09/08/17: Major media buyers sign with OpenSlate for YouTube safety

Good morning. It’s Thursday September 7, 2017 and this is your your first early morning Digital briefing!

TODAY’S CODEBREAKER

Lossy Compression: In digital file size reduction, Lossy Compression is a technique for shrinkage that compromises some precision of detail (think JPEG’s). Most video compression technologies, such as MPEG, use a Lossy technique.

JUST IN

A raft of media-buying stalwarts – including Dentsu Aegis Network, GroupM, Horizon Media, MAGNA, Omnicom and Publicis – have signed on for a new auditing service from OpenSlate to ensure their clients’ ads on YouTube appear alongside brand-safe content. It’s the first independent, third-party confirmation of YouTube contextual brand safety. The new service leverages OpenSlate’s proprietary data about more than 350 million ad-supported videos on YouTube, giving brands the power to evaluate which content aligns to their standards.

Every James Bond movie has inexorable twists and turns. So does the quest to land film distribution rights to the mega-franchise. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Amazon and Apple have entered the race to pick up the distribution rights, which expired for Sony after 2015’s Spectre. THR quotes sources as saying newly arrived executives Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht are spearheading the effort on Apple’s behalf, having served as co-presidents of Sony Pictures Television. Valuation of the franchise is said to be anywhere between $2 billion and $5 billion.

Fantasy football is getting a big assist from Comcast and CBS Sports Digital. Under a new partnership, CBS Sports Digital yesterday began putting fantasy football scores and stats on the same screen as the games themselves. This means Xfinity X1 customers can access their CBS Sports Fantasy Football league directly on their TV, allowing for easy navigation between live games and highlights while keeping an eye on their fantasy teams’ performance, all on one screen.

LET’S MAKE A DEAL

With the rise in mainstream popularity of podcasts comes support for publisher expansion. The latest example is podcast network Gimlet Media picking up another $5 million in funding, this time from global ad holding company WPP. Just last month Gimlet raised $15 million, bringing total funding to $27 million.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Cynopsis Jobs: “for us in the biz.”

Save time and get solid results from a quality list of targeted media professionals.

“ I interviewed 4 people who applied through Cynopsis – they were all great and I ended up hiring someone who started today! Thank you Cynopsis for a great, targeted job site for us in the biz! ”

– Tina Tung-Barisic. Executive Director of Marketing. The Dr. Oz Show

Contact Trish Pihonak to get started on your listing!

PROGRAMMING

American teenager Hayes Grier returns to the screen with back-to-back season two and three renewals of his unscripted comedy series Top Grier in early 2018. The series about the day-to-day antics of Grier’s tight-knit family and crew of friends in America’s Heartland will be distributed on Complex Networks’ Rated Red digital channel, available via Verizon go90.

Amazon canceled Z: The Beginning of Everything, based on the life of Zelda Fitzgerald, which was a bit of a surprise – the dramedy had been renewed for a sophomore season, with Karl Gajdusek (Stranger Things) named showrunner.

YouTube gains a new docu-series on Sept. 12 with the debut of Indie Lens Storycast. It’s a collaboration between Independent Lens and PBS Digital Studios featuring a range of topics, from robot-building girls to dads navigating the waters of fatherhood.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Never a dull moment for Facebook’s public relations folks. This week brings two mini-crises as the social media juggernaut was asked to explain why its ad platform claims to reach millions more people than U.S. Census data show reside there. It was subsequently revealed that Facebook has identified about 500 “unauthentic” accounts with suspected ties to Russia that spent $100,000 on ads that seemed to be for the purposes of influencing the 2016 U.S. General Election.

ADVERTISING

The latest study from MediaRadar shows that more than 60% of digital publishers auto-play at least half of their video ads. The information gleaned from some 63,000 ads in the first six months of 2017 also reveals that 31% of publishers auto-start 75% ore more of their on-site, video ad inventory.

Bringing custom messaging to national TV ad spots for the first time, Omnicom’s OMD and Publicis’ Zenith have teamed with two-year-old tech firm Adcuratio Media on a platform that upgrades national ad inventory. Covering both broadcast and cable nets and across multiple cable operators, it creates the potential to deliver targeted ads to 108 million U.S. households. Brands involved include Clorox, with Axciom participating as data provider.

