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Tag: AOL

  • Adspend: Twitter fastest growing, FB & Google control 20%

    MUMBAI: Google and Facebook together accounted for 20% of global advertising expenditure across all media in 2016, up from 11% in 2012, according to the new edition of Zenith’s Top Thirty Global Media Owners. These two companies captured 64% of all the growth in global adspend between 2012 and 2016.

    The Top Thirty Global Media Owners report is Zenith’s unique ranking of the world’s largest media companies, and is being published since 2007. For this edition, it has decided to update its methodology and focus purely on media owners’ revenues from advertising, excluding revenues from all other activities, which gives the true measure of their status in the global advertising market.

    Google (under its holding company Alphabet) is by some distance the largest media owner in the world, attracting US$79.4bn in ad revenue in 2016, three times more than the second-largest – Facebook – which attracted US$26.9bn. The largest traditional media owner is Comcast, which takes third place in our ranking, with US$12.9bn in ad revenue.

    As we stated in our quarterly Advertising Expenditure Forecasts, internet advertising has overtaken television to become the world’s largest advertising medium this year. Accordingly, digital platforms that are funded by internet advertising dominate our top 30 ranking. As well as Alphabet and Facebook, there are five more pure-internet media owners in the top 30: Baidu, Microsoft, Yahoo, Verizon and Twitter. Between them, the seven digital platforms generated US$132.8bn in internet ad revenue in 2016 – that’s 73% of all internet adspend, and 24% of global adspend across all media.

    Verizon became a media owner in 2015 when it bought AOL, and if all goes to plan will become a much larger one when it acquires Yahoo later this year. Verizon takes 21st place in our current ranking; adding Yahoo to AOL would boost it to sixth.

    The fastest-growing media owner in our list is Twitter, which increased its ad revenues by 734% between 2012 and 2016. Tencent is second, having grown by 697% over this period, and Facebook is third, with 528% growth. Two other media owners have more than doubled in size between 2012 and 2016: Baidu, which grew 190%, and Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which grew 171%.

    Most of the media owners in our ranking – 20 out of 30 – are based in the US. The US dominates for several reasons: the US has the biggest ad market, US companies have invested the most in extending their reach abroad, and Silicon Valley innovation has powered the growth of internet advertising. China and Germany each have three media owners in the ranking (Baidu, Tencent and CCTV for China, and Bertelsmann, ProSiebenSat.1 and Axel Springer for Germany). Then there are four countries with one media owners each: France (JCDecaux), Brazil (Grupo Globo), Italy (Mediaset) and the UK (ITV).

    “The scale of the biggest platforms highlights the importance of building strong partnerships between agencies and media owners,” said Vittorio Bonori, Zenith’s Global Brand President. “Brands need to deal with these platforms to communicate with consumers effectively and efficiently, and agencies need to ensure they do so on the best terms available.”

    “Zenith’s new ranking demonstrates just how much the internet advertising platforms are setting the pace for global adspend growth,” said Jonathan Barnard, Head of Forecasting at Zenith. “Google and Facebook alone have accounted for almost two thirds of global adspend growth since 2012.”

    Ranking of Top 30 Global Media Owners 2017

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  • WeTransfer appoints Httpool as India partners

    MUMBAI: Httpool has added another global major to their extensive kitty of partners, with WeTransfer. The international cross-channel advertising network, that has partnered to monetise WeTransfer Ad inventories in 15+ markets in Europe, will also now be representing them in India.

    Founded in 2009, WeTransfer is the pioneer of effortless file transfer. With seamless and deeply integrated access they have over 40 million active users every month! WeTransfer provides brands with an extensive ad inventory to reach their target audience effectively through full-screen background or wallpaper spots.

