeeker are changing the game in ad-order management and why this might be a turning point for the industry, read the full story here.   

In a groundbreaking achievement that's setting the tech world abuzz, Varnish Software, in collaboration with Intel and Supermicro, has shattered previous records in content delivery network (CDN) throughput. This Swedish caching specialist has not only pushed the boundaries of speed and efficiency but has done so with a keen eye on sustainability, boasting an almost hard-to-believe throughput of 1.17 Gbps per Watt from a single edge server. This achievement marks a significant leap forward in the quest for more sustainable and cost-effective live streaming and video delivery solutions.    For those intrigued by the intricacies of high-performance streaming technologies and the sustainability of digital infrastructures, this development is not to be missed. Varnish's breakthrough promises to reshape how we think about and manage large-scale content delivery, blending cutting-edge technology with environmental consciousness.    Catch the full story and dive deeper into this exciting breakthrough here. 

Bob Gold & Associates (BG&A), the internationally recognized, data-driven public relations and marketing agency now in its 25th year, was recently named a winner in multiple categories in the 58th Annual PRism Awards, including ‘Campaign on a Shoestring Budget’ and ‘Integrated Communications’. Presented by the Los Angeles chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA-LA), the PRism Awards is the premier awards program recognizing excellence in public relations strategic campaigns, tactical programs and professional merit.    “I am very proud of our team and what they have been able to accomplish,” said Bob Gold, President and Founder of Bob Gold & Associates. “We always strive to provide creative and highly tailored communications solutions to our clients that deliver meaningful and data-driven results.”    BG&A was recognized in the ‘Campaign on a Shoestring Budget’ category for its work with the McCoy Law Firm, with contributions by Bob Gold; Chris Huppertz, Vice President of Communications; Andrew Laszacs, Senior Account Manager; and Kelly Makepeace, Account Coordinator. McCoy engaged the agency to swiftly produce a buzzworthy public news conference based on a lawsuit McCoy filed on behalf of the biological family of two children allegedly murdered by their foster parents. Securing significant local and national new coverage, BG&A was successful in helping expose the failure of state and local child protection agencies and their ineffective adherence to family reunification processes.     For the ‘Integrated Communications’ category, BG&A won for its wholistic rebranding campaign for the trade association, the National Content & Technology Cooperative (NCTC) – formerly the National Cable Television Cooperative. This included developing a new logo, brand guide, messaging, sizzle reel and executing a PR launch campaign leading into the association’s largest annual trade expo and conference. Bob Gold; Chris Huppertz, Vice President of Communications; Beth Braen, Vice President of Client Services; Robert Brownlie, Account Executive and Sandra Stanisa, Account Coordinator collaborated with Martin von Ruden, CEO of Capital M. Co. to craft a new identity that would imbue trust and confidence in NCTC, reflecting the association’s new mandate to introduce innovative technology and services to help its members grow and keep pace with future industry trends.    The 58th Annual PRism Awards were held on October 13, 2022 at the Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica. PRSA-LA is comprised of nearly 600 agency, in-house and independent public relations professionals representing Los Angeles-area corporations, academic institutions, government agencies and nonprofit organizations.    Read More here.

