Cablefax The Magazine - March 2016 - 15

Chris Pizzurro
Head of Business Development,
Sales & Marketing
Canoe
Pizzurro had a good year in 2015,
helping to drive cable VOD to deliver
more than 10 billion ads viewed
through the platform, enabling a marketplace of more
than $300 million. He believes in dialogue between all
players in the advertising ecosystem and has a way of
getting all parties to the table to come up with strategic
solutions. Pizzurro stays on top of the changing multiscreen
universe by staying connected with programming
network customers and MSO owners. " We have
the luxury of serving these two groups who know what
their customers want, " he says. " So, we can just listen
to them, then innovate and execute on their needs. "
Birk Rawlings
Head of DreamWorksTV
DreamWorks
Under Rawlings' leadership, DreamsWorksTV
has created some 1,000 episodes
of original content now distributed
on the YouTube Kids App, Comcast
Watchable and the Verizon go90 platform-all in just a
year and a half. And his strategy of creating bite-sized,
short-form content made specifi cally for the web has
made it a top destination for kids. Rawlings keeps his
team engaged by trying out new devices as they become
available. But taking notes is key. " Our audience is made
up almost entirely of digital natives, so they tend to adapt
and change faster than any other group, " he says.
Dan Reed
Head of
Global Sports Partnerships
Facebook
Reed helps connect Facebook and Instagram's
650 million sports fans with
their sports passions. As such, he
works with leagues, teams, athletes and broadcasters
to create social interaction around sports events and
experiences. Enter the just-launched second-screen
feature Facebook Sports Stadium, which curates all
the content related to a game (starting with American
football) in one place-posts from friends, experts,
scores and TV game info. Moreover, Nielsen plans to
incorporate social activity on Facebook into its ratings
Cablefax: The Magazine
March 2016
system. So expect plenty of data and insights on how
fans interact with sports on Facebook in the future.
Chris Reynolds
Co-founder & CEO
OneTwoSee
Reynolds and OneTwoSee made huge
strides in multiscreen this year-
designing, developing and deploying
a number of best in class OTT sports
experiences, including the X1 Sports app for Comcast/
Xfi nity and NFL OTT experiences for Samsung Smart
TVs. Going forward, Reynolds and his team plan to
build on their already strong client base, including
companies such as Comcast, Fox, NBC and DirecTV,
to bring OTT sports solutions to the masses. Reynolds
predicts an accelerated evolution in multiscreen. " Online
gaming (Halo, Assassin's Creed, etc.) will become
more pervasive, and virtual reality will become much
more ubiquitous across all screens, " he says.
Jason Rubin
Head of Worldwide Studios
Oculus
Virtual Reality is hot, especially in
gaming. As head of worldwide studios
at Oculus VR, which Facebook
acquired for $2 billion in 2014, Rubin
oversees the creation of games and applications that
will defi ne the launch of Oculus VR devices. Rubin cofounded
video game company Naughty Dog in 1984,
which Sony acquired in 2001. His proven track record
in the gaming world includes serving as director on
every title in the popular Crash Bandicoot and Jak and
Daxter series. We're anxious to see what he comes up
with in the VR category.
Jay Samit
CEO
SeaChange International
It's been a very busy year for Samit,
who has led SeaChange in a transition
from a hardware fi rm to software/
hardware-focused company. He also
has published a landmark book entitled " Disrupt You!, "
detailing how to master personal transformation, seize
opportunities and thrive in the era of endless innovation.
Calling traditional measurement the " horse-andbuggy
of the entertainment world, " Samit cites an old
cablefaxmag.com
15
http://www.cablefaxmag.com
Cablefax The Magazine - March 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Cablefax The Magazine - March 2016