    Httpool; an international cross-channel ad network, is an optimal partner for media agencies seeking integrated digital advertising solutions. Httpool employs the most advanced proprietary and licensed technologies to offer the broadest range of ad network products and ad tech solutions across display, video, engagement, social and performance channels, on all devices. It represents Twitter, LinkedIn, BBC, AOL, Spotify and other selected global and local publishers across 30+ Central and Eastern European and Asian markets. Httpool India was founded in 2010 and has offices in Mumbai and Delhi that work with all major agencies and brands.

    WeTransfer’s John De Lang explains: “Httpool brings with them extensive experience and leadership in the digital space. We have been working with them for a while now and they have been representing us in multiple markets across Europe and Asia; we are pleased to have them represent our platform within the Indian market too.”

    Httpool India managing partner Amit Gupta adds, “WeTransfer experiences a lot of traction from varied target groups belonging to diverse fields, making it a great platform for advertisers. We look forward to this exciting and challenging journey in an exhaustive market like India”

  • “We expect to grow with the OTT ecosystem in India” – Verizon Digital’s Kyle Okamoto

    “We expect to grow with the OTT ecosystem in India” – Verizon Digital’s Kyle Okamoto

    The $132.1 billion US telecom giant Verizon Communications provides communications and entertainment services over mobile broadband and the US’ premiere all-fiber network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers worldwide. More than that that it operates America’s most reliable wireless network, with 113.2 million retail connections nationwide.

    In his letter to shareholders in the latest annual report Verizon chairman & CEO Lowell McAdam wrote: “Our strategy for continued growth  and profitability is straightforward:  deliver great wireless and wireline  services over our superior networks, develop new business models in platforms such as video and the Internet of Things, and create incremental revenue opportunities in applications and  content.”

    And that’s exactly what its offshoot Verizon Digital Media Services, the next-generation digital media platform,  sought to do when it announced a partnership with Bharti Airtel Limited India’s largest telecommunications services provider. The partnership saw it launch points of presence (PoPs) in four cities in India: Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and New Delhi, marking Verizon’s significant investment into expanding throughout the country, leveraging Airtel’s digital infrastructure as a gateway to India.

    Indiantelevision.com had a conversation with Verizon Digital Media Services VP of Technology, Kyle Okamoto, on what this partnership means, what it entails, and how Verizon will foray further into India.

    Excerpts:

    Why did you have to set up the four POPs in India? Why not three or two? And what is exciting you about the country? And what did you have to innovate on while setting up the POPs in India?

    We care about quality and performance. Given the infrastructure and network topology of India, only one or two or three POPs would not achieve the levels of performance that we want to provide to our customers.  The country is important to our customers and growing quickly. Innovation was mainly around performance optimizations regarding network routing utilizing Any case, in addition to the specific SSDs we used to maximize our cache efficiency for better quality.

    We want to be among the top three CDNs in India and for that we needed to invest. Which we have done.

    How much of an investment has gone in – into hardware and software?

    Millions. There was investment from a capital perspective, operational perspective, the data centre and in hardware  and software.  We had to do everything navigating keeping India’s infrastructure in mind.

    Over what period of time were the POPs set up? And who did the design, engineering and setting up? Who’s maintaining the POP now?

    Months of time was spent working out the arrangement with Airtel, while the physical provisioning of the POPs only took a couple of weeks. We did the design and engineering and worked with Airtel on the installation, configuration , testing and optimization.  Our engineers made multiple trips. And on the initial deployment which included the unboxing of the hardware and cabling.  Verizon Digital Media Serivces and Airtel work together on the maintenance and monitoring in terms of data center and network. Ours is a collaborative partnership.

    What does your partnership with Airtel entail from both sides? And what does it allow each of you to do? Airtel can sell your services to other content companies? Your other solutions?

    Verizon Digital Media Serivces and Airtel work together on the maintenance and monitoring in terms of data center and network. The four PoP installations mark Verizon Digital Media Services’ significant investment into expanding throughout the country, leveraging Airtel’s digital infrastructure as a gateway to India. This partnership will ensure that content on the Verizon Digital Media Services platform can be accessed by digital media consumers in a fast, seamless and reliable way and will improve the experience for users in India.

