#But cable/network tv is exactly where ads are supposed to be

[sleeperagentclone]

I honestly think cable could make a fucking killing if they just restructured a little bit

[chronomaza]

The eternal message

It is the year 15092, humanity has developed a tenfold of what it is now, spreading itself out across the stars like a steadily growing puddle of water moves along a smooth floor, developing technology which the modern man cannot possibly fathom in even their wildest dreams. Though the distances between stars separate humanity into smaller and smaller fractions, the tides of time shaping them into different forms, a complex web of information and memories connects them. A network where everything is eternal, and archive after archive, stores thousands of years of information across several star systems. A network haunted by the ghosts of thousands of generations past, and media lurking in the darkest corners of it's existence, waiting to be uncovered.

Of course, memories get foggy with time, and such a vast archive, consisting of many eras of disaster and reworks will quickly become as complex and deep as the soil of the earth itself. This led to the creation of a new job, a digital archaeologist. Such archaeologists, rather than digging through the soil, would dig through the depths of this network, hoping to find relics of humanity's earlier years. Most of these teams would focus on finding news outlets, wiki articles, and other informal pieces of media- but these would often be damaged or heavily influenced by the time they were made.

So, some teams, like Carl's, chose to focus instead on the pop culture of the time, and what it commonly depicted. Today, him and his team were focusing on the chaotic early years of the internet, which lasted from roughly the 1990s to 2040s, based on rough estimates and loose data. In this time, there had been major changes made to the internet that ultimately decided what it'd become for the rest of it's existence. What exactly these changes were, remained unknown. Really, the entire era remained shrouded in mystery aside from a few pieces of information that had somehow survived what was commonly known as "the 3367 rewrite", an event that had made a majority of early internet archives frustratingly hard to document and preserve with the standard LXX format.

Carl and his team were close to making a breakthrough it'd seem; after countless nights staying up into ungodly hours of the morning, only kept awake by the glow of their holoscreens and the atrocious amount of caffeine in their system, they'd finally found a way into what seemed to be an ancient archive of sorts. It was, of course, all written in information age english, something which was barely legible compared to the standard universal trades and associations (UTA for short) language that everyone was mandated to learn, but it was the best and most intact archive they'd ever found.

It was going to be a long night of combing through webpages and backing up data for the translation and restoration team over on Gliese 625, so Carl got himself another beverage and got to work.

However, about fifty or so pages in, he stumbled across something unlike anything he'd ever seen before. It was a standard looking webpage for some sort of online video related service- nothing he hadn't seen before, the early internet was littered with them. Among the endless sea of broken links, empty spots where ads should've been, missing page elements, and a whole slew of other bizzare issues caused by time- was a video, seemingly caught in a loading loop. He wasn't sure what format it was in, or what it was supposed to display, but it seemed to be loading something. He was about to ignore it, when it suddenly stopped, and it instead of showing a broken video, it showed a play button over an extremely compressed image. It was incredibly bizarre to find something functioning that was this old, but Carl soon noticed something even stranger.

It was a site for some form of cable TV channel, and from the little information age English he knew, there was a box at the top telling him it was indeed, still broadcasting live.

No. That couldn't of been right. There was no way in hell something like this could've still been running, right? It must've been some sort of weird glitch, he knew there was no way the box at the top of the page that said "LIVE" was right. The only way something like this could still even possibly run was if it was being hosted on a server somewhere back on earth. Carl felt an odd sense of awe and wonder as he imagined a server, perhaps deep in the basement of some long forgotten building, covered in cobwebs and quietly transmitting a message nobody had bothered to listen to in well over a thousand years. What would such a broadcast even be? How could something so mundane, so average, so forgotten, possibly survive that long?

He stared at the static video, which was still offering him the option to play whatever the broadcast had in store for him. Of course, it was his job to document these things, but he still couldn't help but feel nervous. This was a multi-millennia old transmission, god only knows what he could find, it could've very well been the holy grail of early internet history.

Carl looked over his shoulder, at his surroundings, then back at his screen. He cracked his knuckles, stretched his shoulders, and then moved his emulated cursor over the play button. He took a deep breath, and pressed it.

The video changed back to it's loading state, and for a moment, Carl was scared he'd lost his one chance to document whatever he'd just found. However, after a moment, a video feed came through. At first, it was impossible to even remotely understand what it was showing, but after a moment, something came through as clear as day.

A single sentence, uttered by what sounded like a young woman.

"Honey, isn't that the dog's towel?"

[traitor-boyfriend]

i am begging u to give us your thoughts on the special

i watched the special last night when it was available my time, and i just watched it again about half an hour ago, so i'm jotting all this down now while it's fresh in my mind:

- matt and trey have not given a specific date but have confirmed that the next special will be coming out in december; i do feel confident in my belief before that again these specials will be taking place in a separate timeline from the show as from the sound of it they still have not figured out exactly how to go about resuming "normal" production of the show within six days because of the pandemic, so these movies probably became a way for them to continue working as opposed to simply not airing for indeterminate time periods. the time travel element in this special will be how they bridge the gap between the two (presumably).

- stan the weak chin alcoholic failson with an overbearing miserable pseudo-robowife. ouch. not great to see but totally plausible. stan as an adult has definitely regressed into absolute cynicism and avoidance to deal with life, as his alexa robowife routinely criticizes him for. found it interesting that stan is the only one (other than cartman) that has left south park altogether and is living in "the city" though i suppose it makes sense once his Tragic Farm Backstory is revealed later on. the way kyle asks if this is stan marsh, from south park felt sooo bizarre to see on screen simply because i have read countless fics that have had this exact scenario which was very funny.

