TiVo’s chief revenue officer, Matt Milne, said the company’s new consumer-grade streaming device, the TiVo Stream 4K, should hit the market in “the next few weeks.”

Speaking during a keynote session Tuesday during the Virtual Next TV Summit, part of Future Media’s Virtual NYC TV Week Spring, Milne said TiVo product developers have been working at home amid the pandemic to get the Android TV-based OTT device ready to market.

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At CES in January, where TiVo introduced the $70 dongle and successfully created buzz for it, the company touted an April release date for the TiVo Stream 4K.

“It’s a testament to our whole team that we’ve been able to conduct the necessary product test and will have high quality product we can launch to market,” Milne said.

Related: TiVo Stream 4K: When Will the Big CES Buzz Product Finally Arrive?

The TiVo 4K Stream will have access to all the apps available in the Google Play Store via Android TV. What will make it different from other OTT devices, Milne said, is its ability to tap TiVo’s sizable search and discover resources.

“We’re investing well over $100 million a year at a foundational level to help people with discovery,” he said. “This is a product built for the streaming wars. It’s built to bring all that content together.”

Users of streaming services, Milne said, spend an average of 11 minutes searching among—also on average—seven SVOD, AVOD and other OTT programming sources for a movie, TV show, or news or sports event.

The TiVo 4K Stream will allow users to navigate their apps through the traditional “Gemstar grid,” Milne said. But it will also offer a separate UI based on TiVo’s proprietary search and discovery interface.

TiVo, he said, will become a “neutral third party,” with SVOD and AVOD platforms available to, in turn, anonymously monitor app usage through TiVo.

TiVo isn’t totally neutral—it recently launched its own AVOD platform, TiVo Plus. Milne didn’t say whether or not TiVo Plus has any kind of priority status in terms of what search and discovery results users might get on TiVo Stream 4K.

“We see this as a merchandiser opportunity,” Milne said. “How do we connect the consumer to the content?”

Also at the Virtual Next TV Summit, a panel of programming executives talked about their services' place in the streaming world and ways they are adapting. Craig Engler, general manager of AMC Networks-owned Shudder, the horror-themed subscription VOD service, said the disruption in the movie theater world prompted a "surprise drop” on Shudder of new original movie Blood Quantum that was originally supposed to debut in Alamo Drafthouse theaters. “That’s fun, because it creates excitement for people” who subscribe to the service, Engler said.

Rachel Brill, senior VP and general manager of B/R Studio, at WarnerMedia-owned Bleacher Report, said B/R is moving more toward integrating social and original programming within the app, notably with three days of coverage of the NFL draft. The aim is to find shareable moments, "how do you truly create an all encompassing immersive experience for sports fans.”

William Sager, chairman and CEO of The Preview Channel, said the year-old, OTT-delivered service plans to add new channels devoted to previews and trailers about video games and classic movies. “We are off and running” and serving passionate fans of games and movies, he said.

Brendon Thomas, VP of distribution at Viacom-owned Pluto TV, said at the ad-supported (free) VOD service “we do see ourselves a bit more as programmers than aggregators,” focused on optimizing the content it has used to create more than 250 "live linear-like channels" plus on-demand programming.

The Virtual Next TV Summit continues the rest of this week.

Kent Gibbons contributed to this story.

Peter Blacker, executive vice president of revenue strategy and innovation at NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, readily admits that getting companies to focus on the burgeoning Hispanic market often requires a lot of creative thinking.

This was particularly apparent in digital media, where he has spent much of his career. After working at StarMedia, which operated the first Spanish- and Portuguese-language portal in the late 1990s, Blacker joined AOL Time Warner to work on AOL’s international businesses.

“While on a flight back from Japan, I suddenly realized we weren’t doing anything for the U.S. Hispanic market,” Blacker recalled. “It was such a big market, but we weren’t doing anything.”

That idea, which led to the launch of the AOL Latino portal to target U.S. Hispanics in 2003, is one of many pioneering efforts by Blacker to build new digital businesses targeted to Latino consumers.

Those efforts, which have earned Blacker the Award for Executive Leadership in Hispanic Television and Video, are particularly important for Telemundo. Blacker joined the broadcast network in 2005 to lead its expansion into digital media and in 2018 was promoted to his current role overseeing revenue strategy and innovation at NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises.

No More Faxes

Much of Blacker’s success grows from a longtime fascination with Spanish-language culture and media. Blacker fondly recalled growing up in a family where both his father and mother worked in media. “My parents actually met working at Time Inc., and a lot of the talk at the dinner table was filled with media chatter,” he recalled.

Like many kids, Blacker didn’t want to follow in his parents’ footsteps, so he studied Spanish at Cornell. “But after doing a year abroad in Spain, I decided I’d use my Spanish in media,” he said. “I still remember going to my first media conference and seeing my dad’s name tag on the registration table. Mine was right next to it, only in Spanish.”

Blacker also recalls the exact moment when he became smitten with digital media. In 1999, while working at the cable network CBS Telenoticias, one of his clients demonstrated how email worked. “I sent back to the office and proclaimed, ‘I’m not using fax anymore,’ ” he laughed.

Work in the late 1990s and early 2000s at StarMedia and AOL led Telemundo to hire him to spearhead its internet charge as vice president of digital media and emerging businesses.

Early on, it was often hard to pry money out of sponsors’ ad budgets, even though Hispanic consumers skew younger and have long been more avid users of mobile and digital media than the general market.

“My second job out of college was in banking as a media analyst, so I’ve always been very focused on numbers,” he said. “While it may have been difficult to get people’s attention, I found that once I started to show the business case and the numbers, they could see the opportunity.”

Another major focus: Find sponsors for new digital offerings that would be tied to Telemundo’s extensive production and programming. “One of the first big things I wanted to do was to get our linear programming to somehow be involved with digital activities,” Blacker said.

In 2008, Blacker brokered a deal with Sprint to sponsor a mobile product that would let viewers decide on the outcome of a primetime show. “I always believed that to do digital well, we had to do it in a partnership with advertisers,” Blacker said.

Blacker also cut pioneering partnerships with a wide variety of digital media companies. “We were one of the first and one of the most successful partnerships at YouTube,” Blacker said. “We have seven different channels that have over 1 million subs with YouTube, which is really unheard of.”

Other innovative ventures include: the launch of the multicultural studio Fluency; the creation of Latinx Now!, which covers the multicultural entertainment scene with both an English and Spanish program; the recent announcement that Telemundo would join top news brands like NBC News and the BBC to produce news programming for the mobile SVOD service Quibi; and the 2018 FIFA World Cup, where Blacker’s team was responsible for the mobile and digital experiences. (Telemundo is the event’s U.S. Spanish-language media rightsholder.)

“Having a flawless technological experience and seeing your app being No. 1 in the App Store every day of the World Cup was very rewarding for me and the phenomenal team I work with,” he said.

Those successes led to his promotion to a nearly created post overseeing strategy for all of Telemundo’s revenue streams. “We are looking at how we can future-proof our business in a world where there is not only a tremendous opportunity within streaming but also incredible lines of new business,” Blacker said.

