11/04/24: Cynopsis Media Tech Update

ChatGPT is now an AI-powered web search engine, offering timely answers with links to relevant web sources. ChatGPT will choose to search the web based on what users ask, or they can manually choose to search by clicking the web search icon. The company has also partnered with news and data providers to add up-to-date information and new visual designs for categories like weather, stocks, sports, news, and maps.

Meta announced a Meta Quest v71 software update that includes a redesign of Meta Horizon OS (including a reorganized Settings menu), train support for Travel Mode, expanded capabilities for the Link app on PC, a new Calendar app for keeping track of to-do lists, and more. The rollout will begin this week.

The NFL and Cosm, an immersive technology, media, and entertainment company, announced a partnership that will see Cosm produce and distribute select NFL games at their venues throughout the 2024 regular season. Cosm’s experiential venues feature 87-foot-diameter 12K+ LED domes, and will feature “Thursday Night Football” (Prime Video), “Sunday Night Football” (NBC), and “Monday Night Football” games, as well as select games on FOX, for the remainder of the 2024 NFL regular season. “There’s nothing quite like experiencing an NFL game in person — the energy, the pageantry, and the atmosphere of the stadium are irreplaceable. At Cosm, we aim to deliver an experience for the fans that can’t get to the stadium. A place for fans to cheer, connect, and celebrate football” said Jeb Terry, President and CEO at Cosm.

Russia has fined Google $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 for YouTube’s blocking of channels run by Russian state-run media. Google began collecting daily fines of 100,000 rubles in 2020 after Russian state-run outlets Tsargrad and RIA FAN won lawsuits against the company for blocking their YouTube channels, and those fines have since doubled each week. The amount not only dwarfs Google’s market value of $2 trillion, it’s larger than the global GDP of $110 trillion. So does Russia really expect Google to pay up? “Although it is a specific amount, I cannot even say this number, it is rather filled with symbolism,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.

Entravision has purchased six of its AccuWeather’s StoryTeller+ Display Systems, enabling it to create more interactive content for viewers. StoryTeller+ will also allow Entravision to simplify how it organizes its news presentations. “With it we can create more dynamic and engaging news stories and save time so we can more efficiently and easily focus on delivering the highest quality news to our viewers,” said Bertha Gonzalez, VP of News for Entravision.

TheSoul Publishing has acquired a majority stake in Mediacube, a certified partner of YouTube and Meta that offers fintech solutions creators. “Our vision for TheSoul is rooted in an ecosystem approach. We make sure we deeply understand the market, its dynamics, and all its moving parts,” said TheSoul Publishing CEO Arthur Mamedov. “This allows us to craft a value proposition that supports creators at every stage of their journey.”

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“Publishers, adtech vendors, and CMPs are all on the front lines of trying to make sense of these complex privacy regulations,” said Melissa Cooper, Director, Privacy, PubMatic. “Where GPP serves as a roadmap, these guidelines serve as a navigation system. It’s about cutting through the noise and helping teams get practical solutions in place so they can focus on what they do best, without getting stuck in the regulatory weeds.”

Disney Advertising has introduced its first global holiday sponsorship on Disney+, available within the US, EMEA and Latin America. Contextually targeted advertising will be featured in holiday content, including within “Home Alone” and “The Santa Clauses,” in select markets, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia. “With our scale and reach, it’s only natural that audiences are turning to Disney when it comes to relevant cultural moments – like the holidays,” said John Campbell, SVP, Entertainment and Streaming Solutions, Disney Advertising. “Through our growing presence in new markets around the world, we are combining our strategies across all our platforms to elevate and broaden the impact for brands.”

Ad management firm Mediavine announced the integration of OpenPass, The Trade Desk’s single-sign-on solution, into Grow, its proprietary engagement suite and identity tool. Through the integration, Mediavine will offer publishers a seamless and privacy-first solution to authenticate users via email. “For the open internet to thrive, publishers must retain control over their data and the user experience,” said Will Doherty, Vice President of Inventory Development, The Trade Desk. “By integrating with OpenPass, alongside their early adoption of Unified ID 2.0, Mediavine is leading the way in helping publishers deliver value to both consumers and advertisers in a privacy-safe and transparent manner.”

Brightcove is expanding its recently launched Brightcove AI Suite with an AI-Text-to-Video pilot in 1Q25 and will soon add additional capabilities to its AI-Metadata Optimizer solution with AI-automated thumbnail creation and video chaptering. “Since launching the Brightcove AI Suite pilot program six weeks ago, we’ve received incredible feedback from our customers about how our solutions are helping them save time and money and increase engagement with their audiences,” said Kathy Klingler, Chief Marketing Officer at Brightcove. “What’s so valuable about the pilot program is testing our products and solutions with our customers before they launch commercially. They are engaged and communicating what works, what needs tweaking, and what they would like to see our platform do in the future, and that informs our roadmap.”

ROKiT Flix, the free streaming service without advertisements, announced its full catalog of family friendly programming, including 3D animation, classic cartoons, animated shorts, “edutainment,” radio programs, interactive games, motion comics, movies and series. New content is added every Thursday. In addition to its primary menu of kid-friendly entertainment, ROKiT Flix is also equipped with a dual parent/guardian profile providing access to more diverse programming

MEASUREMENT

With the growing availability of big TV datasets reducing barriers to entry in the marketplace, the measurement ecosystem operates across multiple measurement vendors. In a new CIMM paper, industry experts Josh Chasin and Albert Lau identify and review the methodological challenges currently facing big data-based currency-grade measurement providers, and provide guidance on how best to evaluate and address potential issues. The study pinpoints six critical methodological challenges faced by big-data measurement providers today: 1) assessing the impact of identity; 2) addressing footprint coverage bias; 3) onboarding, cleansing, and combining of big data assets; 4) metadata; 5) integrating linear and digital streaming; and 6) processes and methods for addressing coverage gaps and shortfalls. “The US TV and video marketplace is fragmented and extremely complex, presenting significant challenges for measurement and currency, across different platforms and devices,” said Jon Watts, Managing Director, CIMM. “Measurement vendors are working hard to address these challenges and are making tremendous progress, but there is scope to support their efforts through collaboration and cooperation. We hope this new study is a powerful contribution to the industry, helping to identify potential solutions to some of the biggest methodological challenges facing vendors.”

STREAMING

Stockholm Stream, provider of content distribution solutions, has added support for Xumo Stream Box for its customers. The Xumo Stream Box 4K streaming device combines live TV and streaming in an intuitive interface. Stockholm Stream’s Delta system offers a one-stop service for video content owners, including encoding, metadata, subtitles, and packaging.

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