EA

N
D
M
JOURNAL
Media & Entertainment
Strategies. Solutions.
Simultaneous Monetization of Traditional and New Media P. 48
The New Economics of International Content Distribution P. 18
Can Watson Help the Media & Entertainment Industry? P. 26
Navigating the Information Supply Chain P. 56
New TV: From the Smart Remote to the Second Screen P. 10
SPECIAL ISSuE FALL 2011 $25
published by
Media & Entertainment
Services Alliance
ME S A
HOLLYWOOD SOLVES ITS
DIGITAL IDENTITY CRISIS
Universal Media ID demonstrates the
art of industry collaboration P. 42
website www.moduslink.com blog www.valueunchained.com contact info@moduslink.com
Harnessing the Power
of Digital Content
Consumption of content is quickly transitioning from physical media
to digital delivery. ModusLinks Entitlement Management Solutions help
digital media and entertainment providers:
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Access new revenue streams
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Manage subscriptions, activations and renewals
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Gain channel visibility
M&EJOURNAL 5
TABLEOF
C
O
N
T
E
N
T
S
Special Issue Fall 2011
published by
Media & Entertainment
Services Alliance
ME S A
EA
N
D
M
JOURNAL
Media & Entertainment
Strategies. Solutions.
FEATURES

Special Report: The Making of a Universal Media ID
Superconductivity for Delivering Hollywoods Digital Movies:
Universal Media IDs are the rst step toward the realization of an optimized digital supply chain.
By Eric Iverson, VP Information Technology, Sony Pictures Entertainment P. 42
The Media Industrys Industrys Identify Crisis
Te search for a Universal Media ID for media and entertainment is coming close to an end with an
industry-approved standard called EIDR.
By Kip Welch, President, Entertainment ID Registry Association P. 45
Physigital Prots
The Simultaneous Monetization of Traditional
and New Media Content
How to expand your companys revenues without undermining your legacy business.
By Teodore X. Garcia, Managing Director, Entertainment, Media and Communications,
PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP P. 48
Entertainment Supply Chain
Making the Case for File-Based Workfow P. 54
Navigating the Information Supply Chain P. 56
How Interaction Networks Will Defne the Digital Revolution P. 60
Automating the Digital Entertainment Supply Chain P. 62
Build Your Own Collaborative B2B Communications Network P.64
Analytics is Back! P. 68
Connecting the Dots: Collaboration and Connectivity in M&E P. 72
COLUMNS

Editors Note
By Devendra Mishra P. 6
Physigital
By Guy Finley P. 8
Televisionary
By Richard Bullwinkle P. 10
Content Protection
By Richard Atkinson P. 14
Content Delivery
By Rick Clarkson P. 18
Data Based
By Tommy Stewart P. 22
Get Smart
By Steve Canepa P. 26
Wharton Wise
By Knowledge @ Wharton P. 28
ViewMaster
By Greg Gudorf P. 34
MediaTimes
By Juan Reyes P. 38
Hollywood IT
By Peter DeLisi P. 74
By Design
By John Barker P. 72
Market Intelligence
By Futuresource Consulting P. 86
M&EJOURNAL 6
Editorial Director of the M&E Journal and Chief
Strategist for MESA, Mishra is recognized as an
eminent thinker and practitioner of supply chain
management. Now an adjunct Professor of Decision
Sciences at Pepperdine University, he has previously
served as President/COO of such companies as
LIVE Entertainment, VCL-Carolco, Lieberman
Entertainment, and Technicolor Worldwide Media.
EDITORSNOTE
Connecting the Cs
(As in CTO, CIO, CBO and CMO)
By Devendra Mishra, Chief Strategist, Media and Entertainment Services Alliance
retail, reverse logistics, credit/collections
and marketing require signifcant amounts
of inventory, lead time, cash and synchroni-
zation of demand and supply. While stock
outs is a necessary evil, the supplier of the
physical content does not directly know
who the purchaser is since the point-of-sale
information usually belongs to someone else.
On the other hand, with the magic digital
wand, delivery of digital content is virtually
instantaneous and a direct and personal
relationship can be created directly with the
consumer, while the fulfllment of demand is
no longer as resource-intensive as it is in the
physical world.
Explosion of Trading
Partners
Te traditional, linear B2B networks of
studios with distributors of digital content
are expanding immeasurably where actu-
ally B2B2C has become the vital link in a
demand-driven marketplace. Introduction
of video streaming by Netfix created access
to 24 million subscribers and growing, of-
fering 20,000 movies and television shows.
Googles YouTube is ramping up its video-
on-demand movie rental service with titles
from major Hollywood studios to compete
with the established services already ofered
by Apples iTunes and Amazon. Enabling
the purchase of content once and its enjoy-
ment seamlessly on any device and anywhere
is the new constitutional right. A cloud-
based Internet infrastructure is making the
digital locker a compelling value proposition
for ubiquitous digital entertainment.
In the brick and mortar world of retail,
Wal-Marts Vudu and Best Buys Cin-
emaNow are exploring moving away from
pay-per-view to subscription. Best Buy has
set a goal of doubling its $2 billion in annual
online revenues within fve years through
stores, over mobile and in homes. Wal-Mart
Before we connect with our
customers, we must connect
among ourselves.
T
he central theme of this edition of
the M&E Journal is Connecting the
Dots: Collaboration and Connectiv-
ity in Media & Entertainment. Never in the
history of the entertainment industry have
we faced a storm of disruptive technologies
that explode the number of new dots to
be connected. Digital technology, internet
infrastructure, broadband network, smart
telephony, cloud storage, kiosks and web-en-
abled consumer electronics devices have up-
ended the supply chain of the industry. Te
result is that the number of dots connecting
Consumers with the content-producing
studios has undergone a Draconian change.
Te recipient of content wants it now, any-
where and on any device. Te fxed, limited
menu for content consumption is being re-
placed with a smorgasbord of personal tastes
where numerous Web-enabled devices draw
content from a plethora of emerging sup-
pliers aggregators, e-retailers, ecommerce
companies, social networks, studios, telecom
carriers and terrestrial service providers.
Te efort required by the content cre-
ator to deliver content to consumers is dif-
fcult in the brick and mortar world where
production, warehousing and distribution,
will soon have a social media technology
platform developed by Kosmix to flter and
organize content in social networks to con-
nect people with relevant real-time informa-
tion to deliver highly personalized insights.
Te cable companies, like HBO, Time
Warner, Cox Communications and Com-
cast, are developing their subscription servic-
es while Dish Networks acquires Blockbuster
to expand VOD.
On the consumer electronics side, accord-
ing to a Deloitte survey, most Americans
own a device that allows them to easily con-
nect to the Web 85 percent of consumers
own a desktop computer, 68 percent own a
laptop/netbook computer and 41 percent
access the Internet on their mobile phone.
Furthermore, the consumer now has a
streaming Cloud Player, a media manage-
ment and play-back application not unlike
Windows Media Player and any number of
other media management applications that
let customers manage and play their content.
Finally, the next generation of the In-
ternet standard will allow programs to run
through a Web browser rather than a specifc
operating system, enabling consumers to ac-
cess the same programs and cloud-based con-
tent from any devicepersonal computer,
laptop, smartphone, or tabletbecause the
browser is the common platform. Tis ability
to work seamlessly anytime, anywhere, on
any device is changing consumer behavior
and shifing the balance of power in the
continued on pg 78
M&EJOURNAL 8
MESA Executive Director, Guy Finley, is noted for
his repertoire of Pink Floyd songs as sung by Neil
Diamond.
PHYSIGITAL
Happy Birthday Burbank
Home to Hollywoods digital future.
By Guy Finley, Executive Director of MESA
I
t was during the first Bur-
bank Think Tank that MESA
held at the Burbank Marriott
in June. Maybe it was the
cocktails? Or it could have been the
anxiety of going on stage later that evening
impersonating Neil Diamond. Still, here
was my thought:
Im sitting here at the hub of the next
global entertainment complex. Te players
in this very room are the ones in charge of our
industrys digital future.
Heavy stuf. Tere was Disney on stage,
with Warner towards the back; NBC/Uni was
there, as were Deluxe, Technicolor and so many
others. It dawned on me that these Burbank
locals are knee deep in making moves that will
ultimately create a sustainable and infnitely scal-
able (and did I forget highly proftable?) future
for the moving images industry for decades to
come. And it is all taking place in, of all places,
Burbank the butt of so many jokes by NBC
comedians who knew it so well and made it a
punch line for everyone, anywhere with a TV set
tuned to Johnny Carson or Laugh-in.
Burbank, celebrating its centennial this year,
calls itself the Media Capital of the World.
And, Im sure, at one time, that defned it, though
the moniker puts Burbank in direct competition
with New York and London for the ultimate dis-
tinction. Regardless of who may stake the media
claim, when movies and home entertainment
were invented, Burbank was there.
Now, if anything, Burbank is the Digital Me-
dia & Entertainment Capital of the World. Its
the junction for an international network of se-
PUBLISHER
Martin Porter
marty@MESAlliance.org
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Devendra Mishra
devendra@MESAlliance.org
EDITOR (M&E JOURNAL)
Guy Finley
guy@MESAlliance.org
DIRECTOR OF SALES
Bridgit Bowen
bridgit@MESAlliance.org

EDITOR (M&E DAILY)
Terence Keegan
tkeegan@MESAlliance.org
ART DIRECTOR
Heidi Antman
faboographics@gmail.com
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Don Hurley
don@MESAlliance.org
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
Stanley Felix
stan@MESAlliance.org
The Media & Entertainment Services Alliance was
founded in 2008 to advance and create efciencies in the
creation, production and distribution of physical and digi-
tal media & entertainment. Representing over 70 member
companies worldwide, the organization produces events,
newsletters, research, as well as this bi-annual journal
publication. Its industry initiatives include workgroups
in the digital and physical supply chain, sustainability,
IT, disc-based direct marketing and content protection.
MESA is the management company responsible for the
efforts of CDSA to provide content protection services to the
worlds leading content holders
Media & Entertainment
Services Alliance
ME S A
EA
N
D
M
JOURNAL
Media & Entertainment
Strategies. Solutions.
For more information contact MESA:
39 N. Bayles Avenue
Port Washington, NY 11050
Tel: 516-767-6720
Web: www.MESAlliance.org
cure digital fle exchanges that will link
Bangalore to Burbank (not surprisingly
a slogan from a Deluxe Digital Studios
advertisement a few years back). All
within a quiet community where
100,000 people a day come to work and help
create a world that everyone, everywhere calls
Hollywood.
So what if Hollywood gets all the credit?
Burbank gets the job done! Not surprisingly,
Burbank is home to hundreds of production,
creative and technology service providers who
are building the backbone for these systems
on behalf of their customers. Burbank maps
out the entire digital supply chain and con-
tent delivery ecosystem for the studios, their
partners and ultimately the consumer. Sure,
Cupertino, Culver and Redmond may hold
the last 10 feet through their CE devices but
the content that appears so easily in the liv-
ing room has undoubtedly been conceived,
crafed or fnished somewhere along the way
by a Burbank facility.
Which is where the true opportunity
resides. Because were all here (there?) in Bur-
bank we have a chance a once in a lifetime
chance to really get this thing right. We
can grab a bite at McCormicks or Mortons,
at Mos or historic Bobs Big Boy on River-
side. We can have a drink at the next MESA
Tink Tank. We can talk, share, interface,
brainstorm and connect the dots so that were
all working lockstep in the same direction
delivering consumers the best entertainment
products at the best possible price.
Burbank is the hub. Its the hotbed. Its
home sweet home for our digital future.
Bounded between the Ventura Freeway and
I-5 are the best and brightest who are enabling
instant and omnipresent entertainment.
First of all we need to fgure out is how
to tag every digital fle with: Made in Bur-
bank... though I guess the gang over the hill
may have a problem with that, huh? n
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M&EJOURNAL 10
T
he current landscape of television is quite complex.
While cable companies and Internet streaming ser-
vices are battling to get their content in front of con-
sumers on their TV screens, the patchwork of apps,
services and applications on set-top boxes and connected TVs
leaves many consumers scratching their heads.
With television interfaces getting ever more complex, using
the six-button remote to navigate a menu ten-feet away isnt
always intuitive. As it turns out, many of the users of advanced
television services already have a very intuitive device with better
and more customizable interaction right in their hands. Tablets
and smartphones offer rich, touch-based navigation, opening
entirely new paradigms for entertainment discovery, interaction,
and enjoyment. Meanwhile, cloud is enabling the quick devel-
opment and delivery of innovative entertainment products across
multiple platforms.
Personal devices used as second screens or primary devices are
the new battleground for consumer mindshare, and the platforms
offer traditional providers and new start-ups the opportunity to
vastly change the television ecosystem.
In todays world consumers can find content on traditional
cable boxes, Internet-connected TVs and set-top boxes, and on
personal devices like computers, tablets and phones. The land-
scape has never been more multifaceted. Arbitrary distribution
windows confuse even the savviest consumers. They can get a
show live from cable on their TV, or the same show streamed
TELEVISIONARY
Abstract: Personal devices used as second screens
or even primary devices are the new battleground
for consumer mindshare, offering new platforms for
innovations that will change the television ecosystem
I
m
a
g
e
:

B
i
g
s
t
o
c
k
.
c
o
m
Bullwinkle is the Chief Evangelist for Rovi
Corporation, creator of entertainment recommend-
ation and discovery technologies like Total Guide,
and producers of massive amounts of metadata for
movies, television and music. Before that he worked on
bleeding edge technologies at Macromedia, TiVo, Rio
Audio and Mediabolic.
The Future of Television
Might Be In Your Hands
Entertainment apps are the key to putting the entertainment consumer
interface in every smartphone and tablet.
By Richard Bullwinkle, Chief Evangelist, Rovi Corporation
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M&EJOURNAL 12
from the Internet the day after air on any
device but their TV. They can see a movie
on a plane or in Pay Per View, but not pay
to rent the movie from their connected TV
or over-the-top service box.
To shed light on where and when
consumers can get content, an entire in-
dustry has grown almost overnight to help
consumers find their content, whether
thats from traditional cable and satellite,
TV streaming services like Hulu or BBCs
iPlayer, or deep, long-tail content libraries
with movies and entire seasons of television
from years past including Netflix, Vudu,
Cinema Now and others.
With the goal of helping consumers find
content and staying loyal to the service,
most content services have created apps
on TVs and set-top boxes. Unfortunately,
the apps on the TVs screen are hard to
navigate. Entering the name of a movie or
a favorite actor with an onscreen keyboard
and a remote is tedious. Making the text
large enough to read from the couch leaves
little room for images, previews, or sugges-
tions for similar shows. TV interfaces often
contain long chains of choices after which
the consumer cant remember how they got
where they are or how to get out. Tablets
and smartphones offer a much more intui-
tive solution, putting the interface and
interaction at the users fingertips. The
keyboard can appear and disappear with
a touch, leaving leaving rich images and
video previews to power the experience.
It didnt take long for the service pro-
viders to realize this and begin to deliver
apps on personal devices that allow users to
interact with the TV. Only a few months
after the launch of the iPad, users can
browse guides on the device, program their
DVR from anywhere, search for movies or
actors by entering the search in their phone
or tablet, and in some cases, interact with
a live show by voting for a favorite contes-
tant or playing their own fantasy sports
game while the real game goes on.
The truth is, we are just starting to
scratch the surface of what we can do as we
move deep interaction from the TV to the
advanced devices in our hands. In fact, the
ability to interact with television on per-
sonal devices will improve the video enter-
tainment ecosystem in six key ways.
1. Content Anywhere
The most obvious feature craved by users
is the ability to watch their content any-
where. Examples include watching one
game on the big screen while keeping an
eye on another game on a tablet. Or while
the kids are watching their hour of car-
toons, the parents can catch the local news
on their smartphone. And while traveling
for work, mom can catch up on TV shows
in the hotel room.
2. Content Discovery
While todays apps are service specific and
help you find whats coming on TV this
week from your cable provider, or what
new movies are out on your favorite movie
streaming service, tomorrows apps will
track content over many services. When
you search on a favorite actor or genre,
you wont just find results coming from
your cable company or Netflix, but youll
see everything available, and how much it
costs from each provider. The services will
learn your tastes and preferences and alert
you when a new movie with your favorite
actor is available for download on any site.
The apps will tell you when your favorite
team is playing and keep you updated on
the score and important plays. The dis-
covery apps of tomorrow will not just tell
you whats going on, but with the touch of
your finger theyll tune to the channel or
purchase the content and it will appear on
your big screen TV or personal device.
3. Powerful, Relevant
Advertising
Devices in your lap will soon be aware of
what youre watching on TV. And when
theres an ad for a car company on the big
screen, your personal device will let you
choose to find out more about the minivan
or the sports car. You can interact to find
pricing deals, color options and a local
dealer. While you wouldnt want to inter-
rupt the familys viewing experience on
the big screen, you can have an engaging
personal experience in your hands without
ever stopping the familys program. In this
way, ads will rapidly become more inter-
esting and useful. Request a free sample,
find out more about a product, order the
sunglasses an actress is wearing, or set up a
test drive of her car. These are just some
of the interactions users might engage on a
personal device but are reluctant to do with
a remote on the TV.
4. Meaningful Interaction
Just like with advertising, users can inter-
act with their shows. They might vote on
their favorite contestant, play along with
a game show, or choose which angle they
want to see for an instant replay during a
game. Some programming will be tailored
specifically to allow users to interact with
and define the outcome of the show in
real time.
5. Better Customer
Satisfaction
While some customers want new technolo-
gies all the time, many others are content
with slower innovation or leaving things
the way they are. If providers add too many
features in a TV interface, they risk generat-
ing support calls and customer frustration.
By allowing the box to remain simple and
ofoading the advanced features to personal
devices, they put the cutting-edge function-
ality exactly where sophisticated users want
it. Not only that, but the early adopter cus-
tomers are also the same people who already
have personal devices, so the service provid-
Channel surng will give way to video browsing,
offering you the program in all its iterations and with a
wealth of relevant content.
TELEVISIONARY
Continued on pg 78
Identify | Manage | Monetize

M&EJOURNAL 14
T
he funny thing about piracy in
our industry is that we actually
know a lot about it, yet many of
the common beliefs and percep-
tions about piracy are actually wrong. How
can this be?
Before I go on, let me defne pirates as
those that actually steal our content up
front and then redistribute it (for sale or for
free), and pirate-consumers as the customers
and consumers of that pirated content. Tis
distinction is important to understanding the
dynamics between the supply (pirates) and
the demand (pirate-consumers), and how
this relates to decisions and directions by our
industry. It also allows us to see how our busi-
ness decisions can have dramatic impact on
both the ability for the pirates to acquire
our content and leverage it, and how pirate-
consumers react to our business models and
distribution decisions.
CONTENTPROTECTION
The 5 Myths of Media Piracy
Abstract: Media piracy is quite simple, highly predictable and only inevitable in
relation to the factors of supply and demand.
The 5 Myths of Media Piracy:
Lets take a look at each of them, and how they
might be better informed by the facts we now
know about piracy...
Myth #1: Piracy is Complex,
Random, and ...Inevitable
Media piracy is consistently characterized
as complex, random, and inevitable by a
broad cross-section of our community. Tis
perspective is somewhat understandable,
because from a distance that is exactly how it
appears. But, once you take a close look and
really understand what is going on, piracy
is quite simple, highly predictable, and only
inevitable in relation to the factors of supply
and demand. Tere are several reasons for
piracy appearing inevitable, mainly because
luckily for our industry there is high
demand for our products. At the same time,
we also tend not to respond to large portions
Why anti-piracy activities are everybodys business.
By Richard Atkinson, Chief Piracy Specialist and Consultant, Anti-Piracy Worldwide

2
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a
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1. Piracy is Complex, Random, and ... Inevitable
2. Pirate Consumers are Not My Customers
3. Pirates Want Everything for Free
4. Quality Makes No Difference to Pirates
5. Once a Pirate, Always a Pirate
M&EJOURNAL 16
Richard Atkinson is a globally-recognized expert in media piracy and leads
Anti-Piracy Worldwide (www.antipiracyworldwide.com), a consultancy which
assists media companies and leadership respond to the changing consumer and
technological landscapes. Richard is also Strategic Advisor to the Content
Delivery & Storage Association (CDSA), and Conference Chairman of CDSAs
annual Entertainment Content Security Summit.
of that demand. Until we do, there will most
certainly be piracy supplying at least a portion
of it... so in some ways, I would say that you
could consider piracy inevitable. But what
those pirates are ofering can vary signifcantly,
and in many cases can be controlled. As an
industry, we tend to expose our content to far
more risks of being compromised and the
fnancial impact of those compromises than
we realize. For example, on a major feature
flm there are typically hundreds of copies of
the flm exposed to risks for a variety of uses
that once reviewed through a risk vs. value
business decision process are typically
revised to a process that efectively mitigates
that risk. Simply said, we take risks that make
no business sense. But once a Risk/Value
business decision process is established, piracy
becomes rather simple and predictable and the
whole psychology of the business changes from
being a victim to being in control.
Myth #2: Pirate Consumers
Are Not My Customers
It is a very common misunderstanding that
piracy-consumption is an either/or proposi-
tion: either consumers are loyal customers who
do not consume pirate-content at all (pure-
consumers), or they are thieving consumers who
only consume pirate-content (pure-pirates). In
fact, there is a key group that does both, known
as dual-consumers. Counter to the myth, not
only is this group of pirate consumers your cur-
rent customers, but they may very well be your
best customers! I know this might seem crazy,
but research into their actions and their motiva-
tions has consistently shown this to be true.
Generally, the higher the consumption of pirate
goods, the more they actually also buy...and in
terms of purchased quantity tend to exceed the
levels of the pure-consumers. Film and TV
have a lot of dual-consumers today (~ 50% of
the market); while the ratio for music customers
was similar a few years ago, it has now evolved
to the vast majority being pure-pirate. Tere
are several reasons for this shif in Music, mainly
associated with the evolution of consumer
demand + evolution of pirate supply + lack of
overall response by the legitimate business.
Tere are several very important messages
here: (1) If you are in Film or TV, Pirate-Con-
sumers are your best customers...especially
internationally; (2) Te window for respond-
ing to these consumers with legitimate models
is limited; over time, the consumers migrate to
models that have the best value-proposition
to best meet their desires...even if those are
pirate-consumer models; (3) If you are in
Games, Sofware, or Publishing, things are
evolving along similar paths as Music, Film,
and TV...theyre just delayed slightly.
Myth #3 Pirates Want Every-
thing for Free
The next argument I have heard for years is that
it is impossible to compete with free. Tat
might be true, if free was the primary motiva-
tor for the majority of these dual-consumers...
but it isnt! Once again, this comes back to
actually demographically understanding these
consumers are and knowing what factors
are motivating that particular demographic.
Yes, there are pirate-consumers who are moti-
vated primarily by price. Tese pirates tend to
have more time than money (think students).
But there is another group that tends to have
more money than time (think employed
workforce with disposable income)...whose
primary motivators are convenience and
availability; the legitimate business models are
simply not satisfying their demands, and piracy
is doing a better job. At the same time, this
group is likely to convert to legitimate models if
it were more convenient. So, this is not about
competing with free. It is about looking at
piracy as a competitor, better understanding
the motivations of your current and potential
customers, and having business responses that
better respond to their desires. Lastly, I would
ofer that most consumers consider ad-spon-
sored models to be free, which opens very
broad opportunities for additional revenue.
Myth #4: Quality Makes No
Difference to Pirates
Pirate-consumers value quality as one of their
highest considerations, but dont overestimate
its importance. Tese same pirate-consumers
consider pirate oferings not as good as the
legitimate oferings, but also describe the
quality of pirate product as good enough
(aka: acceptable) given other attributes
that are responsive to their overall desires.
Consumers also use good enough to tell us
exactly where that breakpoint of quality and
value-proposition resides. Music companies
did not think consumers would accept the
lower quality of MP3 fles, and flm studios
have not thought anyone could really watch a
chunky video streamed from a site across the
world. But in both cases, quality only needed
to be good enough, as the consumer really
was valuing portability, fexibility, and an
entirely new experience that didnt involve
quality as the determining factor.
Myth #5: Once a Pirate,
Always a Pirate
If you have gleaned anything out of this infor-
mation so far, a key aspect to remember is that
all consumers are transitional and convert
to models that support their motivations at
any given time. In addition, pirate-consumers
are actually consuming both pirate and legal
product; they already have decision criteria,
patterns, and habits. Tose businesses that
best understand what these consumers want
and respond to them accordingly will be tak-
ing the frst and most important step toward
turning them into paying converts.
Afer all, Knowing Your Customers is
business 101. Taking a business-lead (or-
ganizationally, strategically, operationally)
to your anti-piracy initiative will put all the
issues in perspective. n
Its about looking at piracy as a competitor; better understanding pirates
leads to better understanding of your current and potential customers.
CONTENTPROTECTION
N
o
w
th
e
re
s

a
n
e
a
s
ie
r
w
a
y

to
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ille
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in
g
.
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M&EJOURNAL 18
CONTENTDELIVERY
The New Economics of
International Content Distribution
File-based content delivery systems are the only way to respond to todays demand
for speed and cost efciency in our dynamic, international media world.
By Rick Clarkson, VP of Product Management, Signiant
O
ut of these complexities is
emerging a single, golden truth:
traditional tape-based methods
of content distribution simply
cant cut it in our increasingly digital, file-
based, multi-platform and multiformat, and
highly dynamic world. In this article, well
take a look at the economic realities of todays
international content distribution includ-
ing all the ways in which the tried-and-true
processes of shipping physical media can bog
down the operation and drive up costs.
Collapsing distribution win-
dows and costly delays
Throughout the content lifecycle, a title
will be distributed and redistributed many
times through many different international
channels including the initial international
theatrical release, and then later to mobile and
IPTV content providers as well as domestic
primary syndication to outlets such as hotels
and in-flight entertainment services, and then
down the road for home release, video on
demand, and fee-based content services such
as iTunes, Netflix, and Hulu. Eventually, the
movie will be released for linear broadcast and
archiving to video libraries.
Each of these channels require distribu-
tors to go to market as quickly as possible and
distribute all necessary formats and languages
within a select and finite period. The value of
such content is at its highest in the initial 24 to
72 hours after the premier, and it diminishes
quickly over time therefore, any delays in get-
ting the movie out to all possible audiences will
result in lost revenue and diminished profits.
In the face of these severe time con-
straints, consider that the average time to
deliver a tape, from dub to ingest, is 24 to 48
hours (and thats if the tape isnt hung up
in customs), whereas a file can be delivered
electronically in no more than a few hours
and sometimes just minutes. In addition to
lost revenues and increased piracy risk from
missed windows are costly delays in produc-
tion and post production.
Hard costs of tape distribution
Time-to-market considerations aside, the hard
costs of physical media are an enormous moti-
vator to adopt a file-based distribution system.
Industry studies show that the average total
cost of delivery of a tape or hard disk is $200
with a range from $100 to $800 covering du-
plication, shipping, tracking and delivery, and
ingest. Of course, international shipments and
the use of courier services can cost significantly
P
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t
o
:

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w
w
.
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M&EJOURNAL 19
For over 20 years, Ricks strategic vision and customer focus has enabled him
to bring innovative products to market. As the Vice President of Product
Management, Rick is responsible for driving development of Signiants market-
leading products in the Media and Entertainment industry. Prior to joining
Signiant, he was one of the visionaries behind the surveillance and Physical
Security Information Management (PSIM) sofware platform at VidSys.
more. And if the tape turns out to be a bad
dub, or is otherwise damaged in some way, the
distributor is not only looking at a potential
missed deadline but up to $800 to replace
and re-ship the tape. The costs can be mind-
boggling for a large international distributor
that ships many thousands of tapes (as case in
point, one customer was formerly shipping
more than 65,000 tapes each year to its 564
international licensing partners).
Another important cost factor for each
international shipment to Europe is the
value-added tax (VAT). The VAT for a single
$20 Digi BetaCam tape is 20 percent of the
tape stock value, or $4 not an insignificant
amount when youre shipping thousands of
tapes. But add in the VAT thats now being
charged on the intellectual content of the
shipment, currently 20 percent of the esti-
mated revenue to be generated by the title. For
content with revenue potential of $100,000,
the VAT is $20,000.
One customer is a global content distribu-
tor that was sending 150,000 tapes every year
to 100 locations, to the tune of more than $13
million in total annual costs associated with
tape movement. With a gradual phase-out
of tape, the company expects to reap savings
of more than $15 million over the next three
years which means it will recoup its invest-
ment in Signiant software, hardware, mainte-
nance and implementation, and bandwidth
costs in only four months.
Another customer, a large and well-known
music television channel, was spending so much
money on FedEx tape shipments between New
York and Miami that it purchased its own fleet
of panel trucks to handle the deliveries. Al-
though this strategy yielded marginal cost sav-
ings, the company was still spending $284,000
per month to ferry 16,000 tapes between the
two locations a figure that added $44,000 in
transportation costs to the $240,000 cost of the
tapes (Figure 1). By installing Signiant for elec-
tronic content distribution management, the
company has wiped these costs away realizing
a complete return on its investment in the new
technology in just over a month.
One customer realized complete ROI in just a month.
The high cost of manual
processes
Not only are manual processes expensive, but
they dont scale and they present too many
opportunities for errors that can result in even
costlier delays and missed deadlines. These
costs will only continue to multiply with the
addition of more distribution outlets, more
flavors of content formats, and the growing
complexity of the creative process with such
factors as increasingly detailed special effects
driving the need for more processing of the
content.
By adopting file-based workflows that
automate many manual processing tasks,
media companies are able to scale their busi-
ness while controlling costs thereby making
more efficient use of their current labor pool
and building the basis for a highly productive
content factory. One large cable entertain-
ment network documented five key points in
its workflow in which removal of tape-based
manual processes would deliver value. First is
the delivery of dailies from New York to Los
Angeles for editing into promos, followed
by numerous tape exchanges between the
headquarters and a secondary site for editing
and QC as well as tagging and playout of the
promos on the network. Third, the content
is manually transcoded to different formats
and dubbed onto more tape for distribution
to points four and five, which include other
outlets for cross channel promotion and then
digital syndication to other services such as
Hulu.
By moving away from tape and to a file-
based content distribution system, this network
will be able to realize significant value across all
five points amounting to an estimated annual
savings of more than a million dollars (See fig-
ure 2 on next page).
Payback Period 0.6 Months
Figure 1: Here is the math for a large and
well-known music television channel that
was spending almost $300,000 per month
on tape shipments between New York and
Miami. With an investment of $162,000 they
ended up saving $264,000 per month.
M&EJOURNAL 20
Environmental considerations
At every step in its life, a videotape is an eco-
logical nightmare from the energy consumed
and the pollution and waste material produced
during its manufacture and packaging, and
the energy used and carbon emitted for its
shipping and delivery to the end user, to the
energy required to run tape machines and the
heavy metal pollution generated by tape heads
running across the metal oxide tape. On the
distribution side is all of the energy required to
fuel boats, planes, and trucks in shipping (and
the resulting carbon emissions), the packaging
waste produced, and then more heavy metal
pollution created with the tapes are ingested on
the receiving end.
Consider a media company that ships 130K
tapes every year. If you were to stack those
tapes one atop the other, youd have a tower
more than 10,000 feet tall. Thats a staggering
amount of plastic destined for the landfill at
the end of its useful life.
What about satellite delivery?
As an alternative to physical media, some media
companies are using satellite links for global con-
tent distribution. Without a doubt, satellite is a
superb means of transmitting a signal such as a
live broadcast to large numbers of media outlets,
but the costs for a 1:1 file transfer are up to 100
times more than a terrestrial content distribu-
tion system like Signiants. These costs are on
the rise with the proliferation of bandwidth-
hungry signals like HD and 3D, and the greater
numbers of distribution outlets.
One customer is delivering 15 GB of movie
content every day via satellite to 1,000 business
subscribers at an annual cost of almost $3 million
just for transmission with teleport costs and re-
mote site maintenance adding another $653,000.
As this company moves to HD distribution,
these costs are expected to at least double. With a
digital content distribution, the company expects
to reduce those costs by two thirds.
Electronic content distribution:
bandwidth considerations
As weve seen, the industry is increasingly being
shaped by ever more varied and larger file
formats such as 1080p 50/60, and 3D. Demand
for these large formats puts great strain on the
content supply chain, since globally moving files
that are two to 10 times the size of SD is no easy
task using todays networks.
Therefore, once a media organization makes
the commitment to adopt file-based workflows,
the ability to move extremely large files quickly,
reliably, efficiently, and securely over a wide-area
network becomes a mission-critical require-
ment. Its a tall order for a conventional open
internet delivery mechanism like TCP, which
delivers bandwidth efficiency of only 10 percent
across a long distance. That means a 100 meg per
second link is only capable of delivering 10 meg
per second throughput, a severe performance
hit in fact, it might actually be faster to ship
the content on tape! All of this translates into
real economic impact through overpayment for
bandwidth, lost productivity, and costly delays in
delivering content.
Figure 2: By adopting le-
based workows across all
ve points while using an
electronic content distribution
system, media companies are
able to scale their business
while controlling costs. In this
case the resulting savings
was over a $1 million per year.
WAN acceleration can deliver an im-
mediate ROI through reductions in monthly
bandwidth costs, increased productivity, and
speedier content delivery. As a properly con-
ceived solution for internal content supply
chain management, the Signiant system uses
accelerated content transport techniques to
move files up to 1TB over the public Inter-
net with unparalleled bandwidth efficiency.
With the same 100 meg per second link, an
acceleration protocol can fill the pipe and
deliver up to 95 megs per second in through-
put. In other words, that large content pack-
age that might have taken up to 12 hours to
deliver now takes under an hour.
The digital difference
In conclusion, a digital content supply chain
management system is the ideal antidote to
the exorbitant costs, delays, and inefficient
manual processes of physical media for in-
ternational content distribution and digital
syndication. Not only is electronic distribu-
tion ten times less expensive than tape and
80 times less expensive than satellite trans-
missions, but enterprises can expect at least
50 percent greater productivity through
process automation. Plus, WAN accelera-
tion guarantees a 90 percent increase in
network bandwidth efficiency with speeds
up to 200 times faster than a conventional
TCP network. As the basis for the new digi-
tal media business, this is the ideal platform
to enable todays billion-dollar digital and
international media enterprises. n
CONTENTDELIVERY
At Technicolor we provide a exible chain of disc services thats more extensive than any
other provider. Weve been innovating consumer entertainment for the last century, so you
can rely on us to provide superior solutions that get your discs onto store shelves faster than
ever. Thanks to our market leading encoding technology, value chain of services and
standardization of menu design, we can get your disc to market in a window that takes half
the current production time.
2010 Technicolor
www.technicolor.com
GOING TO MARKET JUST GOT FASTER.
M&EJOURNAL 22
T
here are several core areas in
which Teradata believes that
data integration - and robust
analytics against that data - can
provide content owners with a competitive
edge:

Title Protability Analytics and Fore-
casting. Tis function requires integration of
data across the content creation and distribu-
tion lifecycle across all channels; true title
proftability analytics will support ultimate
revenue calculations and also provide baselines
for comparative title analysis in the future.

IP Rights Performance Analysis. Most
of todays IP rights management systems
provide only snapshots into estimated or fore-
casted revenues for title licensing. In a world
where there are ever-increasing channels and
partners through which to monetize content,
having a holistic view of title performance
across channels is critical data integration
and analytics can fll gaps.

New Business Models. Content owners
are continually testing new revenue and pric-
ing models. Comprehensive title performance
and consumer data, integrated with third-
DATABASED
Data-Driven Challenges
Face Film Studios,
Media & Entertainment
Communities
party enrichment and fnancial data, provides
a powerful baseline for what-if analysis and
propensity modeling, which can provide solid
insights into relevant new models.
Marketing Spend. Te average motion-
picture studio spends nearly as much market-
ing its flms as it does creating them. Tat old
advertising adage not knowing which half
of your ad dollars are wasted - still rings true.
Meaningful analytics that correlate ad-spend
to campaign success by title performance
provide a foundation to the more meaningful
allocation of marketing dollars.
Entertainment companies using a data-
warehouse platform also are able to apply ana-
lytics to meet the challenges inherent in roy-
alty calculations, social-media use, consumer/
viewer segmentation, and consumer product
Abstract: Until recently, M&E professionals seldom thought of enterprise
data management and entertainment in the same sentence. At Teradata, weve
always believed that the smartest businesses make analytics a priority. As
timelines for content distribution become compressed, increasing volumes of
content are created, and an explosion of new content-distribution channels and
monetization models emerge, it is becoming increasingly clear that studios and
content owners need to become efciently data driven.
As Teradatas US Director of Sales for Media & Entertainment,
Tommy Stewart is responsible for sales and delivery, industry
partnerships and driving the frms value proposition in the market.
During his time at Teradata, he has grown its industry-specifc
solutions portfolio, created partnerships with industry academic
thought leaders, and directed a national industry-wide study around
retail supply chain optimization for media & entertainment.
arrays and merchandising, to name just a few.
Analytics complement and maximize the
studios creative outputs, and provide invalu-
able tools to the business to drive the greatest
revenue and reach for content.
Analytical implications for new digital dis-
tribution models. A major challenge results
from the fact that much of a studios digital
reach is delivered through licensing deals
with third-party digital distributors, such as
Netfix, Hulu, Amazon, etc. Tese companies
are not (as yet) providing much of the rich
consumer data back to their content-owner
partners. Te most comprehensive informa-
tion at this juncture tends to reference SKU
counts, dates of transactions, geography and
an occasional unique (anonymous) identifer.
As more studios launch new or revamped
direct-to-consumer digital initiatives, they will
be in the unique position to leverage the rich
suite of data available through digital chan-
nels. And, more importantly, theyll be able
to understand their users across channels by
tracking their users engagement on websites -
both studio and property sites - through me-
dia players, with advertising, through mobile
services, and more.
Understanding how analytics can accelerate media & entertainment insight in the digital
media eco-system. By Tommy Stewart, US Sales Director, Media & Entertainment, Teradata
Those whose methodologies are based on many years of real world testing
combined with technological expertise.

When quality is what youre looking for, look no further
than 3rd i a devoted specialist in the eld of consumer-
related quality assurance for the home entertainment
audience. Te services we oer are select and highly
focused; because of this, weve built the 3rd i reputation
slowly over time, creating a brand synonymous with just
one idea: high-level quality assurance service for the home
entertainment consumer. Whether dealing with HD or
Broadcast Mastering elements, Digital delivery, DVD,
Blu-ray, BD-Live or 3-D through the entire process, 3rd i
strives to do only one thing: to leverage the purity of the end
user experience in order to ensure your materials meet the
highest quality specication for an increasingly sophisticated
audience. We bring to our clients over twenty-ve years
of dedicated quality assurance expertise, all aimed at
protecting the value of your product, evaluating its quality
from the exact perspective of the end user: your customer.
Because we are the only truly independent quality assurance
company, you can rest assured that our interest is with our
clients alone. 3rd i is consistently a step ahead of emerging
technologies and has built out multiple, fully-outtted 3-D
QC suites featuring the very latest 3-D consumer hardware,
as well as an organic, real-time reporting system that allows
all users to see and enter feedback simultaneously, whenever
expediting your QC process is mandatory. 3rd i has helped
to guide our clients through the development of home
entertainment from VHS to DVD to Blu-ray, BD-Live and
now 3-D, and were the only quality assurance company in
business today who can say that.
3rd i Experiencialists and your companys very rst
consumer, ensuring your products enter the market the
right way.

Experiencialists (eks`pe`ri`enshal`ists) noun
www.3rdiqc.com

3rd i: Experiencialists in the eld of Quality Assurance.
M&EJOURNAL 24
Much like web-derived analytics data, digi-
tal-content consumption provides detailed in-
sight into customers preferences, for example,
into genre and title preferences, advertising
engagement and activity, propensity to buy or
engage with content recommendations, and
more. When that data is combined with other
channel data consumer web data, traditional
retail data, direct marketing response data
content owners can understand their consum-
ers in new and powerful ways.
Transition from physical to
digital media
With so much focus on the digital-supply
chain, it is sometimes easy to forget that the
bulk of post-theatrical revenues are still driven
by physical DVD and Blu-ray sales. Weve
seen how optimizing the demand and supply
chain for new release and catalog titles drive
millions of dollars to the bottom line.
For years, management of the physical-media
supply chain has been a top-down endeavor.
However, the ability to process high volumes
of real-time (or near-real-time) POS data at a
store and SKU level - while still leveraging data
from comparable title analysis, seasonality, pro-
motional impact and other variables - enables
a dramatically diferent approach to managing
demand. With Teradatas demand chain man-
agement solution, were able to model demand
at the store and SKU level, and ensure the right
product is on the shelf when your customer
needs it, preventing costly out-of-stocks; the
same methodology can shave millions in costs
from unnecessary freight, shipments, overstock
and resulting markdowns.
Social-media metrics
required by M&E organizations
Clearly, the implications of social media are
signifcant. But, marketing eforts that strongly
factor social media into the plan are just the
frst step. Adopting tools and methodologies
that deliver meaning and insight are almost
more important.
With social-media analytics, content owners
can interpret these unstructured messages,
and create context and action around them.
Social media insights might dictate shifs in
marketing spend. For example, in early stages
of theatrical release, social-media metrics
might identify geographic areas with enthu-
siastic response, suggesting more marketing
dollars might be directed to similar regions.
Social-media analytics can be fed into down-
stream DVD/Blu-Ray forecasting and content
licensing revenue projections. Such analysis
can lead to wholesale shifs in strategy. As
powerful as these insights may be, they become
even more powerful when considered in con-
text of broader enterprise data.
Data warehousing and the role
of information technology
It remains a common misconception that data
warehousing is only an IT concern. In reality,
data warehousing and the analytics it enables
have major implications for all areas of the stu-
dio business, allowing business users to solve
real-world problems now.
Its important that ITvendors and IT com-
munities within flm studios, articulate exactly
how data warehousing and analytics can drive
the business. IT needs to access information in
Title metadata management is an increasing priority for content
owners. Being able to ensure comprehensive and accurate
descriptive, technical and product data for every title is a
critical and ominous task.
new and powerful ways that unlock business
opportunity and efciency, and drive revenue.

Title metadata management
is an increasing priority for
content owners
Being able to ensure comprehensive and ac-
curate descriptive, technical and product data
for every title is a critical and ominous task. Add
to that requirement a need to manipulate and
output title metadata for fast delivery to digital
channels, and we can see an increasing role for
tools to aggregate, standardize and transform
title metadata. Mention the words master data
management to many business users, and, with-
out the right context, the relationship back to
comprehensive title management might be lost.
Many business issues can be remedied
through deployment of the right IT solution,
the data warehouse being a key enabler.