A big advantage Telemundo has in that regard are the investments parent Comcast has made in the broadcaster’s original programming and facilities, Blacker said.

“We really have a heavy focus on original programing,” Blacker said. “That gives us the ability to move very quickly with digital properties” and joint ventures such as Peacock, the planned SVOD service from NBCUniversal that will include extensive Telemundo programming.

Comcast has also invested heavily in new facilities like the Telemundo Production Center in Florida that play a key role in its digital efforts. “With the facilities we have, we can easily produce multiple versions of shows very quickly and much more efficiently,” he said.

Top ad-sales executives in the advanced advertising realm at CBS and at Disney said that though their companies have taken different paths toward extending their reach to consumers, they share the aim of finding the best ways to pay for the premium content consumers demand.

“What’s not going to change is the appetite for premium content,” Laura Nathanson, executive VP of revenue and operations at Disney Advertising Sales, said during a Thursday morning session at Advanced Advertising. What will continue to change is how consumers find and watch that content, and how media providers either get consumers to pay for it directly (such as via the ESPN+ app) or indirectly via advertising. She noted that Disney had undergone corporate reorganizations, including a major one this past spring, to be in position to respond to direct-to-consumer opportunities.

Getting ads to be more directly targeted to consumers was a focus during the session for Dave Morris, EVP of advanced advertising and client partnerships at CBS. Speaking to panel moderator Shane Peros of Google, Morris said that when CBS opted not to invest in Hulu that charted a path toward targeting consumers directly with apps including CBS All Access, CBSN, CBS Sports HQ and the new DTC extension of Entertainment Tonight.

Morris said CBS has reams of data on users of CBS web sites and apps but little to no information about 48 million people who watch CBS over-the-air programming daily. He said CBS is not in the ad-tech business so it’s looking for partners to make that kind of targeted advertising possible. 

“We need partners to help us do a better job to marry reach to relevance and move the ball forward,” Morris said, name checking not only Google as a prospective ally but also AT&T’s Xandr unit, Comcast’s FreeWheel, programmatic-ad vendor Clypd and the OpenAP advanced-ads consortium (backed by NBCUniversal, Viacom, Fox and Turner).

Saying Google, Facebook and Amazon can serve up relevant ads to all, Morris said, “Once we can move over and marry reach to relevance we will compete with the behemoths in digital, full stop.”

Nathanson noted that Disney did move toward direct-to-consumer by investing in BAMTech, which led to ESPN+, but said Disney is still in early stages of “figuring out we how we can be one storefront to our advertisers” with “one ad tech stack” to deal with advertisers and agencies.

Advanced Advertising and Next TV Summit, also taking place today (Nov. 1), are part of the sixth annual NYC Television Week. (Pictured, from left: Shane Peros, Laura Nathanson and Dave Morris.)

This story was updated to correct Laura Nathanson's title and that she spoke about using "one ad tech stack" not "one ad tech staff."

The future success of audience research could be defined by the industry’s ability to offer data transparency, but reaching that lofty goal might be difficult to achieve in the short run, executives said during a panel session Wednesday at the TV Data Summit.

Executives speaking at the Data Analytics: TV's New Table Stakes panel, said that while there’s a lot of TV data available, deciphering what through the numbers to determine the most efficient data remains difficult.

“When we look at TV data we see retaining ID’s that couldn’t possibly be the same ID’s over and over again,” said Beth Logan, chief data scientist for dataxu. “I think what we really have to do is be really vigilant about checking those metrics.”

Added Ben Tatta, co-founder & president of 605, a television data and analytics company: “We need to do more on the transparency side. It takes a lot to make a data set representative, whether its representative nationally, or representative of the household. Blending the data sets together to get a more holistic view is essential, but I also think the method by which that happens needs to be disclosed.

Dativa CTO and chief data scientist Tom Weiss also said that its extremely difficult to be transparent given all of the information available. “We have to be transparent but we’re not mature and stable enough where we can expect everyone doing this to be at the same level of understanding," he said.

Added Tatta: “Its wonderful that there’s as variety of data sets that are available, and there’s a lot of companies with really smart people managing that,” Tatta said. “In the past there’s been a hesitancy to reveal [methodology] that because that’s our secret sauce, but at the same time I think it’s really important to have full transparency with clients.”

Read More: Complete Coverage of the TV Data Summit

With regard to analytic transparency, Roku’s head of ad and programming research Dan Robbins said the industry is “getting better at” but still has a ways to go. "I don’t think we’re there yet but we spend a lot of time trying to be diligent and rigorous about making sure that folks that we partner with have a good sense of what’s going on,” he said. 

The United States soccer team’s shocking elimination from the 2018 FIFA World Cup tournament hasn’t dampened NBCUniversal’s projections for a record-breaking tournament performance on Telemundo, according to company executives.

“I think the 2018 World Cup will be the most consumed event in Spanish-language history in the United States,” said Jim Bell, president of NBC Olympics Production & Programming and executive producer, Telemundo World Cup, who spoke last Thursday at the Hispanic TV Summit during a panel titled “Trends in FIFA World Cup Coverage.”

Read More: Complete Coverage of the Hispanic Television Summit

While Telemundo -- which holds the Spanish-language television rights to the 2018, 2022 and 2026 World Cup tournaments -- will miss the U.S. men’s soccer team’s World Cup presence, Bell said that the network’s majority Hispanic audience will be tuning in to watch the breadth and depth of the network’s multi-platform coverage.

“It’s disappointing not to have the US in it, but if you look at it from a numbers standpoint, there’s 64 games in the World Cup and you’re counting on maybe three US games,” he said.

Added Lauren Molen, executive vice president of advertising sales, Lifestyle Group and Telemundo Enterprises for NBCUniversal: “Our audience is really hungry and passionate about soccer, and while none of us are happy about the US, we are thrilled to have fans that love the whole [World Cup experience].”

Read More: Complete Coverage of #NYCTVWK

While too early to discuss specific World Cup advertiser deals, Molen said companies are responding favorably to the company’s World Cup pitch.

“The World Cup itself is the premium event in Spanish language television, and attracts a consumer base that can help amplify their marketing messages and sell their product in so many key categories,” she said.

Eli Velazquez, executive vice president of programming production and content for Telemundo Deportes, said soccer fans are already anticipating the Dec. 1 World Cup draw which will set the matchups for the tournament. “The drama created by the draw dovetails into the drama of the event itself,” he said.

CBS All Access allows the network to go deeper into its scripted storylines, said Marc Debevoise, president/COO of CBS Interactive, and create programming that is perhaps more in line with what’s being offered on streaming platforms and cable.

During a keynote at the Next TV Summit, part of NYC Television Week, Debevoise spoke of intensely serialized storytelling on CBS All Access, whose originals include The Good Fight and Star Trek: Discovery.

Read More: Complete Coverage of NYC Television Week

“We’re scratching deeper and deeper into those characters,” he said.

Debevoise was interviewed by Elaine Quijano, a CBSN anchor.