- i think the commentary in the future specifically regarding all the plus, max, add-on, etc to everything was very apt for where we are now, and i do think this is definitely a race south park has an inherent dog in, though that might seem to contrary considering these movies are exclusive to paramount+. if you've been watching south park as long as i have, you might recall back in the late 2000s when every episode was available to watch online for free, back before the concept of "streaming" content was a thing much less an entire industry. south park concurrently appeared on netflix, back when every show was on netflix, only to cycle on and off the platform, jump to hulu, have commercials introduced to south park studios to incentive people who wanted ad-fee episodes to use hulu, then heading to hbo max, except BLU and the new contracted specials will be on paramount+, and south park studios now only has select episodes available for free, with ads, and all other episodes are behind a paywall. hulu itself used to be a free service up to the 5 latest episodes of a cable tv show (this is how i used to keep up with the simpsons). the last five years or so has seen an explosion in "streaming" services, every major television network or production company has pulled their programming from existing services (namely netflix, or hulu) to start their own service to charge people for; all this is very confusing, annoying, and expensive for someone who wants to do the "right" thing of paying for all content they want. the dig about crypto later -- that centralized banking is bad and people are more inclined to trust fly-by-night ponzi schemes -- shows a very relevant breakdown of where many people's economic interest lie right now in which things are so decentralized now as to be incredibly vague and even more prone to nefariousness; cable is a racket, so i use streaming instead, except now i have to pay for several different services in order to access all the shows i watch, so paying for the all these individual services eventually becomes just as expensive. a good example of the current late-capitalist breakdown in which novel ideas that have the ability to revolutionize accessibility and simplicity in peoples' access to culture cannibalize itself so thoroughly as a hinderance to their intended purpose through pure economic incentive to maximize profit. i would be interested to know the details of matt and trey's role in this history with streaming and how much power they have re: comedy central.

- jimmy as the stand-in for jimmy fallon was funny to me; jimmy fallon is the perfect example of a highly sanitized, carefully curated comedian designed to be so nonthreatening and inoffensive in attempt to garner broad appeal while simultaneously appealing to no one. i thought this was their smartest way of criticizing "woke" pc culture within the comedy world in a way that did not just feel like Old Man Yells at Cloud; the humor is in how unfunny jimmy actually is.

- stan meeting kyle at the restaurant. oh man. the way that kyle tries so hard to seemingly brush past the animosity felt very kyle -- and the way stan sees through this immediately and curtly informs him that he's just here for the funeral was very stan. the scene later on where kyle again does the agree-to-disagree song and dance about their issues so they should simply move on and stan agrees is a really succinct breakdown of the communicate issues between the two of them. kyle has immense difficulty admitting his wrongdoing; stan has an immense aversion to any sort of confrontation. this is why they have problems and that felt very organic to their characters.

- i like all their adult characterizations and thought they made sense but absolutely none more so than clyde. clyde becoming a fat dumpy hawaiian-shirt tacky jewelry wearing anti-vax loser is hysterical. he's what cartman would realistically be. speaking of cartman...

- i had no real expectation for what cartman would become -- saw a lot of speculation about whether they would revisit previous versions of an adult cartman which i was fairly certain they wouldn't -- but i had to pause watching for a second when i saw him wearing a yarmulke. it follows the formula perfectly; cartman pretends to be something he isn't, which infuriates kyle as he typically is the first or only person to see through it (ex: ever diplomatic stan proposing that perhaps he has actually changed), cartman goes above and beyond to prove that he has, which frames kyle in the minds of everyone around them as an asshole for refusing to give him the benefit of the doubt, which leads to kyle inevitably deciding out of spite to go along to get along, only for cartman to pull the rug out from under him once he's done so, which we catch a glimpse of at the end, setting up these events for the second special. found it really, really funny the extent to which cartman is 'proving' this new identity though. three kids and a wife named yentl (assume in reference to barbra streisand). presumably by her shock, yentl also has very little idea the extent of cartman's sociopathy as a child and has had cartman to reverse the role of victim and offender in his retelling of events.

- noticed ike is the only sibling of the main four that was not seen; karen and kevin were visible at the funeral, shelly is dead (as is sharon), and yet ike was not seen. wonder if this was an oversight or if ike will have a role to play next episode in a similar manner in which butters was not seen in this episode but alluded to.

- kenny's "fuck these hoes!!!" written on the photo got a belly laugh out of me, as did kenny's adult self looking like he walked straight out of a reel big fish audition become a renowned scientist. i am too tired and a little drunk from dinner earlier to begin connecting the red yarn together of how butters, kenny, randy and tegridy, and cartman comingle in creating the future and its subsequent reversal. will think more on it later.

- speaking of randy, he has obviously learned nothing. the strained relationship between them was very believable, especially given the circumstances of stan burning down the farm which accidentally killed shelly and the grief of which led sharon to kill herself. stan obviously has a lot of unresolved grief which is made worse by the fact that randy refuses to accept any blame or responsibility for his role in all this.

