By Adam BoretzHere at Publishers Weekly and Listen Up, we’re always looking for interesting and unconventional uses of audio as a way to enhance storytelling.And that kind of outside-the-box storytelling is nothing new to digital publisher Sideways. The company is offering a combination ebook, iTunes app, and audiobook for a project called David Roberts Egypt.According to Carolyn Fertig at Sideways, David Roberts travelled to Egypt and the Holy Land in the 1800’s, sketching many images and writing extensive journals about his travels.When Sideways began producing an ebook and app based on Roberts’s travels, the company wanted to bring his journals to life. So, they hired a voice actor to read the journal entries.“What’s most interesting about these audio files is the way that we combined them into an ePub,” Fertig writes to Listen Up. “We found a way, using about four different programs, to add these files to the ePub flawlessly and without disturbing the user experience. There is over 80 minutes of audio to listen to.”To listen to a sample, CLICK HERE.And, for more information, check out this propmotion video:
Sandy teen snaps up photo prize
By Lisa K. AndersonDeWolf chronicled construction of home for disabled veteran
Taylur DeWolf grew up being grateful for military service. Her father served in the Navy, and she has always believed in giving back to people who have sacrificed for their country.This month, DeWolf, 16, was awarded a $5,000 prize from Fujifilm SeeHere.com for a photojournalism and fundraising contest in support of Kids for Our Troops. Beginning last September, she chronicled the building of retired Army Specialist Kevin Pannell’s new home in Sandy.
On June 13, 2004, Pannell was on foot patrol on the western edge of Baghdad when his unit was ambushed. Two grenades rolled against his feet and exploded, knocking him down and ripping his legs apart.
Over 18 months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, he underwent 22 operations, including the amputation of both his legs.
Pannell, his wife Danielle and son Hunter lived in apartments and houses that did not accommodate maneuvering in a wheelchair with artificial legs.The family filled out paperwork for Homes for Our Troops -- a national nonprofit organization that benefits severely injured veterans and service members by providing specially adapted homes -- and moved to Oregon in 2008. Soon after, they received word they would get a home.During the past year, SeeHere.com selected students to document builds in the communities where Homes for Our Troops is working. Kids for Our Troops began as an effort to raise awareness and funds for the charity.Each student received a digital camera, coupons to offer donors, marketing materials and an online page.“It was a great experience to see the community come together for somebody who sacrificed a lot for our country,” DeWolf said. Many of the volunteers, she said, were from Advantis Credit Union.DeWolf is a sophomore at Estacada Web Academy and Early College, a program that allows her to take classes at Mt. Hood Community College.Besides the Kids for Our Troops project, DeWolf tutors second- and fifth-graders at Kelso Elementary School and received her silver award in Girl Scouts last year for starting a young mothers group in Sandy.She is actively involved in Sandy Assembly of God, where she sings on the youth worship team and is planning a July mission trip to Mexico.To compete for the prize, DeWolf created a book of her photos, illustrating the building of Pannell’s home and her fundraising efforts.Ron Dillehay, marketing director for Fujifilm North America Corp., said the contest had three criteria: relevancy to topic, expression of thought, and creativity/originality.DeWolf’s patriotic theme, thorough approach, community focus and creative embellishments throughout her book caught judges’ attention, Dillehay said.“I was really impressed with Taylur,” said Pannell, 32. “I know that she was a good photographer because she got some really candid shots. Some of the pictures she had taken are hanging on our wall now.”Pannell and his family have lived in their home since December. Beside the photos hanging on their wall, the family has a copy of the book DeWolf created, which she gave as a gift.“He’s a really humble, thankful person,” DeWolf said of Pannell. “The house was beautiful -- perfect.”DeWolf says she learned of the opportunity to document Pannell’s home build in a newspaper ad. She then wrote an essay about what community service meant to her, which won her a spot.Spending every other weekend onsite during the build, DeWolf was impressed with the passion and dedication of volunteers in helping Pannell.One of Pannell’s comments stuck with her.When he is out in public, he offen receives thank yous for his service and sacrifice.To this he responds, “Thank you, but any person who’s out there serving (in) the military would have done the same thing.”A volunteer landscape day will be held for the Pannell family June 11. For details, visit homesforourtroops.org.