Benefts of a self-service
model for business intelligence
Data warehousing is critical to fully empower-
ing your business users through self-service BI.
With a robust enterprise data warehouse, you
create a single platform for standardizing and
integrating data from across the enterprise. A
good frst step to get started, is to identify the
most critical areas of your business and sources
of data required to meet those analytics needs.
Te right data warehousing partner, can work
with you to defne a strategic roadmap, which
prioritizes your business needs against the tech-
nology deployment, while also defning the right
platform - hardware, sofware, and solutions - to
meet your specifc needs.
n
We believe
theres strength in simplicity.
Our rapid same-day turnaround sets the bar.
LADB provides a wide range of flm/video and post-production services. We handle
duplication, DVD, Blu-Ray, 3D, conversion, encoding, trans coding, data security,
workfow consulting, and a variety of other post-production services.
Our services are personalized to suit every need.
From hand-off to hand-back, your order is fulflled quickly, consistently and securely to
spec. We can even deliver your fnished order online or to your mobile device right to
your door with our feet of mobile service vehicles.
We are certifed in both ISO 27001 Information Security Standards and ISO 9001
Quality Management Standards. As well as, CDSA and have been MPAA audits.
Our Chain-Of-Custody is safe and secure.
One of our newest innovations is the LADB.TV iPad app, which gives our clients the
power to comment on media fles from absolutely anywhere.
Our work is backed by a proven track record of innovation.
We invite you to see our live online storage,
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business with people.
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M&EJOURNAL 26
Just imagine how Watson-like technology
could help todays media and entertainment
industry which is built upon a mountain of
unstructured data digital images, audio and
video, and the ever-expanding human language
content across web-sites, blogs and tweets.
Watson, or a close cousin, could help content
producers and their marketers better handle
the rising consumer demands and their desires
to watch or listen to whatever they want when-
ever they want and on any device they prefer.
Its no secret that the ever growing amount
of content, a plethora of devices and our ever
scarce time to consume it all have resulted in
fragmentation for the industry.
But with Watson by our side, able to
sif through unbelievable amounts of data
in record time, media and entertainment
enterprises of all forms TV broadcasters,
flm studios, music, video and digital media
outlets, for example could provide tailored
consumer experiences; optimize their produc-
tion and distribution workfows; and greatly
improve access, visibility and use of content.
In the future, Watson-like technology
could be applied to help the M&E industry
with these issues, including possibilities for:
Watson as...
Distribution Docent
In the frenzied world of flm distribution
Watson could help guide executives through
a range of issues from selecting the best flm
format to best location in which to open a
flm. Watsons analytical prowess combined
GETSMART
How Watson Can Help The
Media & Entertainment Industry
Abstract: What can the media & entertainment industry learn from a gameshow contestant? Well, if that contestant
is a super-smart and intuitive computer, it could learn how to provide tailored consumer experiences; optimize
production and distribution workows; greatly improve access, visibility and use of content all in record time.
What can our IT departments learn fom a TV gameshow contestant?
By Steve Canepa, General Manager, Global Media & Entertainment Industry, IBM
T
he debut of Watson on Jeopardy!
was a major achievement in com-
puter science a breakthrough
in using computers to answer
questions posed in natural language on a virtu-
ally unlimited range of subjects. Developed by
a team of IBM scientists, Watson is a comput-
ing system that can quickly, accurately and
confdently answer complex questions using
advanced analytics and scoring algorithms.
During its Jeopardy! matches Watson
analyzed the questions to comprehend their
meaning and to identify what is really being
asked for. Ten it poured through the equiva-
lent of roughly 200 million pages of natural
language content contained in its memory
(equivalent to reading a million 200-page
books in a couple seconds) to fnd the correct
answer to the question.
What Watson represents for the media and
entertainment industry is the ability to gain
meaningful insights from massive amounts of
unstructured data. Watson demonstrates in
dramatic fashion how advanced analytics can
be applied in creative new ways; taking analyt-
ics to a whole new level of power and sophis-
tication, beyond traditional data warehousing
or business intelligence and data mining. Wat-
son represents a new computing paradigm
known as DeepQA which can deliver faster,
deeper insights into unstructured data and
human language text. As such, it holds enor-
mous potential to transform how computers
help people accomplish tasks in business, com-
munities and their personal lives.
with its ability to rank best options could be
used to provide a variety of What-If sce-
narios that could assist studios wrestling with
thousands of distribution-related decisions.
Being able to quickly lay out all the distri-
bution scenarios which flm formats need
to be where by when, and which workfow
processes need to be adjusted to accommo-
date them would go a long way toward
helping executives fgure out which options
make the most sense from a timing, workfow
and fnancial perspective.
Watson as...
Marketing Maven
Watson could also synthesize information on
consumer consumption behavior and help to
determine consumer sentiment from the social
mediasphere. Imagine having constant, instant
access to consumer content preferences (data
regarding which devices theyre using, and
which ads theyre viewing) and at the same time
be able to fully analyze consumer sentiment
what people are saying about the programming,
the flm, the ads, etc. via blogs, online reviews,
Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
With this level of data at their fngertips
the studio marketing teams could revamp
their marketing and advertising campaigns in
real time to stay on track with, or even ahead
of, consumers wants and needs. Watson
could help ease the problem of marketing to
millions of markets of one. And, Watson
might also be able to help identify those key
individuals today are hidden in the mass
M&EJOURNAL 27
As General Manager for IBMs Global Media and Entertainment Industry
division, Steve Canepa is responsible for the P&L of the worldwide
organization covering the Entertainment, Broadcast, On-line, Cable,
Publishing, Satellite, Sports, Music and Advertising segments. P
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social web who dramatically infuence the
success of your brand.
Watson as...
Editorial Energizer
Te avalanche of content being created today
professionally as well as consumer gener-
ated is fowing into production and dis-
tribution systems in unprecedented volume.
Production frms are wrestling with how to
use limited editorial resource to fully exploit
the value of all this content while efciently
moving it to multiple devices and channels.
Watson could provide enhanced automation
to assist in the editorial process.
For example, during a major televised
sporting event, with camera footage coming
in from multiple vantage points, interviews
with dozens of athletes and experts, archival
footage from past events and social media
input from various social media feeds, pro-
ducers could tap Watsons natural language
processing capability to quickly analyze
stories about players and teams in ways that
would help guide and process all the incom-
ing content. Tis sort of Deep Categoriza-
tion skill could involve quickly categoriz-
ing incoming content in ways that would
streamline access, use and monetization. Te
winner: sports fans who can watch, listen, and
immerse themselves in even better experiences
around their favorite sports.
Watson as...
Content Concierge
Taking this a step further, Watsons machine
learning skills could also be put to use by cre-
ating learning systems around unstructured
data repositories. Many studios and news frms
today have huge flm and video archives, and
while technology exists to help editors and
producers locate specifc footage, just imagine
how Watsons warp-speed information re-
trieval capabilities combined with its learning
skills could assist in these eforts.
If, for example, all the unstructured data
housed in video/flm archives could be trans-
lated to natural language transcripts, Watson
could simply ingest and analyze them and then
scan its memory banks to locate footage for a
specifc request. And with its ability to teach
itself as it goes, Watson could keep improv-
ing its retrieval techniques along the way.
So the next time an editor needs to fnd
footage of the President in the Rose Garden
to plug into a current news story, Watson
could assist by doing a search based on natural
language tags. Editors long-sought ability to
fnd the exact clip they want when they want
it could soon be at their (and Watsons) fn-
gertips which will be extremely important
as we try to keep up with the increasing rate of
content production.
Todays connected, multichannel world
means entertainment companies must become
more precise in their internal operations, their
B2B relationships and in the B2C dialogue
they have with their consumers. Analytics will
surely be a cornerstone of this Smarter Me-
dia & Entertainment world, and theres no
Jeopardy! question about it Watson has the
ingredients to help. n
Man versus Machine. Guess whos winning?
M&EJOURNAL 28
W
hen the global economy
nearly collapsed in late
2008, some multina-
tional companies reacted
by quickly cutting their head counts and tech-
nology budgets. As cash fow dried up, some
pundits warned that providers of on-demand
global trade and logistics technology would
face hard times retaining old customers and
winning over new ones. It hasnt turned out
that way. A growing number of manufacturers
and retailers have decided, instead, to stream-
line their worldwide supply chains for the long
haul by signing up for pay-as-you-go logistics
services available through the Internet cloud.
Tese services reduce supply-chain costs by
making it faster and easier to share informa-
tion about shipments with suppliers, trans-
portation providers and end users, and then
processing that information with the latest,
most powerful sofware tools.
Abstract: By turning to services
available on-demand over the
Internet (aka the cloud), companies
gain access to a logistics platform
they could never afford to build or mai
ntain by themselves. Welcome to the
brave new world of crowd sourcing!
Experts say that this ongoing boom in
transportation and trade-related services
spearheaded by such independent vendors
as GT Nexus, Descartes Systems Group and
Management Dynamics makes sense for
multinationals, which face the challenge of
managing increased complexity and variability
in their worldwide supply chains. By turning
to services available on demand over the In-
ternet like other cloud-based business sof-
ware, such as customer relationship manage-
ment (CRM), e-business and accounting tools
from Salesforce.com, NetSuite, BMC Sofware
and others these companies gain access to
a logistics platform they could never aford
to build or maintain by themselves. Tey also
acquire a strategic advantage over those old-
fashioned competitors who still rely on inef-
fcient tools like Microsof Excel spreadsheets,
e-mail and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
formats to manage their trade compliance,
transportation and logistics processes.
Tat kind of advantage can be crucial these
days. We dont compete as individual busi-
nesses any more; we compete as supply chains,
says Martin Christopher, emeritus professor of
marketing and logistics at the Cranfeld School
of Management in Cranfeld, England. Te
winners, he says, arent necessarily the compa-
nies that have the best products and services,
but the ones that have the most efcient sup-
ply chains.
Tanks to the cloud, Christopher notes,
even companies that operate on a modest tech-
nology budget can collaborate with their sup-
pliers to make more accurate delivery forecasts,
minimize excess inventory build-ups and avoid
nasty last-minute surprises for their end users.
In the old days, companies kept their suppli-
ers at arms length and even had adversarial
relationships with them, he says. Nowadays,
retailers are sharing point-of-sale data with
their suppliers, something that was unthink-
able until cloud-based technology made it
possible. Christopher describe the changes as a
win-win solution for everyone involved. We
are going to have to re-write the textbooks as
we see a signifcant acceleration in this mode. P
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Cloud-Sourcing!
Growing global complexity drives companies into the Cloud.
By Knowledge @ Wharton
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M&EJOURNAL 30
To its proponents, the cloud approach is
a no-brainer. Te cloud gives you access to a
multibillion-dollar technology infrastructure,
says Greg Kefer, director of business develop-
ment at Oakland, Calif.-based GT Nexus,
which runs the largest cloud-based collabora-
tive platform for logistics, trade and transporta-
tion managers. All of the computing power
is maintained by a third party, the IT director
doesnt have to install it [and] the cost is amor-
tized across the network by other users.
Indeed, Kefer, like other proponents, is
hopeful that cloud-based logistics manage-
ment will soon become the norm, not just for
Fortune 500 companies but for many smaller
companies that continue to rely on more tradi-
tional technologies like e-mail, phone and fax to
exchange information with their suppliers and
end users.
Kefer and others say that the global reces-
sion has helped to raise the profle of supply-
chain executives in leading global companies.
Te supply-chain people are coming out of
the basement they are no longer pushing the
down button on the elevator, but are pushing
the up button into the boardroom, Kefer
says. Many companies have created senior
supply-chain positions that are right up there
with the COO, the CFO and the CEO. Tey
are realizing that a broad strategic vision applies
to how you run your operation, Kefer adds, and
that they have paid a price by not looking at
this function strategically.
However, even the biggest fans of the
supply-chain cloud acknowledge that many
companies especially smaller ones have
not yet developed the right mindset for jump-
ing on the bandwagon. Says Christopher:
Some organizations still have an old-school
purchasing-management style, in which the
idea that we should be more open and trans-
parent is alien. In that kind of company,
people tend to think, If we can switch costs
out of our organization to our customers
[organizations], then who cares? Why worry
about your customers when you count most?
But that old approach is not going to work
in the new world of global complexity, warns
Christopher, a world in which collaboration is
the only strategic solution.
From Vertical to Virtual
Te path to the cloud has been two decades in
the making. Over that time, global corporations
gradually changed the way that they view their
supply chains, says Christopher. Te biggest
change has been to turn away from the vertical
supply chain based on serving the needs of the
vertically integrated corporation to the new
virtual supply chain, which enables corporate
managers to focus on their core competencies
and outsource other capabilities to lower-cost
suppliers, no matter where they are located. Te
challenge of this new approach, notes Christo-
pher, is that since these new global supply chains
are fragmented, they must depend on many out-
side partners in many diferent locations around
the world. Tis approach demands an entirely
new way of working. Tere is a much higher level
of complexity many more nodes and links.
Te good side of this complexity, he notes,
is that it makes it easier for manufacturers to
diferentiate themselves by using those partner-
ships to design and build unique products and
services. Te bad side is that companies need
new kinds of technological processes to manage
that complexity so they can collaborate and
synchronize data about their products with far-
fung partners and respond quickly to changes
in market demand.
Te increased complexity of global supply
chains has led to longer lead times and more pipe-
line inventory, write Bob Heaney and Viktoriya
Sadlovska in a recent report by the Boston-based
Aberdeen Group, which studies IT companies
and products. Tis, in turn, has contributed to
increased supply-chain management costs. Re-
ducing costs by driving down excessive inventory
and avoiding or quickly responding to disrup-
tions has become critical for companies in todays
economy. But before a company can reduce
pipeline inventory or landed cost, it needs to have
visibility into them.
Not that long ago, according to Kefer of GT
Nexus, the chain of custody for a typical manu-
factured product in the United States would
last only about three days and would involve
only one mode of transportation trucks on a
domestic route. But with so much production
coming out of Asia, that chain of custody is ofen
about 45 days long. When the chain was only
three days long, its variability was about one day;
a shipment could be delayed by about only that
long because of an equipment breakdown, snow-
storm or other unexpected event. However, the
variability of todays longer supply chains is far
greater and far more challenging.
A 45-day chain that starts of in Asia ofen
involves about 14 days on a freighter and then
time on possibly both truck and train. You
could lose three to fve to 10 days because of
things you never counted on, says Kefer. But
when youre a just-in-time manufacturer, you
cant aford delays of fve to 10 days. Retailers
who need to have the latest hot Asian-made
apparel or toy on their shelves in time for a major
event such as Christmas cannot aford to fall
behind on their delivery schedules. Protecting
against variability comes at a very high price
typically, either by expediting the delayed
product via costly express services such as UPS
or FedEx or by setting aside large amounts of
safety stock (excess inventory) in warehouses.
Tough few companies have the fnancial re-
sources to set up their own technology platforms
for collaborating with suppliers and transporta-
tion providers, even companies on a modest
budget can aford the cloud and should consider
signing up, says Christopher. Te only excep-
tions to that rule are the dwindling number of
companies that deal with a limited number of
suppliers and logistics partners in a limited num-
ber of geographical locations. We cant go back
to the old vertical supply chain but we need to
manage information, and the best way is shared
information.
Keeping Complexity at Bay
Complexity is really the core challenge of our
business, says Henning Husmann, director of
business development at Hermes-OTTO In-
ternational, a frm based in Germany and Hong
Kong that provides retail-sourcing services. Te
complexity of our business processes is grow-
Corporate managers can now focus on their core
competencies and outsource other capabilities to lower-cost suppliers,
no matter where they are located.
WHARTONWISE
M&EJOURNAL 32
ing exponentially, and cloud-based technology
helps us keep that complexity on the same level
rather than let it get out of hand.
According to Christian Verstraete, chief
technology ofcer for worldwide manufacturing
and distribution industries at Hewlett-Packard
Company, cloud-based supply-chain manage-
ment is a next logical step afer lean manufac-
turing, which removes wasted steps and pro-
cesses from the factory foor so that managers
can easily see just where things are. Te problem
with supply-chain management is that you
cant just walk through your supply chain and
see where your waste is. Tats very hard to do
with EDI when you have 600 or 700 players in
your supply chain.
Cloud-based services make it possible for
companies to do just that. Cloud technology
has proved to be a superior way to get technol-
ogy, says Kefer. You get more for less less
risk because you are not buying the technology.
Its a quicker path to value. Users come from
every industrial and retail sector. For example,
GT Nexuss customer list includes such famil-
iar names as American Eagle Outftters, Del
Monte Foods, Home Depot and Restoration
Hardware. Leading frms on Management Dy-
namicss Global Trade Management Platform
include Dell Computer, Fairchild Semiconduc-
tor, Honeywell and Pfzer.
A decade or so ago, a few manufacturers
began to create hubs that linked them with all
of their suppliers. At the peak of that trend,
during the dot-com boom, there were several
hundred such hubs, but today only a half doz-
en are lef, notes Verstraete. Te problem with
the hub approach, he says, was that all of the
costs for creating the hubs were borne by the
manufacturers who ran them. Tat changed
afer high-speed, low-cost Internet access made
it possible for suppliers, manufacturers and
other supply-chain partners to share all of that
data on the Internet as a pay-as-you-go ser-
vice. Verstraete says the best analogy for these
services is the public electricity grid. You just
plug in your lamp, and you get what you need.
You dont know where it comes from, and you
dont care.
According to the study by Aberdeen Group,
leading companies are 1.87 times more likely
We cant go back to the old vertical supply chain
but we need to manage information, and the best
way is shared information.
than average companies to automate their logis-
tics processes in collaboration with their suppli-
ers, and they are expanding their reach. Adds
the report: Visibility must extend across the
enterprise to embrace suppliers, 3PLs [third-
party logistics providers], and customers if
companies are to maximize their opportunities.
For all that, Marshall Fisher, professor of
operations & information management at
Wharton, warns against overselling the virtues
of cloud computing for supply chain manage-
ment. Some vendors of this sofware service
have latched onto the hot label of cloud com-
puting to make it seem fresher than it really is.
Cloud computing doesnt suddenly make pos-
sible things that werent possible before, Fisher
says. Delivering via the cloud just makes many
of those things easier and less expensive to de-
liver. Cloud computing is a hugely important
development that enables companies to access
third-party sofware in a much more conve-
nient way. You can run sofware, and it looks
like its on your computer, Fisher adds. It
[cloud computing] is an incremental step, but
not necessarily a revolutionary one, although it
could be revolutionary in certain kinds of sof-
ware, yet to be determined.
Te idea of closer collaboration between
supply chain partners, according to Fisher, has
been going on for a long time in some sectors,
such as the auto industry. Many companies have
found that e-mail and Excel are adequate tools
for the robust sharing of retail sales data, he
notes. Certainly, more computing power [via
the cloud] wont hurt the further progress of
such trends as closer relationships with supply
chain partners and upward mobility of supply
chain executives into the executive boardroom.
Te key is not sharing more and more data but
learning how to make sense of the data. With
that goal in mind, some cloud-based vendors
provide integrated business intelligence sof-
ware that makes sense of the data shared on
their platforms. Among other things, this sof-
ware analyzes the performance of their custom-
ers supply chains, slices and dices customers
key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics
by various dimensions, and creates customized
reports for distribution to customers various
corporate departments.
The Convergence of Consum-
er and Business Markets
What lies ahead for cloud-based supply-chain
management? Chris Jones, director of product
development at Montreal-based Descartes
Systems, says there is a growing convergence
of consumer and commercial markets for
cloud-based tools, as production volumes of
mobile devices like iPhones grow and prices for
such products continue to drop. Tese devices
are very cheap and powerful, and people are
saying, Why cant I use that in my commercial
world?
Descartes Global Logistics Network, one of
the worlds most extensive multimodal business
sofware networks, enables customers to man-
age their international shipments by sea and
air, comply with customs requirements around
the world and use their mobile devices to track
vast amounts of information that are exchanged
as shipments pass from one trucking dispatch
center to another across North America. Re-
garding the latter sofware, Frank Hamerlinck,
vice president of R&D for Descartes, says, Tis
is a complex process to plan because there are so
many vehicle breakdowns, trafc jams, missing
shipments and other unpredictable events. In
planning the ideal route for truck shipments,
the Descartes sofware considers such variables
as the lowest fuel consumption, the fewest stops
and the lowest number of drivers.
Early this year, Descartes will be adding
technology to its cloud-based platform that will
allow several thousand sales and merchandising
employees of Kraf Foods to track products
over their mobile devices. Five years ago, you
could never do this the cost would be too
high, says Jones. Now, youll be able to use
any mobile phone with a data plan not just
iPhones and Android phones, but even Java-
based phones. With this kind of sofware, I
dont just collect data from the feld; I make
decisions using that real-time data so that, for
example, I can optimize my routes or not send
any more pick-ups to specifc locations.
Other powerful cloud-based applica-
tions will increasingly move toward mobile
platforms, says Hamerlinck: Mobile devices
are not only becoming more mainstream,
Continuedon pg 78
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M&EJOURNAL 34
Research published in the UK at the end
of 2010 by Tinkbox suggests that 60% of
people claim to watch television while online
at least two or three times a week, with one in
three people doing it every day. Te research
study also suggests 44% of second screeners
used social networks like Facebook and Twit-
ter while watching television. Furthermore,
according to an Ensequence 2010 report, 26%
of those inclined to cancel their pay TV ser-
vice in the next six months are likely to reverse
this if their existing provider ofered a multi-
screen TV service.
With this years Oscars telecast, ABC
partnered with market research company
Ipsos and mobile interactive services com-
pany Lumi Mobile to conduct experimental
research live during the show using down-
loaded mobile Apps to track how 100 viewers
reacted to the show. Te results showed that
I
t seems that everyone is second screening
using a laptop or iPad while they are
watching television. Is this a bad thing? Is
it the end of linear television as we know
it? Even if we wanted to stop it, could we?
For this years Academy Awards ceremony,
the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sci-
ences and ABC promised viewers a second
screen experience to accompany the broadcast,
in which they could use their laptops or por-
table devices to watch unfltered coverage of
the red carpet arrivals and gain entry into the
invitation-only Governors Ball. Te Academy
and ABCs Oscar All Access digital ofering
aimed to tap into modern audiences multi-
tasking tendencies. According to a new survey
from Deloitte, three-quarters of people who
watch TV are doing something else simultane-
ously, such as going online, talking on their cell
phones or sending text messages.
TV First: Multi-Screening
Makes the New Social
Collaboration Connection
Tree-quarters of all people who are watching television are doing something else
simultaneously. By, Greg Gudorf, SVP and General Manager, Technicolor MediaNavi
Abstract: When done properly, TV is an immersive experience and second screening is just one part of the immersion
process. Whatever the number of screens, the critical point is that each should be contributing to the viewing experience.
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M&EJOURNAL 36
Greg Gudorf serves as senior vice president of Technicolors MediaNavi,
overseeing the team focused on the convergence of content, cloud-based
applications and a variety of devices for use at home and on-the-go. Prior to
joining Technicolor, Greg served as CEO for Digeo, Inc. and brings more than
25 years of experience in consumer electronics with companies such as Sony with
an emphasis on the convergence of cable, satellite, and Internet services, with
new hardware and sofware products.
88% of participants said the AppCast mobile
application made the Oscars viewing experi-
ence more enjoyable. Additionally, 92% of
panellists said that AppCast-type applications
would make them more likely to watch live
TV events. In the UK, the game show Mil-
lion Pound Drop Live, attracts a television
audience of approximately 2.3 million and
almost 10% of them played along with the
game online. Even though they did not stand
to win a slice of the money on ofer, the con-
tent was compelling enough to engage them
twice over.
Despite those who suggest that you
watch TV to relax not interact, when done
properly, TV is an immersive experience and
second screening is just one part of the im-
mersion process. Lets look at the subject of
second screening and the growing interest in
the connected television, a device with an
Ethernet port and HDMI from three view-
points: (1) the consumer; (2) the network
operator; and( 3) the content owner.
Catering to the Consumer
We should start with the consumer and the
obvious point that they are investing in large
screen TVs because they like the way the con-
tent looks. Audiences are very excited by HD
and they are actively seeking it out. Providing
consumers with excellent pictures has to be
a top priority: at Technicolor we call it TV
First.
I fully support connected TVs as they have
become very much integrated into the home
network system; however, I have concerns
about the direction that they are headed.
Why would you want to disrupt your view-
ing experience on a lovely, big picture screen
with icons, menus, buttons and additional
information? Why not put all of your menus,
social networking, controls and browsing
capabilities onto a second screen, so you can
focus on whats important watching your
programs on your big screen HDTV?
Consider this, too viewing television can
be a social activity, but sending text messages
or commenting on Facebook is essentially
personal. For the one making the comments,
when they are displayed on the TV, it could be
embarrassing for their comments to be visible
to the rest of the viewers in the room; and for
the rest of the viewing audience it is more ir-
ritating clutter on the TV screen.
What About the Carriers?
Moving on to point number two, network op-
erators and broadcasters face the challenge that
subscribers have more choices on more devices,
all designed to take attention and therefore
value away from the TV experience they are
delivering. Te smart response is to use those
alternative channels specifcally the second
screen to add value to their primary service.
Handled well, content to the second screen
can increase brand loyalty and media consump-
tion, and harness social networking to drive
ratings and recommendations. If a viewer gets
a you are watching X, so you would probably
like Y message which is accurately tuned
the chances are strong that they will follow.
Closing the Loop
Te third part of the triangle is the content
producer and owner, and currently, they are
the least engaged. But they too have a brand
to build and loyalty to generate. Apps that are
synchronized to linear television are a good
idea, adding interest for those who want it
without diminishing the experience for those
who do not. Playing videogames is one obvi-
ous example, but imaginative producers will
develop others.
Te responsibility for channeling social
commentary to promote programs lies as much
with the producer as with the broadcaster: both
beneft when a show goes viral. With social
networking being a worldwide phenomenon,
the content owner actually stands most to
gain when the online hype precedes a show
into a new territory.
Defning the Second Screen
Second screening seems certain to be a win
for everyone. But what is the nature of the
second screen? Traditionally it was a lap-
top, and over the last year the iPad has very
frmly taken hold. For many reasons these
are likely to stay, and plans for managed
second screening need to embrace them.
But there may be a place for a diferent
device, something that is more closely inte-
grated with the entertainment devices, and
not just a device for connectivity. A sort of
super remote control, available to whom-
ever picks it up, with physical buttons for
key functions like volume and channel,
but with a touch-screen interface for more
advanced interactivity for fnding content
on the home network or on-demand from
online services.
You could, of course, create an iPad
App to be a remote controller, however,
each time you activate it just to turn the
volume up you would have a bright screen
distracting you from the lovely pictures on
the big screen. A dedicated, smart control-
ler would avoid that.
So perhaps the solution is not second
screening but multi-screening, with an
intelligent device controlling the television
and working within the networked home
alongside the individuals device of choice.
Whatever the number of screens, the criti-
cal point is that each should be contribut-
ing to the viewing experience, leaving the
main TV showing great content in all its
glory TV First. n
Why would you want to disrupt your viewing experience
on a big screen with icons, menus and buttons?
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Move the timeline a little forward and
youre at the introduction of optical media.
With the advent of optical media, consum-
ers were introduced to the ability to get their
favorite content in a very high quality digital
format. For audio, it was the CD that could
hold up to 80 minutes of music. For Video, it
was the DVD that could hold just under 9 Gigs
of data with high quality 5.1 audio. Ten later
on Blu-ray ofered a capacity of 50 Gigs of data
and 7.1 lossless audio. All of these optical me-
dia formats provided the consumers with the
ability to see and hear their content in the high-
est possible quality. Consumers were given the
option to purchase the content, or in the case
of DVD and Blu-ray, the option to rent it. Por-
tability for optical media began to progress. For
H
ow long has it been since the
media of choice for audio was
the cassette? It ofered fairly
good quality as well as a certain
amount of portability. For video, the format of
choice was VHS. With VHS you had decent
quality with the ability to add surround audio
for an enhanced viewing experience that you
couldnt get from a regular television feed. Por-
tability for your videos wasnt something that
was really thought of back then as there was
really no good solution for portable viewing let
alone something small enough to also house the
VHS player. And back then, in regards to pur-
chasing cassettes and VHS tapes, if you wanted
them, youd go to your local store and youd
buy them.
Entertainment Media:
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
How the evolution of content media has changed the way content holders must deal with
their service providers. By Juan Reyes, CTO, BluFocus, Inc.
audio CDs you had shock resistant portable
CD players on the market. For DVD, portable
DVD players with built-in screens began to
show up and are still popular today. Portable
Blu-ray players are slowly starting to appear
as the Blu-ray format continues to increase its
marketshare.
Move the timeline to today and you see that
consumers have been given the opportunity
to conveniently access the content they want
through many diferent delivery methods. For
audio, the use of MP3 fles has become a stan-
dard for many people. Where an audio CD
could hold 80 minutes of audio, use that same
CD to store .mp3 music and you could now
store 300400 songs, which could translate to
up to 800 minutes of playback. For video, the
ability to download movies to rent or own has
become a big beneft for the consumer.
Te devices used to playback digital media
have also changed signifcantly. At frst, it was
MP3 players such as the iPod, the Zune, and
many others. Te iPod was revolutionary with
its slick interface and its ability to hold giga-
bytes worth of fles, which translates to quite
a bit of music. Today, these playback devices
can play back not only audio fles, but they
can also play back most video fles. Also, let us
not forget that personal media players such as
these are no longer the only devices to consider.
Now you can use devices such as cell phones,
tablets, even TVs, Blu-ray players, and others to
play back your content. Te ability to take your
audio and video media with you wherever you
go has become a requirement for many. And
todays current technology and devices makes it
easy to do so!
However, its more than just being able to
take your media with you. What about access-
ing it anywhere, anytime? With cloud-based
solutions such as UltraViolet, Keychest, Ama-
zons Cloud Drive, and others, consumers have
even more options for storing and accessing
their media. More and more its becoming a
matter of where you can access your data from
Abstract: With an increasing demand for efciency comes an opportunity for
service providers to expand their offerings so they can become a single point of
contact for the content holders needs. More consumer media consumption may
lead to a consolidation of content holder partnerships.
MEDIATIMES
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Welcome to the Age
of Customers.
Given todays technology, customers are more
empowered than ever. They know exactly what they
want, where they can get it, how much they can save
and more. How do you meet their rising expectations?
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M&EJOURNAL 40
Juan Reyes is the Chief Technology Ofcer for BluFocus Inc., an Advanced
Testing Facility in Burbank, CA specializing in 3D, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital
Distribution, Mobile Apps and Broadcast. In his current role, Juan has
established the company as an ofcial 2D and 3D BDA (Blu-ray Disc
Association) Testing Center for BD-ROM Movie players, BD-ROM PC
Application Sofware, and BD-ROM Audiovisual Content. He is an active
member in many of the technical groups in the BDA.
and on what device as opposed to just where
you store your data. Te cloud-based solutions
allow you to access your media from anywhere
using multiple devices. Its like having your own
personal storage for your media in the cloud,
allowing many of your devices to access it.
What about the social networking aspects
of all this? In regards to social networking,
weve seen that a consumers media can be eas-
ily incorporated in the social networking they
do in their day-to-day lives. It can be as simple
as posting a message in Facebook or Twitter
on what youre listening to or watching, or it
can involve the use of a mobile app or even
Blu-ray player that can send out an update au-
tomatically based on the audio or video youre
playing. Te mobile apps being developed for
consumers today are more and more connecting
the consumers media playback experience to
their social networking lives. Youre seeing not
only apps for accessing your media library, but
apps that are specifc to certain movies. Second
screen applications are also becoming very pop-
ular. Another observation on the importance
of social networking to the content owner is the
recent Warner/Facebook announcement where
they are now ofering rentals from Warner Bros.
directly from Facebook. So if you have to ask
and wonder what is the future and where are
we going with digital media and entertainment,
mobile apps for your cell phones and tablets
that are integral to the playback of your content
will be signifcant as will cloud-based media
access.
Te same applies to Blu-ray players with
their BD-Live capabilities. With BD-Live giv-
ing movie titles the ability to use the Internet
to gather and send information about a movie,
many titles use this capability to send details to
a users social network as well as retrieve infor-
mation that is relevant to the movie in order to
enhance the users viewing experience.
As you can see there are now many ways that
media can be distributed to the consumer. Te
ways they play back their media and access it is
also expanding. How they integrate it into their
social network continues to also grow into new
and exciting areas. Te hope with all this is that
with the ease of access and social networking
capabilities to the consumer, that there will be
overall more consumption of media.
How does this all affect the
industry that produces the
content?
As we all know there are many diferent groups
involved in the production and distribution
of optical and digital media. Multiply that by
the diferent formats required for the diferent
distribution methods and the number is quite
signifcant. Is the video going to Blu-ray, Ama-
zon, iTunes, or some other outlet for purchase?
Is it going to Netfix, Blockbuster, or another
On Demand service that may require multiple
formats or versions with multiple bitrates for
use in adaptive streaming situations? Tis cre-
ates a need for the content owners to manage
what formats are going where and what groups
they need to use for the production of the vari-
ous formats. How does this afect the work-
fows and efciencies for the content owners?
One of the ways were seeing this happen is by
having the groups that are providing services
to the content owners expand their oferings
so that they can become a single point of con-
tact for more, if not all of the content owners
needs. Tis helps the content owner by allow-
ing them to use fewer vendors to get more of
the work done, creating a more efcient process
for the content owner.
One example of this is in our area of pro-
viding quality assurance to our studio clients.
With the need for media to be formatted in so
many diferent methods based on the needs and
requirements of the various distribution com-
panies and methods, we saw the value of being
that single point of contact for any QA needs
our clients may have regardless of the format.
So weve been ofering our QA services not
only in the areas of testing the content on
Blu-ray and DVD discs, but also in testing the
media they are having produced for all of the
diferent distribution methods. Whether the
fles need to go to an on-line retailer for sale, or
an On Demand distributor where the fles will
be streamed to the consumer, weve been the
one-stop-shop to our clients to handle all of
their QA needs for all of their formats.
Te same is true for other areas of pro-
duction for the major Hollywood studios.
Whether its authoring, encoding, transcoding,
or any of the many other processes required
to get the media out to the consumers in the
proper format, the more services that can be
performed by a single company, the greater the
beneft for the content owners. Tis can result
in a more efcient workfow to the content
owners and vendors and possibly reduce the
production costs for the content owners and
the vendors as well.
So what could be the result of all this?
Well no one can see the future. However,
we can all see the value of the content owners
having a reduced number of vendors to work
with, which can improve their workfows and
efciencies. We can also see the value of the
vendors providing more services to their clients
which can increase the work coming to them.
As the technology for this industry continues
to move forward, we must constantly adapt to
the requirements needed and work together to
fnd efciencies in our production workfows
and service oferings. Because we all know that
what we do today, what the consumers do to-
day, can be diferent tomorrow. n
Authoring, encoding, transcoding are just a few
of the many processes required to get the media out to
consumers in the proper format.
MEDIATIMES
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M&EJOURNAL 42
L
ets contrast that metaphor with the current world of entertainment distribution.
In the physical world of entertainment, we have developed very good supply chain
techniques over the years. However, in the physical world, the thought of a perfect
unencumbered distribution mechanism has never entered our minds. Its physical
and it has a terminal velocity for efciency that is until now. Digital content and digital
supply chains are changing everything in the media and entertainment industry. Because of
this, we now seek the Holy Gail of distribution, efcient, automated and fast. What we seek
is superconductivity for the transmission of our content and UMIDs will play a major role in
making that happen.
So what are universal Media IDs?
A Universal Media IDentifer is a unique key (identifer) that can exclusively identify content (me-
dia) that is widely recognized across the industry, externally maintained, and supports automatic
bridging between any two media entities. For example, in the fnancial industry, fnancial institu-
tions commonly use a social security number as a universal identifcation method for people. Tis
universal key is essential in fnancial workfows to allow for system-to-system communication
without manual intervention, such as a bank checking your credit.
So whats the entertainment industrys problem?
In Hollywood, each media entity has its own way of communicating information about their
content using their own internal set of identifcation numbers. However, in the workfows we are
building now, media companies need to communicate their content and metadata between many
diferent trading partners electronically to facilitate the manufacturing, distribution and sale of
content. Unfortunately, media companies dont have a way to identify the content received from
each other in any automated way. As content is shared, the content transactions go into manual
Superconductivity for
Delivering Hollywoods
Digital Movies
Abstract: Superconductors are the holy grail of energy distribution.
They allow for the unencumbered distribution of electrical current. They are
perfectly efcient. No energy is wasted while the energy travels on its path.
Superconductivity of digital content is now within our reach.
Universal Media IDs are the frst step toward the realization
of an optimized digital supply chain.
By Eric Iverson, VP Information Technology,
Sony Pictures Entertainment
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M&EJOURNAL 43
identifcation queues at the receiving partners
end to identify the content. Because many
business scenarios have very short timelines,
these time intensive delays ofen hurt business
and cost money. Additionally, the scalability
of this problem makes certain business oppor-
tunities impossible, like the auto-augmenta-
tion of metadata. Frequently, multiple media
companies play a role in a media-related busi-
ness scenario, such as a studio sending a fle to
a post house that is sent to a retailer for sale.
In these cases, the content must make mul-
tiple stops and get identifed multiple times
because of the multiple players. In these cases,
the chance of mistakes also increases.
But I hear you say, So what. We have
been distributing content for a long time
without issue Something sounds funny
here this sounds like one of those year 2000
IT tricks to get retention bonuses...
It is true that for more than 100 years,
we have distributed and consumed motion
pictures and gotten along just fne. So...why
now? Wellwere not in Kansas anymore;
the world is a changing fast. Entertain-
ment content now exists in digital form
from camera capture all the way through the
entire distribution network. Te ecosystem
struggles to keep up with the dramatic popu-
lation increase of content, which frequently
includes new content types. Te increasing
reality of content piracy constantly challenges
the entertainment industry. Moreover, these
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The aerospace industry adopted universal identication for parts
years ago. This approach enabled essential efciencies between
aerospace suppliers. We can achieve these kinds of efciencies in
our industry too. Jeff Mirich, CIO, The Walt Disney Company
trends drive added cost pressures. Be-
cause of this, the ecosystem continues to
systematize to drive out cost. And when
we say systemization in 2011 we mean
integration.
In the new digital world, our ability
to universally identify content to support
systemization and automated content dis-
tribution is a tremendous opportunity for
everyone in the industry. Te problems
of the automation of content creation,
assembly of content between trading part-
ners, and round trip transactional report-
ing cannot be fully automated without
universally identifying our content. Like
in science, before you can do anything
with the thing you must frst uniquely
indentify it and describe the things
unique properties. We call these unique
properties in our industry metadata. Sys-
tems require this same level of scientifc
precision to make the science of business
work. In fact, because this kind of data
strategy is equally efective within large
enterprises, you will see active master data
management and metadata management
initiatives within entertainment compa-
nies over the next 5-10 years.
So why havent we solved
this problem?
Tere are several answers to this question.
Pragmatically, the problem is so much
more pronounced now that now is exactly
the right time to act. Another answer
is that this problem is relatively hard to
solve but appears deceivingly easy. Te
reason the problem is difcult to unravel
is because it requires widespread voluntary
adoption as well as universal agreement on how
we defne and organize our content. Solving
the problem is also difcult because the busi-
ness case has fairly intangible benefts. Tough
the business case could well demonstrate a bil-
lion dollar+ proposition, the industry would
certainly realize the billion dollars not by ten
$100M transactions but rather a steady fow of
100 billion pennies. It is much more difcult
to organize support around business cases for
enabling solutions and technologies, especially
when they span across a large number of stake-
holders.
However, UMID in our industry is pos-
sible. Other industries have already adopted
Universal Media IDs. As Jef Mirich, CIO of
Te Walt Disney Company, points out, Te
aerospace industry adopted universal identifca-
tion for parts years ago. Tis approach enabled
essential efciencies between aerospace suppli-
ers. We can achieve these kinds of efciencies
in our industry too. Even the music and pub-
lishing industries have made excellent progress
towards universal identifcation of their con-
tent. In the music industry, three ids are used,
ISWC (International Standard Musical Work
Code) for compositions, ISRC (International
Standard Recording Code) for identifcation of
the recording, and GRID (Global Release Iden-
tifer) for products such as a CD. Te publish-
ing industry utilizes the ISBN (International
Standard Book Number) for physical books
and the standard is currently undergoing evalu-
ation to see how it can be enhanced for ebooks.
Is there a solution we can
turn to?
Tere have been a variety of initiatives to iden-
tify content. Te most prominent standards-
For 12 years, Eric has led strategic technology change initiatives for Sony Pictures. Hes
responsible for SPEs intellectual property systems as well as television sales, marketing
and distribution systems. Some of the major initiatives Eric has led include: SPEs
Digital Media Initiative, Intellectual Property Program, TV sales and availability,
IT Strategic Planning, Portal & CMS Strategies, Ofshore Outsourcing Strategy,
Integration of the MGM Library, Physical Logistics Automation, Master Data
Management Strategy, Business Intelligence Strategy, Data Center Strategy, Rich Media Asset Disaster
Recovery , Digital Distribution Metadata, Universal Media ID (UMID) - ISAN & EIDR.
based initiative for our industry in the past
fve years was an ID system called Internation-
al Standard Audio/Visual Number (ISAN).
Tis ID standard is in operation today but
has struggled to gain the traction needed to
ensure widespread adoption. As a result, the
industry consortium MovieLabs launched an
initiative to provide a UMID solution while
taking into consideration the challenges the
other standards have faced, such as ISAN.
Tat initiative is called Entertainment ID
Registry (EIDR).
Can it succeed?
Tere are two primary reasons we are poised
for success. First, the EIDR standard is reap-
ing the benefts of lessons learned from similar
initiatives. As a result, the EIDR standard
is more afordable, more fexible and has the
direct support of key ecosystem stakeholders
such as metadata providers and data consum-
ers that were not previously onboard. Te key
stakeholders are also EIDR board members.
Second, industry subgroups are getting the
key stakeholders on the same page. In August
2010, Devendra Mishra and Jef Mirich of
the Hollywood IT Society (HITS) sponsored
an open, cross-industry HITS project to
further investigate the possibility of making a
Universal Media ID solution possible for our
industry. Tis essential step in the concept
realization lifecycle for a UMID did not occur
in previous ID attempts. Te forum allowed
representatives from the content providers to
jointly articulate business needs and UMID
requirements. Since a UMID initiative can
only succeed if it has the ability to become
well universal, the formulation of working
teams to address gaps and implementation
barriers has proved critical. In the fall, the
Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) also
sponsored a similar UMID initiative driven
by its supply chain group; they identifed the
lack of UMIDs as the cause of many pain
points in the digital supply chain. As a result,
DEG leadership, including Amy Jo Smith
(DEG) and Dan Miron (DEG Supply Chain
C
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Continued on pg 79
M&EJOURNAL 45
Te search for a Universal Media ID for media & entertainment is coming close to
an end with the establishment of an industry-approved
standard called EIDR. By Kip Welch, President,
Entertainment ID Registry Association (EIDR)
The Media Industrys Identify Crisis
D
igital technology has trans-
formed the movie and televi-
sion industry in fundamental
ways. Tese changes have
heralded exciting new opportunities for all
industry participants but also have created
challenges. Tere has been an explosion in
assets that need to be packaged, syndicated,
distributed and tracked as they move from
creation to consumption across a complex
supply chain before entering the global me-
dia marketplace.
In an efort to make the most of the new
opportunities and address the challenges,
major content producers have re-designed
workfows to make them content-centric,
putting in place digital media management
infrastructure and fle-based workfows to
Abstract: The media industry has talked about the need for a standardized
identier system for many years, and with widespread industry cooperation on a
Universal Media ID, the opportunity for adopting such a system has never been closer.
help streamline operations. While these ef-
forts reduce inefciencies, more can be done.
Te industry needs to extend supply chain
management beyond the walls of the organi-
zation to include partners and vendors.
A key requirement for such an industry-
wide supply chain management system is stan-
dardizing and adopting universal identifers
for the commercial exchange of assets in the
global media marketplace. Te media industry
has talked about the need for a standardized
identifer system for many years, but with
the growth of digital supply chains, the ben-
efts of adopting such a system have never
been clearer.
Increasing Digital Supply
Chain Effciencies
Universal unique identifers play a crucial
role in improving digital supply chain
efciencies by:
Eliminating costly translations between
proprietary ID systems,
Lowering risks of misidentifcation
caused by duplication and lack of ID
uniqueness,
Improving internal asset tracking,
Providing greater efciency and accuracy
in tracking external transactions between
commercial entities that do not share in-
ternal databases,
Speeding the delivery of movie and TV
assets to consumers by decreasing the B2B
manual processing time required to make
digital assets available,
Improving ability to match assets and
metadata from diferent databases, service
providers, or metadata suppliers.
Enabling Value-Added
Services
A widely adopted identifer system with
the appropriate programmatic interfaces
supports the creation of new value-added
services. Examples of enhanced services
include:
Content-driven services delivered by
multiple vendors across multiple platforms,
all referencing the same uniquely identifed
media assets,
Kip Welch leads business development and outreach for MovieLabs, a non-proft
technology lab founded by the Hollywood motion picture industry. His work
includes investigating new companies and technologies on behalf of the industry,
analyzing technology trends in digital media distribution, and conducting
outreach to labs, universities, entrepreneurs, and venture investors. He has been
a key driver of the EIDR unique ID initiative on behalf of MovieLabs, and he
currently serves as President of the EIDR organization.
COVER S
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More granular and more accurate rights
tracking and reporting down to the level of
clips, composites and encodings,
Simplifed universal search and discovery,
Detailed consumption metrics for indi-
vidual assets.
Other industries have responded to simi-
lar supply chain and tracking requirements
by implementing and widely adopting unique
identifer schemes. Numbers and strings that
identify a unique item or entity are widely
used in workfows and distribution chan-
nels in many commercial areas ranging from
product identifers (UPC) and books (ISBN)
to music (ISRC, Grid) and advertising (Ad-
ID). However, until recently the movie and
television industry lacked an identifer system
capable of uniquely identifying the wide
range of asset types while meeting other criti-
cal business requirements.
Te Entertainment Identifer Registry
(EIDR) provides a comprehensive universal
identifer system for all types of movie and
television assets ranging from top-level titles
that represent the original work or intellec-
tual property to various embodiments of the
work down to physical SKUs and digital dis-
tributions. EIDR provides the foundational
namespace required to enable efcient supply
chain interactions. It does not replace or com-
pete with providers of value-added services,
such as extended metadata or rights tracking
services. Rather, it is designed to facilitate and
support providers of these value-added services.
Te registry receives and processes registra-
tion requests from registrants. Users and ap-
plications can perform lookups and search the
registry. Registrants and lookup users can use
the web user interface or web services API to
interact with the registry.
Registrants Submit Assets to
the Registry
A registrant submits objects for registration
along with core metadata and information
such as the type of object and relationship to
other objects. Te registrant could be a content
owner, an aggregator, post-production house or
any other entity authorized to register objects.
Registry Assigns EIDR After
Verifying Uniqueness
EIDR uses a sophisticated de-duplication sys-
tem to insure that the object submitted to the
registry has not already been registered while
allowing the registration of similar and related
objects. Te centralized registry structure
guarantees the uniqueness of objects being
registered. If no duplicate object exists, the
registry generates an EIDR for the object and
stores the new EIDR and the corresponding
metadata in the registry.
Lookup Users Can Search the
Registry
Te Registry provides both a web-based UI
and web-services APIs to enable a user or
application to search the registry using
various search criteria. Developers can use
the APIs to integrate the registry features
with their applications and automated work-
fows.
Whos Who Behind EIDR
EIDR is an industry-supported efort
founded and driven by the entertainment
industry itself. Founders include MovieLabs
and CableLabs, driving the efort jointly on
behalf of the movie and cable industries. All
major Hollywood studios are collaborat-
ing on implementation plans for EIDR in
Figure 1: Entertainment Identifer Registry diagram
The Ideal System
In order to deliver the promised benefts and gain widespread adoption, a unique ID
system must meet a minimum set of basic requirements.
Requirement Denition
Coverage Generate unique identiers for all types of valid audio
visual content types including top-level assets and
versions, specic products and encodings, and emerging,
high-volume categories such as clips.
Flexibility Support a wide variety of relationships and hierarchies that
can exist between assets.
Extensibility Be readily extensible to accommodate new types of assets
that may emerge as the industry evolves.
Scalability Handle very large volumes of registrations and perform
reliably in order to be integrated into automated workows.
Cost-effectiveness Make economic sense for the entire ecosystem, even at very
high volumes.
Interoperability Interoperate with other existing IDs and databases.
Enable Value-added Services Support innovation by enabling commercial providers to offer
new and existing value-added metadata and other services on
top of the system without restriction.
Accessibility Provide easy search and query access to all commercial
ecosystem participants.
Continued on pg 79
M&EJOURNAL 48
The Simultaneous Monetization of
Traditional and New Media Content
How to expand your companys digital revenues without undermining your legacy business.
By Theodore X. Garcia, Managing Director, Entertainment, Media and Communications,
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Abstract: This article presents a framework to assist executives in assessing
the complexities of monetizing media content across multiple channels and
developing a solution framework to address the content and rights challenges.
M
edia executives today face the
challenge of simultaneously
managing traditional and
new media. Tey must bal-
ance new media content distribution across
the rapidly growing mobile advertising and
online digital content channels while main-
taining their market share and proftability
in traditional distribution channels. With
new media revenue models still unclear,
many executives fnd themselves sacrifcing
and even cannibalizing traditional high-
margin businesses to prop up unproftable
ones. At the same time, several factors com-
bine to increase the complexity, risks, and
cost of operations, including multi-party
content acquisition and licensing partner-
ship models; lengthy rights clearance pro-
cesses and restrictions on content exploita-
tion; and royalty payment and revenue share
calculations.
Perhaps the most signifcant challenge is
that the content itself the product is
(or can be) digital throughout most of its
life cycle. Every aspect of the product, in-
cluding how to develop, store, manage, fnd,
retrieve, order, distribute, track, pay, and
consume entertainment content, is (or can
be) digital. With the ability to move content
to markets and platforms faster, consumer
expectations and competitive strategies are
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this requires nothing less than the recasting
of business operations, even as they support
legacy models that continue to drive signif-
cant levels of cash fow amid cannibaliza-
tion and intense competition. New release
window strategies must factor the extent
to which viewers of one channel are elimi-
nated as a result of the growth of another.
Traditional business verticals now require
more fexibility within their domains and
a more fuid integration across the enter-
prise. However, silos of content stores and
fnancial systems per business unit and lack
of common intellectual property rights
information make it difcult to answer day-
to-day questions and create major portfolio
management issues for studios.
Te complexity of media operations and
distribution are a byproduct of the rapidly
transforming marketplace:

Customers are more willing to pay for a
better experience, if the price is right.
As an increasing number of content provid-
ers, aggregators, and telcos are starting to
charge for high-quality content access, con-
sumers are also stepping up and indicating
that they are more willing to pay. Now is the
perfect time for companies to experiment
sumers enhanced individualized expecta-
tions, that they can access entertainment
products wherever they are, on the platforms
of their choice, in their preferred language,
whenever they want it, and on increasingly
fexible pricing terms. Tese technologies
also disrupt traditional exhibition release
windows and put pressure on traditional
revenue streams.
Tis transformation of media requires a
transformation of the media enterprise. And
in fux, and the proftability of content across
the enterprise becomes ever more elusive.
As a result, maximizing revenue and mar-
gin has become a complex juggling act between
mature and emerging market dynamics. Tere-
fore, content owners need to expand their
share of digital revenue as a major strategic
consideration while ensuring they do not un-
dermine their legacy revenue; and they need to
do this across business units, platforms, chan-
nels, and geographies. Whether its online,
via mail subscription (such as Netfix), or at
a physical site (such as RedBox), more people
are likely to rent their movies than purchase
a copy or download a permanent copy from a
website.
Trends and Challenges
Evolve or die! Tis mantra from biology
texts and popular business books reverber-
ates loudly across the broader entertainment
industry. While consumer trends show con-
tinued viewer growth, fragmentation and the
explosion of digital content distribution create
signifcant revenue and margin challenges. In
addition, disruptive technology and new busi-
ness models provide competitive threats as
well as opportunities for growth.
Digital technologies have reinforced con-
An enterprise content portfolio
dashboard delivers visibility of
media asset performance across all
channels through the integration of
content, rights and nancials.
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with new pricing models to exploit the eco-
nomic value that has long eluded online and
wireless distribution of digital media content.
Explosion of new devices that not only
revitalize old content but also raise the bar
on bandwidth demands.
As the iPad brought new life and new sub-
scription revenue models to the publishing
industry, content originators and distributors
are faced with potential new revenue streams
as well as additional cost of customizing the
same content to make it relevant and easy to
consume from multiple devices.
Changing competition and alliances land-
scape translates to complex deal structures
AT&T U-verse and Verizon FiOS are
competing with cable MSO oferings; Google
and Apple are expanding into and dominat-
ing smart phones and mobile services; original
productions are co-funded by multiple parties;
and multiple industry consortiums are forming
to deliver high-quality content and standards.
Te frenzy not only generates complexity for
the legal department but also highlights the
need to track the rights to exploit content and
maximize revenue opportunities.
A sophisticated and fragmented customer
base is demanding a la carte content and
relevant advertisements in real time, in the
right format, and at a lower unbundled
unit price.
ESPN demonstrated its interactive Live Sport
experience where viewers feedback is col-
lected (from social media, TV boxes, and other
devices) and used to update content in near
real time. Tis presents unprecedented oppor-
tunities to build intimate customer profles,
demand premium advertising fees based on
viewing behavior, and exploit cross-sell and
up-sell opportunities.
Real time, a la carte content, and multi-
platform up-sells are unfortunately not easy
to facilitate. Content providers and distribu-
tors will need to manage micro-payments,
streamline production/post-production and
distribution workfows, and push as many
services (such as rights clearance) into an on-
line self-service model to meet the real-time
demand.
The Portfolio Imperative
According to PwCs 2010 Global Media Out-
look, more than one-third of media spending
around the world in 2014 will be on digital
content. Content providers that continue to
treat their digital and mobile businesses as
standalone experiments will stand to lose real
revenue and market share. Providers can no
longer continue to manage their valuable as-
sets through disconnected business unit silos
focusing on specifc distribution channels;
such thinking is analog management in a
digital world.
Te enterprise needs to integrate content,
rights, and fnancial information to gain
visibility of content performance across all
channels and make more informed decisions
regarding content exploitation.
Te challenge lies in linking media con-
tent with its rights and historical fnancials
by channel and presenting the consolidated
information in a dashboard to support pro-
forma analysis. In addition, organizational,
process, and technological platforms must
be aligned to support data-driven decision-
making for the enterprise as a whole.
An enterprise content portfolio
dashboard could deliver:
Visibility of media asset performance across
all channels through the integration of con-
tent, rights, and fnancials
Ability to rapidly address changing cus-
tomer expectations and repurpose content
efectively
Easily locate content that can be shared and
reused across business units
Discover content that is not being fully uti-
lized across multiple rights dimensions
Real-time alerts of a portfolios proftability
and performance, especially during the critical
theatrical exhibition window
Reduce legal risks across the enterprise and
maintain enterprise-wide standards and gov-
ernance
More accurate planning and estimation of
performance for budgeting and planning
Enterprise content portfolio management
(ECPM) allows a business to realize these
benefts with a holistic view of content, rights,
A sample of the Enterprise Content Portfolio Solution Dashboard
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Google http://ecpmdashboard.successfulcompany.com/dealsupport
Web Page Title
Content
Content Search
Information
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed
do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna
aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation
ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse
cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
Rights Information
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed
do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna
aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation
ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse
cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
Rights
/ /
/ /
Network
Network
Website
Website
Broadband
Broadband
Mobile
Mobile
iTunes
Hulu
VOD
Reach
Reach Reach
Reach Reach
Company Snapshot
Deal Analysis
Participation
Options
Return
Reporting Condence Risk
Baseline
$3.2m
$3.2m Revenue
Expense
$3.2m $3.2m
Revenue Expense
$3.2m
Lift
Title
Rights Information
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing
elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et
dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam,
quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut
aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure
dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum
Network
Broadband
Website
Website
Mobile
Network
Network
Website
Website
Broadband
Broadband
Mobile
$2.1
$0
$.5
$.75
$4.6
$.25
$2.1
Notes
Notes
Notes
Notes
Notes
Notes
Notes
Network
Network
Website
Website
Broadband
Broadband
Mobile
Options
Options
Options
Options
Options
Options
Options
Options
Teodore X Garcia serves as the Managing Director, Entertainment, Media
and Communications, PricewaterhouseCoopers. As such, he works with
the major motion picture and television production studios in digital and
physical content creation and distribution. With a specialization in cost
reduction across the enterprise, Mr. Garcia has led global transformation
initiatives that have streamlined processes, improved efciencies and
created sustainable and measureable savings. Mr. Garcia has 20+ years of
experience within media and entertainment industry.
M&EJOURNAL 51
and fnancials. Combine these views to empower
the business and maintain a strong and depend-
able portfolio.
The Portfolio Challenge
Content Challenges: Content, and more
importantly, metadata describing the content,
would need to be aggregated from multiple sup-
porting systems to deliver the dashboard view.
For example, to obtain the total revenue from
the Batman franchise, all related revenue may
need to be collected from theatrical, home video,
licensing, international distribution, and theme
parks. Furthermore, various business units may
have diferent metadata or terminology for the
same content, and the metadata evolves as it is
ingested, edited, formatted, and distributed, thus
making sharing and searching of content difcult
across business units.
Te key to enable content visibility and maxi-
mize content value is metadata standardization.
A large content originator such as a major studio
may have thousands of metadata felds, and it is
not necessary to standardize all of them. Instead,
content owners should look for the subset of
metadata felds that have fnancial impact and
trigger diferent rights treatment. For example,
Blu-ray versus standard DVD versions have sig-
nifcant revenue and cost impacts, and the format
and spelling of these key metadata must be uni-
fed. Once standards are agreed upon by the busi-
ness units, automation of metadata ingest and
validation of metadata update become the critical
processes to ensure consistency and content iden-
tifcation.
Rights Challenges: Te need for en-
terprise standards applies not only to
metadata, but also to the content owners
intellectual property (IP) rights. Legal
rights information and restrictions per-
taining to a media asset are ofen trapped
in paper form, making rights clearance a
labor-intensive, time-consuming exercise.
Tis slows contract negotiations, delays
time to market, and exposes parties to legal
liabilities.
A well-defned, standardized legal
taxonomy describing rights to content is
essential to maximizing the performance of
assets. Te reality is that for many content
producers and originators, legal contracts
are in paper form or scanned as a PDF; nei-
ther format is searchable. Sorting through
the existing paper mountain requires pri-
oritization at the asset level and at the legal
clause level and must be done according to
a well-thought-out taxonomy.
Finance Challenges: Once the metadata
on content and rights are standardized,
historic revenue and cost information
can be associated to form a picture of the
fnancial performance of a specifc title, in a
particular channel, in a specifc geography.
As new revenue models emerge and as joint
ventures and distribution channels prolifer-
ate, the capability to share and recognize
revenue and costs becomes ever more
complex.
An executive dashboard that aggregates
content, rights, and fnancials across all chan-
nels can provide the clarity executives need to
understand past performance and make more
informed decisions, which benefts the enter-
prise as a whole. Only by looking at all the me-
dia assets and channels as a portfolio, can one
see the macro trends and make decisions that
will afect growth and the return on investment
of content.
The Enterprise Content Port-
folio Solution Framework
To support the portfolio presentation of
content, rights, and fnancials, PwC has created
a reference solution framework, illustrated by
the diagram below.
Two main components of the design in-
clude the Dashboard and the Reporting Tier,
highlighted below.
Dashboard Tier
At the dashboard tier, deal analysis tools and
content dashboards cover all the distribution
channels in the content value chain to support
decision-making and what-if analyses on new
deals and business models. Te dashboard can
be confgured to present relevant information
at varying degrees of abstraction for diferent
levels of management. A sample dashboard is
presented below.
An executive dashboard can support the
following use cases:
1. Analyze proftability of complete deals based
on revenue, costs, ratings, related content, or
brand family proftability.
2. Identify additional exploitation windows
and forecast expected new revenue streams
based on multi-dimensional rights clearance
and reporting.
3. Serve as a work bench to construct future
content acquisition or licensing deals: users can
input deal parameters based on historic values,
expert opinions, and growth projections. Users
can also vary the parameters to see the potential
efects on proftability.
Reporting Tier
Te reporting tier delivers content availability,
utilization, performance, optimization reports,
and market insights to address questions such as:
Which title is doing well/not well? Why? Drill
down into geography and screen level if necessary. PwCs solution framework, including the Dashboard and Reporting Tier
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Common Rights and Content Metadata Exchange and Updates
Planning Aquisition Processing Management Distribution Reporting Consolidation
Deal Analysis Tools
Content Dashboards
Utilization Reporting
Optimization Reporting
Availability Reporting
Services
Workow Name Integration Rights Checking Content Exchange
Content
Optomization
Metadata
Translation
Back End Systems
Content
Repositories
DAMs / MAMs Metadata Registry ERP
Usage Logs
User Data
Rights
Managment
Legal Databases
DRM Rules
Database
Trafc Systems Distribution Logs
Central Name
Server
Content
Distribution
M&EJOURNAL 52
How does the recent box ofce performance
impact the ultimates of the new title?
What contents are available for distribution in
what geography, format, platform, and language?
Do we have the rights to exploit specifc titles in
a particular country?
What is the proftability by title, platform, and
geographic region?
What are the most popular search words for the
latest blockbuster to be released this weekend?
What are the consumers and the audiences say-
ing about the content and services?
Te reporting tier is powered by a business
analytics engine that supports structured data
and unstructured data, in real time and through
historic analysis. Te structured data is created
from a clearly defned reporting rules base that
compiles mostly historic data. Te unstructured
data, including social media information, cus-
tomer transactions data, website trafc, popular
search words, and preferences are collected and
analyzed continuously or in real time to support
on-demand content updates.
Companies with the ability to analyze both
structured and unstructured data enjoy increased
agility in business operations and are better po-
sitioned to take advantage of rapid changes in
demand or capture a new market segment.
Critical Success Factors
For those enterprises that are considering or are
already under way with the design or implemen-
tation of ECPM, here are a few observations from
successful initiatives:
Establish a clear understanding of the cur-
rent state. Even if the solutions run on a set of
spreadsheets and fling cabinets, it is important
to assess the current state of systems, processes,
tools, standards, and policies used to manage con-
tent, rights, and fnancials. Tis helps the team to
visualize gaps, set the baseline for ongoing project
eforts, and collect metrics to compare against
industry best practices and benchmarks.
Develop a target state road map backed
by a quantifed business case. Building the
ECPM solution is a large undertaking that
will require cross-business unit collaboration
and executive level support. A road map is
the perfect tool to communicate to stake-
holders the vision and a phased approach to
realize the benefts.
Take a content-centric approach.
Many content originators and distributors
are organized around networks, channels,
or platform groups (e.g., broadcast division,
new media business unit, mobile access
group). Tese business units develop dispa-
rate and potentially duplicated infrastruc-
ture, application, and content repositories,
making it difcult to search, retrieve, and
repurpose content across the enterprise.
Tis also involves halting investments in
silo repositories, standardizing metadata to
enable enterprisewide content search, and
creating a common content governance
model.
Prioritize services to be offered for
quick wins. Te more a company enables
self-service to staf, partners, and customers,
the lower the cost of content exploitation.
Com panies should look at the most com-
mon queries from various stakeholders that
are the most costly to answer. One such que-
ry is Do we have the rights to distribute or
license this content? and more precisely to
distribute this content in a particular for-
mat, on a particular platform, during a par-
ticular date range, for a particular geographic
region? Tis may take the legal department
days or weeks to ascertain. Common rights
taxonomy is the key to extract contract
clauses and organize them into easily search-
able data structures.
Invest in the right architecture from
the beginning. A well-crafed content and
rights portfolio platform relies on a well-
architected integration solution, and SOA is
the necessary initial investment that will pay
of over the long term in its scalability, ex-
tensibility, and relative ease of maintenance.
Maintain a business process focus to
discover and refne business require-
ments. A clear and thorough defnition of
specifed workfow requirements allows selec-
tion of appropriate technologies, which can
then be easily integrated to support desired
processes while remaining fexible and scalable.
Understand media format requirements.
With the proliferation of distribution chan-
nels and devices, it is important to invest in
multi-platform IP-based interoperability
standards (such as Broadcast Exchange Format
(BXF) and Material Exchange Format (MXF)
and mezzanine format standards (such as the
mobile digital standard ATSC-M/H), which
may serve as a superset of standards for mobile
phones, personal computers, and televisions.
Companies need to constantly scan the market
for emerging standards and evaluate their base-
line storage format accordingly.
Establish one metadata model. A single
metadata model to which all stakeholders agree
is crucial to a successful implementation. If
content could possibly be reused in other pro-
ductions or in some other way repurposed
or resold it needs to be described in a lan-
guage that all relevant stakeholders can under-
stand. Its critical to get agreement that content
creators, suppliers, and editors will generate a
simple, baseline set of metadata.
Establish governance. File formats, delivery
channels, and content types are constantly
evolving, so an enterprise-level governance
model for digital assets is critical.
Obtain executive sponsorship. Active, vis-
ible, ongoing C-level involvement is even more
critical for initiatives such as ECPM. PwC has
consistently seen executive sponsorship among
the most important of all success factors and
cannot overstate its importance. In addition,
companies need to closely involve unions,
guilds, suppliers, and partners and obtain cus-
tomer feedback.
Media and entertainment companies must link together the
traditionally vertical business silos into an efcient, integrated
eco-environment for managing processes and information.
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F
or the past few years, the primary
watchword in our industry has
been digital. When the concept
frst took hold, we actually meant
digital as opposed to analog (e.g., digital Be-
tacam vs. Betacam SP). Tese days, however,
almost everything is digital. Digital tapes,
digital TV, digital transmission, etc. Now,
when someone refers to digital, it is actually a
reference to digital fles like on a computer.
Of course, this is a broad concept that can
encompass anything from a digital intermedi-
ate of a flm to a consumer deliverable such as
a QuickTime or Windows Media download.
This paradigm shift has not happened
overnight. It wasnt that long ago that we
had to encode or compress all of the digital
files we needed from a source tape, and it
was rather expensive and challenging to do
well. Now, what once took a quarter mil-
lion dollar (or more!) compression system
and a $60,000 VTR, can be accomplished
with a high-resolution/high-bit rate file and
Making the Case
for File-Based
Workfow
Why projects are in the works at all
studios to digitize their tape content.
By Adam Lesh, CTO, Testronic Labs
$2,500 (or less!) compression software.
Te diference now from a decade ago is
that when we needed a digital fle, we would
get a tape from the content owner, encode it
from the tape, and send it back. If we then
needed another fle of the same content in a
diferent format, wed get the tape back and,
for all intents and purposes, do it all over
again. Now, content owners are starting to go
to that tape, or better yet a flm asset, digitize
(as opposed to compress) it once, establish the
resultant extremely large, extremely high qual-
ity fle as the master, and use it to generate
all downstream deliverables, whether for digi-
tal cinema, Blu-ray disc, or consumer deliver-
able. Of course, sometimes there is a need for
an intermediate fle, but you get the idea.
We havent yet reached that shiny golden
future where all content can be accessed,
transferred, transcoded and/or delivered at
the touch of a button using an app on your
mobile device, but were rounding the cor-
ner. Huge projects are in the works at all the
Abstract: With an industry-wide drive
toward digital, le-based workows, QA/QC
now play an even greater role in safeguarding
your le-based assets as they move smoothly
through the digital supply chain.
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Adam Lesh is CTO, North America for Testronic Labs, which recently
announced the opening of its new file-based lab at MESAs inaugural
Burbank Think Tank event in June, 2011. The Testronic File-Based
Lab, located at their 1st St. facility in Burbank, CA, was built from the
ground up to support the efficient and effective QC of digital files.
Studios to digitize the enormous amount of
content currently on tape.
Why is the industry driving so hard toward
fle-based workfows? Tere are some chal-
lenges in transitioning from tape to fle but do
the benefts outweigh the costs? I believe they
do for one signifcant reasonwhich Ill get to
in a moment.
But frst, lets take a look at some of the
more obvious benefts:
File-Based Benefts
Access: Being fle-based ofers quick access
to content without the need for expensive
VTRs, monitors, etc. Using a high-speed
network, well-designed security, and, in some
cases, low-resolution versions, virtually any-
one, anywhere, at anytime, can quickly and
easily take a look at assets. Although an obvi-
ous beneft in-and-of itself, this also reduces
the risk of sending or using the wrong version
of an asset (e.g., for Blu-ray authoring), which
can be very costly in both money and time.
Sometimes the diference between versions is
not immediately apparent, but it is easier and
more efcient to verify the version with quick
and random access to a fle versus the linear
access a tape afords.
Distributed and Verifable Backup: Copies
of fles are easy to create and verify, and many
copies can be made and stored as storage prices
continue to decrease. As a physical medium,
tapes are more susceptible to minor glitches
and damage and they degrade over time. Yes,
of course, fles still exist on physical media, but
it is easy to mitigate the risk with redundant
storage, RAID, and multiple backups. Tese
days, digital (theres that word again) data is
extremely safe. However, lets say that all the
master copies under the control of the content
owner are damaged. Most likely, there are
copies in circulation that were used in later
post-production processes. I liken this to how
flm restorers sometimes have to search far
and wide for flm prints to piece together an
optimal version of an older flm. In the case of
fles, any copy of a digital fle is highly likely to
be a perfect copy of the original and therefore
can be used to replace a damaged or lost master
fle in its entirety.
Implementation of New Technology:
Arguably, new fle-based technologies ofer a
more wide ranging beneft and are less costly
to implement than tape-based technologies.
My friends in IT may disagree, vehemently,
but bear with me for a moment. Switching
to a new tape format requires purchase of
usually very expensive gear and that gear is
stuck wherever it is installed. While a new fle
format requires an expensive new transcoder
or other hardware device, ofen playback is ac-
complished with a plug-in to an existing media
player,; thus, that anywhere, anytime scenario
I described above is quickly implemented.
Note that I havent used the word easier
here. I am more than aware that I am oversim-
plifying and an IT efort to install a new codec
is not insignifcant, but I contend that the ben-
efts in fle-based are realized and penetrate the
workfow more quickly and widely.
Tape-Based Benefts
Transport: Lets face it, tape is easy to move.
If an asset needs to be somewhere its not, it
can be moved across town in, literally, a matter
of minutes. Not so with a 1.5TB fle. Even
with a 1Gbps pipe, it takes hours to move a
fle, then a checksum needs to be run to ensure
the fles integrity, and then, since the fle prob-
ably loads to an ingest computer, it needs to be
staged to a SAN or NAS for fnal processing.
Tat could easily be a half-day process, and it
can fail and have to be started all over again.
Compatibility Infrastructure: Files come
in many, many favors and most codecs are
proprietary and require a particular sofware
or plug-in for playback. Given some leadtime,
this is rarely an issue, but in an emergency it
can be a nightmare. With tape, its generally
easy to go out, rent the appropriate deck, slot
it into an existing infrastructure, and of you
go. DigiBetas and HDCams are a dime a
dozen, so to speak, in Los Angeles and other
major post-production locales, but Clipsters?
Not so much.
Compatibility Workow: Similarly, many
edit and other post-production systems only
work with certain codecs and are incompat-
ible with many others. Tis could literally
preclude a facility from getting work with a
content owner whose content is in an incom-
patible format. Again, tape is usually easy.
Baseband signal is baseband signal. Get the
right deck, hook it up to the existing infra-
structure and, again, of you go.
The Deciding Factor - Asset
Packaging
Looking back, I think Ive already made a
pretty good case for fle-based over tape, but,
at least in my humble opinion, there is a
kicker asset packaging.
A constant complaint in the post-pro-
duction world is the confusion of receiving a
plethora of related assets for a project, in many
difering formats, from a variety of sources,
The further upstream QC is applied the less
risk there is of rework cost downstream.
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Navigating the Information
Supply Chain
Abstract: The B2B e-commerce space has been
threatened by numerous disruptive technologies.
However, while many of them have failed to emerge,
at least three new areas of opportunity are promising
to create new efciencies in both the physical and
digital delivery of entertainment content: sales
reporting, electronic invoicing and product data
synchronization.
Te three fastest growing opportunities in todays information-driven supply chain.
By Steve Keifer, Vice President of Industry and Product Marketing, GXS
I
n the past ten years a number of disrup-
tive technologies have been introduced
to the information supply chain. New
B2B e-commerce technologies such as
e-marketplaces, global data synchronization;,
Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Re-
plenishment (CPFR); and Radio Frequency
Identifcation (RFID) promised to revolution-
ize the information supply chain with new
levels of efciency. Unfortunately, many of
the technologies have failed to reach market
expectations. Some have achieved a critical
mass of adoption, but over a much longer time
frame than originally anticipated.
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Steve Keifer is the Vice President of Industry and Product Marketing for
GXS, responsible for marketing and positioning the entire GXS product line
ranging fom EDI services for SMBs to B2B e-commerce outsourcing solutions
for enterprises. Steve maintains a popular blog entitled EDInomics (http://
blogs.gxs.com/keifers) in which he discusses news, trends and strategies for B2B
e-Commerce.
Nonetheless, B2B e-commerce continues
to play a critical role in the physical supply
chain for packaged home entertainment prod-
ucts as well as in the emerging digital supply
chain. For companies that are not monitoring
the latest standards, navigating the informa-
tion supply chain can be challenging. In this
article, we will explore the three fastest grow-
ing areas of opportunity, which are sales re-
porting, electronic invoicing and product data
synchronization.
Sales Reporting Physical
Supply Chain
In the physical supply chain, demand fore-
casting continues to be a challenge, particu-
larly for new title launches. With up to 80%
of a new CD, DVD or video game title selling
in the frst few weeks afer launch, suppliers
such as record labels, movie studios and game
publishers cannot aford to have out-of-
stocks.
As retailers shrink the foor space allo-
cated to the packaged home entertainment
merchandise category, eforts to maximize
revenue from physical product launches have
become even more important. In recent
years, the industry has successfully migrated
towards a demand-driven or pull-based re-
plenishment model. In some cases, the sup-
pliers are responsible for managing the physi-
cal inventory within the store using a VMI
model. Te key to successful demand-driven
replenishment models is the sharing of down-
stream data, principally from the retailers
Point of Sale (POS) system. Recent historical
sales data can be used to gauge the popular-
ity and current stock positions of individual
stores for each title.
Despite the importance of POS data there
has been relatively little focus on standard-
ization or simplifcation of the information
exchange process. Retailers send POS data
in a wide variety of diferent formats. An
EDI 852 standard does exist; however, many
chains simply send comma delimited fles
or XML transactions extracted from their
in-house applications. Tere is no consistent
mechanism for exchanging the POS fles.
Some retailers post the transactions to a por-
tal for download. Others send the fles over
the Internet using AS2 or FTP. Tere is no
standardization of the data felds exchanged
with POS fles. Suppliers can expect to re-
ceive the SKU and store location, but an ad-
ditional 10 to 1,000 attributes may be shared
depending upon the retailers POS applica-
tion. Retailers might also provide market bas-
ket data, loyalty card, consumer demograph-
ics, retail price and retail promotion.
Perhaps most problematic is the issue of
data quality. Te POS transactions sent by re-
tailers may be missing transactions related to
specifc stores or for specifc merchandise cat-
egories. In some cases, retailers or syndicated
data providers will cleanse POS information
before transmission. If not, then the raw data
must be fltered, cleansed and normalized
before analysis.
Sales Reporting - Digital
Supply Chain
Unlike in the physical supply chain, there
is no regular delivery of goods necessary in
the digital supply chain. Rights to stream or
sell digital products are negotiated between
a retailer and a supplier upfront. Once the
digital fles, the inventory, are transferred
to the retailer, millions of copies of the
product can then be sold without any further
replenishment activities.
Although, there is no need for replenish-
ment of digital products, there is still a need for
sales reporting. Record labels, movie studios
and video game publishers need to understand
customer demographics and usage patterns to
perform marketing campaigns and prioritize
new product eforts. To satisfy the reporting
needs of digital product suppliers, retailers and
online services providers such as B2C web
sites, mobile phone operators and streaming
video providers must provide digital sales
reports that identify product sales by SKU.
Many digital retailers share sales results
through e-mail, spreadsheets or online web re-
porting tools. A growing number of retailers
are introducing better approaches by aggre-
gating the data into a large XML or structured
fle. Te approach works fne until retailers
add or change the felds in the reports without
warning, thereby wreaking havoc on the sup-
pliers data processing scripts.
As the volume of digital sales explodes
and the number of channels proliferates,
more scalable and standardized reporting ap-
proaches will become necessary. Te music
industry has begun work on a set of standards
for the digital supply chain called the DDEX
or Digital Data Exchange. Modeling digital
sales reporting for music can be quite com-
plex. Consider the complications that must
be modeled with an XML schema. Music is
sold as an individual track or an album. Tese
tracks and albums can be ofered to the con-
sumer as a fle download with lifetime owner-
ship rights, as part of a monthly subscription
service with a fnite usage period, or as a free
streaming feed on an advertise-subsidized site.
Music can also be utilized as a ringtone or for
sing-along on a karaoke device. Te packaging
and licensing model for the music drive the
royalties owed to the record label and the mu-
sician. Consequently, all of these details must
be captured and reported on.
Electronic Invoicing
Te market for e-invoicing has been growing
at an impressive rate of 50% per year even
through the global recession of 2008 and
2009. Under pressure to reduce costs,
companies have explored e-invoicing as a
means of reducing back ofce inefciencies.
Another catalyst for adoption has been new
VAT regulations for e-invoicing introduced
in Latin America and the European Union.
Tese new laws are designed to guarantee the
authenticity, integrity and proper archival of
the documents.
Paper invoices cause a number of
inefficiencies to the Accounts Payable
(AP) organization as they must be sorted,
routed, opened and rekeyed into an
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M&EJOURNAL 58
AP system. The line item quantities,
product descriptions and per-unit pricing
on an invoice must be matched against
original contract terms, purchase orders
and warehouse receiving records prior to
payment. Perhaps, the most costly aspect
of invoice processing is the need to staff
call centers to respond to vendor inquiries
about payment status. E-invoicing fully
automates the invoice capture and matching
process, removing the unnecessary manual
labor and potential for error. Additionally,
these applications include a portal, which
provides suppliers with self-service access to
payment status.
Industry studies have confrmed that
switching from a paper to electronic invoice
process can yield savings of 60-80% with a
payback period of 0.5 to 1.5 years. Additional
benefts can be gained by launching spend
management or supply chain fnance
programs on top of e-invoicing initiatives.
Spend management programs can
identify sources of fraud, waste and abuse by
aggregating data from purchasing, contracts
and AP systems that can be analyzed to
identify instances of maverick, of-contract
buying. Spend analysis can also identify
opportunities to consolidate spend with a
single supplier.
Electronic invoices enable faster process-
ing and approval cycles. Suppliers are ofen
willing to exchange a discount of 1-2% of the
total charges in exchange for an earlier pay-
ment. Numerous diferent models for invoice
discounting and supply chain fnance have
been introduced on top of e-invoicing pro-
grams to create opportunities for improved
working capital.
Of course, in the digital supply chain the
concept of invoicing changes radically. Sup-
pliers of digital products are dependent upon
the retailers and service providers to deliver
the digital sales reports, which form the basis
of an invoice. Te sales transactions are used
with pricing data to generate an invoice.
Product and Price Data
Digital Supply Chain
One of the key challenges with both invoicing
and digital sales reporting is the lack of a
universal product identifer for digital media.
Te challenge is particularly problematic
in the movie and television segment due to
the rapid proliferation of SKUs. Much as
with physical DVDs, each digital title might
have both a standard defnition and a high
defnition format as well as multiple dubbed
language versions for international use. In
the digital world there are additional versions
of each title that are created to support
various screen sizes and network connections
ranging from 60-inch HDTVs to 4G mobile
devices.
Managing the explosion in SKUs is chal-
lenging due to the lack of a universal media
identifer. In the physical supply chain
the Global Trade Identifcation Number
(GTIN) is used to uniquely identify all
SKUs. However, in the case of digital mov-
ies there is no consistent way to identify a
particular digital SKU. Tere have been nu-
merous eforts initiated to standardize identi-
fers; however, most have been limited to the