- really liked the scene of them examining kenny in the morgue; stan making his dig about "fixing" everything, which kyle takes immediate umbrage with, kyle rightly accusing stan of something he himself is not innocent of, stan deflecting kyle's criticism of him by mocking him. i love the strife. and also loved the hint of reconciliation at the end and hope for more that deals specifically with stan and kyle in the next special.

- "a general sense of shellfishness" / clyde refusing to do the line of coke he was gung ho about initially once it's revealed to be the vaccine, then declaring his body "is a temple" afterward was a funny comment on the ways in which many people who are misinformed and resistant to understanding vaccination out of faux health concern are often not -actually- that concerned about their health.

- i think this is the longest any single event or plotine in south park has been continuously incorporated into the show re: tegridy farms and i wonder if they might use this eventual time reset to reset before the events of tegridy farms or if they do anticipate keeping them at the farm for the foreseeable future.

i have some more minor miscellaneous thoughts but i have been typing for over an hour and i need to head to bed. overall, i enjoyed it. it wasn't laugh a minute, and last night i was wondering if i was enjoying it b/c i found it genuinely entertaining or was simply having fun with the novelty of an all grown up episode, but upon watching it again today i was just actually feeling entertained. i think these longform movies-that-are-not-quite-movies will be a good way for them to explore some of their more convoluted plots with a lot of moving parts they have tried in the past few years with varying success solely b/c 22 min. 10 ep seasons require them to break things up in ways that make things a little too fragmented to follow or shallow to really dig into. we'll see what december has in store and if they can stick the landing.

[sleepykittypaws]

The Christmas House

Original Air Date: November 23, 2020 (Hallmark) Where to Watch?: Hallmark will replay it multiple times this season, and for every season in perpetuity

It's impossible to review Hallmark's The Christmas House without noting that this time last year, then-Crown Media CEO Bill Abbott was personally taking phone calls from a SPLC-designated hate group, and pulling a Zola ad showing two brides chastely kissing from his network, at that hate group's behest. The ensuing firestorm of well-earned criticism following Abbott's bad judgement, is, without question, what brought us to today, with Abbott ousted, a woman of color, Wonya Lucas, now at Hallmark's helm, and a still totally G-rated holiday lineup that now regularly features former Hallmark no-gos like, interracial romance and LGBTQ+ inclusion, improving Hallmark's abysmal diversity record, one movie at a time. 

So, even though Hallmark had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, it's still hard not to be at least a little emotional that they're finally joining us here. The bigots are still having online temper tantrums about losing their all-white, all-straight safe space, but Hallmark's holiday ratings are up 7% year-over-year—a significant jump in a world where cable subscriptions are declining by 10-15% annually.

Now, what that progress looks like on a network known for being “clean,” conservative and about as unwilling to take risks as any channel on the planet, is another story. Frequent Hallmark star, and out gay actor, Jonathan Bennett, has been tirelessly talking about The Christmas House, since the day it went into production. And Bennett brings a lot of energy to this ensemble story, written by co-star Robert Buckley, of a family getting together to decorate their home one more time before it's sold. 

Buckley and Bennett play the sons of Sharon Lawrence and Treat Williams, a recently retired couple struggling with that fundamental shift in their relationship. Buckley is the star of a ridiculous court show, Handsome Justice, of which we luckily get to see a clip, and Bennett, a baker, and his husband, played by Brad Harder, are waiting to hear about an adoption, after several previous disappointments. 

Bennett and Buckley bring more humor than is normal for Hallmark to their portrayal of loving, competitive brothers, who clearly enjoy ribbing each other.

How conservative was past hallmark, you ask? Well, that Buckley's girl-next-door love interest is divorced, not widowed, is still a somewhat shocking twist in that world, as is the fact that both Buckley and Bennett are "allowed" to sport some facial scruff, rather than be clean shaven. Oh, and that the family next door is (gasp) Latino, is also something we likely wouldn't have seen in the Hallmark of yore. All of which is just mind-blowing, since those “days of yore” for this TV network were [checks notes]…2019, not 1968.

Lawrence and Williams are believable as a long term couple, and their life-change struggle to re-center their relationship feels real, but the way it's revealed is almost as anti-climactic as its resolution. The movie laid very unsubtle hints along the way—all storytelling progress aside, Hallmark movies are still written so you can half watch and not a miss a thing, allowing folks to join 20 minutes in, or do the dishes and come back without being confused—that Williams and Lawrence's wanting to have "one last Christmas" was about more than just downsizing in retirement. 

When Lawrence told the story of the clearly-actually-brand-new-and-from-Homegoods Santa pot, and what it meant to her, I thought Williams was going to later accidentally break Checkov's sentimental teapot and, in her anger, Lawrence would blurt out something about that's why they were separating, shocking their grown sons. 

And, honestly, as predictable as that would have been, it would probably have had more impact than what did happen…Lawrence just casually telling Buckley while stringing lights, and then nobody really mentioning it again, excepting oblique references during a single conversation between the brothers, and then Lawrence just announces at breakfast that they're not doing that after all.

Definitely feels like Hallmark's aversion to conflict in its stories is one of those provisions that is still firmly in place. (We saw a similar unwillingness to commit to actual marital difficulties, despite that being the central plot point, in Cranberry Christmas.)

Which is too bad, because Lawrence and Williams being much better than the actors usually used for these parent roles, could have handled a more realistic story well, and brought some real emotional beats to the movie.