    The launch of these strategic PoPs marks the beginning of a strong partnership between Verizon and Airtel Business and further cements our commitment to providing consumers in India, one of the fastest-growing markets for digital media consumption, with exceptional services and quality. This also allows us to offer amazing quality to our customers and to the consumers in India.  Airtel enjoys network efficiencies, improved quality, lowered costs and the ability to monetize content traffic.

    And yes, we can have conversations with each other on sales too. If a customer comes to us to work in India, we can forward them to Airtel and likewise.

    What kind of capacity have you built up through your POPs? How much of it is being utilised?

    We have built a significant amount of capacity to serve our customers and have prepared for a significant amount of growth. Additionally, we have built our POPs to handle very large customer spikes without affecting any other customers, i.e. gaming or live events or sports or software downloads. We have overbuilt significantly as India is a fast growing market and we wanted to prepare for the future. We are currently using only 2-5 per cent of the capacity we have built so far.

    What benefits have the Verizon-AOL/Yahoo acquisitions brought to the company and how will Yahoo’s presence in India benefit you?

    As Verizon chairman &  CEO Lowell McAdam had previously mentioned, the AOL acquisition enhances Verizon’s strategy of providing a cross-screen connection for consumers, creators and advertisers. The Yahoo acquisition will put Verizon in a highly competitive position as a top global mobile media company, while also helping to accelerate a revenue stream in digital advertising.  It also enables a wider stack and set of services to our digital media customers enabling creative monetization opportunities.

    How do you see your presence in India evolving?

    We expect to grow with our customers as they continue to offer amazing OTT experiences to their consumers.

    Will we see you offering your OTT end to end solutions in India? Do you see opportunity in this space in India?

    We already offer our customers a wide array of digital media solutions including our end-to-end Video Lifecycle Solution that covers the entire supply chain from content to consumer monetization. We do see India as a source of growth moving forward as more and more companies move to OTT and as infrastructure continues to improve. We also have a solution which allows us to build an OTT app in three days for our clients; and we have always met that challenge.

     

  • “We expect to grow with the OTT ecosystem in India” – Verizon Digital’s Kyle Okamoto

    “We expect to grow with the OTT ecosystem in India” – Verizon Digital’s Kyle Okamoto

    The $132.1 billion US telecom giant Verizon Communications provides communications and entertainment services over mobile broadband and the US’ premiere all-fiber network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers worldwide. More than that that it operates America’s most reliable wireless network, with 113.2 million retail connections nationwide.

    In his letter to shareholders in the latest annual report Verizon chairman & CEO Lowell McAdam wrote: “Our strategy for continued growth  and profitability is straightforward:  deliver great wireless and wireline  services over our superior networks, develop new business models in platforms such as video and the Internet of Things, and create incremental revenue opportunities in applications and  content.”

    And that’s exactly what its offshoot Verizon Digital Media Services, the next-generation digital media platform,  sought to do when it announced a partnership with Bharti Airtel Limited India’s largest telecommunications services provider. The partnership saw it launch points of presence (PoPs) in four cities in India: Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and New Delhi, marking Verizon’s significant investment into expanding throughout the country, leveraging Airtel’s digital infrastructure as a gateway to India.

    Indiantelevision.com had a conversation with Verizon Digital Media Services VP of Technology, Kyle Okamoto, on what this partnership means, what it entails, and how Verizon will foray further into India.

    Excerpts:

    Why did you have to set up the four POPs in India? Why not three or two? And what is exciting you about the country? And what did you have to innovate on while setting up the POPs in India?

    We care about quality and performance. Given the infrastructure and network topology of India, only one or two or three POPs would not achieve the levels of performance that we want to provide to our customers.  The country is important to our customers and growing quickly. Innovation was mainly around performance optimizations regarding network routing utilizing Any case, in addition to the specific SSDs we used to maximize our cache efficiency for better quality.