He identified cable networks AMC and FX as being peers in terms of originals. “We have advertising—we’re not all the way to the HBOs and Showtimes of the world,” he said.

CBS All Access and CBSN are helping the network reach a significantly younger audience. All Access’ average viewer is 43, and CBSN’s is 38. “We figured out that millennials want news,” he said. “They just want it in a different way.”

CBS will launch an OTT product dedicated to sports and news. Debevoise didn’t provide specifics, but said the launch is coming soon.

Three quarters of CBSN viewership is live, he said. “A ton of people came live,” said Debevoise, “and that was really key.”

Documentaries on CBSN, he added, give CBS news professionals “a little more breathing room” to tell a timely story.

Read More: Complete Coverage of the Next TV Summit

For CBS All Access, an upcoming launch is the comedy No Activity, from Funny or Die. “Those guys are great comedians,” he said of Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. “They know how to write, how to shoot, how to make things incredibly funny.”

CBS All Access costs $5.99 monthly. The Good Wife spinoff The Good Fight and Star Trek: Discovery, he said, have All Access’ originals strategy off to a strong start, and have driven subscriptions significantly. Of Trek, he said, “The reaction has been incredible. People love it, they hate it, they love to love it, they love to hate it.”

He credited the CBS broadcast network for helping the shows launch. “We happen to own the largest sampling platform,” said Debevoise. “We’re gonna use it when we can.”

New York – Short-form video clips can still drive viewership on OTT platforms, according to a panel session Wednesday (Oct. 18) at the Multichannel News/B&C NextTV Summit. part of NYC Television Week. And though there is no magic number as to how long an audience will pay attention to the videos, 15 minutes seems to be the limit.

Read More: Complete Coverage of #NYCTVWK

Comcast Watchable VP of programming Craig Parks said that while he has always chafed at the term – "short-form" implies “less than” to him – he added that it is increasingly valuable. But the length of the clips, he said, depends on what the content is being used for.

“If you’re cooking a pizza, it doesn’t need to be any longer than it is,” Parks said at the panel session entitled “The Transformation of Storytelling in the OTT/ On-Demand Era. “There is no magic number, no magic length.”

But he said that after producing 18 short-form series, he believes anything past 15 minutes might be pushing the envelope.

Read More: Complete Coverage of the Next TV Summit

While short-form shows may get short shrift compared with traditional 30-minute and 60-mnute series, panel members said the two can work together. At A+E Networks, Paul Cabana, executive vice president and head of History & Biography digital, said the network is bringing back the Biography channel brand, but only through one-to-two minute clips. At that length, he said, they can relaunch the Biography brand on any one of A+E Networks’s channels.

Gunpowder and Sky founder and CEO Van Toffler, a veteran of linear TV (he spent more than a generation at Viacom) said short-form video can lead to longer form projects, but that is a rarity. Short-form also has value in determining if a longer form show will resonate with the audience.

Toffler said his company is currently shooting a 7-minute pilot for a proposed 30-minute show. Once that pilot is finished, Gunpowder and Sky can put it online to determine how a young audience will react to it.

“I love the idea of down and dirty, fast and cheap pilots you put up on your own sites and learn from your experiments,” Toffler said.

The panelists saw mobile video as being the biggest disruptor to their businesses, but that too can be a perfect vehicle for short-form content.

“Let’s do more for mobile," said Revry CEO and co-founder Damian Pelliccione. “I don’t have any competitors in this space because we get to set the bar.”

New York -- Content providers should continue to strive to keep the ad buying experience simple, especially as advanced technologies and targeting emerge, a panel of experts said at the Multichannel News/B&C Advanced Advertising event here Wednesday (Oct. 18), part of NYC Television Week.

Read More: Complete Coverage of #NYCTVWK

Comcast Spotlight vice president of data strategy Justin Evans said during the "Video Everywhere" session that many ad buyers are under enough pressure with small markets, smaller staffs and heavy competition to have to deal with an onerous buying process.

“They don’t have the bandwidth to make five or six types of premium buys,” Evans said, adding that the onus is on providers to bring buyers scale through a combination of linear networks, OTT and mobile.

Premion president Jim Wilson said that confusion is one of the reasons why his company, a unit of broadcast station group Tegna, was formed.

“It’s undeniable that consumer trends are changing, the way we watch premium video is really changing,” Wilson said. “At Tegna we saw this opportunity and, realizing that's the way video is being watched, set out specifically focusing on OTT. There is certainly a lot of confusion in the market, and for our advertisers, we’ve been focusing on building a one-stop shop.”

Read More: Complete Coverage of the Advanced Advertising Event

For SpotX vice president of programmatic TV Randy Cooke, the emphasis should be on making the process less complicated for clients.

“Simplification is what this industry needs most of all,” Cooke said. “Are you buying content based on the composition of the audience, or are you buying audience across different devices?”

Cooke added that those two concepts are entirely different models – one gets the most value from 30-second ad spots, the other from impressions.

“You have to have to understand the enterprise value of audience as much as the enterprise value of content,” Cooke said. “The best opportunity for us to come out on the other side is, we have to be comfortable in the mathematical relationship between the ad marketplace and the content marketplace.

Google head of broadcast partnerships Julie Sterling said providers have to be careful not to lose sight of brands and the audience role in the process.

“Brands are always going to want to buy content, because they want their brand associated with that content,” Sterling said. “The other piece is that audience is going to have a bigger play. At Google, we’re an open platform. We want to make sure that the CFO and the advertiser get what they want and measure effectiveness.”

4C Insights CEO Lance Neuhauser said that providers need to remember the past as they're looking to the future.

“There is a need to start from the future and work our way back,” Neuhauser said. “The recognition that consumers no longer need to watch ads is very real. They can fast-forward, change channels, unsubscribe. If you’re not creating multiscreen experiences that are leveraging all the interaction from consumers and only looking at TV as TV, you will miss the mark.”

Fox Networks Group has begun selling advertising in the video-on-demand content from its channels that is addressable on an individual household basis through Comcast Cable set-top boxes and streaming via Hulu.

TV networks are looking for ways to create innovations in advertising that can increase its value in an increasingly digital age. Fox has already been selling precision audience targeted ads on its linear network with its AIM solution. It is also a partner in Open AP, which is attempting to standardize selling ads based on specific audience targets rather than the traditional broad age and sex base demographic groups.

Comcast Cable has done addressable ad campaigns using dynamic ad insertion technology with its corporate sibling NBCUniversal.

Working with Fox is part of a trial program to see how the distributor can work with programmers on addressable advertising. A source indicated that Comcast is conducting addressable trials with another, unnamed, network group.

Both Fox and Comcast use Freewheel, a division of Comcast, to handle ad insertions.

Fox’s addressable effort is unique because in addition to working with Comcast’s subscribers, it can also offer viewers streaming on-demand programming from Fox Networks including Fox Broadcasting, FX, National Geographic and Fox Sports via Hulu.

Noah Levine, senior VP, advertising data & technology solution at Fox Network Group says that between Comcast and Hulu and its advertising clients more than 10 million households on an addressable basis.