As expected, Buckley's romance with Ana Ayora was the definite A-plot here, but why did their memory lane rekindling catalyst have to be close-up magic, the worst of all entertainment options? Was there no mime troop they could have been teenage members of? When it comes to magic, and jazz, I'm like Indiana Jones and snakes…Why'd it have to be magic?

Also, no way that 29-year-old guy they have playing "teenage" Mike grows up to be Robert Buckley. Nope! They definitely had to soft focus all the mostly unnecessary flashback scenes so that those actors, easily less than a decade younger than our leads, didn't quite look their age. 

And, c'mon, Buckley, who, again, is the star of his own TV show, gives the love of his life a necklace he bought…in high school? For real? I'm surprised we couldn't see her neck turn green in real time. At least get a gal a little upgrade. Sheesh! 

The whole rival real estate agent thing went nowhere. And what was that subplot even supposed to be about? Would have much rather seen a scene from the Handsome Justice episode where Buckley's character defended a dog accused of murder, than that whole waste of time. 

On the other hand, loved the Grift body spray mentions, and so glad we go to see that ad. Hallmark doesn't do subtle—"But will they get it?" is basically the network's motto—but this is one case of subtext just being text that worked.

Oh and, how did his parents buy a house on the Hudson river just by selling a nice, but fairly average, suburban home? Sure, they said it was a fixer upper, but anything on the water is gonna be way more pricey than where they were, and you've still got to have the cash to do the fixing. Also, you know the old adage about how nothing soothes a struggling marriage like a whole house renovation project, amirite?

Speaking of money…Why didn't Buckley just buy his folks the house right away if he didn't want to see it go? I mean, even if he's only a mid-level TV star, this wasn't some extravegent manse, and certainly wouldn't be an unusual thing for a well-off child to do for their middle-class parents. Why all the rigamarole with the weird guy and the rescinded offer? And, like, what was that all about? So many stories I'd have rather seen from this talented cast than some of the filler we actually got.

Harder didn't get nearly enough to do, but he and Bennett had decent chemistry and they got most of the best lines. The joke about "Will we decorate like this for our kids," and Bennett's emphatic, "No," cut the tension of an emotional scene well, with perfect timing, making it actually, laugh out loud funny—a Hallmark rarity. And when Harder appears in doorway after hearing from the adoption agency, and Bennett knows just by looking at his face what the call said, I got emotional.

That all the couples in this one got to kiss, including Bennett and Harder, is important. With the specter of last year's Zola debacle absolutely lingering over the entire movie, it's hard to think of a better, actual example of #LoveWins, than that moment.

I also teared up when we saw Bennett and Harder's family at the end, not only because it was a long overdue Hallmark milestone, but also because Harder's real-life son, Kael, played he and Bennett's on-screen adopted child, and is just so stinking cute.

Am I giving this bonus points for finally having an LGBTQ+ storyline, even if it was pretty far from the foreground? For sure. But Buckley and Bennett also brought humor and heart to this one, of a variety not usually found on Hallmark, and Lawrence and Williams also upped the ante on the quality here. Notable that Hallmark also sprung for two actual, name-brand holiday songs, so they were willing to spend a little bit of extra cash on this effort, which says more about their “commitment to diversity” than years of empty promises ever did.

Would have liked House even more, if Hallmark had been brave enough to swap the storylines; Bennett falling in love the boy next door, and Buckley and his bride waiting to hear about adoption, but barring that, do wish it had been bit more of a true ensemble (i.e. all three love stories had equal weight).

Despite quibbles, I'm still putting this on top of the 2020 Hallmark heap, at least for the moment, because I laughed, I cried and I felt good about the progress that has been made, no matter how long overdue it is.

As I've said so many times, representation really does matter, particularly on a channel like Hallmark, which caters to exactly the audience that most needs to see LGBTQ+ people laughing, living and loving, just like every other family.

Representation really can change lives. It opens hearts and minds. It can help those struggling within themselves feel seen and worthy. Really can not underestimate how transformative these normalizing glimpses can be, particularly for a network like Hallmark, with a large "conservative" audience. 

"Conservative" is in quotes, because there's nothing genuinely conservative about human rights, and respect for those unlike you. Empathy and acceptance for others should be a baseline standard for living in a society—not a political statement. 

No one has the right to deny someone else's humanity, and someone's choice to hold hate in their heart deserves no respect from Hallmark, or society at large. Really hopeful that some kid out there who feels excluded and awful about themself because their family and upbringing has told them everything they're feeling is wrong and sinful, can now see representation like this on their family's safe space TV channel, and know it's going to be OK.

It's a small step, but it's definitely a good one, and I'm really looking forward to the actual lead LGBTQ+ holiday romances coming soon, like Hulu's Happiest Season (Nov. 25), Lifetime's The Christmas Setup (Dec. 12) and Paramount Network's Dashing in December (Dec. 13), and hoping Hallmark joins that club in 2021.

Until then…

Final Judgement: 3 Paws Up

[reece14lundgreen-blog]

Top rated 7 Tips for Making the TV Ad or maybe Video

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[glenmenlow]

How ATSC 3.0 Will Impact Brand Marketing

Companies have sales strategies for their products and distribution. Brand and product messaging rely on content and flow. Today that includes television advertising and the various forms of social media available on multiple devices.