OTT + SVOD

Just in time for the new National Football League season, Fubo has signed a new carriage agreement that adds NFL Network to the Fubo Premier base package. The deal also adds NFL RedZone to the Fubo Sports Plus add-on.

Talk about going to school. Hulu is teaming with Spotify for a new discounted streaming bundle that in essence gives Hulu to college students for free.The Spotify Premium for Students streaming plan is being enhanced by adding Hulu access for the same $4.99-per-month rate that Spotify has been charging students for streaming music.

PROGRAMMATIC

OpenX unveiled a new product that makes the online digital media bidding process explicit and transparent. It enables bidders to choose whether they want to use the traditional second-price auction method or an explicit, first-price auction. OpenX claims the addition makes it the first platform to explicitly offer a transparent first-price auction option for buying biddable media programmatically.

RESEARCH

Pew Research Center says that two-thirds (67%) of Americans now get at least some of their news via social media platforms. That’s up from 62% in early 2016, with the increase attributed to greater adoption among older, less educated and non-white Americans.

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Data management platform Lotame appointed Eric Marterella as Chief Revenue Officer. Marterella comes from Sprinklr where he served as a Global Vice President.

DigitasLBi has elevated Jenny Awasano to the role of SVP/Group Creative Director, in which she will lead the agency’s American Express Consumer business while continuing to work on new business and special projects.

VideoAmp has named former FreeWheel Chief Financial Officer and Chief Financial Officer Tom Schmitt its Chief Financial Officer, and Krista Thomas Global Head of Marketing. Thomas most recently was VP Product Marketing, Mobile and Video for Rubicon Project.

Spencer Kimball joins CNBC.com as a News Editor on the breaking news team. He spent two years as U.S. Editor of Handelsblatt Global, the English edition of the daily German business newspaper.

TRIVIA

This Illinois-born actress plays the mother of the title character Lady Bird in the upcoming film from writer/director Greta Gerwig. (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and state.)

Our Last Trivia Question: Which Buffy The Vampire Slayer/Angel alum currently serves as co-showrunner of Netflix’s The Defenders? Answer: Doug Petrie. Kudos to Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/CA, David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union/CA.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

CYNOPSIS ESPORTS MASTER CLASS

Friday, September 15 | Barclays Center | BKLYN

Nielsen is launching a new unit focused on esports, offering global research and consulting services for the exploding industry – in 2017, revenue is projected to increase 41% to $696 million, with a 50% growth in global audience, to 191 million. To learn more about how to get in the game, register for the information-packed event with experts in the esports space AND a VIP/behind-the-scenes tour of ESL One.

REGISTER

DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

If you own an iPhone 7 and would like to regain the traditional headphone jack, check out this video by an American who accomplished it on his own on a trip to China.

David Teich
Roberta Caploe Publisher @robertacaploe	Diane K Schwartz Senior Vice President Media Communications Group	Cynopsis Ad Sales Mike Farina \| 203-218-6480 VP, Sales	Cynopsis Job Listings Sales Trish Pihonak \| 203-899-8459 Director of Operations

CYNOPSISJOBS – For More jobs, please visit Cynopsis.com

JOB OPENING: SR RESEARCH ANALYST/TV ONE/SILVER SPRING MD or NYC: Assist Sr. Rsrch, Dir w/interpreting media rsrch results & effectively communicating results. Strong knwlg Nielsen software & 3^rd party systems. BA/BS deg & 2+ yrs rsrch expe @ media co., agency or advertiser. Full info/apply HERE (9/15)

JOB OPENING: PROMO WRITER/PRODUCER: Seeking innovative promo producer for nationally syndicated talk show in New York. Candidate must be experienced in a fast-paced environment, demonstrate articulate client interaction and direct high profile talent. Apply at studiocity.com/careers (9/15)

JOB OPENING: ASSOCIATE WEB PRODUCER/Crown Media Family Networks/LA: Support Sr. Producer with content updates for consumer web initiatives. Experience using Content Management skills and tools. Cable or Digital Web experience. BA/BS req & Min 2 yrs exp. Apply HERE (9/15)

JOB OPENING: SALES SERVICE EXEC/ONE SOLUTION (CROSS PLATFORM)/NYC: Responsible for liaising w/Plan’g, Inventory & Integrated mktg and proficiently creating compelling presentations. Min 3-4 yrs exp digital, radio or linear sales. Highly skilled in PP, Excel a must. Very organized & detail oriented. Full info/apply HERE (9/15)