Levine was expected to announce Fox’s new addressable advertising effort at the B&C/Multichannel News Next TV Summit in New York Wednesday (Oct. 18), part of NYC Television Week.

Read More: Complete Coverage of NYC Television Week

“Our strategy is to continue selling to linear buyer through Fox AIM linear,” Levine said. “Now we can also work with the addressable buyers to pursue the addressable opportunity.” Fox is looking to add cross-platform precision audience targeting.

“Our goal is to be able to provide audience targeting across our very wide portfolio of content regardless of the distribution modality,” Levine said.

Read More: Complete Coverage of the Next TV Summit

In addition to working with NBCU, Comcast’s local systems sell addressable ad campaigns to local advertisers.

“We think it’s really important that TV advertising becomes more sophisticated and this VOD trial is one way networks can unify their audiences and marketers reach their targets,” said Marcien Jenckes, president of advertising at Comcast.

With on-demand programming and steaming, Levine said the Fox’s addressable advertising can reach audiences that may not be watching linear.

He noted that addressable would be great for a financial advertisers that uses linear advertising to promote its brand but targets viewers of a different income and lifestyles for particular financial products.

Read More: Complete Coverage of the Advanced Advertising Event

Levine said Fox’s addressable solution is different than what most cable or satellite operators can offer because it can be overlaid with precision targeted programming on the Fox networks, which reach all of the markets in the country.

“That’s national scale,” he says. In addition, Fox has all of its national inventory while distributors only have access to two minute per hour.

That should make the Fox offering attractive to national advertisers.

“By combining addressable components with the linear components, we’ll be able to come up with very acceptable CPM ranges,” Levine said. He added that with addressable advertising, Fox benefits financially because there is very little waste once it and the advertisers have agreed on a data set and reporting method.

Addressable advertising is also good for viewers. “It allows is to provide more relevant advertising that s potential more interesting to the audience,” he said.

TV advertising needs to get more sophisticated, Marcien Jenkes, president of advertising at Comcast, said at NYC Television Week Wednesday (Oct. 18).

Television advertising is seen as relatively unsophisticated when compared with digital, Jenckes said, speaking at the B&C/Multichannel News Advanced Advertising event in New York.

Read More: Complete Coverage of the Advanced Advertising Event

”The only way this industry is going to survive and thrive is if you take this unsophisticated bucket and make it sophisticated," he said. "Make it targetable, make it data-enabled and make it accountable. If you can do that, unified across your full audience, there’s no better way for marketers to drive their business.”

Jenckes said that for a long time, TV took its advantages as an ad medium for granted. It didn’t bring data to the table or move ahead with better targeting. In the meantime, digital advertising earned its place at the table.

Read More: Complete Coverage of #NYCTVWK

At Comcast, advertising is a big revenue generator, behind video and high-speed internet, he said. The company moved to make its advertising business more sophisticated by buying a number of firms, including FreeWheel, Strata, Visible World and Sticky Ads, and incorporated them into its ad business.

“They all don’t exist separately,” Jenckes said. "They’re part of the advanced advertising group, which wants to serve the industry. We want to serve our own interest, but we want to make television the most effective form of advertising.”

To do that, Comcast is working with companies that can do real-time attribution studies, such as tvty and 605.

“Every day we’ll get more sophisticated,” Jenckes said. “Everyday we make a little more progress down the road.”

Amazon is hoping its "Channels" service will provide more value and choice to cord-cutting consumers looking to access traditional cable services, Amazon Channels head Richard Au said Wednesday (Oct. 18) at NYC Television Week.

Read More: Complete Coverage of #NYCTVWK

The service, launched in 2015 to Amazon Prime subscribers, offers access to more than 130 premium channels from cable networks such as Showtime, Starz and PBS Kids as well as to streaming services like Acorn TV and AMC’s horror-themed service Shutter.

Au, who spoke at a Next TV Summit morning panel moderated by B&C/Multichannel News editorial director Mark Robichaux, said Amazon Channels was created to provide increase content selections to consumers beyond Amazon’s original programming and on-demand content available through Amazon Prime.

Read More: Complete Coverage of the Next TV Summit

“It’s a great time to be a fan of video because there’s so much great content, but one of the challenges as a consumer is how to find the things that you like,” Au said. “We want to offer all of that content in a very integrated, easy way.”

Along with serving Amazon Prime subscribers, Au said that the Amazon Channels service also provides opportunities for participating cable networks to reach cord-cutting and cord-never consumers.

“We talk to our channel partners like HBO, Showtime and Starz to help them find incremental customers who may not have a cable subscription who have dropped one,” Au said. "We want to continue to make it really easy for our customers to discover new content, whether its Amazon original content or third-party content.”

New York – Virtual reality may get most of its attention from gamers, but CNN vice president of premium content video Jason Farkas believes the technology is opening up a whole new aspect for television news, allowing networks and reporters to convey feelings as well as facts to their audiences.

At the Multichannel News/B&C VR 20/20 event here Monday, Farkas said VR allows viewers to more deeply identify with programs and news items by “giving witness” to them. And that can range from stories on climate change and war, to putting viewers behind the wheel of a Formula 1 race car, running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, or traveling back in time for an immersive look at historical events like the dismantling of the Berlin Wall.

Read More: Complete Coverage of VR 20/20

Farkas said VR is a natural and logical extension for news organizations that for centuries through print, video and digital means strove to give their audience the experience of being there.

“With VR, we have that tool,” Farkas said.  

VR 20/20 kicked off NYC Television Week Monday (Oct. 16); read more #NYCTVWK stories here.

Lisa Martinez Gilpin, global head of news and publishing at Google Play, broke down the attributes of both virtual reality and augmented reality at the VR 20/20 opening session, and spelled out the roles both will play in the media going forward.

Augmented reality (AR) offers the user a “push and pull kind of dynamic,” she said, whereas virtual reality (VR) is more immersive.

Martinez Gilpin detailed Google’s history in VR, including 2014's Google Cardboard viewer, which she described as “simple with a lot of meaning.” She said a New York Times partnership a year later delivered more than 1 million Cardboard viewers to Times subscribers.

“Talk about coming into a really personal space,” she said. “We’re right there at your front door.”

Next was Daydream, offering a more breathable material than Cardboard. “There’s lots of great content to snack on,” said Martinez Gilpin, “as well as episodic content.”

VR 20/20 is happening Monday (Oct. 16) at the Stewart Hotel in Manhattan as the kick-off event of NYC Television Week.

Read More: Complete Coverage of VR 20/20

Martinez Gilpin said VR has a significant role in realms as varied as news and commerce. She spoke of “educating journalists to user VR cameras to tell their stories.”

Martinez Gilpin talked of ARCore, a platform for augmented reality apps. She described AR’s role in helping a consumer virtually try on clothing, or see how a coffee table fits in a family room, or check out a new car in different colors.

Read More: Complete Coverage of #NYCTVWK

Google’s Visual Positioning Service (VPS) can offer on-the-go consumers a look at a store’s layout before they visit. “It’s a great way to think about user flow,” she said, “and where products sit in store.”

