RIP Christine Cavanaugh

12/31/2014 FYI Television 0 comments

On Dec. 22, 2014, Christine Cavanaugh, best known as the voice actress for a number of 1990s cartoon characters, passed away from unknown causes. She was 51, and her career is notable for leaving a huge impact on Millennials, providing the voices of animated individuals that were regularly viewed by a generation during childhood.

Cavanaugh primarily voiced Chuckie from Nickelodeon’s “Rugrats,” Dexter from Cartoon Network’s “Dexter’s Laboratory,” Gosalyn from “Darkwing Duck,” and Oblina from “Aaahh!!! Real Monsters,” in addition to making contributions to shows like “Sonic the Hedgehog,” “The Critic” and “Cave Kids.”

The iconic actress is also recognized as the voice of the eponymous swine in the beloved 1995 film “Babe.”

Although she retired from the industry in 2001, Cavanaugh had won an Annie Award only a year prior in 2000 for one of her performances as boy-genius Dexter.

"There are a lot of people inside of me,” she once said. “With voice-overs, I get to be different people."


Check out the clip below to hear her as Chuckie Finster from “Rugrats.”

Author: Brian Cameron


GET A LIST OF DATA FIELDS

Post a Comment

Our 10 Most Popular Articles in 2014

12/30/2014 FYI Television 0 comments

As the year 2014 comes to a close, we’ve compiled a list of our top 10 most popular articles over the past 12 months. A variety of different topics were enjoyed by our readers.

Be sure to check out the blog posts you may have missed, and have a happy and safe New Year!







10. Bad TV Metadata Confuses Internet Media

9. No, TV Isn't Dead

8. Analyzing Aereo: What are the Outcomes?


7. Four Aereo Competitors Filling the Void


6. 2014: The Year of the Set-Top Box


5. What Are People Doing with Second Screens?


4. The 10 Most Useful Connected Device Apps


3. The STB vs. The Cloud Debate


2. A Look at the Social EPG


1. The Rise of the TV Recommendation Engine





Author: Brian Cameron



Image via
GET A LIST OF DATA FIELDS

Post a Comment

A Guide to 2014 Christmas Movies and TV Specials

12/23/2014 FYI Television 0 comments
The ‘most wonderful time of the year’ is officially upon us. And in the holly jolly spirit of the holidays, seasonal TV specials and classic movies are airing across cable and broadcast networks for the enjoyment of all.

Here’s a rundown of various Christmas films, holiday tales and educational efforts being shown over the next couple of days. All times are EST.







Tuesday, 12/23

Home Alone 2 7 p.m. – The Santa Clause 2, AMC. Tim Allen returns in this 2002 sequel to the 1994 original film, in which he is required to locate a bride or else risk the demise of Christmas.

7 p.m. – An International Christmas, Cooking. Brothers Michael and Bryan Voltaggio reveal how to prepare holiday cuisine from across the globe, including eggnog crème brulee and squid bolognese.

9 p.m. – Michael Buble’s Christmas in New York, NBC. For the fourth year in a row, the jazz singer celebrates Christmas music, and he gets assistance from Ariana Grande and Barbra Streisand.

9:30 p.m. – Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, AMC. Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) attempts to foil a theft masterminded by the Wet Bandits (Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern) while trapped in New York City.

10 p.m. – Kelly Clarkson’s Cautionary Christmas Music Tale, NBC. The Texan pop musician recruits performers like Blake Shelton, Jay Leno and Robin Williams to put on a holiday musical.

11 p.m. – The Christmas Truce, H2. During World War I, German and Ally combatants agree to a temporary ceasefire, where the soldiers peacefully exchange holiday greetings.

Wednesday, 12/24

Bad Santa 11:30 a.m. – Miracle on 34th Street, AMC. The Academy Award-winning 1947 classic, where a Macy’s Santa Claus (Edmund Gwenn) insists that he is the real deal during a court trial.

1:45 p.m. – White Christmas, AMC. In this Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye-helmed 1954 musical, two World War II buddies become entertainers who pursue romance with a pair of sisters.

6:57 p.m. – Jeff Dunham’s Very Special Christmas Special, Comedy Central. Stand-up comedian Jeff Dunham puts on a holiday ventriloquist act, featuring appearances from his puppets Walter and Bubba J.

8 p.m. – It’s a Wonderful Life, NBC. Nominated for five Academy Awards, this oft-praised 1946 film tells the tale of a distressed businessman who learns what the world would be like if he never existed.

8 p.m. – I Love Lucy Christmas Special, CBS. Two colorized episodes of the 1950s television series are presented in which Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel reminisce about the past while decorating their tree.