“Tomorrow” you will have access to real-time data vis-à-vis your advertising, brand messaging, consumer interaction and sales by zip code. Will you be ready? Ready to respond, react, direct your media buying agencies, make strategic decisions, etc. in real-time? Will you have the human and data resources and budgets approved for this new paradigm?

Since their introduction in the 1990s, Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standards have become an integral part of the broadcast industry. However, while ATSC no doubt revolutionized the broadcast industry, over time ATSC 1.0 became outdated and unable to keep up with an increasingly mobile society. As a result, the industry is continuing to look at the implementation of ATSC 3.0.

ATSC 3.0 is the world’s first Internet-Protocol (IP)-based television standard, and is the convergence of OTA (over the air) with OTT (over the top) broadcast. It promises resolutions up to Ultra HD 4K TV, high dynamic range, refresh rates up to 120Hz and better reception at home, as well as on mobile devices.

ATSC 3.0 will accelerate the amount of cord-cutting by people who are considering canceling their cable or satellite TV subscriptions.

While traditional pay-TV today provides superior viewing quality, OTT video commonly excels in discovery, portability, and personalized user experiences. Consumers care less about the network used to deliver the content than they do about access to the content, ease of use, and convenience.

None of the OTT or streaming services are possible without a sufficiently fast internet service, which costs from $50 to $100 per month. And what vendors provide that internet service? Most often home internet is supplied by the local cable company. But, what if even that ‘cable’ could be cut?

Within the next couple of years, new delivery technologies, such as 5G and ATSC 3.0, will offer strong competition to the world’s free over-the-air (OTA) broadcast models and OTT needs for internet service. Note that 5G is a uni-cast model, and ATSC 3.0 is a multi-cast model.

Streaming TV services often don’t carry local TV stations like NBC and Fox local affiliates, which aren’t available in every marketing for services like Sling TV. That puts local TV stations and their owners at risk of going under as more people go over the top. Now, they’re looking to go over the top with a new broadcast standard, called ATSC 3.0 that will let people stream local channels for free on their phones and let local TV stations sell targeted ads; with ATSC 3.0, everything is measured. They will know exactly who saw what show, and who saw what ad and when.

How Will This Happen?

There will be a chip that the companies making TVs, phones, laptops, tablets, cars — basically anything with a screen — will need to build into those devices. ATSC 3.0 is supposed to make it so that you could get all channels on a regular TV screen, your phone, laptop, tablet, and even your car.

Netflix for example, will be available on any device without the need for an internet connection; this will result in an oversupply of new content. The global content market is projected to reach $2.2 trillion by 2021, and it will have new ways to connect with content consumers.

Oversupply of content creates great opportunities for aggregators and recommender services like PlayPilot, JustWatch, and ReelGood that intend to take away the hassle of having to go through several websites/apps to know what to watch next. This will, in turn, allow brand marketers a whole new world and way to develop consumer relationships with addressable content.

Targeted ads and brand content delivered through ATSC 3.0 will let TV stations track what you’re watching, and take that into account when deciding which ads to show you. That information can be combined with other information, like where you are watching at the zip code level so that TV stations can sell targeted ads, which they can generally charge more money for compared to non-targeted ads.

Your ‘Good Hands’ were in your home, and will soon be in your home, your devices and your car.

In 2012, Allstate, the No. 2 U.S. insurer, launched a new effort for renter’s insurance, which reached TV viewers who rent, rather than own, their homes. The ads, beamed on a highly targeted basis by Dish Network and DirecTV, marked the first time Allstate used TV to advertise renter’s insurance products that signaled that addressable TV-advertising technology, long ballyhooed but seldom used, was starting to gain momentum. Using addressable ads, marketers can predetermine the type of consumer who will see their commercials. In this case, Allstate took consumer data widely available from firms such as Experian, Epsilon and Axicom, along with subscriber information from Dish and DirecTV, and used all this to pinpoint renters. In other words, if the subscriber was a homeowner, the commercial did not appear on the TV screen. By using both DirecTV and Dish, Allstate’s new-technology commercials reached about 15 million households.

Will This Be Mandatory Or Voluntary?

Voluntary. In November of 2017, the FCC approved ATSC 3.0 as the next generation of broadcast standard, on a voluntary, market-driven basis.  They also required stations to continue broadcasting ATSC 1.0 (i.e. “HD”) for the time being. This is part of the issue as to why it’s voluntary.

During the mandatory DTV transition in the early 2000s, stations in a city were given a new frequency (channel, in other words), to broadcast digital TV, while they still broadcast analog on their old channel. The FCC for other uses eventually reclaimed these older channels when the proverbial switch was flipped to turn off analog broadcasts. Since that’s not happening this time, stations and markets are left to themselves how best to share or use the over-the-air spectrum in their areas.

When Do I Need To Prepare For This?

Today. ATSC 3.0 has already been approved by the Federal Communications Commission and is being tested in Phoenix and Dallas. A group of local TV station owners has said they plan to support ATSC 3.0 by 2020.

So remember when social media was born, and brands scrambled to understand its impact on their business, and needed to find and hire people who could grasp what social media means? Those early days when no one yet fully understood how to decipher their brand and product positioning as it pertained to this new form of media? Here are some things marketers should consider now:

1. Establish a working group of brand and product marketers, IP data experts, budgeting and finance, consumer insight experts and creative to discuss and hone in on the most promising ATSC 3.0 addressable content opportunities for your business.