VR, and AR, are part of the present, Martinez Gilpin suggested, not the future. “What used to take months now takes hours from a production standpoint,” she said. “It’s a lot more seamless and frictionless.”

NEW YORK — Altice USA has been both a trailblazer and a visionary in providing the local and national Hispanic community access to Spanish-language news and entertainment, as well as providing innovative packaging of video and high-speed-data products.

The MSO will receive the award for Corporate Leadership in Hispanic Television & Video during the luncheon awards ceremony at the 15th Annual Hispanic Television Summit, to be held on Oct. 19, 12:30-2 p.m., at the Sheraton New York Hotel.

Related: The Hispanic TV Summit Awards
Outstanding Achievement in Hispanic TV > Rafael Amaya: Lord of the Ratings| Executive Leadership > Gonzalo Del Fa: Change Agent

At its former Cablevision and Suddenlink Communications systems — Altice purchased those companies in 2016 and 2015, respectively — the cable operator is continuing the tradition of service and commitment to the Hispanic community, which makes up a large segment of its customers.

The MSO's Optimum unit passes large Hispanic communities in the Greater New York City area, including the Bronx, parts of Brooklyn, parts of New Jersey and Long Island; Suddenlink operates in parts of Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas with significant Hispanic populations.

As Altice USA, the company’s commitment to the Hispanic community is expanding. In the coming weeks it plans to introduce new Spanish-language TV packages — including music, movies, kids and lifestyle programming — for Optimum and Suddenlink customers that better cater to the Spanish-language populations it serves, particularly in the New York Tri-State Area and the southwestern portion of the country.

For Optimum customers, the refreshed Optimum en Español package will offer more than 50 Spanish-language channels, starting at $12.95 per month for subscribers to Optimum Value and above. Suddenlink’s updated Conexión Única package will include more than 30 Spanish-language channels, starting at $10 per month. More details, including the new channel additions, will be made available in the coming weeks.

Hispanic TV Strategies:New Tech Joins Battle for Hispanic Subscribers|OTT Players Look to Latinos

On the phone and broadband front, the cable operator also offers a variety of bundles that feature Spanish-language programming as well as other services, including international calling and a new low-priced high-speed internet service, called Economy Internet, available to eligible households in both the Optimum and Suddenlink footprints for $14.99 per month. Details of the product are available in both Spanish and English at geteconomyinternet.com.

In its Optimum system, Altice USA offers more than 1,000 hours of Spanish-language video on demand programming each month, with content from many Spanish-language channels also available for out-of-home viewing.

Altice USA’s parent Altice N.V. has operations in the Dominican Republic, and is one of the main telecom service providers in that country bringing mobile and fixed residential and business services to more than 4.8 million customers.

Altice USA continues to offer a variety of Spanish-language and bilingual marketing campaigns. The company recently launched an advertising campaign featuring soccer superstar and Altice ambassador Cristiano Ronaldo and previously ran a campaign featuring comedian and actor John Leguizamo, both of whom are popular among Hispanic and general market consumers. The company also provides Spanish-speaking customer-service representatives to assist Spanish-speaking customers.

In addition, Altice USA celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month and recognizes the rich heritage of Hispanic Americans by administering a student essay contest across its footprint that asks students to write about a Latino, past or present, with whom they would like to spend the day. It also holds a separate but similar contest for the children of the company’s employees.

Comcast’s Javier Garcia has joined the15th Annual Hispanic Television Summit, which takes place on Oct. 19 at the Sheraton NY Times Square Hotel.

Garcia, who is senior VP and general manager for multicultural services at the company, will participate in a discussion and presentation on what is trending for Hispanic consumers of pay TV, video, phone and internet services.

“Javier is a great addition to our line-up of featured speakers at this year’s Hispanic Television Summit,” said Louis Hillelson, group publisher and VP of NewBay Media’sBroadcasting & CableandMultichannel News. He continued, “Javier and his team at Comcast set the industry standard in so many ways. Our attendees will be able to get the latest trend information, fresh ideas, pricing strategies, and hopefully some inspiration for serving Hispanics.”

Part of NewBay Media’sNYC Television Week, theHispanic Television Summitfocuses solely on the business aspects of television for Hispanic and Latin American viewers.

For more information and to register, clickHERE.

Check out the full releaseHERE.

NYC Television & Video Week will take place at the TimesCenter, Waldorf Astoria and Grand Hyatt on Oct. 17-20. The fourth annual event adds “Video” to its name to reflect the addition of a television industry-related video component that will include sessions on virtual reality and other of-the-moment topics.

Featuring the 26th annual Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame and the new VR 20/20 virtual reality summit, as well as best-of-industry conferences such as Advanced Advertising, Next TV Summit and the Hispanic Television Summit, NYC Television & Video Week offers education, information, and unparalleled networking for leaders in broadcast, cable, OTT, advertising, and technology companies serving the industry. NYC Television & Video Week is presented by Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News and Next TV.

"This show continues to evolve to become a can’t-miss destination for over 2,400 leaders throughout all facets of the television industry,” Louis Hillelson, VP and group publisher, NewBay Media, said. “The addition of the Virtual Reality 20/20 conference to our stable of proven solutions-oriented summits will help lead the discussion on ways that this high-profile new technology can have a meaningful impact in the television business."

Here is the preliminary lineup for the 2016 NYC Television & Video Week:

Virtual Reality 20/20

Monday, Oct. 17, The TimesCenter

Virtual reality is almost ready for primetime with a suite of consumer products ready to hit the shelves. This conference will investigate the meaning of this potential game-changing technology for the television industry and will examine its impact on programming, distribution and marketing.

26th Annual Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame

Tuesday, Oct. 18, Waldorf Astoria

The Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame is the leading industry event honoring the pioneers, innovators and stars of the electronic arts. This black-tie affair brings out the best in the industry for a night of celebration and honoring the new inductees.

Advanced Advertising

Wednesday, Oct. 19, Grand Hyatt

Advanced Advertising returns to NYC Television & Video Week with an in-depth look at the latest digital advertising technologies and how to use them to succeed. Covered topics include programmatic TV, metrics, and addressability.

Next TV Summit

Wednesday, Oct. 19, Grand Hyatt

The popular Next TV Summit returns to NYC Television & Video week with a focus on online video, production, content, technology, and OTT. This will be the only East Coast Next TV Summit held this year. NEW FOR 2016: The Next TV Innovator of the Year Award will be presented at the Next TV Summit. The award will honor one individual for their stand out launch, initiative or innovative new approach to the television and video landscape in the last year. The honoree will be invited to participate in a session at the conference, providing their unique insight.

Hispanic Television Summit

Thursday, Oct. 20, Grand Hyatt

The 14th Annual Hispanic Television Summit is the most successful, annual event of its kind, attracting nearly 500 professional registrants each year from the U.S., Latin America, and Spain. This year’s summit will focus on expanding the business environment of Hispanic TV & Video, which is attracting more viewers, advertisers, programs, channels, and investments than ever before. But, expansion brings new challenges. Learn how the pros are providing better entertainment while meeting new challenges with an eye on future viewers and profits.

