Spot Runner, which got its start producing low cost TV ads for local advertisers and now creates online video ads, too, boosted its ability to shoot the ads by acquiring GlobeShooter/Los Angeles, a network of 1,200 independent filmmakers, videographers, producers and production companies.
Spot Runner announced the acquisition yesterday and said it would help the company shoot advertising around the country. “We have a strong creative in-house team, but the ability to act regionally or locally has been hampered by our limited staff,” said Spot Runner co-founder David Waxman. “The acquisition enables us to get high quality production, so we can create new ads across the nation.”
The company specializes in ads for local businesses that are shot on the premises. Some advertisers provide local footage that is included in the ads, but having the GlobeShooter producers will enable Spot Runner to shoot original footage. “We’ll be able to add local footage and imagery and get the local flavor,” Waxman said.
The acquisition helps Spot Runner shoot local advertising and expand the kind of advertising it offers. “We started selling TV, but now we offer other media and we’re expanding to the Internet and online video,” Waxman said.
Members of the GlobeShooter network will benefit from the acquisition by being able to build their portfolios with Spot Runner clients and work with Spot Runner’s in-house creative team.
GlobeShooter is being renamed the Spot Runner Production Network.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More