Creative media company Alkemy X has added Brittany George and Maria Allen as, respectively, manager of TV & digital content, and controller.
George will work alongside EVP of TV & digital programming Andy Singer–former Travel Channel GM who joined Alkemy X this summer–to develop original content. Alkemy X’s most recent title in this division is season two of “Unique Rides” on the upscale men’s cable network Velocity. In the show, world-renowned automotive designer and host Will Castro builds customized cars for celebrity clients.
George previously worked at Leftfield Entertainment, which produced FOX’s “American Grit”; History’s “Alone” and “Pawn Stars”; and Bravo’s “Real Housewives of New Jersey.” During her tenure with the company, she developed original content for Discovery, MTV, History, Animal Planet, Lifetime, Snapchat and Vevo, among a variety of cable networks and digital platforms. George was also integral to the growth of Riot Creative, a subsidiary of Leftfield, as well as program development for eight of its other brands. A Marist alumna, George broke into the professional ranks as an executive assistant at ITV and Leftfield Pictures. Her first taste of the entertainment business was college internships for “Live With Kelly and Michael” and “The Dr. Oz Show.”
Allen spent the past three years working at NBC Sports Group in Connecticut, during which she served in two different roles: as manager of financial reporting, she was responsible for all financial activity related to NBCSN, NBC Broadcast, and the NFL; as accounting manager at NBC Sports, she was responsible for all Sports Regional Networks.
Prior to the Comcast/NBC merger, she was an accounting supervisor for Comcast SportsNet and the American Board of Internal Medicine, respectively, in Philadelphia. During her nine years with Comcast/NBC, Allen’s responsibilities spanned annual budgeting, long-range planning, forecasting, audits, and monthly close cycles.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More