8 p.m. – Bad Santa, MTV. Two con men (Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox) take advantage of American shopping malls during the holiday season.

8 p.m. – Most Christmasy Places in America, Travel.

8 p.m. – Die Hard; 10:20 p.m. – Die Hard 2; 12:30 a.m. – Die Hard 3, AXS TV. The original Die Hard trilogy airs one after the other. John McClane (Bruce Willis) takes on terrorists and evildoers.

10 p.m. – Rev Run’s Happy Holidays, Cooking. Joseph and Justine Simmons cook a festive meal, featuring a prime rib roast, hot chocolate and spice-roasted carrots.

11 p.m. – Twas' The Night Before Good Eats, Cooking. Host Alton Brown demonstrates how to make a wassail beverage and roast duck.

11:35 p.m. – The Christmas Eve Mass From St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, NBC.

Thursday, 12/25

Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas Midnight – 6 p.m., A Christmas Story, TNT. TNT is airing the 1983 comedy all day long. A young boy hopes to acquire a BB gun in the face of opposition from adults.

8 p.m. – How Murray Saved Christmas, NBC. In this animated story scribed by Mike Reiss (“The Simpsons”), a deli owner (voice of Jerry Stiller) takes on the role of Santa.

8 p.m. – Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, ABC. The original 1966 TV special, featuring narration from renowned horror actor Boris Karloff.

8:30 p.m. – Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, ABC. The live action, Academy Award-winning Jim Carrey film, with a bit more backstory on the green fiend.

9 p.m. – Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas, NBC. In this stop-motion special, a human (voiced by Jim Parsons) residing at the North Pole embarks upon a journey to meet his real father.

9 p.m. – Christmas Icetastrophe, SYFY. The citizens of a small town struggle with an asteroid that is causing everything around to quickly freeze.

10 p.m. – Christmas in Rockefeller Center, NBC. Lady Gaga, Tony Bennett, LeAnn Rimes and others provide musical performances.


Have a happy holiday celebration!

Author: Brian Cameron


Get Dynamic Data & Image APIs

Post a Comment

Looking Forward: Content Discovery

12/18/2014 FYI Television 0 comments

How viewers locate new television programming is the question on everyone’s mind right now. Patrice Slupowski, VP of digital innovation at Orange France Telecom, recently articulated some thoughts on this query, suggesting that the “biggest revolution to date in digital TV is likely to place in discovery.”

In fact, NATPE and CES has commissioned a consumer research study for presentation in early 2015 to learn about that very topic.

"The question of how and where people are discovering content — on any device — is one that we need to gain a better understanding of as an industry," remarked NATPE CEO Rod Perth. "This research study will reveal fresh guidance on the how and why of viewer discovery."

A December 2014 survey from Hub Entertainment Research indicates that more and more TV viewers are turning to online sources for their entertainment data solutions.

A majority of the respondents, 60 percent, agreed that a “universal listing that lets them find shows across all TV sources” would be beneficial; 48 percent have said that they lean toward sources that allow for “easy” television show discovery.

Nielsen also released new data in their third-quarter Total Audience Report, in which SVP of Insights Dounia Turrill highlighted that “consumers are shaping their own content-discovery experience.”

The recommendation engine is one type of service that many firms are using for television content curation and personalization.

Michael Ekstrand, a recommendations expert and computer-sciences professor at Texas State University, said that systems like that “can result in a substantial lift in peoples' movie-watching [and] purchasing.”

Being able to reliably provide robust TV recommendations for viewers is a task of utmost importance, and arguably required for film and television providers who hope to retain and maintain viewers who seek to find fresh and engaging programming.

A key part of this is ensuring that the proper entertainment metadata, tagged with appropriate and accurate genres and categories, is involved.

FYI Television’s carefully tailored television and film metadata is highly flexible, and can be of great assistance when directing viewers towards exciting new programming. Click below to discover how.


Author: Brian Cameron


Image via
GET A LIST OF DATA FIELDS

Post a Comment

TV of Tomorrow Show 2014 Recap

12/16/2014 FYI Television 0 comments
On Dec. 9, the fifth annual east coast TV of Tomorrow Show was held at the SVA Theatre in New York City.

Broadcast specialists, pay-TV operators, electronics providers, OTT and connected television experts and others visited the Big Apple to discuss the future of the industry, offering many revelations, projections and insights.

Additionally, an “Interface Showcase” competition was held in an effort to determine the best user experience design of the past year. The nominees included AltiView, CNNgo, Freesat, and Peel, with the overall winner announced as SHO Sync from the Showtime network.