The internationally recognized, data-driven public relations and marketing agency, Bob Gold & Associates (BG&A) is thrilled to announce that we recently celebrated 25 years of helping launch and grow nearly 250 clients ranging from hi-tech startups and associations to Fortune 500 companies.   Since our founding in 1997, Bob and his team have established themselves as a premier communications agency for leading hardware and software tech companies alike, expanding far beyond our roots in cable TV to encompass industries including media and entertainment, streaming, IoT, AdTech, enterprise software, blockchain and communication service providers.   “Whether clients are on the upswing or are in trouble, we have stepped up and helped shape their message and meaning to their community,” said President and Founder, Bob Gold. “For a quarter century, we always put our clients’ interests first.  Honesty is so rare today.  We pride ourselves on pushing back, and not being ‘yes folks.’ It is the only way to ensure their company, brand and reputation meet the future head on.”   We stay relevant in order to propel clients’ businesses forward, providing creative solutions and highly tailored communications programs that deliver meaningful results. This not only includes offering a variety of timely and much-needed services, but also creative services to support rebranding efforts and introduce disruptive technologies.   Current and recent clients include next generation smart home services, NFTs for the metaverse, AI-powered energy management, lab-made cheese, social justice campaigns, streaming channels, and highly touted individual shows.   The company’s proprietary BG&A Insight™ is a unique, data-driven approach to PR and brand management that has helped the firm meet every client’s unique needs by implementing proactive and personalized PR campaigns tackling all five pillars offered in the program.   Bob Gold & Associates has received numerous accolades and awards. Most recently, the firm was recognized by Forbes as one of America’s Best PR Agencies for 2021. Recently, we have been selected among the Top California Public Relations Firms by DesignRush. The agency was also recognized as a top place to work by Cablefax Magazine in 2019. That same year, Bob Gold was named Communications Professional of the Year by the Los Angeles Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. Gold was inducted into the Cable TV Pioneers in 2007.   Special Thanks to our friends and partners in the media who have supported and celebrated with us. CableFax Daily highlighted our anniversary! When (Bob) Gold Turns Silver - It’s been 25 years since Bob Gold founded his PR and marketing firm Bob Gold & Associates after getting his start in the industry at HBO and Prime Ticket. As a communications pro, he’s had a bird’s-eye view of cable’s transformation during that period. “This is the 1980s all over again—in terms of connected TVs being the new cable system, in terms of bundling that’s coming together. What’s really interesting is that cable was the brand that everyone loved to hate. It was expensive, you had no choice, and it was bad customer service. So direct-to-consumer streaming was like this cure. Nobody hates that cable operator anymore,” he told CFX. That might be a bit of PR wishful thinking, but cable certainly has come a long way from the days of the evil “cable guy.” The PRWeek Podcast featured our very own Bob Gold! Longtime agency owner talks about celebrating his film’s quarter-century in business, legendary moments in entertainment communications and sports TV rights. Palos Verde Magazine spotlights Bob in the feature story on page 16 -- Rolling Hills Resident and Owner Bob Gold & Associates, Celebrates 25 Years in Business and Discovers a New Chapter in his Book of Life BG&A Founder Bob Gold reminisces about 2+ decades in cable and telecom with Jeff Baumgartner in a recent Light Reading Podcast   Stroll Rolling Hills magazine celebrates Rolling Hills resident Bob Gold on the 25th anniversary of Bob Gold & Associates with a treasure trove of photos starting on page 12.

Hollywood’s most unlikely hero, Danny Trejo, comes to life as a playable character inside the multiplayer open world survivor game, SCUM. In addition, Epik Prime Marketplace will offer Trejo’s first ever NFT collection, titled “The Many Faces of Danny Trejo.”   Epik, the leading global licensing agency immersing major brands into AAA games, in a collaboration with Gamepires’ SCUM, will offer fans the ability to select Trejo as a character with customizable options and accessories to navigate through the multiplayer survival game. Voiced by Trejo himself, the avatar is modeled after his iconic 1990s roles that launched his career.   “I’ve been fortunate to work on some incredible projects throughout my career, but seeing myself in a badass game like ‘SCUM’ has got to be one of the highlights,” said Trejo in a statement. “Working with Epik and Gamepires has been an awesome collaboration. This partnership is an opportunity to engage with fans on a different level.”   READ MORE Danny Trejo to Appear as Playable Character in Survival Video Game, Trilby Beresford, The Hollywood Reporter SCUM: The One and Only Danny Trejo is Now a Playable Character, Jason Nieva, Player.One

Viamedia, the country’s leading independent provider of ad-sales representation to Cable TV Systems saw a record-setting 42% increase in ad spending for Q1 Midterm political advertising.  The triple-digit -- and higher-- growth was seen across all political categories -- including House, Senate, gubernatorial, local races and issues especially in Battle Ground states.   The data was culled from political advertising purchased on more than 60 multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) of various sizes in more than 70 markets.   David Solomon, President & CEO at Viamedia noted, "We have robust insights into the local ad trends around the country. What we’re seeing, so far this season, underscores the reliability of political advertising directed primarily at linear television platforms.”   The company also saw a significant spike in digital political advertising, driving the portion of spending on digital to 18% of the total in first-quarter 2022 – though the digital spending remains dwarfed by linear TV spending.   READ MORE: Viamedia Sees 42% Increase in 1Q Political Ad Spend, Jon Lafayette, Broadcasting & Cable Inside the Beltway: A haven for conservative news, Jennifer Harper, The Washington Times