2. Educate your entire community, including board members, company officers, and brand leadership, quickly about ATSC 3.0’s capabilities and rapidly approaching decision points. What will you want to own and outsource, and how will your content flow to your advertising & content distribution partners. Decisions will include technical and equipment decisions vis-à-vis how broadcasters will operate – tied to the FCC’s post-auction repacking process, the anticipated FCC decision on ATSC 3.0 adoption and system-wide planning that will be needed to pursue the educational, public service and commercial opportunities presented by the new standard.

3. Agree on a few specific opportunities, and identify your touchpoints to real-time data; how will you connect real-time product sales information with real-time addressable content and advertising? How will you be prepared to evolve your consumer relationship in real-time?

4. Begin to explore partnerships with commercial enterprises to use ATSC 3.0 for revenue-generating purposes.

The Blake Project Can Help: Content Strategy Workshop

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education

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[joejstrickl]

How ATSC 3.0 Will Impact Brand Marketing

Companies have sales strategies for their products and distribution. Brand and product messaging rely on content and flow. Today that includes television advertising and the various forms of social media available on multiple devices.

“Tomorrow” you will have access to real-time data vis-à-vis your advertising, brand messaging, consumer interaction and sales by zip code. Will you be ready? Ready to respond, react, direct your media buying agencies, make strategic decisions, etc. in real-time? Will you have the human and data resources and budgets approved for this new paradigm?

Since their introduction in the 1990s, Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standards have become an integral part of the broadcast industry. However, while ATSC no doubt revolutionized the broadcast industry, over time ATSC 1.0 became outdated and unable to keep up with an increasingly mobile society. As a result, the industry is continuing to look at the implementation of ATSC 3.0.

ATSC 3.0 is the world’s first Internet-Protocol (IP)-based television standard, and is the convergence of OTA (over the air) with OTT (over the top) broadcast. It promises resolutions up to Ultra HD 4K TV, high dynamic range, refresh rates up to 120Hz and better reception at home, as well as on mobile devices.

ATSC 3.0 will accelerate the amount of cord-cutting by people who are considering canceling their cable or satellite TV subscriptions.

While traditional pay-TV today provides superior viewing quality, OTT video commonly excels in discovery, portability, and personalized user experiences. Consumers care less about the network used to deliver the content than they do about access to the content, ease of use, and convenience.

None of the OTT or streaming services are possible without a sufficiently fast internet service, which costs from $50 to $100 per month. And what vendors provide that internet service? Most often home internet is supplied by the local cable company. But, what if even that ‘cable’ could be cut?

Within the next couple of years, new delivery technologies, such as 5G and ATSC 3.0, will offer strong competition to the world’s free over-the-air (OTA) broadcast models and OTT needs for internet service. Note that 5G is a uni-cast model, and ATSC 3.0 is a multi-cast model.

Streaming TV services often don’t carry local TV stations like NBC and Fox local affiliates, which aren’t available in every marketing for services like Sling TV. That puts local TV stations and their owners at risk of going under as more people go over the top. Now, they’re looking to go over the top with a new broadcast standard, called ATSC 3.0 that will let people stream local channels for free on their phones and let local TV stations sell targeted ads; with ATSC 3.0, everything is measured. They will know exactly who saw what show, and who saw what ad and when.

How Will This Happen?

There will be a chip that the companies making TVs, phones, laptops, tablets, cars — basically anything with a screen — will need to build into those devices. ATSC 3.0 is supposed to make it so that you could get all channels on a regular TV screen, your phone, laptop, tablet, and even your car.

Netflix for example, will be available on any device without the need for an internet connection; this will result in an oversupply of new content. The global content market is projected to reach $2.2 trillion by 2021, and it will have new ways to connect with content consumers.

Oversupply of content creates great opportunities for aggregators and recommender services like PlayPilot, JustWatch, and ReelGood that intend to take away the hassle of having to go through several websites/apps to know what to watch next. This will, in turn, allow brand marketers a whole new world and way to develop consumer relationships with addressable content.

Targeted ads and brand content delivered through ATSC 3.0 will let TV stations track what you’re watching, and take that into account when deciding which ads to show you. That information can be combined with other information, like where you are watching at the zip code level so that TV stations can sell targeted ads, which they can generally charge more money for compared to non-targeted ads.

Your ‘Good Hands’ were in your home, and will soon be in your home, your devices and your car.

In 2012, Allstate, the No. 2 U.S. insurer, launched a new effort for renter’s insurance, which reached TV viewers who rent, rather than own, their homes. The ads, beamed on a highly targeted basis by Dish Network and DirecTV, marked the first time Allstate used TV to advertise renter’s insurance products that signaled that addressable TV-advertising technology, long ballyhooed but seldom used, was starting to gain momentum. Using addressable ads, marketers can predetermine the type of consumer who will see their commercials. In this case, Allstate took consumer data widely available from firms such as Experian, Epsilon and Axicom, along with subscriber information from Dish and DirecTV, and used all this to pinpoint renters. In other words, if the subscriber was a homeowner, the commercial did not appear on the TV screen. By using both DirecTV and Dish, Allstate’s new-technology commercials reached about 15 million households.

Will This Be Mandatory Or Voluntary?

Voluntary. In November of 2017, the FCC approved ATSC 3.0 as the next generation of broadcast standard, on a voluntary, market-driven basis.  They also required stations to continue broadcasting ATSC 1.0 (i.e. “HD”) for the time being. This is part of the issue as to why it’s voluntary.