 Here’s a few of the show’s epiphanies, as revealed by attendees on Twitter:




Author: Brian Cameron

Get Dynamic Data & Image APIs

Post a Comment

TV Execs Engage Investors at UBS Conference

12/11/2014 FYI Television 0 comments

UBS
Over a three day period, from Dec. 8 – 10, the 42nd annual UBS Global Media and Communications Conference was held at the Westin New York hotel. Leaders from various entertainment and television firms offered presentations on the state of the industry and their businesses to excited investors.

Viacom CEO Phillippe Dauman was a big draw, and his remarks emphasized the importance of TV Everywhere, measurement and second-screens.

“You have to deliver ‘TV everywhere,’ you can’t just say you have ‘TV everywhere,'” Dauman said, adding that “There is no question young audiences want to watch content on all devices they use, particularly on mobile devices … we want to be there, and we also want our partners to be there too.”

He also went on to emphasize that the company would be debuting new programming and services via mobile in 2015, stating "We have a lot of real estate that we can build beautiful new homes on."


Chief research officer at CBS, David Poltrack, discussed over-the-top services.

 “The growth of streaming is seen at this point to be the major disruptive force in the media landscape today,” he told the attendees.

Although, he did take the time to knock Netflix, as he noted that they haven’t released a successful show in a while.

“It’s been more than one year since Netflix introduced a true, new hit program,” Poltrack observed. “That batting average is below the batting average of the pay cable network, as well as the broadcast networks. Netflix is a player in the original content business, but they do not appear to have found any magic formula for success in that business.”


21st Century Fox co-COO James Murdoch also had a few words to say on the digital space.

“If it makes sense for the business to broadcast over wires via the Internet or cable or whatever then we’ll do it,” he said.

Murdoch described OTT service Hulu as “an exciting business that becomes more exciting.”


Other presenters included Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt CEO Linda Zecher and CFO Eric Shuman, who shared further thoughts on digital television.


Author: Brian Cameron


GET A LIST OF DATA FIELDS

Post a Comment

Excise the EPG Editorializing

12/09/2014 FYI Television 0 comments

In October, we brought attention to an outbreak of editorializing within the electronic program guide (EPG), and that despite the fact that some entertainment metadata suppliers publicly claim to offer a “neutral perspective” in their program summaries, the evidence overwhelmingly proves they’re totally failing in this regard.

FYI Television firmly believes that an unbiased description for a film or television show is the best format, which generally seems to be the same line of thought as the TV viewers who browse these synopses every day, looking for something fun or informative to watch.

In part two of this article series, we review further instances of completely ridiculous and off-color opinions which are appearing in EPGs around the U.S. While reading, consider whether this partisan content is what you would want to present to customers of a cable or telecom service, or even connected device app users.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Gory, pointless reinterpretation of Tobe Hooper’s 1974 horror classic about teens who encounters a family of psychopaths in a remote part of the Lone Star State.



The Core

Scientists travel to Earth's core to correct a problem that jeopardizes the planet's existence. Good special effects, clichéd and unintentionally funny script.



Cradle 2 The Grave

Slick but pointless thriller about a Taiwanese special agent who teams up with a Los Angeles jewel thief (DMX) after the latter’s daughter is kidnapped.

Loading
Lmao. Whoever wrote this description hates their job. It's on BET Comcast guide right now.


Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

Jim Carrey milks laughs from a one-joke premise in this star-making vehicle about a sleuth searching for a football team’s missing mascot --- a 500-lb. dolphin.



One Hour Photo

An introverted photo-lab employee (Robin Williams) becomes obsessed with a family of regular customers. Intense performance by Williams; other characters lack depth.



Aquamarine

A mermaid (Sara Paxton) agrees to grant a wish to two Florida teens (Joanna “JoJo Levesque, Emma Roberts) if they help her romance a lifeguard. Unimaginative fantasy that doesn’t make much of a splash.



Blue Crush

In Hawaii, a former pro surfer (Kate Bosworth) who's trying to get back into competition falls for an NFL quarterback. Good action sequences, but film sinks with the romantic subplot.



Hulk

An ambitious, pretentious and long adaptation of the Marvel comic about a genetically mutated scientist (Eric Bana) whose massive green alter ego is targeted by the military.



The Whole Ten Yards

When his wife is kidnapped, a jittery dentist (Matthew Perry) seeks help from a hit man (Bruce Willis) Unfunny sequel to “The Whole Nine Yards.”

As you can tell, these opinionated descriptions are pretty much out of control and unreasonable.

