News & Opinion

Christmas Holiday-themed, Interactive Pop-up Channel is Now Available for 29+ Million Homes to Enjoy U.S. and Canada’s top pay-TV service providers are bringing back fan favorite Santa Tracker, inviting their viewers to celebrate the holiday season with an interactive, Christmas holiday-themed programming experience, powered by zone·tv™. Families can once again come together to enjoy holiday themed fun features and track Santa’s path across the globe on Christmas Eve. This highly engaging TV experience is available, free of charge, in over 72% of TV homes with kids nationwide. Santa Tracker Features: On Christmas Eve, the zone·tv™ original programming tracks Santa’s location, where he’s headed next, driving excitement and anticipation as reaches the viewers’ cities and counts how many presents have been delivered throughout the evening A collection of winter and holiday read-along storybooks including A Penguin Story, The Bears We Know and the classic Robert Munsch story 50 Below Zero All-time favorite holiday movie classics available for rent or purchase including Frozen, Elf, The Polar Express, Home Alone, Christmas Vacation and A Christmas Story Holiday sing-alongs offering 35-plus songs in karaoke mode, including We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Blue Christmas from Stingray Digital Naughty or Nice polls, where users can find out who’s been naughty or nice this year by answering questions and comparing ratings with family and friends Addictive Games you can play with your remote, including Jolly Dropper and Present Panic, Cookie Crumble and more Radio features hours of continuous holiday music from various artists Christmas countdown calendar that unlocks new daily challenges every day leading up to the big event Santa Tracker’s exciting, unique and festive features bring viewers together, enjoying over thirty minutes every time they start the experience from the channel guide, voice command and apps menu on their pay-TV service. “Santa Tracker has become a cherished part of families’ holiday traditions every Christmas season” said Jeff Weber, CEO, zone·tv, “As our distribution continues to increase, more homes across the globe get to enjoy our unique, family-friendly, interactive programming and we’re excited to bring that joy to our subscribers.  We are also thrilled to be able to bring that value to our pay-TV provider partners for the 10th consecutive year.” As a 2018 Banff World Media Festival finalist for “Interactive Program for Kids”, Santa Tracker has not only proven to be a holiday favorite for subscribers but has also proven to drive value to both pay-TV providers and advertisers. The Santa Tracker experience directly links to the pay-TV providers Video-on-Demand libraries, and providers see a significant increase in VOD title rentals resulting in increased revenue. For advertisers, Santa Tracker creates an immersive experience that provides several types of advertising and sponsorship opportunities including banner, product placement, interactive and video ads. Santa Tracker can be found on Comcast Xfinity X1 in the kids and holiday sections of Xfinity on Demand and in the app menu. Customers with an X1 voice remote can say “Santa Tracker” to launch the destination. Santa Tracker is also available on AT&T U-verse on channels 1098/ 324/ 1324; DIRECTV on channel 110; Frontier Communications channels 266/ 346/ 1326/ 98 depending on location; and CenturyLink channels 91/ 1091. In Canada, Santa Tracker can be enjoyed through the TELUS channels 610/12; TELUS Quebec 501/ 514; Bell Canada channels 149/ 540/ 1149/ 1540/ 1212; Bell Atlantic channels 456/ 513/ 559; and on Bell MTS channels 82/182. [video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://bobgoldpr.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/zone-tv-Santa-Tracker-Promo-Video-2018.mp4"][/video]

Google, Amazon, Hulu and Other Industry Leaders Convene to Address Emerging Trends, Challenges and Innovation in Video     Bob Gold & Associates, a nationally recognized high-tech-focused public relations agency is a platinum supporter of Parks Associates inaugural Future of Video: OTT, Pay TV, and Digital Media conference being held December 10 - 12 at the Marina del Rey Marriott in Los Angeles.   The event will feature Parks Associates latest consumer and industry research as well as keynote presentations and prominent speakers from Amazon Fire TV, Fox, Hulu, Google, Massive, TiVo Corporation and Verimatrix among others.   “Currently, more than 85% of U.S. millennials subscribe to at least one OTT video service and by 2022, more than 265 million households worldwide will have more than 400 million OTT video service subscriptions,” said Elizabeth Parks, SVP, Parks Associates. “We’re experiencing disruption in the video entertainment industry and look forward to hosting our first event to address this changing environment. We are excited for Bob Gold & Associates to join as a Platinum Supporter of this year’s inaugural event. ‘   The conference will explore the latest trends and challenges facing VOD, linear, OTT and pay TV mediums, including the impact of OTT on the connected consumer, the globalization of OTT, distribution, the future of connected screens, video service acquisition and retention strategies, voice interaction with video devices and more.   The 2-day event will feature new exclusive research and insights from Parks Associates on the changing video and digital media markets. The full conference program is available here.   “Parks Associates has been a leading source for insights in the video and connected entertainment industries for more than three decades – no one knows this space better,” said Bob Gold, President and CEO of Bob Gold & Associates. “This newsmaker event will undoubtedly meet the high standard they’ve set, offering attendees never-before-seen insights from the executives and innovators who are reshaping the way we do business. This is an event you won’t want to miss.”   To learn more about the event or register, visit here.

