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Tag: Robert Iger

  • Consumer Electronics Show in the US to host technical Emmies next year

    Consumer Electronics Show in the US to host technical Emmies next year

    MUMBAI: The International Consumer Electronics Show (Ces) which takes place in Las Vegas each year will host the Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards for the first time next year.
    The Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards will be CES’ opening evening event on 8 January 2007. The tradeshow will be held in Las Vegas from 8-11 January 2007 and will celebrate its 40th anniversary.

    The technology and engineering Emmy awards honour achievements in two areas. One area is science and technology for television. This includes broadcast, cable and satellite distribution. The second area is advance media technology.

    This encompasses interactive television, gaming technology, and for the first time, the Internet, cellphones, private networks, and personal media players. In addition, for the first time, Emmy awards will be presented for the best use of advanced media technology by commercials as well as programmers.

    Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) president and CEO Gary Shapiro says, “As Ces becomes a global cultural event featuring the best of technology and content, we are thrilled to partner with the Emmy Awards to announce at Ces the best in science and technology for television.

    “For the content, technology and engineering industries, CES is the place to be this January. We look forward to helping promote the world famous Emmy Awards at Ces.”

    National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Natas) president and CEO Peter Price says, “The International CES has long been the launch pad of entertainment technology. So it is fitting that our Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards, which recognise achievement in both television engineering and advanced media technology be showcased there. With the National Television’s Academy’s new efforts this year to recognise television anytime anywhere with Emmy Awards for content and technology, this move is particularly fitting.”

    The National Television Academy is currently accepting entries for the advanced media technology Emmy awards in nine categories. In order to be eligible, the production must occur from 1 May 2005 to 30 April 2006. The entry deadline is 22 September 2006. The advanced media technology entries will be judged by panels of industry professionals in New York later this year.

    Among the keynote speakers for the 2007 International CES will be Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, Motorola chairman of the board and CEO Ed Zander, and Disney president and CEO Robert Iger. CES will also feature product debuts from 2,700 exhibitors, covering more than 30 product areas, including the latest in wireless, digital imaging, mobile electronics, home networking and more.

  • Wenner Media acquires Disney’s 50% stake in ‘Us Weekly’

    Wenner Media acquires Disney’s 50% stake in ‘Us Weekly’

    MUMBAI: Wenner Media has acquired Disney’s 50 per cent stake in Us Weekly LLC, which publishes Us Weekly, and now once again owns the magazine in its entirety.

    Disney had invested in Us Weekly and formed the 50/50 Us Weekly LLC joint venture with Wenner Media in February 2001, advancing Us Weekly’s transition to the weekly frequency. Under the joint venture, which was managed by Wenner Media, Us Weekly revamped its format, spearheading the evolution of the celebrity magazine genre, and doubled circulation from 850,000 to 1.75 million, making it one of the fastest growing titles in the publishing industry. During that same period, advertising pages also doubled.

    For the first six months of this year, Us Weekly’s circulation grew by seven per cent (from H1 2005), with newsstand sales surpassing the one million mark for the first time. For the same period, ad pages grew by four per cent to 912 pages.

    Wenner Media chairman Jann Wenner said, “Disney has been a superb partner and we will miss them. I am deeply grateful for their vote of confidence in Us at a time when not everyone thought we had much of a future or there was a future in celebrity magazines.”

    Disney CEO and president Robert Iger said, “Jann Wenner and his team have been great partners over the course of our involvement with Us Weekly. They have managed this business extremely well and we wish them continued success.”

    Launched as a bi-monthly publication in 1977, Us Weekly was acquired by Wenner Media in 1986. The magazine moved from a monthly to a weekly format in March 2000. Privately held Wenner Media also owns and publishes Rolling Stone and Men’s Journal.

  • Wake up call for broadcasters: Jain, Kalle

    Wake up call for broadcasters: Jain, Kalle

    MUMBAI: “My time is prime time. Today consumers want to watch television at their own time, place and convenience. The scenario is moving from a phase when the broadcaster used to define prime time… now it’s the consumer who takes the call,” said The Walt Disney Company India managing director Rajat Jain.

    Jain attributed this phenomenon to the changing times, dynamic technology, the changing consumer, changing media scenario and rise in consumer friendly technological devises.
    He also stressed on the three screens that will gain importance in the future: television, mobile and computer. “India has 80 million phones, 37.5 million internet and broadband users, 4.3 million computer and 473,000 laptops. The buying power among Indians is also on the rise and there is an emergence of a new tribe ‘Technobabies’ who are born to be wired and tech savvy. They do their homework online and also buy CDs and books online,” he said.

    Jain reiterated the point that technologies like IPTV, DTH, TiVo and broadband will make the environment more dynamic with interactivity coming in. He gave examples of BBC and ITV teaming up in a “multicasting” trial to broadcast their main channels over the Internet for the first time.

    Jain emphasized on the breakthrough iPod technology, wherein television shows could be downloaded on the iPod for 99 cents. However, Sony Pictures Television International vice president international networks Superna Kalle pointed out that while it was brilliant that people were downloading and watching shows on the iPod; but it also meant that they were not watching them on their television sets and hence broadcasters and advertisers were both losing out. “These disruptive technologies are reshaping the broadcast landscape. Broadcasters have to rethink their strategy,” Kalle emphasized.

    She further added, “Channel brands do not matter anymore as most people in the US are using the TiVo technology where you can zap ads and watch what you want to watch. It is the shows that are becoming a brand now.”

    Kalle also pointed out the various opportunities in digital broadcast. “Do not alienate existing audiences but continue to march towards the inevitable future. Each approach requires a different device and each changes viewers in a different way. Emerging digital technologies can be an opportunity or a threat for broadcasters,” she concluded.

    “Consumers today want seamless availability of content for their personalized viewing. They want control over time and place of viewing content and pay per view could well be the new norm in the near future,” Jain said.

    He signed off by quoting The Walt Disney Company CEO Robert Iger as saying, “Technology also powers creativity and innovation. Across our company, we are using technology to improve our product and remain on the leading edge of entertainment offerings. We firmly believe in a platform agnostic approach to distribution. Applying technology to enhance our content and extend its distribution enables us to get closer to our increasingly more sophisticated customers worldwide.”