Broadband Advertisements, a video ad network that launched early this month, will buck tradition by inserting advertising during Internet programming instead of prior to it with pre-rolls.
“I feel there is no one pursuing the long form video ad model on the net, and we’re trying to fulfill that,” said Marshall Eubanks, CEO of www.Americafree.tv, the streaming broadcast site that plays TV programs and full length movies. Eubanks co-founded Broadband Advertisements with Mike Smith and Americafree.tv will be the first client. Broadband Advertisements will sell ads that will be inserted into Americafree.tv content in the same way that ads are inserted into TV shows, Eubanks said.
He said the advertising will work because “there is a long standing tradition of people watching video on TV and that model isn’t going away.” He distinguishes it from the YouTube model, where video content can be searched, but not watched in a program format. “People want channels they can go to and turn them on and watch them. They like the surprise factor.”
Smith, a former executive at Euro RSCG, said the company will specializing in selling inventory on movie and entertainment sites. “We’ll focus on sites that offer longer form streams and entertainment for people who are moving from TV to Internet TV,” he said.
He said sites in the cooking and travel sectors have also been lined up as clients, including www.Funwithfilo.com, a Greek cooking site.
The company will sell video ads to “mid to large size companies that prefer to have a direct placement instead of going through the engines that exist for direct to content advertising,” Smith said. “And we’ll represent content providers that don’t have an ad department.”
The company will work with ad agencies to sell inventory on the sites it represents.
Broadband Advertisements will share revenue with content owners on a traditional commission basis, Smith 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