    We want to be among the top three CDNs in India and for that we needed to invest. Which we have done.

    How much of an investment has gone in – into hardware and software?

    Millions. There was investment from a capital perspective, operational perspective, the data centre and in hardware  and software.  We had to do everything navigating keeping India’s infrastructure in mind.

    Over what period of time were the POPs set up? And who did the design, engineering and setting up? Who’s maintaining the POP now?

    Months of time was spent working out the arrangement with Airtel, while the physical provisioning of the POPs only took a couple of weeks. We did the design and engineering and worked with Airtel on the installation, configuration , testing and optimization.  Our engineers made multiple trips. And on the initial deployment which included the unboxing of the hardware and cabling.  Verizon Digital Media Serivces and Airtel work together on the maintenance and monitoring in terms of data center and network. Ours is a collaborative partnership.

    What does your partnership with Airtel entail from both sides? And what does it allow each of you to do? Airtel can sell your services to other content companies? Your other solutions?

    Verizon Digital Media Serivces and Airtel work together on the maintenance and monitoring in terms of data center and network. The four PoP installations mark Verizon Digital Media Services’ significant investment into expanding throughout the country, leveraging Airtel’s digital infrastructure as a gateway to India. This partnership will ensure that content on the Verizon Digital Media Services platform can be accessed by digital media consumers in a fast, seamless and reliable way and will improve the experience for users in India.

    The launch of these strategic PoPs marks the beginning of a strong partnership between Verizon and Airtel Business and further cements our commitment to providing consumers in India, one of the fastest-growing markets for digital media consumption, with exceptional services and quality. This also allows us to offer amazing quality to our customers and to the consumers in India.  Airtel enjoys network efficiencies, improved quality, lowered costs and the ability to monetize content traffic.

    And yes, we can have conversations with each other on sales too. If a customer comes to us to work in India, we can forward them to Airtel and likewise.

    What kind of capacity have you built up through your POPs? How much of it is being utilised?

    We have built a significant amount of capacity to serve our customers and have prepared for a significant amount of growth. Additionally, we have built our POPs to handle very large customer spikes without affecting any other customers, i.e. gaming or live events or sports or software downloads. We have overbuilt significantly as India is a fast growing market and we wanted to prepare for the future. We are currently using only 2-5 per cent of the capacity we have built so far.

    What benefits have the Verizon-AOL/Yahoo acquisitions brought to the company and how will Yahoo’s presence in India benefit you?

    As Verizon chairman &  CEO Lowell McAdam had previously mentioned, the AOL acquisition enhances Verizon’s strategy of providing a cross-screen connection for consumers, creators and advertisers. The Yahoo acquisition will put Verizon in a highly competitive position as a top global mobile media company, while also helping to accelerate a revenue stream in digital advertising.  It also enables a wider stack and set of services to our digital media customers enabling creative monetization opportunities.

    How do you see your presence in India evolving?

    We expect to grow with our customers as they continue to offer amazing OTT experiences to their consumers.

    Will we see you offering your OTT end to end solutions in India? Do you see opportunity in this space in India?

    We already offer our customers a wide array of digital media solutions including our end-to-end Video Lifecycle Solution that covers the entire supply chain from content to consumer monetization. We do see India as a source of growth moving forward as more and more companies move to OTT and as infrastructure continues to improve. We also have a solution which allows us to build an OTT app in three days for our clients; and we have always met that challenge.

     

  • Telecom giant Verizon buys Yahoo for $4.8 billion; to merge Yahoo and AOL

    Telecom giant Verizon buys Yahoo for $4.8 billion; to merge Yahoo and AOL

    MUMBAI: After much anticipation and speculation, word is out that US based telecommunication giant, Verizon will buy Yahoo for USD 4.83 billion in cash at the end of a closely-scrutinized, six-month sale process.

