Digital Content NewFronts 2014

For “making the most of the internet and staying on brand” Vice took overall ‘best in show’ at this year’s NewFronts, says Ashley J. Swartz, CEO and Founder of Furious Minds, in her weekly segment for Beet.TV in which she highlights the 2014 NewFronts. “[Vice] takes risks and they deserve to be commended for that,” […]

Maker Studios, the giant LA-based MCN  that is driving some 7 billion monthly  video views on YouTube, is building its own, proprietary video platform.  The initiative is being undertaken to meet the demands of brand advertisers explains Erin McPherson, Chief Content Officer in this interview with Beet.TV While Maker is building its own platform, it […]

Mega-popular YouTube channel Maker Studios recently sold to Disney for $500 million, but when the founders launched the company five years the goal was quite simple — make videos and share audiences. “We just liked making videos. We didn’t start it to sell to Disney someday; we were just a bunch of friends who liked hanging […]

Digitas announced three new partnerships at their NewFront event last Thursday. Through their collaboration with SimpleReach, Digitas launched a “first-of-its-kind” content measurement tool that will allow them to measure engagement of all video in market for all of their brands – in real time, says John McCarus, SVP of Content at DigitasLBi. We spoke with McCarus in […]

With some 70 percent of its 7 billion monthly views (primarily on YouTube)  coming from outside of the United States, Maker Studio is becoming a a big global player.  To build out its global footprint, the Los Angeles-based company is launching native language operations in several countries and is growing its international operations with offices […]

Video has long been a powerful storytelling tool. Now as the technology behind video content creation has become more readily available, everyone can become a publisher or a content creator, says Adam Shlachter, SVP of Media for DigitasLBi. We spoke to Shlachter in an interview with Beet.TV at the Digitas NewFront on Thursday. “As technology has democratized the […]

Perhaps one of the most unlikely players in this year’s Digital Content NewFronts was PBS, the non-profit coalition of the nation’s 300 plus public TV stations.   The Washington-based organization has built a a sizable following on YouTube with original programming commissioned by the network and with digital shows created by member stations. For an […]

While the Digital Content NewFronts, which concludes today, provides good visibility and marketing for the digital advertising industry and video producers, “it’s not a futures market” nor an “upfront.”   TV dominates video with advertising sales expected rise as much as $5 billion this year, says Dave Morgan, CEO of Simulmedia. Morgan’s company provides digital […]

While much of the inventory around AOL’s slate of premium content is sold by the company’s the sales force, unsold inventory is being sold on a programmatic basis  via AOL’s Adap.tv platform, explains Rishi Pahuja, Director of Video Strategy at AOL Video.  We spoke with him about monetization strategy at the recent AOL NewFront presentation. […]

Launched in August of 2012, the HuffPost Live is a “clip generating machine” which has created 1.2 billion video views.   The business has been largely built around this function as a means to create video on demand content.   The live, streaming aspect will grow as more viewers watch on connected devices, included OTT, […]

Tanya Rivero, a recent addition to the WSJ Live team who was most recently an anchor with ABC News Now, hosts Lunch Break, WSJ Live’s noontime news program, which Rivero says gives her the opportunity to work on a wide range of stories. We spoke with Rivero in this interview with Beet.TV at the Wall Street Journal […]

Digital video programming will have the most advertising success when it can start to draw budgets away from cable TV programming, says Todd Gordon, EVP and US Director, Magna Global during an interview with Beet.TV at the AOL NewFront event. Video is starting to lure a larger share of budgets, but the price is tracking at […]

Sara Murray, an anchor for WSJ Live, says she wants to have a conversation with her viewers. Murray, who led a panel of women entrepreneurs at the Wall Street Journal NewFront on Friday, hosts the 4p.m. “breaking news” show for WSJ Live, which mixes of-the-moment news with lighter topics. We spoke with Murray at the […]

With the digital transformation taking place with technology in people’s personal and professional lives, Anne-Marie Kline, SVP of Social Content and managing director of BrandLIVE for DigitasLBi, says we need to keep moving forward, challenging and reflecting on what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. Beet.TV spoke with Kline at the Digitas NewFront on […]

The quality of content during the NewFronts is improving dramatically year over year, says Ritu Trivedi, Managing Director/Digital Marketplace at MediaVest, in an interview with Beet.TV at the NewFronts. “This is not just a ‘new kid in town,’ where we go see some shiny new bauble. This is serious. We have seen some amazing content […]

It’s that time of the year when online publishers present their upcoming products and services in the form of so-called “NewFronts” events. In its NewFronts, The Wall Street Journal announced a video segment about how technology drives hope and health, a data- and animation-driven short video series, a new tablet video magazine and a documentary […]

Award-winning filmmaker Morgan Spurlock has teamed up with Israeli producer Ram Landes to create a long-form series for AOL, in a partnership introduced at the New Fronts this week. Both Landes and Spurlock spoke to Beet.TV about the show, “Connected,” the development plans, and what they hope to do with it. The show is based […]

San Francisco-based filmmaker and founder of Webby Awards, is finding a big audience with her video series called “The Future Starts Here,” has been picked up for season two by Verizon.  Since its debut last year, the show has had 20 million views she says.   At the AOL NewFront event we spoke with her […]

YouTube star Justine Ezarik  aka iJustine, is readying her second season of her show Hardwired on AOL. The series expanding from wearable tech to broader coverage of consumer tech, she explains to Beet.TV in this interview on the red carpet of the AOL NewFront event last night in Brooklyn. The series has been picked up […]

The increased automation around digital video distribution is allowing content creators, including big media agencies like Universal McCann (UM), to spend more time handcrafting web original video content, says Scott Donaton, Global Chief Content Officer at UM, in this interview with Beet.TV We spoke with him last night at the AOL NewFront event.