Oregon Teen Wins Fujifilm SeeHere.com Photojournalist Contest in Support of Homes for Our Troops
Taylur DeWolf, 15, wins $5,000 SeeHere.com Kids For Our Troops photojournalism fundraising prize.Today Fujifilm’s SeeHere.com announces Taylur DeWolf, 15, of Sandy, OR as the winner of its fundraising and photojournalism contest in support of Kids For Our Troops. Together with its sponsorship of Homes For Our Troops, Fujifilm SeeHere.com launched the project last year to raise awareness and funds for the charity, which builds specially-adapted homes for severely injured military veterans.Over the past year, SeeHere.com selected students in the communities where Homes For Our Troops built houses; those teens then documented the builds through photography and created fundraising and awareness-building campaigns for the charity. SeeHere.com provided each student with the tools to help develop and execute the campaigns including a digital camera, SeeHere.com coupons with a special offer for donors, and marketing materials such as posters and an online share page. To compete for the prize, each student participant created a SeeHere.com Printed Cover Story Book chronicling his/her fundraising efforts and the building of the veteran’s home.DeWolf is an active Girl Scout who recently received the Silver Award, the second-highest honor given out by Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., and she is working toward the prestigious Gold Award, which only 5.4% of Girl Scouts successfully earn. She is an honors student and she volunteers her time tutoring elementary school children in writing and math. DeWolf’s passions are photography, writing and singing. She is actively involved in both her church worship team and school choir and is currently preparing for a missions trip to Mexico.“What stood out with Taylur’s photo book submission was her dedication to the project from start to finish and her creativity in chronicling the construction of SPC Kevin Pannell’s home. She went above and beyond to raise awareness within her community – and this project was in addition to maintaining a 3.96 GPA in school, volunteering and participating in various extracurricular activities,” said Manny Almeida, vice president & general manager, FUJIFILM North America Corporation. “All of the students involved took on a lot of extra work by committing to this project and Fujifilm, along with Homes For Our Troops, is greatly appreciative of their efforts.”“Community volunteers are the foundation of Homes For Our Troops’ successful builds and we were thrilled to get more students involved with Kids For Our Troops,” said John Gonsalves, president, Homes For Our Troops. “With the financial support of Fujifilm and now with the awareness and funds that the student project provided, we are able to help more injured veterans and provide them with the specially-adapted homes they so deserve.”The SeeHere.com-sponsored Kids For Our Troops project was part of Fujifilm’s partnership with Homes For Our Troops, which included the corporation’s donation of $121,570. A portion of those funds came as result of Fujifilm’s digital camera “Military Appreciation Bundle” sold at various military bases across the country over the past year.
Books, Enhanced and Otherwise
At Digital Hollywood 2011 earlier this month, as part of the Transmedia Summit, CCC’s Chris Kenneally joined a panel of authors, developers and technologists to discuss “The Future of Enhanced Book Experiences.” Moderator Lisa Napoli, author of Radio Shangri-La, coaxed predictions from Dani Klein, Author/Actor, “Afterbirth…stories you won’t read in a parenting magazine”; Nina Lassam, Marketing Evangelist, Wattpad; Charles Stack, Founder and CEO, Sideways; and Daniel Tibbets, SVP, GoTV Networks and co-founder, Premier Digital Publishing.“Transmedia is a nice new word for something that’s not so new,” said Kenneally, noting that authors have long been multi-taskers, working in a variety of media. As for the future of publishing? “Don’t count out the good old book,” he added. “It has a lot of new media potential — it’s non-linear, multi-channel and the book even comes with a built-in search engine (the index).”Listen to the podcast here.