During the mandatory DTV transition in the early 2000s, stations in a city were given a new frequency (channel, in other words), to broadcast digital TV, while they still broadcast analog on their old channel. The FCC for other uses eventually reclaimed these older channels when the proverbial switch was flipped to turn off analog broadcasts. Since that’s not happening this time, stations and markets are left to themselves how best to share or use the over-the-air spectrum in their areas.

When Do I Need To Prepare For This?

Today. ATSC 3.0 has already been approved by the Federal Communications Commission and is being tested in Phoenix and Dallas. A group of local TV station owners has said they plan to support ATSC 3.0 by 2020.

So remember when social media was born, and brands scrambled to understand its impact on their business, and needed to find and hire people who could grasp what social media means? Those early days when no one yet fully understood how to decipher their brand and product positioning as it pertained to this new form of media? Here are some things marketers should consider now:

1. Establish a working group of brand and product marketers, IP data experts, budgeting and finance, consumer insight experts and creative to discuss and hone in on the most promising ATSC 3.0 addressable content opportunities for your business.

2. Educate your entire community, including board members, company officers, and brand leadership, quickly about ATSC 3.0’s capabilities and rapidly approaching decision points. What will you want to own and outsource, and how will your content flow to your advertising & content distribution partners. Decisions will include technical and equipment decisions vis-à-vis how broadcasters will operate – tied to the FCC’s post-auction repacking process, the anticipated FCC decision on ATSC 3.0 adoption and system-wide planning that will be needed to pursue the educational, public service and commercial opportunities presented by the new standard.

3. Agree on a few specific opportunities, and identify your touchpoints to real-time data; how will you connect real-time product sales information with real-time addressable content and advertising? How will you be prepared to evolve your consumer relationship in real-time?

4. Begin to explore partnerships with commercial enterprises to use ATSC 3.0 for revenue-generating purposes.

The Blake Project Can Help: Content Strategy Workshop

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education

FREE Publications And Resources For Marketers

[tragicbooks]

When a terrorist attack happens, keep these 12 helpful points in mind.

Terrorists want to divide and conquer. Don't let them.

Terrorist attacks are horrifying.

In the wake of each one, we see the faces of victims on our screens. We hear interviews from witnesses breathlessly describing the terrors they endured. We feel a lot of conflicting, disorienting things — fear, sadness, anger, confusion, hopelessness, and despair — sometimes all at once.

We're often left wondering why?

It's easy to feel utterly helpless when terrorism takes lives. But there are ways you can defy the people and ideologies that inflict so much tragedy.

1. First, if you can, be the helper.

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers,'" Mr. Rogers once said. "You will always find people who are helping."

It's a quote that often circulates in the wake of terror attacks. But it's not just because it's reassuring; it also rings true. Anyone can be a helper if they're in a position to do so.

Helpers opened up their homes for victims and survivors in the wake of the May 22, 2017, bombing in Manchester, U.K.

#RoomForManchester 10 mins taxi from city centre, can provide a safe place to stay, a cup of tea, charge your phone, please message me

— #votelabour (@saveuglyanimals) May 22, 2017

Helpers also drove hundreds of miles to take home stranded travelers from the airport after the 2016 terrorist attack in Brussels. Small-business workers helped to protect their patrons in Paris last year after gunfire and blasts killed over 100 people.

Let compassion, not fear, inspire you to act in the hours and days following an attack. (Helping others doesn't just benefit victims; it helps us cope with tragedy, too.)

2. Then, remember terrorism seeks to divide, and don't let it.

Whether it's right-wing extremists targeting Planned Parenthood or jihadists targeting a French music venue, remember that terrorists are often hell-bent on creating the divisiveness that allows their message to thrive.

The vast, vast majority of Muslims, for instance, vehemently reject the messages behind groups like ISIS or al-Qaida. In fact, Muslims — not Christians or Jews — are by far the biggest victims of Islamic extremism. In the same way Westboro Baptist Church doesn't represent Christianity, radical Islamic groups don't represent Muslims.

3. Now, turn off the TV.

When tragedy strikes, we tend to stay glued to cable news for hours, hungry for more details, even when watching makes us more scared and more anxious. Our 24/7 news model is the perfect, sensationalized medium to disperse terror near and far, and extremists understand this well.

Vox's Carlos Maza breaks down how damaging this sort of news coverage is for our brains:

News outlets are already replaying footage of the Manchester incident. Be wary of what that's doing to your brain: http://pic.twitter.com/KWX9ns3W9j

— Carlos Maza (@gaywonk) May 23, 2017

Listen to the American Psychological Association: After a terrorist attack, it's best to watch cable news sparingly (if at all).

4. When you do watch or read about what happened, especially as the news is still breaking, don't fall for or share fake news.

Terrorism seeks to breed chaos. There's usually a rush of contradicting news reports in the hours following an attack (all the more reason to turn off cable TV). Your social media feeds will be inundated with images, requests for donations, questionable quotes from supposed eyewitnesses, and photos purporting to show the immediate and gory aftermath of the attack.

News outlets or pundits sometimes jump to conclusions about the attackers' race or religion — a knee-jerk reaction rooted in xenophobia — and irresponsibly spread false or unconfirmed information. And some people, incredibly, exploit the tragedy for clicks and attention.