Interested in television and film entertainment metadata that is not only nonpartisan, but is also informative, accurate and doesn’t disrespect the people behind the programming? Click below to learn more.


Author: Brian Cameron

Image via
Get Dynamic Data & Image APIs

Post a Comment

Apparently, No One Is Competing with Netflix

12/04/2014 FYI Television 0 comments

In the over-the-top and online streaming space, as well as broadcast and cable, many businesses seem to be completely ignoring Netflix’s market share. This is fairly significant.

At the Digital TV World Summit 2014 yesterday, Director of Online and Brands for ITV Paul Kanareck stated that “Netflix is a totally different world,” and went on to contrast how ITV and Netflix’s business models totally diverge.

Other leading executives have made similar remarks in the past.

Jeff Bewkes, the CEO of Time Warner, which owns HBO, refused to acknowledge any sort of rivalry, telling The Wrap around this time last year that the two companies are “complimentary services.”

Roy Price, Director of Amazon Studios, also dodged questions on Netflix back in August, describing the industry as a “diverse ecosystem,” and observed that “it doesn't really serve you too well to spend a lot of time thinking mainly about the competitors and what they’re doing.”

Another streaming head honcho, Redbox Instant CEO Shawn Strickland, also held this line back in 2013.

“Netflix, Hulu, etc., are not our biggest challenge,” he said. “Market competition is not even on the top of the list.”

Perhaps it should have been, as Redbox Instant closed its doors in failure after only a year and a half this past October.

Netflix, on the other hand, recognizes that competition exists. Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer, told a group of investors way back in 2012 that the company “never thought that [they] were going to operate without competition.”

And where is Netflix today?

Digital TV Research just reported that they’ll have more than 17 million paying subscribers outside of the U.S. by the year’s end, with more than 50 million in total. A new study from Sandvine found that Netflix “continues to dominate North American networks.”

Despite a recent stock decrease, Motley Fool financial gurus currently say that Netflix is still “a top stock to buy,” “a perfect fit for opportunistic investors” and “a core holding.”

Maybe if other services admitted Netflix’s success, they just might be able to put a dent in it.

Author: Brian Cameron


Image via.
Get Dynamic Data & Image APIs

Post a Comment

Analysis: Broadcast TV Kaput By 2030? Not So Fast

12/02/2014 FYI Television 0 comments

At the beginning of the Thanksgiving holiday, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings went to Mexico City to discuss his company’s massive growth in the region.

As he made his remarks, he uttered this prediction: "The age of broadcast TV will probably last until 2030."

 While it is certainly in Reed’s best interest to promote the downfall of traditional television viewing, several things need to be reviewed.

Back in August, media analyst Rich Greenfield talked with TheWrap about the future of network television.

“Everyone in the TV business should be reevaluating how important the broadcast business is,” he said. “Either you should be exiting the TV business, or driving reverse retrans fees dramatically higher.”

“Broadcast TV is really constrained in terms of what it can do in terms of a creative standpoint,” Greenfield added.

But at the same time, the networks took home 47 Emmy Awards this year, compared to 38 for basic cable, 25 for premium and 12 for OTT. The output is being valued.

Over at TDG Research, Joel Espelien came to the conclusion that “As an industry concept, 'broadcast’ is becoming less and less useful … it is possible to have compelling launch events around new TV shows without broadcasting (and even without live streaming). If the future of TV is indeed an app, the future of broadcast TV is to serve as a launch pad for new TV content.”

And at September’s IBC conference, Imagine Communications CEO Charlie Vogt prophesized that “TV will move to IP sooner than people think … It's not five years away. I'd say it will happen over the next two years. You can mark my word on that.”

Many of these industry examinations often focus on one factor though, and that’s scripted programming. Two areas important to viewers seem to fall by the wayside, and that’s news and sports content, both of which deserve consideration in this debate.

Yesterday, Re/code’s Peter Kafka chimed in with a key reminder.

While streaming sports is indeed popular, Kafka observed that “U.S. sports fans are pretty much required to get pay TV,” as ESPN has effectively monopolized the rights to the largest events.

For the overall pay/broadcast model to be obliterated by 2030, we’d first have to see radical changes in ESPN’s behavior. Also worth noting is that years ago, Monday Night Football shifted to ESPN from ABC.

As long as there is demand for live sports, as well as news, pay and broadcast TV will likely remain as a primary part of the television industry. OTT and streaming apps will certainly enhance the experience, though.

Author: Brian Cameron

Image via
GET A LIST OF DATA FIELDS

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)