ecosystem of a particular studio.
Without a universal media identifer, the
movies title is generally used to diferentiate
between packages. However, the use of the
title introduces numerous challenges. For
example, some movie studios and retailers
may depend upon legacy applications which
have restrictions on how many characters can
be used to represent a title. Consequently, a
title may be truncated, rendering its identity
unknown. Movie studios may receive a report
that 200 users downloaded Te Chronicles
of In other cases, the titles may not be as
descriptive as necessary to identify the exact
flm. If the title Te Karate Kid is received
does that refer to the 1984 or 2010 version of
the flm?
Te industry has collaborated in recent
months to introduce the Entertainment
Identifer Registry (EIDR), which will
uniquely identify the complete range of au-
diovisual assets, including feature flms and
TV shows. Each object modeled in EIDR
will have metadata associated with it such as
a list of related assets such as edits, language
version, clips and trailers. Te use of a uni-
versal media ID such as EIDR will lower
the risk of misidentifcation of assets. It will
enable more granular and accurate reporting
on consumption metrics and rights tracking.
Overall, the benefts will be signifcant ef-
ciencies in the digital supply chain.
Product and Price Data
Physical Supply Chain
Management of product data remains
important in the physical supply chain as
well. Bad product data is a key source of
invoice inaccuracies. Studies have found that
60% of all invoices in the retail supply chain
have data errors and 43% have deductions.
Te most common errors relate to the pricing
of individual SKUs. Out-of-date product
information can result in order fulfllment
errors as well if discontinued SKUs are
requested by retailers.
In the past few years, the GS1 standards
organizations around the world have cham-
pioned the development of the Global Data
Synchronization Network. In the US, data
synchronization has been led by 1SYNC,
GS1s US member organization. Te GDSN
model has been widely adopted within the
fast moving consumer goods and home
improvement sectors. Retailers such as Car-
refour, Tesco, Metro, WalMart, Target,
Costco and Best Buy have standardized on
the GDSN model.
Although the original vision for data syn-
chronization was focused on products being
sold through brick and mortar stores, the
technology also adds signifcant benefts to
online sales of physical products. Tradition-
al B2C e-commerce web sites selling CDs,
DVDs and video games must obtain details
about the product to use for online sales.
For a DVD, the item attribute data might
include lead actors, director, rating, format,
language, subtitles, regions, aspect ratios,
studio, release data, run time and packaging
dimensions. Additionally, the retailer must
know the content of the special features
disc; options for digital copy; images of the
DVD packaging. Sites such as Amazon.com,
which ofer pre-order options, must obtain
the new SKU information well in advance of
the actual product launch. n
As the volume of digital sales explodes and the number of
channels proliferates, more scalable and standardized reporting
approaches will become necessary.
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M&EJOURNAL 60
Paul Lavery is director of solutions enablement at Axway and brings 18 years of
marketing, product management and professional services implementation experience
with a focus on sofware technologies. Paul has also given time back to the industry
as an industry development director responsible for association and standards
participations and deliverables. Paul worked closely with the following industry
groups: GS1, GMA, NRF, EPCglobal, AASA, MESA, AAFA, Oasis, and CSCMP.
munications.
When it comes to assets and creative
products like movies, TV programs and
songs, the traditional supply-and-distri-
bution channel model is being flipped on
its head. Non-traditional assets and cre-
ative products are now being distributed
T
here comes a time when key players
in an industry must make difficult
decisions and take bold, innovative
steps to protect the collective fu-
ture of their business operations.
For key players in the entertainment in-
dustry, that time has arrived.
More than any other industry, the enter-
tainment industry has experienced dramatic
changes in recent years, both to their busi-
ness model and to their actual end product,
thanks to the build-out and evolution of the
Internet and, to a larger degree, the publics
enthusiastic embrace of digital personal com-
How Interaction Networks Will Defne
the Digital Entertainment Revolution
How to manage and secure an asset across the value chain without losing control of its
ownership. By Paul Lavery, Director of Solutions Enablement, Supply Chain, Axway
Abstract: Entertainment Interaction Networks act as a platform for tracking, storing
and securing asset-specic information, and for authenticating the audience so that
the asset owner knows they have the rights and privileges to see and/or hear the
relevant asset.
in unlimited, non-traditional ways. As a
result, there are many points across the
value chain at which an asset owner can
lose control of ownership. Complicating
this shift is a civil war being waged between
Southern California and Northern Cali-
fornia, i.e., Hollywood and Silicon Valley:
two heavyweight industry regions that have
very different mindsets about the future
of entertainment, media and digital asset
distribution.
Hollywood has enjoyed a very long
and profitable entertainment business
founded on more traditional and predict-
able distribution patterns. Today, though,
a consumer not only has the ability to see
an asset like a movie in a theater, via a cable
box, or rented through the mail, but to
have that asset delivered directly to their
phone or laptop.
This shift has brought a new question
to the forefront: How do you manage and
secure an asset when you optimize for its
core value in the marketplace?
When you have a marketplace that is
turbulent and diffuse, it makes setting a
solid financial forecast on new and exist-
ing entertainment assets a real challenge. A
variable set of technology and distribution
points, combined with a set of partially de-
fined and co-managed gate points to collect
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Continued on pg 80
M&EJOURNAL 62
online channels will drive revenue, with 2009-
2014 Compound Annual Growth Rate fore-
casts at 16 percent and 24 percent. Now is
the time to capitalize on the growing demand
for digital content to foster new revenue
streams. But where did this trend start?
From June 1999 to July 2001, Napster
ruled the file sharing space on the Internet.
The site enabled consumers to share software,
music and video files for free - illegally. Nap-
ster shut down in 2001, after several lawsuits
from artists and complaints from the Record-
ing Industry Association of America that
content was released without permission and
compensation.
The Napster case began the battle to
monetize digital content. Currently, leaders
in this battle are in the movie, gaming and
software industries. They are all being forced
to digitize content and to find new, attractive
ways to charge that dont deter customers
from buying the product. Furthermore,
digital content providers are also figuring out
how to sell products to younger demograph-
ics that are on-the-go and even more familiar
with ways to avoid the freemium model.
Digitizing Hollywood for Your
Living Room
Since the 1900s, Hollywood studios have
produced thousands of movies. With to-
days digital technologies, movie studios are
looking for ways to expand beyond DVDs
to deliver movies in new, personalized ways
to consumers. The plan is to create a new
golden age of consumption a golden age of
digital movies.
Hollywood studio Lionsgate is currently
digitizing and monetizing its content. In Feb-
ruary 2011, alongside StudioCanal, the Com-
pany announced it would distribute more than
550 titles from the Miramax library on DVD,
Blu-ray, on-demand and online. While popu-
lar titles like Pulp Fiction are in the vault,
Lionsgate faces the challenge of taking content
that many consumers already own, reformat-
ting it and trying to resell. In the endeavor to
resell content, Lionsgates biggest enemy isnt
another studio, its movie pirates.
Ironically, most piracy isnt based in Ameri-
ca its coming from the former Soviet Union
and China. In 2010, Chinas pirated DVD
industry made $6 billion. But what steps can
Automating the Digital
Entertainment Supply Chain
Entitlement solutions not only protect content but also help you sell more content.
By Glenn Grube, Global Director, e-Business Sales & Marketing,
ModusLink Global Solutions
Abstract: Companies looking to monetize digital content also need to rely on
entitlement management solutions to act as digital content gatekeepers, controlling
access to content, features and services and acting as a relationship builder,
providing visibility into customer data to determine interests.
C
onsumption of content is rapidly
transitioning into the digital
realm. Through e-books, mov-
ies and video games, publishers
are looking for ways to profit from digitizing
content and services. The migration from
physical media to digital enables companies
to identify and generate new revenue streams
a trend called monetizing digital content.
This has spawned an on-demand attitude in
consumers, who expect fast, easy access to
news, video, music, games and more.
According to Futuresource, the rise of
digital content delivery through mobile and
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M&EJOURNAL 63
With thirty plus years of experience in the computing and storage
industry, Glenn provides subject matter expertise to clients of ModusLink
in ecommerce, digital and physical product fulfllment. Tese services assist
a client with efciently and efectively moving product to and fom market
and conducting business online, specifcally selling, authorization and
delivery of digital content. His current ModusLink role includes sales and
marketing leadership for the e- Business Global Operations organization.
Digital downloads arent necessarily easy on the
backend and there are many issues the industry needs
to consider when transitioning.
studios take to protect against piracy?
According to the LA Times, Hollywood
studios are licensing deals with Chinese video
portals to stream content to help prevent
piracy. It costs about five yuan, or 75 cents,
to watch a single movie. While this model is
successful in the U.S. with Netflix and Hulu,
its yet to be seen if this will work in China.
Revamping Gaming to
Increase Revenue
The video game industry had its share of chal-
lenges during the recession, but its poised for
growth. While game discs will continue to
remain important for business, the industrys
expanding into new revenue channels includ-
ing digital game distribution. If things go as
planned, the worldwide video game industry
will reach $70.1 billion by 2015, according to
DFC Intelligence.
In March 2011, physical discs made up
the majority of game sales. Still, digital con-
tent is expected to account for 40 percent
of revenue in a few years, Take-Two CEO
Strauss Zelnick told Bloomberg. Leading
video game retailers are beginning to put
their efforts behind digital game delivery for
future success.
GameStop expects digital revenue to rise
50 percent over the next four years, reaching
$1.5 billion in 2014. With recent acquisi-
tions of streaming company Spawn Labs and
game download company Impulse, Game-
Stop is making serious investments to boost
digital gaming endeavors. To give consum-
ers more personal control over their games,
GameStop will offer a subscription service
where, for every physical game you buy, youll
also get access to the streaming version.
Many retailers will likely try to duplicate
GameStops initiatives to give consumers
personalized, on-demand access to content to
entice them to spend money.
The Software Industry: From
Disc to Digital
While software vendors have traditionally
used discs to distribute the latest version of
products, they are now looking to deliver new
content digitally. Rather than purchasing prod-
ucts in-store, consumers and businesses can
buy codes to access a digital download of the
software no disc required. But for an industry
thats been successful at selling discs, why go
digital?
Diversification of revenue is a motivator to
digitize traditional discs. Companies are real-
izing that not only will they miss out on a new
way to deliver content to consumers, they will
also be able to save money on labor, materials
and packaging.
Apple has already had success delivering digi-
tal software to consumers. When one logs into
iTunes it automatically checks for updates and
prompts the user to download the latest version
of the software for their device.
Traditional software discs cant do that. Its
an enhanced user experience that can only be
brought to consumers via digital downloads.
Digital downloads arent necessarily easy
on the back end and there are many issues the
industry needs to consider when transitioning.
For example, locking content continues to be
a headache. Savvy companies perform valida-
tion to make sure the end-user accessing the
software is who they say they are. If you have
illegal access, service termination is inevitable
to a degree.
Another challenge is making sure the right
version of the software is delivered to the right
device. From smartphones to iPads, there are
hundreds of variants of operating systems for
devices and the software is unique to each. All
companies looking for ways to monetize digital
content need to make sure digital products are
compatible with the device its being delivered to.
What Does the Future Hold
for Digital Content?
Monetizing digital content is an increasingly
important part of most companies business
models. But delivering the content securely
and controlling access to content continues
to be a challenge.
More companies are using cloud-based
platforms to deliver content to customers
and to host digital libraries, which are ac-
cessible on-demand, but require the pur-
chase of content or a subscription. Librar-
ies allow publishers and content creators
to ensure that an individual is registered
and has paid for the content. They also
provide control over how and when that
content is viewed.
Amazon provides a similar subscription
model, where you buy content and it can be
read on a number of devices. With this sub-
scription model in place, consumers can be-
come subscribers to any type of content. In
the case of Lionsgate, a library of movies can
get to market via a subscription or purchase
model, and then be digitally delivered.
Companies looking to monetize digital
content also need to rely on entitlement
management solutions to act as digital con-
tent gatekeepers. These solutions control
access to content, features and services, and
act as a relationship builder, providing vis-
ibility into customer data to determine inter-
ests. Entitlement solutions not only protect
content, but also help sell more content.
Businesses will need to rely on solutions that
enable content to be easily delivered to the
consumer.
However, make sure to ask: How will you
protect your digital content? n
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M&EJOURNAL 64
Despite all the buzz about digital, many
market commentators are of the opinion that
the traditional market of boxed products will
remain an important distribution channel in
the mid-term because:
Te leading publishers are unwilling to
proactively move away from the retail distri-
bution channel as the business model is well
understood, works well and traditionally gen-
erates high margins.
Not all consumers have access to broadband.
Te penetration rate (broadband take up per
population) in the US and UK for example
stands at around 30% whereas on a worldwide
basis it stands below 10%. For some consum-
ers wishing to move to broadband, high-speed
Internet is as of yet unavailable in their re-
gions/areas of the world.
Increasingly sophisticated video games re-
quire lengthy download times, even at current
broadband speeds.
Many consumers do not own a credit or deb-
it card needed to access digital products, while
the alternative code-based payment systems,
which enable customers to purchase pre-paid
cash cards in store, are not yet widespread nor
standard.
Unlike the well established and tested busi-
ness model for packaged products, a clear prof-
itable model for digital distribution is as of
yet unclear. In 2008, the then CEO of NBC
Universal, Jef Zucker, famously said that the
migration of entertainment to internet was
akin to trading analog dollars for digital pen-
T
he home entertainment sector has ex-
perienced fat growth across segments
in recent years driven by emerging
new technologies, business models
and consumer behavior patterns. With recent
technological advancements, much of the indus-
trys growth going forward will likely come from
the digital segment. However, while there is
little doubt that one day in the future all home
entertainment products will be digital, Internet-
based or downloadable, it will not be the case for
many more years to come.
With recent technological advancements,
much of the industrys growth going forward
will likely come from the digital segment.
However, while there is little doubt that one
day in the future all home entertainment
products will be digital, Internet-based or
downloadable, it will not be the case for many
more years to come.
Abstract: The author presents a
case for why traditional boxed products
will remain an important distribution
channel in the video game industry in
the mid-term; as a result, executives
need to focus their attention on rapidly
dening a viable digital business model
as well as reducing xed costs and
increasing efciencies in the boxed
products supply chain.
Build Your Own Collaborative B2B
Communications Network
Video game companies in Europe have found a collaborative
approach to maintaining margins and facilitating the transition fom
physical to digital distribution. By Gilles Collet, General Manager, B2Boost
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WHEN ITS YOUR JOB
TO MAKE IDEAS GREAT
ITS OUR JOB TO MAKE
THEM PROFITABLE
At North Highland consulting, we have over 19 years experience in improving efficiency,
reducing costs and generating revenue for our clients in the Media & Entertainment
industry. By looking out for your business interests, we honor the skills and talent it
takes to create, produce, and distribute digital and physical content.
To properly align strategy and execution with business goals, turn to the
consultancy with a global M&E capability that has 49 offices around the world.
North Highland. Turning creativity into profit.
North Highland In the Community The North Highland Company @NHighlandGLOBAL
M&EJOURNAL 66
Prior to joining B2Boost in 2007, Gilles Collet was a Senior Manager at
Deloitte Consulting where he spent 9 years managing large B2B projects
and accounts within the Financial Services Industry. Gilles started as
B2Boosts e-Invoicing director and is now the companys General Manager.
nies. Persistant concerns among entertainment
bosses about the revenue implications of the
onset of digital will contribute towards the
slowing down of the transition from physical
to digital.
During the current transition period when
packaged products remain responsible for the
lion share of revenues, executives need to focus
their attention on rapidly defning a viable
future digital business model as well as reduc-
ing fxed costs and increasing efciency of the
boxed products supply chain. By so doing, the
industry will maintain proftability and ensure
the perenity of the industry in spite of the
onset of digital.
It was in such a context that B2Boost
originally developed a fully secure, easy to
implement web-based platform used to facili-
tate communication between the diferent
industry stakeholders to optimize their supply
chain. Tis hub acts as a universal translator,
enabling stakeholders, regardless of their IT
strategy and capabilities, to communicate data
and documents electronically, thus connecting
the dots of the supply chain end-to-end.
Systems such as this have been especially
efective in the challenging European market,
characterized by its extreme diversity (large
number of countries, legislations, languages,
mentalities, currencies, VAT rates).
As an example, in Europe, unlike the US,
there is not one single retail chain present in
each and every country, with 80% of the retail
market accounted for by as many as 150 chains.
In addition, consumer profles vary consider-
ably across Europe and highly popular titles
in one country might be barely noticeable in
others. For instance, National Hockey League
(NHL) licensed games top the Scandinavian
charts but are not even sold in most Spanish
stores.
Te only way to realistically manage the
complexity of the European market was to
begin transmitting messages and data via Elec-
tronic Data Interchange (EDI) , which elimi-
nates the need for handling paper documents,
fosters greater accuracy, speed, and cost savings
for organizations that use it.
However, unlike the US, in Europe it is
ofen too onerous to set up tailor-made EDI
solutions with each trading partner. It would
be difcult and cost inefective for a publisher
to approach individually 150+ business part-
ners and implement specifc EDI connecting
solutions with each of them to exchange
business data such as catalogue fles, pricing
information, orders, inventory reports, sales
reports, shipping advices, invoices, payment
data, etc. In addition to being costly, no com-
pany, whatever its size, would logically provide
the practical organization to support a tech-
nical relationship with partners speaking so
many diferent languages spread across a large
number of countries. As a result of this, there
is currently limited evidence of suppliers hav-
ing managed to achieve good leverage on the
potential 150+ EDI-enabled partner accounts
in every country.
B2Boost has already confgured and oper-
ated an electronic connection with virtually
every retailer or distributor active in the enter-
tainment industry in Europe. Tis network of
connections with 150+ partners is continu-
ously enriched with new types of messages
covering the entire spectrum of data exchanges
required in the supply chain. A multi-lingual
team maintains the personal relationship with
each and every trading partner and provides
support to all technical counterparts in the
retailers organizations.
Trough a single connection to the hub, a
new partner can immediately access virtually
every single EDI-ready retailer in Europe at an
afordable rate. All technical connections are
already established with each of these retailers.
Exchanged fles are converted to a single ca-
nonical format, which is re-converted into the
format desired by the recipient. As a result of
this, as soon as a new publisher has agreed to ex-
change data in electronic format with a trading
partner, the system is confgured and becomes
operational within days.
Te electronic integration with both EDI
and non-EDI capable trading partners can
be combined with other value-added services,
which include Business Intelligence, Reporting,
Inventory Management, e-Commerce Plat-
forms and e-Invoicing Services. Jointly these
services address all the important touch points
of the entertainment supply chain.
In conclusion, a single hub solution provides
the following advantages:
1. One easily confgured, single connection
provides access to inbound and outbound ex-
changes.
2. A fully scalable solution respecting strict
SLAs.
3. Full technical support provided to retailers.
On boarding assistance available if required.
4. Services remove need for costly country-
specifc sales administration teams.
5. Provides instant access to value-added ser-
vices.
6. Eliminates business sensitivity to peaks and
troughs in transaction volumes.
7. Error-free speedy data exchanges with retail-
ers; Improved partner satisfaction; And better
operating supply chain.
8. Enhanced understanding of market behav-
ior, quicker and more accurate analysis, on-time
reaction. Less returns, less out-of-stocks sce-
narios and higher sales volumes.
9. High reduction of working capital require-
ments through legal dematerialized invoicing.
Faster processing and resulting faster payment.
10. Access to a team of entertainment indus-
try supply chain specialists who will help you
immediately reduce costs and maximize your
supply chain efciencies during the transition
period from physical to digital. n
1
Te exchange of business documents between two computers at two companies in a standardized format.
Through a single connection to the hub, a new partner
can immediately access virtually every single EDI-ready
retailer in Europe at an affordable rate.
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rule-based knowledge management systems,
clustering, classifcation trees, expert systems,
and decision trees. Note that most of these
scientifc tools were developed decades ago
by some of the best mathematical minds of
diferent types. But only recently, thanks to
cost-efective IT, the business world has be-
gun to full-heartedly embrace them.
Te return of analytics has a twist its
operational or near-real-time. In the past,
analytic tools (e.g., an expertise system) were
mostly used by scientists and engineers of-
fine in a technical function. For example,
the expert system MYCIN was used to train
doctors on blood-related diseases, Digitals
XCON to validate the confguration of
a mainframe computer system (e.g., right
cables and power supply), and Campbell
Soups Artifcial Intelligence system to detect
any bacterial problem in the process of cook-
A
nalytics is back. Many leading
frms in various sectors are using
analytic systems in the main
line of business. By analytics we
mean the three-step process of data collection,
analysis, and presentation. Data collection and
presentation include collecting data from mul-
tiple sources, cleansing the data, aggregating
them, storing in consistent and efcient forms
and presenting in user-friendly manners by
employing tools like database management
systems (DBMS), data warehouse, and on-line
analytic processing (OLAP). Analysis employs
various scientifc tools developed in mathemat-
ics, statistics, computer science and operations
research. Examples include: mathematical
optimization (e.g., linear, nonlinear, integer
or mixed programming), regression analysis,
analysis of variance, hypothesis testing, simu-
lations, heuristic algorithm, neural network,
ing food. Tese days, however, similar ana-
lytic tools are employed by managers in main
business functions (e.g., marketing, selling
and distribution) on a real-time basis. A sup-
ply chain manager at a manufacturing frm,
for example, checks the sales performance
of diferent products at stores, as well as the
inventories at its entire supply chain includ-
ing the suppliers factory in China, the ships
in transit, the customs clearing ofce and
its distribution center. Te analytic system
takes these data as input and runs simula-
tions and optimization to determine which
items to re-order and what shipment to di-
vert. In other words, analytics has been op-
erationalized, in pursuit of better informed
decisions and more timely actions.
Tis article investigates how analytics is
operationally applied in managing a supply
chain. In the next section we report some of
the best practices of operational analytics in
diferent functions in diferent industries.
Examples of business functions include: cus-
tomer acquisition, customer service, order
fulfllment, product portfolio management,
revenue management and exceptions detec-
tion. Te majority of the examples are di-
rectly quoted or reproduced from six existing
case studies: Capital One, Harrahs, Seven
Eleven Japan (SEJ), Marui Department and
Continental Airline. To focus on the topic at
hands, we extract only the relevant portion
of the cases and suppress other details, and
refer the readers to the original cases. Finally,
we discuss general lessons from the case stud-
ies and conclude the article.
Case Studies
Tis article provides an overview of the status
of operational analytics through a series of
case studies. Operational analytics is a timely
combination of analytic power and real-time
operations, which are both unleashed by the
power of IT. Te combination is a power-
Abstract: This article investigates how analytics is operationally applied
in managing a supply chain. In the net section, we report some of the best
practices of operational analytics in different functions in different industries.
Analytics is Back!
Everything you need to know about operational analytics.
By Seungjin Whang, Jagdeep and Roshni Singh Professor of Operations,
Information and Technology, Stanford Business School
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M&EJOURNAL 70
ful one, as a modern company strives to gain
a competitive edge by becoming a real-time
enterprise where a marketing campaign takes
place while the customer is visiting the store,
demand is shaped in accordance with the
supply condition, and customer demand is
detected before the product exists. But faster
decision-making without the support of ana-
lytics may be meaningless or even dangerous.
According to Dr. Vivek Ranadive, Chairman
and CEO of TIBCO, the key benefts of real-
time data are two-fold: the power of acting
now, and the power to predict the future. An-
alytics supports real-time operations in both
ways acting now and predicting the future.
It did not only help Harrahs and Continental
to serve their customers faster and better, but
also helped SEJ and Capital One to identify
potential demands and develop the right
product for the right customer segment.
Another key contributor to the recent de-
velopment of operational analytics is the host
of sofware vendors. Tere is a well-developed
yet fast-growing market for analytics products.
One can summarize the entire market in three
layers database, data warehouse and intelli-
gence. Te frst (or bottom) layer is the market
of database management systems (DBMS)
dominated by Oracle, IBM, Microsof and
Sybase. Te user company will fll the database
with diferent sources of data such as point-
of-sale (POS) data and customer demographic
data. Te next layer is the data warehouse mar-
ket. Te data warehouse integrates multiple
databases into a single logical mega-database.
Te objective of the data warehouse is to pre-
pare it for analysis. IBM, Oracle and Teradata
are the key players in the data warehouse
business. On top of the data warehouse are
application sofware vendors, ofen called BI
(Business Intelligence), like SAS, SPSS, Mi-
croStrategy, Oracle-Hyperion, and IBM-Cog-
nos. Although we aggregate these vendors into
the same layer, there is a substantial diference
among them. SAS and SPSS (as well as IBM-
iLog, Information Builders, Matlab and
Wolfram) ofer analytic tools and methods
of data mining (e.g., regression analysis, or
neural network), while the others are more
domain-specifc (e.g., customer analysis, or
sales and distribution analysis) ofen using
the tools of the former. Also, users ofen
use both types of products (e.g., IBM-iLog
and IBM-Cognos). In addition, most opera-
tional analytic systems require connections
to other internal systems, especially to ERP
(Enterprise Resource Planning) such as SAP,
Oracle and JDA. Tis need is ofen accom-
modated by EAI (Enterprise Applications
Interface) products from, for example, IBM,
TIBCO and Sofware AG.
Before we conclude, several remarks are
in order. First, most of the early adopters
initially started small sometimes with Mi-
crosof Access/Excel, SPSS Clementine or
CART by a small group of people. Ten, as
they felt more confdent, they increased in
scale and scope over time. Tus, we are too
small is a poor excuse for not trying opera-
tional analytics. Second, not every project
was successful right at the beginning, but
patience and diligence paid of in the long
run. Capital One worked for years building
a private database, testing diferent strate-
gies and failing in most of them, before they
hit upon a successful program. At the same
time, we should admit that there may have
been numerous attempts of operational ana-
lytics that never came to fruition. Episodes
of failure usually stay inside an organization
and are not reported to outsiders. Hence, it
is hard to develop a balanced perspective on
the success rate of operational analytics. Tis
observation should also serve as a reminder
that this article is biased towards the success
side. Our objective is simple and modest: to
report operational analytics as a new trend.
A critical review of the practice is in demand
for future research.
Tird, just as the frst failure was not a sign
of permanent failure, the present success may
not be a sustainable one unless accompanied
by continued research and development. Ac-
cording to Cheng and Saloner (2005), Rich
Fairbank, Chairman and CEO of Capital
One, did not want to rest on his laurels
while other fnancial companies continued
to imitate Capital Ones successes. None-
theless, there seems a signifcant frst-mover
advantage over the data, techniques, organi-
zational ft, and especially, people. Te success
as well as its sustainability boils down to the
people factor. Proper recruiting, training and
empowerment are the key drivers of success.
Harrahs recruited key members from difer-
ent industries (e.g., airline and credit cards)
and provided proper incentives and orga-
nizational support to make things happen.
Good people and a good IT infrastructure
complement each other in the development
of in-house expertise. Good people can create
a roadmap to the right confguration of the
IT infrastructure and make sound resource/
Seungjin Whang is the Jagdeep and Roshni Singh Professor of Operations,
Information and Technology, Stanford Business School. He obtained a bachelor of
engineering at Seoul National University, Korea (1974), master of arts (1983),
master of science (1985), and PhD (1988), at the University of Rochester. He has
been on the faculty of the Stanford Business School since 1987. His research interests
include supply chain management and economics of information technology. He has
published widely in academic journals including Management Science, Operations
Research, and Information Systems Research (ISR).
The key benets of real-time data are
two-fold: the power of acting now, and the power
to predict the future.
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Continued on pg 80
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M&EJOURNAL 72
tions every client expects their vendors to have
the answers to at the click of a button.
Te evolution of management systems at
AGI are one indication of how systems must
continue to adapt to address changing times:
Alas OLAS
Back in 2002, AGI built the frst prototype
of a project management tool geared to
support packaging initiatives for the home
With over 22 years of experience in the consumer product and media business, the
author of this piece has spent his entire career leading innovation in various parts of
the supply chain on both the client and supply end. John began his career at LOreal
in Europe followed by stints with the Time Warner Company in its music and home
entertainment divisions in the UK. Joining AGI in 2004, John has managed the
North America Creative Services and Production teams, Strategic Global Sales and
is currently Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, AGI North America.
W
hether its news updates, con-
cert tickets, or Black Friday
sales starting online at 10:00
am sharp, weve all had the
experience of sitting in front of our computers
and clicking the refresh button over and over
until we see the information we want appear
before our very eyes
In this day of instant status updates, geo-
targeting and real-time data tracking, weve
become information junkies. We have to have
it; we cant get enough; we need instant gratif-
cation; and were willing to pay for it.
In order to keep up with this trend, busi-
nesses must follow suit in order to keep their
clients happy. Wheres my job? Is it on time? Is
it on brand? Did you get that last change? How
does that efect the pricing? Tese are all ques-
BYDESIGN
Connecting the Dots:
Collaboration and Connectivity
in Media & Entertainment
How automated project management tools are changing the way our
industry is collaborating to create new efcient workfows and processes.
By John Barker, Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing, AGI North America
entertainment industry. OLAS (pronounced
oh-las) stands for On-line Artworking
System. It was the frst tool of its kind that
took metadata such as studio, client, title,
element and due dates and tied it to a specifc
piece of artwork. It eliminated the need for
hard proofs, shipping costs and that pesky
red marker. More importantly, it provided an
online interface to interact with our clients in
real-time and from any geographical location,
provided there was Internet.
As the years passed and technology ad-
vanced light-years beyond our expectations,
our needs along with our clients grew expo-
nentially. Accountability and the ability to
Abstract: An end-to-end document solution is introduced to provide
complete and global control over the entire asset life cycle. Process automation
is the key to delivering better customer service, delivering higher volumes of