Reporting can often be wrong in rush to report. Check out @onthemedia's Breaking News Consumer's Handbook. #ManchesterExplosion http://pic.twitter.com/IovZudYfVH

— Rick Trilsch (@ricktrilsch) May 23, 2017

Don't add to the chaos. Vet what you're reading and sharing to make sure it's accurate. If you're not sure, don't share it. If you see people spreading false news, let them know.

If you choose to donate to an organization, make sure it's a credible one — like the many doing lifesaving work in support of refugees.

5. Donate to the people and causes affected by terror.

No one better understands the destruction Islamist terrorism can bring like refugees in countries like Syria and Iraq. Whether they've been affected directly or were uprooted due to the political ramifications of terror groups, refugees desperately need our help. Learn more and support organizations like UNICEF, Save the Children, and Islamic Relief USA.

Photo by Kutluhan Cucel/Getty Images.

In the U.S., domestic terrorists often target groups based on factors like race, politics, or religion. A Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado, a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, the streets of Dallas, where five police officers were shot and killed, an LGBTQ nightclub in Florida — they've all been ground zero in recent atrocities. When terrorists attack these groups and causes, we can fight back by supporting the groups' missions, helping them rebuild and reopen, and building bridges to boost understanding.

6. Put the real threats of terrorism into perspective.

In the U.S., you're far more likely to die in a parachuting accident or be buried alive than to be killed by a radical jihadist. You're also more likely to die at the hands of right-wing American terrorists — which, of course, isn't a comforting thought, but it does say a lot about how differently we see and react to radical Islamic extremism and domestic threats.

Now that you know the facts...

7. Don't cancel your plans; go to a concert, the movies, or your favorite restaurants.

After all, the fears we typically experience after a terrorist attack are pretty irrational, as psychiatrist Richard Friedman expressed in The New York Times in 2015.

"[The president] has to help us all realize that when we are in the grip of so-called emergency emotion — extreme fear and anxiety — we privilege our feeling over our thinking," he wrote. "And our estimation of the danger we face is exaggerated by our fear."

Go live life as you normally would — free of fear. That's exactly what most terrorists don't want.

8. Support leaders who want to fight all forms of terrorism with facts and level-headedness — not with fear-mongering.

Banning Muslims from entering the U.S. won't make us any safer, according to national security experts. But it will help bolster recruitment for extremist groups.

Photo by Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images.

Many times, American right-wing extremists who carry out heinous acts of terror are excused as "lone wolfs," and their atrocities are overlooked or minimized by our politicians. If a terrorist's skin is white, reaction to their crimes will be much different than if they're from, say, Syria.

Support leaders who understand the nuances of both global and domestic terrorism and know how to fight it.

9. Talk about the damage of toxic masculinity.

Terrorists and extremists from all walks of life and religious beliefs usually have one thing in common: They're almost all men. Mass shooters, Christian extremists, jihadists, and others around the globe often find purpose in ideologies that give them a (false) sense of power and control.

We need to talk about how our collective inability to stomp out toxic masculinity — the attitudes that confine males to being violent, aggressive, and unemotional — is swaying men to find their purpose within extremist sects of all sorts.

10. Share news stories that help counter negative stereotypes about Muslims.

In the case of a terror attack that ISIS or another Islamist extremist group takes credit for, it's especially important we acknowledge how most Muslims are reacting after terror strikes.

They're as scared and horrified as anyone else.

"Oh Allah give us peace" the head Imam says in his prayers #ManchesterArena http://pic.twitter.com/an9CeB1L1S

— Aisha S Gani (@aishagani) May 23, 2017

After an attack near the U.K. Parliament building in March 2017, Muslims United for London raised thousands of dollars for victims and their families. Muslim groups in Florida rushed to get blood donations for victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando last year. In the wake of the Manchester, U.K., bombing, Muslim charity Human Appeal created a campaign to aid those affected by the atrocity.

These stories don't reflect the few. They reflect the feelings and attitudes of most Muslims.

11. Reach out to Muslims in your own community.

Needless to say, anti-white hate crimes don't spike in the U.S. after a right-wing extremist goes on a shooting rampage. Islamophobic hate crimes after a jihadist attack on the other hand? That's a different story.

This can leave American Muslims feeling isolated and targeted while fueling the type of division that acts as a recruiting tool for terrorist networks.

As an ally, this is when you're needed most.

Photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images.

Leave a friendly note for the Muslim family nearby (or, better yet, knock on their door and say hello). Get lunch with the Muslim student who lives down the hall in your dorm building. Offer to walk with Muslims to and from mosques, like New Yorkers did last year, so they're more protected from violence on the street.

Do what you can to let our Muslim neighbors know they're welcome here.

12. Whatever you do, don't succumb to fear.

Do just the opposite.

As former Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said in 2011 after a horrific attack by a right wing extremist resulted in the deadliest incident in Norway since World War II (emphasis added): "We are still shocked by what has happened. But we will never give up our values. Our response is more democracy, more openness, and more humanity."

Remember: Compassion and empathy do far more in fighting terrorism than divisiveness and fear.

"Fight or flight" is real, and it makes sense that those instincts tell us to build walls or turn away from our neighbors in the face of senseless violence. It's in those moments especially that we have to remind ourselves that that's what extremists want us to do.

When terror strikes, turn off the TV, parse through the fake news, and do what you can to help those who need it most. Live your life exactly how terrorists hope you don't.