Registration for all NYC Television & Video Week events is open with early bird rates and alumni discounts. Visit nyctvweek.com and sign up for email alerts and event updates.

For information on 2016 NYC Television & Video Week partnerships and sponsorship opportunities, contact Charlie Weiss at 212-378-0478 or cweiss@nbmedia.com.

For more information about 2016 NYC Television & Video Week, visit nyctvweek.com and follow on Twitter at @NYCTVWK

Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News, and Next TV are published by NewBay Media.

Pivot, Participant Media’s two-year old network-aimed at digital-savvy millennials, is looking to reach that audience of 17-to-34-year-olds with content it hopes will inspire them to make positive change in the world. During the recent New York City Television Week, Pivot general manager Kent Rees spoke with Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead about how that millennial generation will affect the future of television, as well as about Pivot’s plans for linear and digital distribution. An edited transcript of their conversation follows.

MCN:Two years in, how would you define the Pivot brand?

Kent Rees: Pivot is a network dedicated to content that inspires social change. It came out of our parent, Participant Media, and Participant was founded on the idea that if you show people content that inspires them and gives them different ways to take action on the most pressing issues facing the world, that they would want to get involved and do things directly. Pivot is the TV version of that same idea.

MCN:Pivot’s target is young, millennial audiences who aren’t predisposed to watching traditional television. How difficult is it to reach such a fluid audience base?

KR: We concentrate on a specific kind of millennial whom we call the conscious consumers. These are people who are passionate about the world around them, where their food comes from, what they’re children are eating — it’s really a psychographic and a mentality that is very unique and specifically intense within the millennial audience. They want to get involved, and they see Pivot as a credible resource for them as a way to be entertained and inspired at the same time.

MCN:How big a role will millennials play in defining television’s future?

KR: I think millennials are really reaping the benefits of the content explosion that you’ve seen over the last 10 years. They are not necessarily driving the change, but taking full advantage of the technological explosion in the industry and the opportunities that come from that.

MCN:How is Pivot taking advantage of the technological advancements in digital content distribution to reach millennial viewers?

KR: We offer an authenticated app that you can use to watch the network streaming on a 24-hour basis. We also have a lot of great digital content on our sister site, dubbed Takepart. com, where you can dig deeper into a lot of issues that we create.

I think a really great success story for us was [original series] Fortitude, which had a digital companion series where scientists went episode to episode and talked about the impact of what you saw in the episode and how it related back to global warming.

MCN:How do you see the television landscape developing over the next few years, and how does Pivot fit into that landscape?

KR: We’re bullish on the fact that television is an important way to reach people and a great way to provide content. That’s at the heart of what we do: it’s content that inspires social change, and I think TV is the perfect place to do that among all these other platforms.

New York – Content for digital short-form and long-form shows is increasingly coming from the gaming and social communities, with a growing list of content creators emerging from online sources like Instagram, Vine and similar sources, a panel of experts said at a Next TV Summit panel session Wednesday.

While online video sites like You Tube are still a major source to find talent, Maker Studios vice president of distribution and strategic partnership Kendra Johnson said during the Next TV session “The New Studios,” that her company is increasingly finding content creators trough other sources.

“Across our creative community we are active in discovering voices as they arise,” Johnson said during the discussion moderated by B&C deputy editor Mike Malone.

She added that Maker, which was purchased by the Walt Disney Co. last year, also casts from traditional sources – Maker is working with actor James Franco’s production company on a project as well as with alumni from Saturday Night Live and ABC sitcom Modern Family.

“Consumers are not consuming one type of content,” Johnson said.

New Form Digital, which recently signed a deal to provide six short-form digital series to Verizon Communications’ go90 mobile video service, also taps talent from several different sources, including You Tube. Senior vice president of development JC Cangilla said that typically New Form signs talent that already has a following on social media.

“We tend to respond to things people have put up and that have been tested,” Cangilla said.

The types of content being produced runs the gamut from horror and drama to comedy and reality shows, but another emerging genre and one that lends itself well to the digital platform is interactive content. At Interlude, a company that specializes in interactive digital content, president and chief operating officer Jim Spare said distributors are learning a lot from the gaming community.

Interlude adds interactive capabilities to programming allowing viewers to directly engage with shows, whether it is by answering questions or choosing specific camera shots and angles to actually determining which direction a particular story will go. Spare said the inclusion of interactivity drives deeper engagement with viewers – in one two-and-a-half minute short that allows the viewer to direct how the main character reacts to a potential home invasion, viewers spend an average of 7 minutes clicking on different outcomes.

“We’re finding that young audiences love the idea of being able to talk to a video and interact with a video,” Spare said. “It’s truly personal and it’s driving retention and engagement rates.”

While the interactive element seems to take some of the creative control out of the content creators’ hands, the panelists said that isn’t the case because the creator defines each scenario. And it provides them with information regarding what their viewers like to see.

“We’re finding a class of creator that loves the notion of enabling the experience,” Spare said.

That mountain of data also is valuable to advertisers.  

“This is very valuable to advertisers and brands trying to deliver a message,” Spare added. “There are incredible applications in testing and being able to test consumer reaction to different choices for talent and story lines.”

Content creators also are becoming increasingly savvy regarding finances, especially since larger companies like AT&T, Verizon, Disney and AOL have begun to invest in the space. But the new breed of content creator isn’t just biding their time before they strike a big network deal.

Johnson said it depends on the creators – some are looking to a network or feature film deal as the ultimate goal, while others would rather keep control of their content and maintain a more personal connection to their audience.

Cangilla agreed.

“The talent class we tend to work with are entertainers and entrepreneurs; they understand the economics of the business of the business,” Cangilla said. “In some cases the TV deal would be most lucrative, but in other cases it would be the digital one.”

New York -- During a keynote appearance at Wednesday's Next TV Summit at NYC Television Week, Sling TV CEO Roger Lynch said the Dish-owned "skinny bundle" service expects to add broadcast networks to its lineup, but not in the short term. "It's a complicated market," he said during a wide-ranging discussion. "To some extent, [networks] aren't ready."

Lynch noted that they hoped to eventually have the local stations but stressed they didn’t want to create a bundle that was too expensive by paying too much for them and that in many ways the broadcast community wasn’t ready to negotiate those kinds of deals.

“ABC can’t do it,” meaning negotiate a national agreement because of all the local affiliate agreements, Lynch said. “Over time, local is something we will offer. But to a certain extent they are not ready”

He also stressed that the deal with broadcasters or any other programmer would have to be priced appropriately. “We are not going to create a bundle that will cause us to miss market,” by paying too much for channels, he said. “We could have launched the service a few years ago but it would have been a big pay TV bundle” and that would have missed the market they were targeting.

Lynch made the comments during a keynote at the Next TV event during NYC Television Week hosted by Multichannel News and B&C that was moderated by Jeff Baumgartner, Editor, Next TV, and Technology Editor at Multichannel News.