    Yahoo first put itself up for sale in February and it fielded multiple bids from almost 40 different types of buyers including AT&T; Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert with financial backing from Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett; and private equity firms TPG and Vector Capital Management.

    But finally Yahoo informed the other bidders on Saturday that it has sealed the deal with Verizon.

    “Yahoo is a company that has changed the world, and will continue to do so through this combination with Verizon and AOL,” said Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer in a press release. “The sale of our operating business, which effectively separates our Asian asset equity stakes, is an important step in our plan to unlock shareholder value for Yahoo. This transaction also sets up a great opportunity for Yahoo to build further distribution and accelerate our work in mobile, video, native advertising and social.”

    When it comes to how Yahoo, that was the front door to the web for many in the 90s and the early 2000s, and its internal functioning, Verizon has a few plans. It has been decided that Yahoo and AOL will be brought together as a new group that AOL’s CEO Tim Armstrong will supervise. It must be noted that Verizon has earlier bought AOL for USD 4.4 billion last year.

    “Our mission at AOL is to build brands people love, and we will continue to invest in and grow them,” he said in a press release. “Yahoo has been a long-time investor in premium content and created some of the most beloved consumer brands in key categories like sports, news and finance… We have enormous respect for what Yahoo has accomplished.”

    Marissa Mayer is not expected to stay on board, but that has not yet been confirmed by either company.

    Verizon’s acquisition is of “core” Yahoo, which includes search, email, advertising products, and the media business (including Yahoo Finance).

    Verizon has made a string of acquisitions in an apparent effort to move beyond a telecom provider into a media-and-mobile-advertising powerhouse that can compete with Google. Many believe buying Yahoo is a savvy move for Verizon. In addition to getting the fifth-most visited web site in the US, Verizon gets assets like Tumblr, Flickr, Polyvore and digital ad tools Flurry and BrightRoll.

    (Sourced from nytimes.com and Yahoo Finance)

  • Telecom giant Verizon buys Yahoo for $4.8 billion; to merge Yahoo and AOL

    Telecom giant Verizon buys Yahoo for $4.8 billion; to merge Yahoo and AOL

    MUMBAI: After much anticipation and speculation, word is out that US based telecommunication giant, Verizon will buy Yahoo for USD 4.83 billion in cash at the end of a closely-scrutinized, six-month sale process.

    Yahoo first put itself up for sale in February and it fielded multiple bids from almost 40 different types of buyers including AT&T; Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert with financial backing from Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett; and private equity firms TPG and Vector Capital Management.

    But finally Yahoo informed the other bidders on Saturday that it has sealed the deal with Verizon.

    “Yahoo is a company that has changed the world, and will continue to do so through this combination with Verizon and AOL,” said Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer in a press release. “The sale of our operating business, which effectively separates our Asian asset equity stakes, is an important step in our plan to unlock shareholder value for Yahoo. This transaction also sets up a great opportunity for Yahoo to build further distribution and accelerate our work in mobile, video, native advertising and social.”

    When it comes to how Yahoo, that was the front door to the web for many in the 90s and the early 2000s, and its internal functioning, Verizon has a few plans. It has been decided that Yahoo and AOL will be brought together as a new group that AOL’s CEO Tim Armstrong will supervise. It must be noted that Verizon has earlier bought AOL for USD 4.4 billion last year.

    “Our mission at AOL is to build brands people love, and we will continue to invest in and grow them,” he said in a press release. “Yahoo has been a long-time investor in premium content and created some of the most beloved consumer brands in key categories like sports, news and finance… We have enormous respect for what Yahoo has accomplished.”

    Marissa Mayer is not expected to stay on board, but that has not yet been confirmed by either company.

    Verizon’s acquisition is of “core” Yahoo, which includes search, email, advertising products, and the media business (including Yahoo Finance).