work on shorter deadlines and remaining competitive in todays accelerating,
international entertainment marketplace.
Continued on pg 82
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advantage. Te CIOs role is much more criti-
cal to the success of the enterprise than his/
her historical forebear, in part because of the
pervasiveness of information technology in all
aspects of the modern corporation.
Another dramatic shif in the basis of
economic growth has also impacted the IT
function. During the industrial economy, the
source of wealth was the means of production,
and over time, the manufacturing group within
companies became known as the operating
T
here have been dramatic changes
over the 50+year history of informa-
tion technology in the enterprise.
Te responsibilities of the former
head of data processing, relegated to automating
manual operations, have morphed into those of
the current Chief Information Ofcer (CIO).
Tis person is still expected to automate opera-
tions and drive down costs, but is also expected
to make signifcant contributions to accomplish-
ing strategic objectives and creating competitive
Abstract: The author provides the ndings of a study of nearly 600 IT
practitioners who have attended the Information Technology Leadership
Program at Santa Clara University. The study answers the following questions:
Why have so few CIOs become CEOs of high-tech companies? Why do so
many IT executives demonstrate senior leadership deciencies?
group. With the shif to the information
economy beginning in the 1950s, the new
source of wealth has become information and
knowledge. Is it not possible, therefore, to
argue that IT will become the new operating
group within companies? If this were to hap-
pen, the CIO would, by default, be assigned
the most prominent role among the other
senior executives of the company. Is our cadre
of senior IT executives ready, however, to step
into this exalted role? Te following are some
indications that, at least for the time being,
they are not:
Very few CIOs make it to the CEO position.
We know of only a handful that have, and
many of those have become CEOs of high-
tech companies.
CIOs in most companies are not viewed as
a peer by the other senior executives in the
company. Studies, such as the CEO study
we conducted earlier, consistently highlight
the senior leadership defciencies of the IT
executive.
In order to stem this tide with the next
generation of IT leaders, in 1998 we intro-
duced the Information Technology Leader-
ship Program (ITLP) at Santa Clara Univer-
sity. During these past eleven years, nearly 600
IT practitioners have attended this program
and given us the unique opportunity to make
an extensive assessment of the senior admin-
istrative capabilities of a large group of IT
professionals. In this paper, we briefy report
on our fndings.
The Design of ITLP
Our analysis of existing executive develop-
ment programs led us to a decision to develop
the Information Technology Leadership
Program. Our design called for ITLP being
a three day program centered on the non-
technical skills that CEOs had told us they
wanted to see in their senior IT executive.
Although the content of each of the areas has
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Lessons in IT Leadership
Why do very few CIOs make it to the CEO position? By Peter S. DeLisi,
President, Informational Technology Leadership Program, Santa Clara University
HOLLYWOODIT
M&EJOURNAL 76
Pete DeLisi is the Academic Dean of the Information Technology Leadership
Program at Santa Clara University and the President of Organizational
Synergies. Pete has over 20 years of practical, hands-on experience in marketing,
business strategy and organizational behavior. Some of his clients have included
Hughes Aircraf, Intel, Microsof, United Airlines, Wells Fargo Bank, and
Johnson & Johnson. Prior to his current position, Pete spent 16 years at Digital
Equipment Corporation and 11 years with IBM in a variety of senior sales and
marketing capacities.
evolved over time, a consistent set of modules
has formed the core subjects of ITLP:
Leadership
Being Strategic
Executive Tinking
Tinking Styles
Leading Technological Change
IT as a Consulting Organization
Infuence Skills
Developing Successful Relationships
Efective Communications
A unique aspect of ITLP is its systems design.
Our experience is that many educational pro-
grams present a series of unconnected dots,
rendering retention of the material almost
impossible. Te systems integrity of ITLP is
attained through the mechanism of a three part
case study/role play that is used not only to
impart executive skills, but also to tie together
the individual pieces of the curriculum. In the
case study, students see how the content ele-
ments of the program relate to one another and
how those elements must come together for the
students to be successful both with the case and
in their careers. As we discuss later in the paper,
some of our most fascinating observations come
directly out of this case study environment.
What We Have Learned
A careful assessment of eleven years of experi-
ence with ITLP has led us to two general
conclusions. First, the most important focus
for developing IT professionals should be on
helping them acquire senior executive-level
skills. While we originally used the term lead-
ership as a catchy way to describe the program,
it has become apparent to us that leadership is a
necessary, but not sufcient, condition for be-
coming a senior executive. In other words, one
can be a good leader, but without other comple-
mentary skills, one may not become a successful
senior executive. For example, a leader without
the ability to think strategically will likely not
succeed in a role at the top of a corporation,
but rather, will be limited to positions at the
operational and functional levels of the corpora-
tional gap between the skills required of a senior
executive and the skills that most IT profession-
als currently have. Readers might ask, Why is
that surprising? Isnt that the need that ITLP
addresses? Here our response is, Yes, but we
were not prepared for the magnitude of that gap.
Obviously, if we are correct in this observation,
it will bear heavily on the future of the profes-
sion. Will there, for example, continue to be very
few CIOs that ever become CEOs? And will
CIOs continue not to be seen as a peer among
the other senior executives in their company? In
the section that follows, we use our observations
from ITLP to identify the most signifcant skill
gaps that currently exist.
Signifcant Skill Gaps
Based upon our focused and intense interactions
with the nearly 600 participants in the IT Lead-
ership Program, weve reached some conclusions
about the most signifcant impediments those
participants face in becoming successful senior
executives. While we havent engaged in similar
focused study of a broader population of IT
professionals, our more casual interactions with
such professionals over decades suggest these
impediments exist in many of them.
1. IT managers also need to become leaders. In
a recent CIO Insight article, Bill George, the
former chairman and CEO of Medtronic and
professor of management at the Harvard Busi-
ness School, emphasized the important role that
leadership plays among senior IT managers:
Tere are a lot of IT people who are really good
implementers, really good executors - but
Im asking them to be my leader. Later, in the
same article, he clarifes this comment by saying,
Well, Id like to see the IT executive leading me,
since Im not an IT specialist. Our suspicion is
that Bill Georges opinion is common people
dont expect IT people to be good leaders
2. IT managers are seriously defcient in their
knowledge of strategy. It is generally accepted
that senior executives need to be able to think
strategically. Tis was confrmed in our study
of CEOs and is consistently supported by
research on how senior executives think. We
believe strongly that greater knowledge of
strategy among senior IT executives could
help many IT organizations more efectively
contribute to accomplishing business strategic
objectives, ofen referred to as IT alignment
and a topic that consistently ranks at or near
the top of lists of CIO priorities. Our observa-
tions are that this is one of the weakest areas
of knowledge that the attendees at ITLP dem-
onstrated.
3. IT managers possess poor synthesis skills.
In our CEO study, we were surprised to hear a
number of CEOs use the word synthesis to
describe a skill that they believed senior execu-
tives needed to have. Tis word is not one we
hear commonly in business circles. Synthesis,
according to Webster, is the putting together
of parts or elements so as to form a whole;
opposed to analysis. In the IT Leadership
Program, our case study/role play provides the
students a unique opportunity to practice this
skill.
One of the most striking observations
from ITLP is that in the eleven years of doing
this case study, only one team has successfully
solved the case. Te reader might conclude
that the case is overly complex, or that we use
tricks to throw the students of, but the real-
ity is that they are taught everything they need
to solve the case during the three day class.
Te failure to solve the case stems from two
things - not being able to discern the under-
IT Managers are seriously decient in their
knowledge of strategy. This is one of the weakest areas
of knowledge that the attendees demonstrated.
Continued on pg 82
M&EJOURNAL 78
MISHRA / continued fom pg 6
ROVI / continued fom pg 12
mobile-telecommunications, media, and
technology industries.
Rewiring the Entertainment
Supply Chain
In order to address this changing distribu-
tion landscape, the entertainment supply
chain must be connected between basic
functional segments of (1) Supply Man-
agement sourcing, manufacturing and
distribution; (2) Demand Management
- marketing, sales and customer service;
(3) Product Management - Research and
Development - engineering and product
development, and (4) System of technolo-
gies and processes that senses and responds
to virtual real-time demand signals across a
network of customers, suppliers and service
providers. Te result of responding to con-
sumer demand signals requires a network
rather than the traditional linear approach
to global supply of entertainment.
Clayton Christensen, in explaining the
Innovators Dilemma, presents the bitter
truth that, Well managed companies that
have their competitive antennae up, listen
astutely to their customers, invest aggres-
sively in new technologies, and yet still
lose the market dominance.Disruptive
technologies bring to market a very diferent
value proposition that had been available
previously. Generally, disruptive technolo-
gies underperform established products in
mainstream markets. But they have poorer
features that a few fringe (and generally
new) customers value. Products based on
disruptive technologies are typically cheaper,
simpler, smaller, and, frequently more con-
venient to use. Managers faced with disrup-
tive technologies fail their companies when
organizational forces overpower them.
As we face the perfect storm of disruptive
technologies, it is going to take the Chief
Technology Ofcer (CTO), Chief Informa-
tion Ofce (CIO), Chief Business Ofcer
(CBO) and the Chief Marketing Ofcer
(CMO) at the Hollywood studios to work
together to shape and drive the digital sup-
ply chain for content. Reorganizations and
new thinking are required to overcome the
intrinsic inertia of legacies of success in the
physical media world as defned by Chris-
tensen.
While the CTO builds the technology
platform and capability for digital asset
production, management and delivery, it
is the CIO who implements customer re-
lations management solutions and social
networking in a secure manner. In addition,
gathering together a growing diversity of
data for real time decision making, such
as POS, blogs, emails, click of the mouse,
etc., is becoming the new arsenal of digital
marketing for the CIOs. On the other
hand, the new Chief Marketing Officer
needs to break down business unit silos of
Film, TV Networks and Home Entertain-
ment and integrate marketing of content
over its product life cycle. Personalization
of marketing in a mass customization mode
is the new paradigm. Finally, the Chief
Business Officer (COO or the Operations
Executive), who understands the business
processes in the supply chain from end-to-
end, has the unifying responsibility to drive
the adoption of digital technology through
collaboration with the CTO, CIO and
CMO in order to satisfy unprecedented
consumer demands.
It is this unprecedented corporate con-
nectivity that will help usher in thebrave
new world of digital entertainment. n
er doesnt have to provide the customer with
the smartphone or tablet, just the app that
communicates with the service. Additionally,
app development on personal devices is far less
expensive than app development on embed-
ded apps in set-top boxes and televisions.
6. Rapid Innovation
App development for smartphones and
tablets is far faster than on set-top boxes
and televisions, so providers can rapidly
innovate in apps, test, refine, and innovate
again. While most cable box updates take
about a year to develop and roll out, apps
on smart devices can be deployed in just a
few months. The service provider need only
update the box or TV once so it can accept
instructions from smart devices, and then
they can try numerous interfaces and fea-
tures in the app on a smart device.
It is true that not every customer will
have a smartphone or tablet, but consumer
uptake of smart devices is far more rapid
than the pace consumers upgrade their TV
or set-top box. It is for this reason that
the apps on personal devices are the new
battleground for consumer mindshare.
Cable and satellite providers want users to
remain happy with the wealth of content
to which customers already have access.
Internet content providers want users to
realize that streaming content offers more
choice and freedom. And a whole new class
of apps wants to help users discover content
from any source, regardless of the provider.
These new apps are in the business of help-
ing users simply make sense of it all.
Using rich metadata, powerful recom-
mendation engines, and relevant advertis-
ing to pay for their services, some of these
apps will thrive while others will die on the
vine, but there is no disputing that apps on
iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets,
and other smart devices are very rapidly
becoming of the consumer interface for the
digital entertainment ecosystem. n
Apps are becoming the
consumer interface for
the home entertainment
experience.
WHARTON / continued fom pg 32
but more powerful. Tey have more storage,
more computing power and more graphics
possibilities. Te cloud will get more and
more important for business users, he adds,
as more and more applications are developed
for highly specifc business-to-business uses.
We are inviting our partners to build some
extra features.
According to Hamerlinck, cloud-based
logistics providers will also be turning to the
model of Facebook and other web-based
social communities. Beginning in 2011,
Descartes customers will be able to maintain
their own profles and subscribe to services
by themselves. It will be quicker and more
automatic to maintain your own profle and
allow others to see what you are doing, he
says. Members of the network will discover
each other without us always being in the
middle. n
M&EJOURNAL 79
WELCH / continued fom pg 46
working groups run by the Hollywood IT
Society (HITS) and the Digital Entertain-
ment Group (DEG). Te largest US cable
MSO, Comcast, is also a founder, as is a key
metadata service provider Rovi Corporation.
Other early members include Deluxe from
the post-production supply chain, Shaw and
Cox representing other cable MSOs, cross-
platform service providers such as Neustar,
media aggregators such as iNDEMAND,
other metadata suppliers such as Baseline
Research, distributors of movie trailers such
as Internet Video Archive, and content iden-
tifcation companies such as Verance, Civolu-
tion, and Vobile.
Together, all of these industry partici-
pants are committed to managing the EIDR
registry as a non-proft industry service in-
tended to enable the next generation of more
efcient media supply chains.
Te Registry assigns EIDRs for the full range
of movie and television asset types including:
Feature flms
TV shows, TV series, seasons and episodes
Short flms
Promotional material (trailers)
Interactive material
Encodings and mezzanine fles for online
distribution
Composites and other combinations pack-
aged for commercial distribution
Te frst version of the Registry will sup-
port a prioritized list of workfow use cases
in the supply chain. However, EIDR is built
on a fexible data model that can be expanded
easily to support additional use cases as more
supply chain participants across the globe
adopt the Registry and integrate it into new
workfows. Te Registry maintains a roadmap
for enhancements informed by the needs of
the industry and will periodically release up-
dated versions to meet these needs.
Tere are other ID systems in use in the
supply chain for identifying specifc subsets
of asset types supported by EIDR, such as
UPC for physical assets. In addition, major
content owners and metadata suppliers
have developed proprietary ID schemes. To
support easy workfow integration, EIDR
can include alternate IDs at registration
and use the alternate IDs for queries and
searches. EIDR supports making alternate
identifers fully actionable so that they are
equivalent to a native EIDR in the context
of the registry. As an application of the
DOI system, EIDR has been designed
from the start to support interoperability
between diferent identifers, registries, and
repositories, and cross-referencing of other
identifers and making those references ac-
tionable is a core capability of the system.
Tis feature is also critical to enabling
other service providers to build new oferings
such as extended metadata services, rights
tracking, etc.
Like in science, before you can do anything with the
thing you must rst uniquely identify it and
describe the things unique properties.
EIDR is designed to be cost-efective for
large-scale use and provides an inexpensive
mechanism for tracking micro-assets such
as clips and encodings and combinations.
With a non-proft, cost-recovery business
model, EIDR provides IDs at very low costs.
Once issued, EIDRs will be available with-
out restriction for subsequent use in com-
mercial or other transactions.
Developers who wish to ofer new ser-
vices or adapt existing services to take ad-
vantage of EIDR can use public web-services
APIs to do so. EIDR aims to provide a
foundation for a wide array of services and
business models without bias. To this end, it
maintains a policy of openness and neutral-
ity toward all service providers regardless
of whether they are non-proft or for-proft.
EIDR was conceived, designed and
built by key stakeholders in the movie and
television industry including major content
owners, post production houses, Multi-
System Operators (MSOs), retailers and
other service providers. It is an indepen-
dent non-proft supported by member fees.
Membership in the registry is open to any
business entity that is part of the industry.
Te fee structure is tiered based on the type
of membership and size of the member
company. n
IVERSON / continued fom pg 44
Chair Warner Bros.), initiated the UMID
task force led by Jef Stevens (Warner Bros.)
and Eddie Drake (Te Walt Disney Com-
pany).
Both initiatives made excellent progress in
parallel. In the frst quarter of 2011 the two
groups merged eforts into one program that
leveraged the best of both teams. Te groups
also concluded that EIDR provided the best
mix of qualities for success and decided to
focus UMID eforts on the successful imple-
mentation of EIDR. Te overall HITS/DEG
efort continues today to resolve many of the
UMID implementation barriers in active
partnership with EIDR.
In early July, the combined group com-
pleted their frst phase of work and published
the aggregated assessment of UMID needs
from the content creator point of view. Te
importance of this efort is underscored by
Kip Welch, president of EIDR, who com-
mented, Bringing the Hollywood commu-
nity together to defne a technical path from
requirements to implementation has been
exactly the impetus needed to move EIDR
from a great idea to a practical tool on its way
toward broad adoption in the entertainment
supply chain.
As a result of this coordinated efort, sev-
eral proof-of-concept projects were scheduled
to start this summer. Tough there is much
hard work ahead, the ground is now well tilled
for industry seeding of identifed content.
Universal identifcation is the funda-
mental key to enable widespread integration
in our evolving digital media world. Ac-
cessible integration provides the ecosystem
the necessary ultra-efcient wiring to power
the entire industrys distribution machine.
Te implementation work over the next 12
months will be critical to help realize this
vision.
Superconductivity of digital content is
now within our reach. With the right people
laying down the UMID cabling, the indus-
try is poised to reach our digital destination
much faster and with signifcantly less energy
lost along the way. n
M&EJOURNAL 80
money, does not constitute a healthy busi-
ness ecosystem at least not one anybody
could reasonably expect to reap sustainable,
high-margin revenue.
Heres where business
interaction networks come in.
Business Interaction Networks (or perhaps
more appropriately here, Entertainment
Interaction Networks) respond to an asset
owners need to manage and track assets
across the many points of entry where they
are consumed, enjoyed, paid for, downloaded
and shared. Tis level of asset visibility and
control is critical if a company is to maintain
any kind of business model today. Entertain-
ment Interaction Networks can act as a plat-
form for tracking, storing and securing asset-
specifc information, and for authenticating
the audience (consumer) so that the asset
owner knows they have the rights and privi-
leges to see and/or hear the relevant asset.
This is much more than master data
management and ERP. This is about event
and content correlation across these in-
teraction patterns. Its about the ability to
provide accurate information to business
partners, regulators and legal entities on-de-
mand. The single version of the truth will
not be stored in a central database. It will
be the result of an aggregation of content
from data interaction.
Creating technical solutions for manag-
ing the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of
media and entertainment assets is no small
task. But the bottom line is that the abil-
ity to build an enterprise-class, end-to-end
value chain around each and every content
asset is essential for todays complex and
evolving digital entertainment market in-
cluding the kind of reporting, auditing and
business intelligence central to pursuing
agile IP asset strategies now and into the
future. n
The single version of
the truth will not be
stored in a central
database.
LAVERY / continued fom pg 60
development decisions that are likely to yield
positive returns. At the same time, a proper IT
infrastructure is conducive to good learning
environments and helps recruit good people.
Tis virtuous circle would solidify the leader-
ship. For example, SEJ invested 60 billion (or
$522 million) in 1997 to upgrade its system to
the 5th generation, and another $475 million
in 2006 to the 6th generation, but its competi-
tors could not equally match.
Fourth, it is interesting to see the transi-
tion of customer service over time by compar-
ing our list of best practices with that of the
old school. Te latter list usually includes
American Express, Four Seasons Hotels, Har-
ley Davidson and Lexus cars. Tey all serve a
small luxury segment of customers follow-
ing the logic that these customers demand
more service and are willing to pay for it.
Our list shows a diferent pattern: Harrahs
targets a middle-income segment (relative to
its neighbors Bellagio, Mirage and Wynn),
Capital One serves the sub-prime market (as
well as the super-prime market), Maruis main
customer segment is young females living in
the greater Tokyo area who cannot aford
1
Te focus here is the extensive use of data, so perhaps data-rich, data-mining, or Business Intel-
ligence (BI) may be a better term, but we follow Davenport and Harriss term analytics, intro-
duced in their book Competing in Analytics (2006).
2
Some of these techniques and methods are bundled into data mining. See, for example, Mastering
Data Mining, by M. Berry and G. Linof, John Wiley and Sons, 2000.
3
Te term operational came fom Harrahs Operational CRM. Perhaps an alternative expression
for operational analytics may be Sense and Respond, introduced by Haeckel. For details, see Adap-
tive Enterprise: Creating and Leading Sense-And-Respond Organizations, by Haeckel, S., Harvard
Business School Press, 1999.
4
Winston, H. P., Artifcial Intelligence, Addison-Wesley, Tird Edition, 1992.
5
Classifcation and Regression Trees, L. Breiman, J. Friedman, C. Stone and R. Olshen, CRC Press,
1998. SPSS Answer Tree and MITs XLMiner are examples of CART or CART-like products.
6
Cheng, V. and G. Saloner (2005), Ibid.
7
T. Ogata and D. Costello (2002), Ibid.
luxury brands, and SEJs main customers are
salaried workers and students. Such expan-
sion of analytics beyond the luxury market
segments may be attributed to the shif in
the technology of service delivery from
people to IT. Te combination of scalable
IT, analytics and management skills has
truly created models of mass customization.
Furthermore, these customers are not yet
used to this high level of service, so they
appreciate even more, according to David
Norton (Senior VP at Harrahs).
Finally, the move to operational analytics
may require more than a system upgrade. It
may instead involve organizational and tech-
nological changes, implying a high degree of
uncertainties, organizational tensions and
political struggles. Harrahs, in order to ap-
peal to customers variety-seeking behavior
and create two-billion-dollar cross-selling
opportunities, centralized both the customer
database and a signifcant portion of market-
ing decisions, moving away from its tradi-
tional decentralized organization where each
property manager owned its customer DB
and made all local decisions. In so doing,
they lost some managers who disagreed. n
The move to operational analytics may involve
organization and technological changes, implying
a high degree of uncertainties, organizational ten-
sions and political struggles.
WHANG / continued fom pg 70
M&EJOURNAL 81
Measure everything with revenue or cost
impact. PwC developed a set of 52 metrics
covering production and post-production
workfow. Tis enables improvements to be
measured and budgets to be justifed.
Reduce information silos. Information
silos, inaccessible to others across the organiza-
tion, result in executives and business analysts
duplicating one anothers eforts and struggling
to access the right information at the right time.
Reduce data fragmentation. In many
organizations, the strategy, architecture, and
governance of data are fragmented. Multiple
defnitions exist for the same data. And, with-
GARCIA / continued fom pg 52
Where does QA/QC t into a le-based workow?
The easy answer is everywhere!
on an assortment of media. In the tape-based
world, this is tough to get around. It isnt worth
it to standardize asset delivery or to transfer as-
sets to common formats when they are gathered
together for delivery. In the fle-based world,
its another story. Once assets are digitized it is
reasonable to standardize formats where appro-
priate and organize them into a delivery package.
While there is currently no standard for these
packages, there is one working its way through
the Society of Motion Picture and Television
Engineers (SMPTE) as you read this the In-
teroperable Master Format (IMF).
A packaging protocol like IMF promises
to truly streamline the asset delivery process,
creating new efciencies for those downstream
in the workfow. Te basic concept alone, that
a Blu-ray authoring facility can confdently
prepare to support the assets it will be receiving
from a content owner without any surprises,
will be benefcial. Now consider the reverse. A
content owner will be able to confdently store
its assets in a format it knows that virtually
every vendor will be able to accept, thus saving
enormous resources by not having to deal with
a surfeit of proprietary codecs and eliminating
a pain point in the supply chain because it no
longer needs to ensure it is sending the proper
format to each of its vendors.
Tere are numerous other benefts as well,
but the main point is that none of these ben-
efts can be efectively achieved in a tape-based
world.
The Need for QA/QC
Considering I represent a company that
recently opened a new lab dedicated to fle-
based QA/QC , Ive certainly covered a great
deal of ground barely mentioning the word
quality. So, lets talk about that now.
Where does QA/QC ft into a fle-based
workfow? Te easy answer is everywhere!
But, of course, theres more to it. Two ques-
tions any company asks itself, regardless of
whether it makes Blu-ray discs or fashlights,
are:
1. What is the consumers perception of qual-
ity?
2. What is the potential cost of a poor qual-
ity product (or service)?
In one of my previous editorials for the
M&E Journal, I discussed the perception of
quality, so I wont rehash all that here, but
sufce to say that if the consumer doesnt
expect a product to be high quality (e.g., a
fashlight purchased at dollar store) then
QA/QC can be minimal. If the perception
of quality is high, such as on a Blu-ray disc,
then QA/QC is critical.
Te potential costs of low quality must also
be considered. On a Blu-ray disc, the costs of
a single recall, rework, and re-replication are
astronomical, ofen hundreds of thousands of
dollars, easily justifying comprehensive third
party QA/QC. For a digital download, the
costs are pennies. Simply fx the fle, upload it
to the site and ofer it as a free update to any-
one who downloaded it previously.
LESH / continued fom pg 55
Te further upstream QC is applied,
which is essentially the defnition of
QA, the less risk there is of rework cost
downstream. Imagine catching a must-fx
problem, such as misspelling the directors
name in the credits, in the master fle versus
catching it on a Blu-ray encoding and real-
izing it has been in the master fle for six
months and that many sub-masters and
consumer deliverables have been struck
from it. Catching it early could potentially
save tens of thousands of dollars and count-
less man-hours.
When the perception of quality is high
and the potential cost for poor quality is
substantial (archival fles, master fles, mez-
zanine fles, etc.), QA/QC is critical, if
not mandatory. When one is high and the
other is low, a business decision needs to be
made, and when both are low, the need for
QA/QC is minimal.
Bottom line
As our industry drives toward that shiny
golden future I mentioned before, we face
signifcant challenges, but rewards are there
to be had. Supply chain efciencies, reduced
costs, breathing room in turnaround times,
and industry-wide compatible asset pack-
ages are all within our reach. It is therefore
more important than ever to consider where
and how QA/QC plays a part in safeguard-
ing fle-based assets to keep content moving
smoothly through the digital supply chain. n
out clear data ownership, quality sufers, and
time is wasted.
Aggressive Enterprise Information Man-
agement. Many organizations have yet to focus
on the accuracy, quality, relevance, and gover-
nance of their business information whether
its about their customers, suppliers, fnances, or
operations. Te majority of business informa-
tion solutions have been deployed at a tactical
or departmental level, lacking extensibility to
deliver a single version of the truth across the
enterprise.
Conclusion
Media and entertainment (M&E) companies
must link together the traditionally vertical
business silos into an efcient, integrated
eco-environment for managing processes and
information. Strategies need to be in place
that overlay a horizontal approach of tools,
methodologies, and processes across tradi-
tional content management.
Terefore, moving to an information/analyt-
ics culture or mind set is critical for success.
However, no matter how good the systems
and tools, portfolio management must be
centered in the context of business value No
level of information or data or the most so-
phisticated ECPM framework enabling the f-
nance and operations executives and team are
replacements for knowledge of the business,
operational levers and understanding the total
consumer around the M & E ecosystem. n
M&EJOURNAL 82
Speed to market is one
of the few remaining
competitive advantages
the home entertainment
industry can continue to
make strides in.
track a project from inception to completion
was key in pinpointing the bottlenecks and
discovering opportunities to save us money
and time while passing those cost-savings on
to our clients.
Today, in order to stay competitive, give
our clients better service and enable us to
deliver higher volumes of work on shorter
deadlines, were utilizing technologies that
allow for process automation. Tis helps us
cut down on admin time and facilitate faster
fle sharing between diverse geographical loca-
tions. Trough the years, weve introduced
more and more features including automated
campaign reporting, milestone management,
version control, amend history, permission-
based access, integration with 3rd party data
sources, tiered approval systems, element
ordering systems and so on. As our clients
expressed needs that were specifc to their
organization and workfow, we launched
interfaces that featured only the bells and
whistles pertinent to their business or built
custom modules to suit their needs.
Te result is an end-to-end document
solution, providing complete control over the
entire component life cycle. Te beauty of the
system is that it is accessible to all of our glob-
al locations, which makes a follow-the-sun
workfow possible. While we sleep soundly
here in the US, our ofces in London, Paris,
Sydney or Mumbai can pick up the work and
make the changes requested so that we have
our revised fle when we get into the ofce in
the morning.
Speed to market is one of the few re-
maining competitive advantages the home
entertainment industry can continue to make
strides in. Technology tools such as OLAS
help us establish a constant connectivity that
aid us in our perpetual goal of being faster,
cheaper, more accurate and, of course, having
access to real-time information to answer any
of our clients questions.
Granted, theres always the risk of carpal
tunnel but its a risk were willing to take. n
BARKER / continued fom pg 72
DELISI / continued fom pg 76
lying business problem and poor questioning
techniques. Te only way that the case can be
solved in the timeframe that we allot them
is by asking probing, open-ended, strategic
business questions, listening carefully to the
responses, and then, piecing what they have
heard into a pattern about the root issues. Not
only have we witnessed teams repeatedly ask-
ing the wrong questions, we have also detected
a tendency amongst IT professionals to rush
prematurely to a problem determination be-
fore a careful assessment is done of the data.
4. IT managers lack efective communication
skills. In our CEO study, one participant men-
tioned that his CIO was the worst communi-
cator of all his direct reports, and indeed, this
was one of our general fndings. In contrast,
our experience with ITLP participants has led
us to conclude that IT managers are not bad
communicators. Tey speak well, and in gen-
eral, exhibit an attitude of being helpful and
supportive. Tus, our conclusion is that the
common belief that IT people do not commu-
nicate efectively is due to the absence of good
questioning and listening skills.
5. IT managers lack efective infuence skills.
Tis is another area in which we believe IT
managers and executives receive no training.
In this category, we place sales, marketing and
other generic infuence skills.
Recently, one of our guest CEOs told a class
that in order to be a successful IT executive or
senior corporate executive, you need to be able
to sell. To this, we would add that one also
needs to be able to market yourself and the IT
organization. Marketing is essentially being
able to make others see the value in who you
are, what you do, and what the rest of the or-
ganization does. Not surprisingly, without this,
we see the poor perception that is held of many
IT organizations.
6. IT managers know what characterizes
strong relationships, but lack the fner skills
that would make them efective at this. It goes
without saying that the ability to form and
sustain strong relationships is a vital skill of
anyone in a work organization. However, this
is probably more critical at the senior levels
of IT. In the CIO Insight article that we ref-
erenced earlier, Bill George says, Ask CIOs
if they have solid relationships with business
leaders, and theyll likely say, Yes. Ask busi-
ness leaders about their CIOs, and youll likely
hear a diferent story. And this disconnect has
only increased.
Our most signifcant fnding from the module
on relationship-building is that while client
relationships are extremely important to IT pro-
fessionals, the profession lacks an efective model
for building and maintaining these relationships.