During the session, Lynch noted that “pay TV is at a tipping point,” and discussed the experience since the service launched, making a number of important points about how “skinny bundles” and OTT subscription services like Sling TV were moving into the market.

Lynch explained that the pay TV industry was mature but had not seen a segmentation of its services and that were was very little difference in services between major providers. “A lot of that is driven by programming agreements,” he said. “They are required to offer the same channels” and “there is very little difference in term of how it is packaged and priced.”

Services like Sling TV were starting to segment the market to “reach a growing segment of viewers” who found traditional pay TV service too expensive or not mobile enough.

“Over the air is growing and the growth in antenna sales is correlated with cord cutting,” he said.

Lynch provided no subscriber numbers but said Sling TV was very happy with the growth. “When we created the service a year ago we weren’t sure how much demand there would be for a service that didn’t have the major broadcasters, but we now know there is a lot of demand,” he said.

Since launch, Lynch noted that the subscriber profile had remained generally consistent, attracting cord cutters, cord nevers and a surprising number of people who already have a pay TV service. “Why they do it I don’t know….but it is not an insignificant segment,” he said.

The service over-indexed among millennials but it was mostly gaining traction among those in the 23 or 24 year group and older. “Before 22, they are not interested in pay TV,” he said.

Since launch, Lynch noted that one of the key priorities has been to expand the on demand portion of the offering and that this content was likely to become more important in the future. “We now have tens of thousands of on-demand titles,” he said, adding that live viewing would increasingly be on sports and other important live events.

One of the other priorities continued to be on the technical infrastructure and on improving addressable-advertising capabilities. “It is a big opportunity,” he said, noting the higher CPMs for targeted advertising.

The initial focus, however has been a created a good experience for dynamically inserted adds. “We are really at beginning,” he said. “It has been one of toughest things technically” they’ve faced.

When asked about the FCC proposal to classify over-the-top providers as MVPDs so they would have better access to content, Lynch expressed mixed feelings. “It could be a benefit but I worry about unintended consequences.”

Lynch noted that he joined Dish and EchoStar six years ago and that the Sling TV services has been in the works for some time. After being able to negotiate deals with programmers, the company switched its focus and launched an OTT service of international channels about three and a half years ago.

The realities of scripted TV show pitching, evaluating and promoting were shared with The Content Show attendees during a lively opening panel that followed a keynote conversation with Donny Deutsch Wednesday.

Pearlena Igbokwe (pictured, right), executive vice president of drama development for NBC Entertainment, had a popularly-tweeted comment when she estimated she heard 400 show pitches from July to October yearly. Of those, perhaps 50 scripts are ordered into development, eight shows gets pilot orders and four get series orders. “It’s quite a lottery,” she said.

Igbokwe, a former Showtime content executive, said broadcast networks are under competitive pressure to produce shows that don’t feel like traditional network fare, and don’t have the luxury some streamed series seem to have of audiences watching four or five episodes before deciding they like a show. NBC needs “eyepopping” first, second and third episodes “because every week you need to earn the viewer’s attention.”

Kim Rosenblum, EVP of digital, creative and marketing at Viacom-owned TV Land, said that network has evolved the way it approaches and markets original series from when Hot In Cleveland launched in 2010 and Younger debuted in 2015. TV Land is more willing now to make deals that have somewhat less favorable economics for the network in the first season -- provided the first season sets the stage for continued success in later seasons, she said.

Network marketers also must constantly go through social media sites looking for comments about a show and communicate with those fans and create a fear of missing out that will keep drawing in new viewers, Rosenblum said. “We go and read every comment on every social platform and find where the fans are and then just start to talk to them directly to try to snowball it, to try to get those people to talk about it, to bring up the next week and the next week,” she said. 

Shows also hope their stars will exploit social followings to help bring in viewers, panelists (questioned by Leftfield Entertainment CEO Brent Montgomery) said. Younger’s Hilary Duff, for example, can help by promoting the show, but then the network has to work and build on those new leads, not rely on Duff to do all the marketing, Rosenblum said.

Lisa Honig, senior EVP, program distribution, The Americas, for FremantleMedia (pictured, left), agreed that shows need to have buzz as part of the package and get talent to commit to help marketing. Chris Donahue, president of Paulist Productions, said original ideas are still paramount: his studio successfully pitched a series about cryogenics and what happens when frozen people come back to life.

Igbokwe stressed that the real key to successful scripted shows is great storytelling.

The Content Show continues today and tomorrow at The Park Central Hotel in midtown Manhattan.

New York — In this age of “Peak TV” and abundant scripted content, Donny Deutsch is not worried about viewers not finding Donny!, his upcoming comedy series on USA Network, or any other quality show.

“I can’t think of any compelling piece of creative where the reason it didn’t work is people didn’t have (enough) time,” Deutsch said Wednesday at The Content Show, part of NYC Television Week. “Like everything else, the good stuff will find a way... The audience finds them. It’s great news for content providers — if you build it they will come.”

During his conversation at the Park Central Hotel, the former CNBC talk show host and advertising exec talked about the getting into the scripted game, producing the show and the coming up with its feminist backbone and advertising strategy.

Deutsch said he was looking for a new challenge in the years following the end of Big Idea With Donny Deutsch’s run on CNBC. It dawned on him that people have one persona on camera, and another off. He made a pilot and USA bought it.

“They really wanted what they bought,” Deutsch said. “This is their big fourth quarter push. They’re really behind it.”

He likens Donny!, which premieres Nov. 10, to Donald Trump, as an amalgam of scripted, reality, politics and news. “The lines are blurred,” he said.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

This week’s Hispanic Summit will focus on the shifting priorities within the expanding business of Hispanic television. One of those priority shifts should be toward Hispanic viewing of over-the-top services, according to several recent reports.

While Hispanics continue to watch traditional television in big numbers, averaging 112 hours a month watching live and DVR time-shifted TV in the second quarter — behind only African-Americans — those numbers were down by five hours from the same period in 2014, according to Nielsen’s Total Audience report.

What is increasing is Hispanics’ use of OTT services such as Hulu, Netflix and Amazon. Among Hispanic TV viewers, 30% of their weekly viewing is of content from OTT services , nearly double the 18% just two years ago, according to Horowitz Research’s recent “Focus Latino” report.

Moreover, nearly half of Hispanic Internet users with a multichannel subscription feel that viewing TV content over the Internet is as easy as watching a multichannel service, Horowitz said.

Also, Hispanics tend to binge-view while accessing OTT services, a Thinknow Research study said. That study reported that 40% of Hispanic OTT viewers prefer to watch three or more episodes of their favorite shows back-to-back compared to just 29% of non-Hispanic viewers.

That’s despite the relatively sparse amount of content targeted to Hispanic viewers on OTT services — and in particular Spanish-language programming — compared with the numerous Hispanic-targeted English and Spanish-language cable networks available on MVPD lineups.

There has been some efforts to reach Hispanics in the digital space: Hulu has been very aggressive in developing original Hispanic-themed projects such as scripted drama series East Los High (pictured).

DirecTV’s Yaveo OTT service has also looked to serve Hispanic consumers seeking Spanish-language programming without the need for a cable-TV subscription.

