National Geographic Channel has partnered with GE for Breakthrough, an anthology series premiering November 1 that focuses on leading scientists and their cutting-edge innovations, in episodes helmed by the likes of Ron Howard, Angela Bassett, Peter Berg and Brett Ratner. Nat Geo CEO Courteney Monroe talks about the unique collaboration, and what it’s like to […]
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As TV festivals get more tuned in, unheard auteurs get a voice for the small screen
By Tino Carlo, founder and director of the Jolt TV Festival When you see the word “festival” written in trade paper headlines, you normally think of Cannes, Sundance, and recently Toronto. Festivals like those rival the Golden Globes or Oscars in terms of their celebrity sightings and taste-making influence. Those events carry some […]
Understanding the history, and the future of ‘audience’
By Randy Cooke, VP Programmatic TV, SpotX “Audience” is a term that has undergone radical transformation in recent years. It’s evolved from a general understanding of TV ratings and inferred demographics from sample-based measurement into a concept encompassing deep, data-driven insights, informed by a proliferation of first- and third-party datasets. The term has […]
The future of TV programming will be live – and kicking
By Randee Dawn Make it live, and they will come. It’s a fitting motto for one of the prevailing attitudes of how to draw eyeballs to small-screen content, whether on broadcast and TV channels or in the burgeoning online field of over-the-top programming. David Jammy, whose company Done + Dusted has been behind […]
Can You Keep a Secret? Avoiding Data Theft in the Age of Cyberespionage
By James Pooley, author of Secrets: Managing Information Assets in the Age of Cyberespionage The Great Sony Hack of 2014 exposed a scary truth: information is now the currency of the 21st Century, and cyberthieves are just acting like bank robbers, going where the data is. But hold that thought while considering another news story […]
How will it play in Asia? Turner International’s Marianne Lee talks piracy, SVOD and William Shatner
By Lynn Leahey The potential of the burgeoning Asian television market is huge – Asia accounts for 60 percent of the world’s population, and estimates have the number of pay-TV subscribers reaching upwards of 700 million by 2020. As Turner International Asia Pacific’s Vice President and head of Turner Entertainment and Factual Brands, it falls […]
Getting to the bottom of all this talk about late night
By Linda Ong, CEO and Founder, TruthCo. If you’re like me, you should plan on getting less sleep this fall. Not since the Jay Leno-David Letterman wars in the early 1990s has the late night talk genre been such a spectator sport. New entrants like Stephen Colbert (The Late Show, CBS), Trevor […]
Impractically Live: truTV takes its wild ‘Jokers’ out on a high wire for 100th special
By Randee Dawn On Sept. 3, truTV’s most successful series is going out on a limb. Or rather, a wire: In honor of its 100th episode, Impractical Jokers will air a live episode in which each of its four daredevils will attempt a high-wire walk five stories above New York City. Sure, it’s no Nik […]
From television to ‘TV’: One teen’s inside view of millennial media consumption
By Cece Jane Seventeen-year-old California-based Cece Jane regularly reports on sports and entertainment for the Los Angeles Times. This is her first look at the way teens consume TV for Cynsiders. On an average Tuesday night, after finishing my homework and going to track practice, I always make sure to relax as I […]
Rita Mullin puts the sizzle in Science
By Lynn Leahey In the little over a year since Rita Mullin took over as General Manager, Science has been setting viewership records with a formula that mixes fun (electric roller skates, blowing things apart) with the likes of physics. “I’m a firm believer that entertaining and smart aren’t mutually exclusive,” Mullin tells Cynsiders. “We […]
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Raising the Bar: Redefining Inclusion and Authenticity in Unscripted Storytelling
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