7. Senior IT managers have the potential to
think like a senior executive, but are not per-
ceived by others to have this capability. For years,
IT organizations have struggled to achieve the
respect that many IT executives believe they so
rightfully deserve. Many reasons have been put
forth for the poor reputation and lack of respect
for the IT function - failure to deliver, poor
marketing and poor customer relation skills are
just some that we have heard mentioned. We be-
lieve another prominent reason is that IT execu-
tives are seen as narrow, technical, analytical indi-
viduals. Research that we have conducted reveals
that this is a misperception. Indeed, our research
shows that IT executives have the very thinking
styles that CEOs have told us they would like to
see in a senior executive, and specifcally, in their
IT executive.
Over the past eleven years, we have admin-
istered an assessment instrument, the InQ, to
students of ITLP. Tis instrument analyzes fve
diferent thinking styles - synthesist, ideal-
ist, pragmatist, analyst and realist. Te results
indicate that IT professionals are predominantly
idealistic and pragmatic - not analytical. Tese
are really surprising and counter-intuitive results.
It suggests, however, that the IT profession has
some serious work to do to change the percep-
tion of who they are and what they have the
potential of becoming.
Conclusion
In this paper, we have related our observations
from eleven years of conducting the Information
Technology Leadership Program. We are opti-
mistic about the future possibilities for IT man-
agers and executives. While we have taken a very
strong position on their current skill defciencies,
we believe that these can be remedied. What we
believe has been missing, however, is the hon-
est admission by the senior IT community that
they do not currently possess the skills to be a
true senior executive. Given this admission and
the subsequent eforts to acquire the skills, we
believe we can all look forward to a very bright
future career for IT executives.