    Verizon has made a string of acquisitions in an apparent effort to move beyond a telecom provider into a media-and-mobile-advertising powerhouse that can compete with Google. Many believe buying Yahoo is a savvy move for Verizon. In addition to getting the fifth-most visited web site in the US, Verizon gets assets like Tumblr, Flickr, Polyvore and digital ad tools Flurry and BrightRoll.

    (Sourced from nytimes.com and Yahoo Finance)

  • CASBAA Convention Brings Together the Biggest Wave Makers in the Broadcast industry

    CASBAA Convention Brings Together the Biggest Wave Makers in the Broadcast industry

    MUMBAI: The annual CASBAA Convention kicked off today in its new home at the Intercontinental Hotel, Hong Kong. The two-day convention, with the theme ‘Making Waves’ brought together key industry players in the broadcast, cable and satellite industry to discuss and debate the hottest topics and latest developments in the industry today. With the introduction of OTT and digital broadcast services now an established fact, key themes of the day focused on creating quality and relevant content, as well as localization, agile distribution and protection of content.

     

    To kick-start the day, Hong Kong SAR Government chief secretary for administration Carrie Lam, gave an introductory speech where she underscored that the rule of law and freedom of expression were vital to the fundamental strength of the HK broadcast industry. She also highlighted that the HK SAR government believes that investing in creative talent is key to driving growth of the creative industries and so launched the Create Smart initiative which supports students in tertiary education focusing on TV or media studies.

     

    The AOL Digital Prophet David Shing, then looked at content consumption from the audience perspective, highlighting how humans were at the heart of everything and that “technology changes behavior not needs” when looking at the key developments in the digital landscape. Also in a world where people are creating and publishing their own content, it’s important to note that “creativity still rules over technology” as content is now competing with popular culture. China Media Capital Chairman Li Ruigang, commented how there was huge demand from China for premium content yet “while content is important, there is the need to build up a sustainable system to continue to be able to create more content”. Ruigang also discussed how key global partnerships such as Warner Bros, Dreamworks, and Legoland were central to CMC’s strategy of establishing a solid content ecosystem. He also took the opportunity to announce that his company is buying the China Soccer League to further advance the company’s content and distribution strategy.

     

    New content platforms in Asia were discussed when Janice Lee from PCCW gave more detail on the company’s new global Viu OTT platform, announced just yesterday. She mentioned how the company had to become extremely agile in turning around their content in multiple languages to stay competitive as well as beat illegal content, “Windowing has become very important, we get our content out in multiple languages in just eight hours. Historically this didn’t happen, which gave room for piracy.” Mike Hyun-dong Suh of CJ E&M discussed how partnerships were also key to distribution of content, citing a recent collaboration with Japanese app Naver as an example. He also illustrated how taking content offline through events was also important to engage fans. Greg Beitchman from CNN International discussed the need to have content that worked across all their screens and that this was meeting with success. “Digital touchpoints are enhancing our appeal rather than cannibalizing what we do on TV,” he commented. CNNI also commented on localization, highlighting how it had helped make them “more, not less, relevant.”

     

    Alon Shtruzman from Keshet Media, creator of Homeland and other key global formats, maintains that content is, as ever, ‘king’. His company is starting to look further afield for content and he believes ‘Asia is a goldmine for content’ though not without some heavy legwork in understanding what does and doesn’t work in the market.

     

    How to engage with fans with content was discussed by Victorious CEO Sam Rogoway,  who believed their creation of a community of superfans would “change the way fans interact and engage with content.” The inception of the ‘passion graph’ would bring together like-minded individuals that would help drive deeper engagement of content, even when there was no new content available. Distribution of content was discussed by SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell, who’s company is investigating the feasibility of launching 4,000 satellites into space with a view to connecting people in remote areas throughout the planet.

     

    SeaChange CEO Jay Samit took a hard line on the future of the pay TV business “the pay TV business as we know it is dead. The majority of content is not linear and we need to adapt quickly or die.” With content now being accessed increasingly online, it’s possible to work out who’s watching what at home and provide relevant content based on that. “Pay TV will be completely data driven,” he added. “With social analytics now shaping content offers, the bottom line is you will go out of business if you don’t know who your consumer is.”