Leading US-based designer and manufacturer of telecommunications, fiber optic, video and data delivery technologies Blonder Tongue Laboratories, Inc. recently introduced the updated Aircaster AQT8 series of transmodulators – including the Aircaster AQT8-QAM/IP and Aircaster AQT8-IP – a comprehensive and flexible toolset to create custom IP and QAM channel lineups from any ATSC 1.0 off-air or QAM content source.   Featuring an internal active splitter, the Aircaster AQT8 enables users to create a full lineup of up to 64 channels and distribute them to thousands of different locations across a facility, eliminating the need for countless digital converters, external splitters, and legacy one-to-one solutions.   “The Aircaster AQT8 reimagines what off-air rebroadcasting equipment can do in a single compact unit, enabling custom lineups of up to 64 channels, accessible to thousands of residential homes in the case of service operators, or hundreds of rooms and TV sets for hospitality, institutional and SMB use cases. It effortlessly creates and multiplexes a complete digital media service, while eliminating unnecessary fees and equipment.” Said Ted Grauch, President and CEO of Blonder Tongue Laboratories.   This recent product release adds to Blonder Tongue’s growing portfolio of new solutions and innovations, including the NXG Platform and Clearview Transcoder Series, that are specifically designed to augment and streamline IPTV and OTT video distribution.   Read the TV Tech article here.   For more information, please visit: https://www.blondertongue.com/.

  AdTech innovator, QTT, Viamedia’s cloud-based television advertising platform, has launched a marketplace to enable automated activation of data-driven linear video advertising inventory, without changing existing workflows or technologies. QTT Marketplace is an open-platform destination for advertisers and agencies accustomed to digital platforms to directly access a wealth of premium, curated local and national television inventory – and for television inventory owners to tap more directly into the rapidly growing digital ad pool.   Initial TV participants include A+E Networks, FOX, Reelz with Magnite the first participating SSP.   “The last mile to activate linear TV advertising through existing digital platforms is finally here,” said John Piccone, president of QTT.   The launch follows the completion of a family of QTT patents delivering seminal steps in the integration of the pan-device digital and linear television advertising ecosystems.   Read more on Broadcasting & Cable here. Check out the full news release on BusinessWire.

Linden Research, Inc. (“Linden Lab”), the creator of Second Life, and comic book publisher Zenescope Entertainment, in conjunction with leading digital licensing agency, Epik, recently announced they have partnered to bring the dark and twisted Grimm’s Universe to life as the Zenescope Metaverse inside Second Life.   This marks the first time a Zenescope property has been realized inside a virtual world, and the first phase of an on-going partnership with Linden Lab that will introduce new content over time. Zenescope and Second Life are just the latest additions to an ever-growing list of world leading brands, IP owners and game developers in Epik’s partner ecosystem, which includes ViacomCBS, Warner Music, Universal Music Group, Tencent, Garena, and many more.   Fans can interact with and play as some of the classic fairytale characters popularized by Zenescope’s comic books and graphic novels, acting out scenarios and following different storylines within a 3-D online virtual world. Visitors will find plenty of iconic locations and other nods to Zenescope heroes and villains, including Rockman’s Ice Cream shop from Belle’s series, and a fully-playable Goblin Golf course. The immersive world is full of games, hidden surprises, and exclusive virtual collectibles and merchandise found only in Second Life. The Zenescope Metaverse inside Second Life features… familiar Cindy, Belle, and Mad Hatter character costumes and avatars, multiple scenarios and storylines to follow, more than 50 exclusive virtual collectibles and branded merchandise items, including clothing, furnishings, and the fan-favorite Cheshire cat plushie, games and activities like the fully playable Goblin Golf and the Mad Hatter’s Hedge Maze, complete with trophies, a clandestine quest, hidden locations, and other secrets.   For more on this exciting new experience watch Right This Minute interview with Zenescope Co-founder Ralph Tedesco and character Cinderella Monroe