n
For additional information on HITS contact guy@mesalliance.org
HITS addresses the challenges of Information Technology in order to enable
the transformation of the entertainment industry, achieve cost reductions through IT strategies,
enable migration to the digital world of entertainment, and enhance the effectiveness of its member
organizations. HITS is a studio-centric, entertainment industry effort, providing a unique platform
for sharing concepts and solutions in non-competitive areas.It achieves synergies among divisions of
studios motion pictures, TV and home entertainment divisions to drive industry solutions for the
physical as well as the digital world of entertainment.
Founding Members:
Stephen Andujar, CIO, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Marcela Bailey, Vice President, Divisional CIO, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Gary Davis, Vice President, IT, Image Entertainment
John Herbert, Executive Vice President, Operations Strategy & CIO, 20th Century Fox
Mary Kane, Vice President, Applications, Paramount Pictures
Chris Palmer, Vice President and Divisional CIO, Warner Home Video
Jerry McGlynn, Vice President, IT and acting CIO, The Walt Disney Studios
Jeff Mirich, Senior Vice President & CIO, The Walt Disney Studios
Theresa Miller, Senior Vice President, IT, Lionsgate Entertainment
Tanya Tallino, Vice President, Enterprise IT, 20th Century Fox Film Corporation
HOL LYWOOD
HITS
I T S OC I E T Y
Coming in March 2012, at Pepperdine University:
The 2
nd
Annual Hollywood IT Summit
Strategies and Technologies for Content Security,
Anti-Piracy, & Risk Management
A N T I P I R A C Y A N D C O N T E N T S E C U R I T Y I N T H E D I G I T A L A G E
I N A S S OC I AT I ON WI T H
E N T E R TA I N ME N T C ON T E N T
PROTECTION SUMMIT
ANT I P I R ACY AND CONT E NT S E CUR I T Y I N T HE DI GI TAL AGE I N A S S OC I AT I ON WI T H
Produced by and
Heres What Youll Learn:
n The Evolving Cyber-Threat
n Legislative Responses to Cyber-Attacks, Piracy, and Counterfeiting
n File Lockers: Understanding the threat of direct-download piracy
n Leveraging Piracy Demand for Improved Business Decisions & Incremental Revenue
n Balancing Content Protection and Consumer Satisfaction
n Effective Incident Response: Hear from those that live it
n Law Enforcement & Industry
2
ND
ANNUAL
Richard Atkinson
Conference
Chairman
December 8, 2011
Universal Hilton Hotel, Los Angeles
For more
information contact:
Bridgit Bowen
Director of Sales,
MESA
(310)-882-9204
bridgit@MESAlliance.org
SAVE THE DATE:























Media & Entertainment
Services Alliance
ME S A
The International Content Protection Association
These Facilities are Proud to Protect
Your Content & Copyrights
Managed by
www. CDSAonl i ne. or g
Locate the worlds most secure content services and suppliers:
Martin Porter
Executive Director, CDSA
Tel: +1-516-767-6720
mporter@CDSAonline.org
Worldwide & Americas
Linda Dyson, Worldwide Director,
Tel: +1-404-349-9600
ldyson@CDSAonline.org
Europe/Middle East/Africa
Peter Wallace, Director,
Tel: +44 (0) 7850 331033
pwallace@CDSAonline.org
Asia/Australia
James S. Wise, Director
Tel: +852 2863 6980,
jwise@CDSAonline.org
M&EJOURNAL 86
Juicy Charts
Taking a global view of todays technotainment landscape.
By Futuresource Consulting
MARKETINTELLIGENCE
Building Blu-ray is a global challenge... Disc etailing dominates in Japan and
Sweden... 2015 forecast for packaged/online/mobile games revenues shows continued
strength... Smartphone penetration leaves plenty of room for growth.