Nov. 15/London: London International Advertising Awards at the Royal Lancaster Hotel. Awardsinfo@liaawards.com; www. liaawards.com….Nov. 16/North Hollywood: ITS Workshop on California’s Postproduction Tax Break at the Beverly Garland Hotel. Eileen Kramer, (323) 461-5890….Nov. 18/Chicago: The 1999 AICP Show on Tour at the Chicago Historical Society. Alan Sadler, (312) 573-6001….Nov. 19/Dallas: The 1999 AICP Show on Tour at the Hall of State. (972) 699-5660….Nov. 19-22/New York: 141st SMPTE Technical Conference and Exhibition’s "Sprockets, Samples, and Satellites: Moving Images Into the Third Millennium," at the New York Marriott Marquis. Bryan Nella, (914) 761-1100….Nov. 20-21/Minneapolis: AICP Commercials Production Seminar’s "How to be a Commercials Coordinator … and Why." Jodi Nelson, (612) 617-0000….Dec. 3/San Francisco: San Francisco International Film Festival’s Golden Gate Awards call for entries deadline. (415) 929-5014; fax: (415) 921-5032….Dec. 8/San Francisco: ITS Workshop On California’s Postproduction Tax Break at Realtime Video, San Francisco. Eileen Kramer, (323) 461-5890….Dec. 9/Prague: The 1999 AICP Show on Tour at the Museum of Modern Art. (212) 475-2600….Dec. 23/ New York: Adweek’s Best Spots of the Year entry deadline. (212) 536-6453…Jan. 5/San Francisco: San Francisco International Film Festival’s Narrative Feature call for entries deadline. (415) 929-5026; fax: (415) 921-5032….Jan. 25-27/New Orleans: 37th Annual NATPE Program Conference & Exhibition. (310) 453-4440; www. natpe.org….Jan. 28/Vienna, Va.: Final deadline for entries to the 21st International Monitor Awards. Tracy Murley, (703) 319-0800; fax: (703) 319-1120….
Jan. 29-Feb. 3/Key West, Fla.: ITS: The Association of Imaging Technology and Sound’s 13th Annual President’s Retreat at the Hilton Key West. Nancy Zern, (703) 319-0800; fax: (703) 319-1120; nancyzern@erols.com….Feb. 24-25/New York: AAF Foundation 25 Most Promising Minority Students. Rebecca Martin, (202) 898-0089; rmartin@aaf.org….March 21/New York: AAF Advertising Hall of Fame. Lisa Rubin, (202) 898-0089; lrubin@aaf.org….April 20-May 4/San Francisco: The 43rd San Francisco International Film Festival. Brian Gordon, (415) 929-5014; ggawards@sfiff.org….June 20-22/Las Vegas: AAF American Advertising Conference. Karen Cohn, (202) 898-0089; kcohn@aaf.org….
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