     

    Piracy of content was next on the agenda with Mark Mulready of Irdeto showcasing just how difficult it is to distinguish legal from illegal content sites. The Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit example from the UK, where an infringing website list of illegal websites is published and flagged to advertising brands, was flagged a great initiative to disrupt pirate sites. “Through working with the advertising industry, we can remove the incoming revenue to these illegal sites,” commented Det. Chief Supt. David Clark of City of London Police. It was also agreed that it was everyone’s responsibility – whether channel or creator – to protect the value of content. Are Mathisen from Conax AS encouraged all content owners to embrace new technology to combat content theft.

     

    With piracy followed the issue if regulation where Ajit Pai from the US Federal Communications Commission and R.S. Sharma from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India both agreeing that governments should take a less restrictive approach to regulation to allow new business models to take shape.

     

    A video note from UK actor and writer, James Corden, now host of the US The Late Late Show, concluded today’s session at the convention. Corden discussed how he saw his task was making a brilliant hour of TV every night. “All we really want to do is make a show that is different and feels fresh every night. If you think about it from the internet first then you will come unstuck.” He emphasized the importance of a great creative team and how they try to innovate with new features constantly to be as entertaining as possible. Finally when asked if he was tired doing 44 shows a year, he commented “It’s a luxury to be tired from doing something you love and always dreamt of.”

     

    Sponsors for the CASBAA Convention 2015 include: ABS, Accedo, Akamai, AMC, APT Satellite, AsiaSat, Asia Television Limited, Brightcove, Conax, ContentWise, CreateHK, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, Eutelsat, France 24, Ideal Group, InvestHK, Irdeto, ITV Choice, Kantar Media, Letv, Lightning, MEASAT, MediaExcel, One Championship, Patron Spirits, PCCW, PwC, RTL CBS Asia, Scripps Networks Interactive, SES, TIME NOW, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Time Warner, True Visions, Turner, TV5Monde and Victorious.

  • Verizon acquires AOL for $4.4 billion

    Verizon acquires AOL for $4.4 billion

    MUMBAI: Taking another significant step in building digital and video platforms to drive future growth, Verizon Communications Inc. has acquired AOL Inc. for an estimated total value of approximately $4.4 billion.

     

    AOL chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong will continue to lead AOL operations after closing.

     

    Verizon’s acquisition further drives its LTE wireless video and OTT (over-the-top video) strategy. The agreement will also support and connect to Verizon’s IoT (Internet of Things) platforms, creating a growth platform from wireless to IoT for consumers and businesses.

     

    The combination of Verizon and AOL creates a scaled, mobile-first platform offering directly targeted at what eMarketer estimates is a nearly $600 billion global advertising industry. AOL’s key assets include its subscription business; its premium portfolio of global content brands, including The Huffington Post, Tech Crunch, Engadget, MAKERS and AOL.com, as well as its millennial-focused OTT, Emmy-nominated original video content; and its programmatic advertising platforms.

     

    Verizon chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam said, “Verizon’s vision is to provide customers with a premium digital experience based on a global multiscreen network platform. This acquisition supports our strategy to provide a cross-screen connection for consumers, creators and advertisers to deliver that premium customer experience.”

     

    “AOL has once again become a digital trailblazer, and we are excited at the prospect of charting a new course together in the digitally connected world. At Verizon, we’ve been strategically investing in emerging technology, including Verizon Digital Media Services and OTT, that taps into the market shift to digital content and advertising. AOL’s advertising model aligns with this approach, and the advertising platform provides a key tool for us to develop future revenue streams,” he added.

     

    Armstrong said, “Verizon is a leader in mobile and OTT connected platforms, and the combination of Verizon and AOL creates a unique and scaled mobile and OTT media platform for creators, consumers and advertisers. The visions of Verizon and AOL are shared; the companies have existing successful partnerships, and we are excited to work with the team at Verizon to create the next generation of media through mobile and video.”