Still, Hispanic increases in OTT viewing haven’t correlated with a significant increase in cable cord cutting. Horowitz reported that 89% of Hispanics with access to OTT SVOD services also have a multichannel service, providing opportunities for all content providers to reach a very influential and growing customer base.

The third annual NYC Television Week, presented by Broadcasting & Cable, MultichannelNews, Next TV and Ratings Intelligence, is back Oct. 20-22 with top executives discussing the hottest topics in the industry.

Here are some of the highlights of the upcoming five events: Advanced Advertising, the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame, The Content Show, the Next TV Summit and the 13th annual Hispanic Television Summit.

• Advanced Advertising kicks off the events on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Headline keynote speakers are NBCUniversal chairman of ad sales and client partnerships Linda Yaccarino and Group M global chairman Irwin Gottlieb. Panel sessions include deep dives into programmatic advertising, new measurement metrics and addressable advertising.

• 25th Anniversary Broadcasting & CableHall of Fame is the evening of Oct. 20 at the Waldorf Astoria. This year’s gala will be co-hosted by TV legend Regis Philbin, ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir and NBC Today co-host Hoda Kotb. Inductees include The Walt Disney Co. chairman and CEO Robert Iger, Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries, Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber, Dr. Phil McGraw and Today co-host Kathy Lee Gifford. The late National Football League Hall of Famer and broadcast legend Frank Gifford also will be honored for lifetime achievement.

• The Content Show is Oct. 21-22 at the Park Central Hotel, with an opening keynote from Deutsch Inc. chairman emeritus Donny Deutsch in conversation with B&C editor Dade Hayes. Wendy Williams Show host Wendy Williams and Debmar-Mercury co-presidents Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein will participate in a keynote Q&A taking a closerlook at the syndication giant. Thursday’s keynote Q&A will feature a discussion with DiscoveryCommunications’s Henry Schleiff, group president for Investigation Discovery, Military Channel and Destination America, led by B&C consulting editor Melissa Grego.

• Next TV Summit at the Park Central on Oct. 21 boasts keynotes from Jonathan Murtaugh, Facebook and Instagram U.S. head of industry for film and television and head of the L.A. office, as well as a talk with Sling TV CEO Roger Lynch. In the afternoon keynote session, United Talent Agency managing director Jay Sures offers a Hollywood insider’s take on over-the-top video and the overall direction of the television market.

• The Hispanic Television Summit is scheduled for Oct.22 at the Park Central, with an opening keynote session with Group M Multicultural president Gonzalo Del Fa and B&C and Multichannel News editorial director Mark Robichaux. Telemundo president Luis Silberwasserwill be interviewed by Noticiero Telemundo co-anchor María Celeste Arrarás about the challenge of creating new content. Hispanic television host, singer and actress Lucero will be presented the award for Achievement in Hispanic Television, while Verizon vice president of cultural engagement Javier Farfan will accept the Leadership in HispanicTelevision award for his company.

For more about New York City Television Week, please visit nyctelevisionweek.com and follow the hashtag on Twitter, #NYCTVWK.

NEW YORK -- Broadcasting & Cable and Multichannel News today said  that Gonzalo del Fa, president, GroupM Multicultural, and Gary R. Stevenson, president and managing director, MLS Business Ventures, have been named opening and closing keynote speakers for NewBay Media’s 13th Annual Hispanic Television Summit. The premier one-day conference covering the business of Hispanic television in the United States, Latin America and around the world is set for Thursday, Oct. 22, at the Park Central Hotel New York.  

This year, for the first time, the Hispanic Television Summit will be one of the signature events that make up New York City Television Week, which also includes The Next TV Summit & Expo, The Content Show, Advanced Advertising and the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame.

“The Hispanic Television Summit is always one of our most popular conferences of the year,” Louis Hillelson, VP/Group Publisher, Broadcasting & Cable and Multichannel News, said. “By bringing it under the New York City Television Week umbrella, our attendees will be a wide cross-section of the general market with the Hispanic television communities. This will bring added value to their participation. It’s a great opportunity for anyone looking to learn from each other, network and be inspired.”

Hillelson continued, “Our keynoters represent two areas of greatest interest to our attendees, one being ad-spend targeting Hispanic viewers, and the other being the changes affecting the immediate future of televised soccer.”

Delivering the opening keynote, del Fa will discuss “Turning Loyal Viewers into Your New Customers.” As president of GroupM Multicultural, del Fa leads all aspects of the multicultural media and marketing efforts initiated by GroupM agencies including Mindshare, MEC, Mediacom and Maxus. Under del Fa’s leadership, GroupM Multicultural handles more than $600 million in billings from clients such as Nestle, AT&T, Unilever, Anheuser Busch, Mars, Colgate, Lancôme, Abbott, Netflix, Church & Dwight, Subway, Kimberly Clark and KFC. del Fa joined GroupM in 2003 as Managing Director of MEC Argentina. 

Last year, MLS received the Leadership in Hispanic Television Award at this summit, so it is fitting that Stevenson’s closing keynote will be “A Look Ahead at the Business of Soccer on Television.” An innovator in sports marketing and media strategies for more than 35 years, Stevenson was named president and managing director of MLS Business Ventures in 2013.  Stevenson oversees the commercial side of MLS, which includes Soccer United Marketing (SUM), media/broadcasting, club services, international, marketing, content and digital. 

In addition to launching and building OnSport, a highly successful sports marketing and television consulting firm in 1997 and selling it to the Wasserman Media Group in 2007, Stevenson has served as a senior-level executive at the NBA and PGA Tour. He also was the COO and oversaw the launch of two television networks, The Golf Channel in 1995 and the Pac-12 Networks in 2012.

The Hispanic Television Summit is the premier event for those in the business of television for Hispanic audiences and covers programming, advertising, online distribution technology and this year will especially feature the genre of telenovelas. Over 500 executives attend from the U.S., Latin America, Europe and other territories, representing broadcasters, pay TV providers, over-the-top digital providers, programming networks, production companies, advertisers, ad agencies, technology suppliers, research firms and investors.

The Summit includes the presentation of the Leadership in Hispanic Television Award as well as the Award for Achievement in Hispanic Television. Previous recipients of the Leadership Award include Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Dish Latino and Major League Soccer, and the Achievement Award past recipients include on-air personalities Don Francisco, Andrés Cantor, and Cristina Saralegui; network news anchors Jorge Ramos, Maria Celeste Arrarás, María Elena Salinas and José Díaz-Balart; sports celebrity Oscar De La Hoya and advertising executives Monica Gadsby of SMG and Edgar Sandoval of P&G.

The Summit is produced by The Schramm Marketing Group, based in New York City. To inquire about speaking opportunities, contact Joseph Schramm at 212-983-0219 or jschramm@schrammnyc.com. For registration, please contact Rebecca Shottland at rshottland@nbmedia.com or 917-281-4782. For sponsorship opportunities, please contact Charlie Weiss at cweiss@nbmedia.com or 212-378-0478.