Cablefax The Magazine - March 2017 - 20

Dan Reed
HEAD OF GLOBAL SPORTS
PARTNERSHIPS
FACEBOOK
Former NBA business exec Reed has
made a considerable mark in Facebook's
sports partnerships in his more
than two years on the job. His focus is connecting the
massive community of sports fans across the social
media giant-a second screen go-to when people are
watching sports-building fan bases, and optimizing
the way teams and leagues can reach the FB audience
to sell tickets and build sponsorship opportunities.
Reed helmed the Facebook Sports Stadium, a dedicated
place where fans can experience sports together in
real-time, and the onslaught of Facebook Live has only
made things more interesting.
Jason Rubin
HEAD OF CONTENT
OCULUS VR
As virtual reality continues to seep into
the public conversation, Rubin maintains
the cautious philosophy that the
industry initially will scale slowly before
it blasts into a mass-market experience. The founder of
Naughty Dog, which he sold to Sony, is certainly doing
his part to move the needle two years into his tenure
at Oculus. He recently oversaw the launch of 50-plus
game titles for the Rift's new controller platform, Oculus
Touch, and is continuing a strategy of promoting
platform-exclusive content.
Warren Schlichting
EVP, MARKETING,
PROGRAMMING & MEDIA
SALES
DISH
DISH's streaming video service Sling
TV is a top priority for Schlichting. On
his to-do-list: Structuring fl exible programming rights
to allow Sling to maintain its unique structure as opposed
to the " big, bigger, bloated " packaging strategy
that other OTT players have adopted from traditional
TV. The Harvard alum knows the industry inside and
out, having worked at companies including Comcast,
Hiwire and Morgan Stanley. What does he think about
4K? " This year, the trade-off between the mobility of
OTT and the extraordinary quality of 4K will become
more broadly apparent to viewers. Ironically, mobility
will win in urban areas with high broadband penetration
while 4K will win in rural areas. "
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Evan Shapiro
EVP, DIGITAL ENTERPRISE
NBCUNIVERSAL
It's been more than a year since Shapiro
oversaw the launch of NBCU's
subscription-based comedy service
Seeso, and things are moving along
with a growing roster of originals joining the platform.
Shows like the role-playing themed " HarmonQuest "
and reality spoof " Bajillion Dollar Propertie$ " are playing
well with viewers and critics, both garnering additional
seasons. " Small screen monetization is happening,
however, it's not always recognized as such, since
it often comes from non-mobile fi rst companies and
not as ads. SVODs and even newspapers have found
mobile as a big driver of revenues, " Shapiro says. " A
large percentage of Seeso's members and viewership
comes via mobile. So the when we talk about monetization
on mobile, we need to look at it holistically-it's
not always going to be mobile-fi rst, and it's not always
going to come from ads. "
Dave Shull
CEO
THE WEATHER CHANNEL
If any provider needed to recognize
the coming multiscreen space, it was
The Weather Channel, whose subject
matter was well suited to take
advantage of the location-tracking and on-demand
capabilities of mobile devices. Shull's leadership was
up to the challenge as The Weather Channel launched
Local Now, a streaming service offering " hyper-local "
news, weather, and traffi c. And although Local Now is
an ad-free service, Shull has not forgotten measurement,
believing that " in a multi-screen world, advertisers
need to think about viewing on a reach and quality
of reach basis instead of total delivery ratings... As
a result, we're evaluating Local Now on the average
daily reach, percent of views that are completed and
number of repeat visits in a week instead of just 'total
minutes viewed.' "
Ben Smith
SVP & HEAD OF EXPERIENCE
HULU
A year and a half on the job, Smith has
solidifi ed Hulu's viewer-experiencefi
rst strategy. Optimizing experiences
across a variety of screens in both traditional
television viewing and mobile environments is a
challenge, but one Smith views as a key opportunity for
March 2017
Cablefax: The Magazine
http://www.cablefaxmag.com
Cablefax The Magazine - March 2017

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