JOB OPENING: PRODUCTION ASSISTANT/BIGBADBOO/NYC: Responsible for daily operational tasks incl assisting executive team ongoing production needs, filing documents, archiving scripts and production related assets etc. 2-4 yrs exp in relevant field. MS Office exp a must. Full info/apply HERE (9/14)

JOB OPENING: SALES SERVICE REP/Weather Channel/Chicago: Candidates looking to grow career and knowledge supporting AE’s and Dir of Chicago Office. Must have 1+ yrs. current Cable TV media experience to be considered. Go to https://careers.weathergroup.com/ to apply or email [email protected] (9/14)

JOB OPENING: SR ANALYST or MGR, AD SALES/AMCN/NYC: 3+ yrs Sr Analyst/5+ yrs Mgr related media rsrch exp (digital exp pref). Provide aud measurement, consumer insights, mktg positioning & strategic rsrch dev. Resp for producing & presenting creative & effective rsrch stories/presentations. Full info/apply HERE (9/13)

JOB OPENING: AD SALES ASST DR/FUSE Media/NY: Recent grad w/previous ad sales/adv internship exp. to asst ad sales dept. Strong Excel & multi-tasking a +. Good comm, interpersonal & organzt’l skills. Apply HERE (9/13)

JOB OPENING: DEVELOPEMENT DIRECTOR/FUSE Media/LA: Developing ideas from concept through presentation or pilot. Work with internal depts and ext. productions partners, pitches, create and dev. concepts, manage presentation and pilot prod. Good comm, interpersonal & organzt’l skills. Apply HERE (9/13)

JOB OPENING: MARKETING DIRECTOR/FUSE Media/LA: creative development and delivery of the network branding, promotional campaigns and cross-promotional marketing initiatives on an interim basis. Apply HERE (9/13)

JOB OPENING: VICE PRESIDENT DEVELOPMENT/FUSE Media/LA: development process from ideation to post-production. Contrubite to strategic planning, content lens, channel management and be responsible for executing programming strategies through the development process. Apply HERE (9/13)

JOB OPENING: FIELD MARKETING SPECIALIST/Spectrum Reach/St. Petersburg, FL: Work w/Ad sales & help deliver mktg plans that drive client awareness. 3-5 yrs of ad sales mktg exp pref’d. Strong knwlg advertising/media, digital products & advanced ad products is a +. Res/cvr: HERE (9/12)

JOB OPENING: MGR MEDIA RIGHTS & LICENSING/MSG CO/NYC: Negotiate, draft and assist with administration of license agreements. Work with MSG’s stakeholders to assess music and other IP-related clearance and use issues. 5+ yrs relevant exp incl contract drafting & negotiating licensing. Full info/apply HERE (9/12)

JOB OPENING: AD SALES ACCOUNT EXEC/Crown Media Family Networks/LA: Sell Nat’l advertising time to ad agencies and clients. Strong negotiation skills and presentation skills. Strong knowledge of Los Angeles mktplace. BA/BS req & Min 2 yrs exp. Apply HERE (9/12)

JOB OPENING: SALES COORDINATOR/Nat Geo Partners/NYC: Support 3 Sales Execs & 2 VPs. Assist w/Print RFPs, mng forecasts, support VP on linear initiatives, help gather sales materials & prep for sales calls; asst w/basic client req’s & take on special. Full info/apply HERE (9/12)

JOB OPENING: DIR, FINANCIAL REPORTING/AMCN/NY: 10+ yrs tech accting & reporting exp. 2+ yrs superv exp. Prepare the consolidated fin statemnts, incl bal sheet, inc statemnt, statemnt of comprehensive inc & statemnt of cash flows & related footnote disclosures for AMC Networks Inc. on a quarterly basis. Perf calculation of earnings per share for the quart & annual SEC rpts. Full info/apply HERE (9/12)

JOB OPENING: FREELANCE DIR, BRAND MKTG/NFL/NYC: Build executable mktg strategies for new/existing brand initiatives and platforms that leverage consumer rsrch, goals & overall brand strategy. 8-10 yrs of exp in consumer mktg, in-house or agency. Detail oriented & orgnzd. Full info/apply HERE (9/12)