By Bob Gold Did I get your attention with the censored title? Turns out book publishers lately add all kinds of rude words to make their titles more attention grabbing and sell more books. This is a trend. And when it comes to how we talk about ourselves, we’d best be in touch with the latest trends.   In today’s tech world, it appears the priority is all about the speed of innovation and how we move content safely, effectively, efficiently and securely. But if no one knows about your solution, how will they purchase and use it? In such a world of amazing tech innovation, talk about the role of PR in technology feels a bit like the “Man Bites Dog” headline, since our inclination is really to talk about how technology affects the role of communications. But if we don’t control the story of what we do and what we make, the story will control us. And really   Download M&E Journal Spring 2017.   View article here.  

By Bob Gold Today, data can be mined for insights, but also confused as noise. For example, we just did general consumer audience research about a streaming feature. Guess what? Nearly 40 percent of the respondents told us they don’t use a streaming service. But later told us they used Netflix. Oh.   So, it’s not just my brain that’s in data overload. I know, I know … that’s life. And while no one ever said life would be easy, the truth is it seems like it’s never been tougher for company messages to be heard above the noise.   Data has always been around us, between us, connecting us. But we haven’t done a great job of monitoring and gathering data until this era. IBM, for example, says that 90 percent of the world’s data was created in the last two years, at 2.5 quintillion bytes of data a day! And it’s only increasing exponentially.   The real question, IMHO, is not what to do with the data – but how any executive in our space can break through the clutter of it all to tell a meaningful story about how their company leverages technology to unlock opportunities.   In our information-saturated age, business leaders “won’t be heard unless they’re telling stories,” says Nick Morgan, author of Power Cues. Here’s the kicker: It’s more than just a story, if it’s told as a personal experience. That’s why case studies are so powerful.   Last year we pitched an interview with an executive who had no news but had some strong opinions about the streaming space. He predicted that Netflix would change its model and introduce downloading. A trade reporter and a business reporter snapped at the opportunity to talk to our executive. Best of all, their stories appeared within hours of each other, and that helped take the story global – we had over 10 million views!   Noise.   I know that most CEOs I speak with tell me their growth strategy is comprised of creating a better technology. For them, technology holds the key to unlocking a competitive advantage that will elevate the company to the next level.   Maybe.   Download the full article here: M&E Journal Spring/Summer 2018   View article here.

Transformation Through Robotics Ben Indeglia, who went to high school at New Roads School in Santa Monica, is beginning his study of biological sciences and molecular engineering at the University of Chicago this fall. Indeglia created the nonprofit Compton Robotics Club (comptonrobotics.com), using GoFundMe to raise $5,000 and securing a STEM equity grant to introduce robotics to underserved students at inner-city schools. Indeglia says he loves robots because they can do challenges that humans cannot possibly accomplish. “They can go into situations where human lives would be at risk,” he says. “They can make life easier for people.”   Read complete article 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    

This Spring 2017, we (USC Annenberg) launched our very first Job Shadowing Program, which consisted of 6 Annenberg alumni and 9 freshmen/sophomores.   Megan Diamond (2019) and Hannah Maddie Hengst (2019) completed their job shadow experience with Bob Gold of Bob Gold & Associates:   “Job shadowing Bob from Bold Gold and Associates was an excellent learning experience. I participated and listened in on conferences/meetings, have lunch with members of the company and experience a day in the life of a CEO in a public relations workplace. I also had the opportunity to learn the key differences between in-house firms and agency PR firms. I am grateful for the connections that I made and the networking opportunities this experience allowed me to obtain!” -Megan   See complete article here.

Posted by Tom Butts Aug 2, 2018 Show destination to feature expert panel discussions and product demos focusing on online TV and video The 2018 IBC Show is introducing the "Content Everywhere Hub," a section of the show floor covering the latest trends, strategies and developments in online TV and video. In addition to emerging technologies such as 5g, topics covered will include how to successfully grow an OTT service, how AI and machine learning are impacting content creation, and OTT distribution and monetization. Speakers will include experts from small start-ups to some of the biggest names in technology including Google, Alibaba, CSGi, Telia, Ooyala and Roku.   Read the complete article here.

Jack Jerry is a prominent creator on the social-video platform, Like. In this short interview with ITVT Editor-in-Chief, Tracy Swedlow, and ITVT Gen-Z Correspondent, Hannah Swedlow-Washbourne, which was recorded at VidCon last month, Jerry discusses his background, why he started using Like, what he considers to be the strengths of the platform, how he builds his follower base, and more.  Hear the full interview here!