     

    The transaction will take the form of a tender offer followed by a merger, with AOL becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Verizon upon completion.

     

    The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions and is expected to close this summer.

     

     

    Verizon expects to fund the transaction from cash on hand and commercial paper. The company also continues to expect to return to pre-Vodafone transaction credit ratings in the 2018-2019 timeframe.

     

    Transaction advisers for Verizon were Lion Tree Advisors; Guggenheim Partners; and Weil, Gotshal&Manges. AOL advisers were Allen & Company LLC and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.

  • PromaxBDA announces speakers for its 12th edition

    PromaxBDA announces speakers for its 12th edition

    MUMBAI: PromaxBDA, the association that represents more than 10,000 companies and promotion and marketing professionals at every major media organisation in broadcast media, has announced the 12th edition of its annual conference, PromaxBDA India 2015.

     

    This year’s conference will witness participation of prominent visionaries discussing topics that contribute to the growth of digital and advertising space. Some of the key speakers and trainers include David Shing – Digital Prophet – AOL, Nicole Velik – Director/Founder – Ideas Bodega, Linda Button – Brand Personality Expert – Tooth+Nail, Rob Middleton – VP, Network Presentation Content Group – ASTRO, Liz Dunning – Co-founder – Dunning Penney Jones, Amanda Herbert – Marketing & Communications Director – Discovery Networks Asia Pacific and Glenn Urquhart – Group Creative Director – The LifeStyle Channel, Foxtel Networks Australia.

     

    This year PromaxBDA India has introduced a brand new conference format, where they will be holding PromaxBDA Boot Camps and PromaxBDA Masterclass Conference. The inaugural PromaxBDA Boot Camps will bring in the latest creative techniques in promotion-creation while the Masterclass Conference is tailored to create a local and global overlook for senior-level producers, executives, leaders and decision makers. The Masterclass Conference will be opened with a keynote address by the renowned David Shing – Digital Prophet – AOL.

     

    Along with this, PromaxBDA India has also introduced two new categories in its current bouquet of 41 award categories. The new categories are BEST DRAMA PROMO NOT IN HINDI OR ENGLISH and BEST ENTERTAINMENT PROMO NOT IN HINDI OR ENGLISH in the Regional Categories 2015.

     

    Commenting on this year’s conference and the new additions, Rajika Mittra, Country Head (India), PromaxBDA said, “We are glad to announce the 12th PromaxBDA India Conference 2015. With media and entertainment industry evolving at an enormous speed and digital space dominating as a medium, this year we have introduced a fresher format, which aims at emphasizing on the importance of the digital medium. We have received encouraging response to the earlier summits and I am sure that this year too we will have an exciting time with everyone.”

     

    Invited this year again to grace the PromaxBDA India 2015’s Conference Chair position is Raj Nayak, CEO, Colors. He shared, “For colleagues who have attended the previous editions of the PromaxBDA India Conference, we look forward to having you back with us. Get ready to be inspired by the unexpected and the eye-opening. Those new to this conference will find that the television industry goes beyond traditionally set boundaries. The future of television is speeding ahead and a multi-discipline outfit might be the way forward.”

  • Napster documentary Downloaded to be streamed free

    Napster documentary Downloaded to be streamed free

    MUMBAI: The movie has been directed by Alex Winter and AOL On has acquired the film for marketing and distributing along with producer VH1 Roc Docs. The movie will be available for live streaming on Thursday on AOL On.

     

    This is the first feature got by AOL for free streaming. It will be available on downloadeddocs.com as well as its mobile app. The Thursday online premiere will have Winter as well. VH1 Roc Docs is producing the movie too.

     

    Viewers can watch it at a go or watch it in seven parts. AOL On is looking to grow its base of premium video content.