Vmbc.tv, the video business unit of Versaly Entertainment/Seattle, a producer of mobile TV content, is trying to get its Fast Lane channel to as many phones as possible, so it reached agreement with two “off-deck” mobile platforms, Microsoft Smartphones and Nokia Video Center, last week. Owners of those phones use the HandiTV Plus application to download the channel for free viewing of Fast Lane.
Vmbc.tv launched Fast Lane, which provides action sports, comedy and related content for males 18-34 early this year on Sprint TV, but Matthew Feldman, Versaly’s president/CEO, said the off-deck platforms provide better opportunities to insert advertising into the content. “Carriers are very conservative with advertising, they’re taking small baby steps,” he said. “They’re not sure how their subscribers will react, but the off-decks are looking for any way to monetize it.” He added that the off-decks are “innovators who understand that consumers are used to watching commercials on TV and the Net so it would be okay on a mobile network as long as the video is free.”
As content plays on Fast Lane, Vmbc.tv inserts advertising in three different ways: interstitials, graphic overlays and branded content. Interstitials are ads that play during content, like TV ads. “We prefer 15 second interstitials, we don’t use pre-rolls,” Feldman said. “We use mid-rolls that play after 20 to 45 seconds of content plays.” Graphic overlays are ads that float with the content or run underneath it like tickers. They can be videos or text ads, he said. Branded content is programming made on behalf of products, including Toyota’s FJ Cruiser and the Mini Cooper.
Versaly sells advertising and works with third party ad sales groups, including Starcom MediaVest, Feldman said.
After Fast Deck was launched, content providers often sold their own advertising which offset content costs and enabled Versaly to run the ads on Sprint phones, “because Versaly wasn’t actively selling ad content,” Feldman said. Today, content providers can sell ads and get a commission or Versaly and its media buying partners can sell them.
The addition of the off-deck platforms will boost ad sales because they will increase the audience. “It’s all about the numbers,” he said. “A lot of advertisers are looking at 100,000 views a month to make them feel it’s worthwhile. We’re about 350,000 a month with Sprint. If we grow it to 500,000 or 600,000 a month it will be that much more valuable to advertisers.”
Like Sprint, the off-decks provide a national audience, meaning the additional numbers will be attractive to national advertisers. Jeep, Dodge and Castrol are the top advertisers now, Feldman said.
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More