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame App Makes People Actually Buy Music
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame App Makes People Actually Buy MusicBy Eliot Van Buskirk
In its first two weeks, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame app for iPhone and iPad has done something remarkable in an industry where most news about music buying is about how people don’t do it anymore: It convinced people to pay for music.The $2 app includes information about 600 “songs that shaped rock ‘n’ roll,” and the company behind it reports an aggregate sales conversion rate of 31 percent. That means that in this two week period, every ten app purchases has already resulted in approximately three song purchases — an impressive ratio that the developer behind the app, Sideways, expects to rise.
“There was a 31 percent aggregate conversion rate within just the first two weeks,” said Sideways spokeswoman Liz Bazini. “While the number of app downloads will decrease over time, the in-app purchase rate will increase over time. Our conclusion is that iPhone/iPad apps with in-app music purchases work really well as a means of increasing music sales, which should be of significant interest to both artists and record labels.”I’ll say.Of course, plenty of apps these days, including popular interactive radio apps, include purchase links leading to song downloads on iTunes, and they don’t report this sort of success. Something must be different about this app, and so far as we can tell, it’s the level of curation and context surrounding each song.These songs, sortable by decade from 1920 to 2006, were hand-picked for inclusion in the app based on their degree of influence over the rock n’ roll genre. Users can’t stream them in their entirety, but they can hear samples — and, perhaps more importantly, read original text about why each one was included.It may not be enough to show people a list of music they might want to buy — they may need to knowwhy they should buy them, and to be able to wander through the list learning more about whatever piques their interest, rather than listening to songs in sequence, the way we do with radio-style apps.Perhaps there’s some truth to the argument that people still want to buy and own music; they might just might need more curation and context before they’re willing to commit. Proportionally speaking, it might be easier to sell music from a catalog of 600 than six million songs.
Technology Kills The Video Star
By Tyler Newton, Catalyst InvestorsIt's no secret that the Internet has deeply damaged traditional media when they have directly competed. In the case of music and newspaper classifieds, the Internet provided a superior way to consume content. In the case of radio, listenership held up but advertisers abandoned radio for the Internet. In the case of magazines, the Internet has cannibalized both readership and advertisers. Traditional broadcast and cable video advertising, on the other hand, has not been significantly harmed by the Internet and remains the most valuable form of large-scale advertising. That may soon change, as the emerging technology of real-time bidding has put video at risk of suffering the same fate as other forms of traditional media.Performance Marketing Dominates DisplayTo date, much of the strength in internet advertising has been in performance marketing such as search advertising and lead generation. Performance marketing provides a tangible return on investment, the ability to purchase at scale and in the case of search marketing, a dynamic pricing regime. These benefits explain why search is the largest form of online advertising. Of course most of the time consumers spend on the internet is spent consuming content, not searching on Google. Yet the "display" ad inventory associated with online content only accounts for 38% of the $26 billion online advertising market, while search accounts for 46%. Display is under-monetized because it lacks the combined strengths of search marketing mentioned above.Some display advertising is sold the old-fashioned way, with ad salesmen pitching inventory based on the demographics of the audience that can be inferred from the type of content on their website. The problem is that very few websites actually produce the scale of inventory to make this model work. Generally, the only way to buy display ad inventory in bulk is through ad networks. Ad networks provide advertisers with very little visibility into the underlying inventory, and are thus generally used by "spray and pray" lead generation players in large categories such as online education and mortgage finance.The Real-Time Bidding RevolutionThe real-time bidding (RTB) ecosystem has emerged to solve some of the shortcomings of display advertising relative to search advertising. The move to RTB is being driven largely by the ad agencies, which verifies the value that RTB brings to advertisers. It provides a platform to purchase display inventory at scale and with dynamic pricing. By directly accessing the targeted audience, brand advertisers get less demographic "leakage" and performance marketers get higher click-through rates. RTB should result in better sell-through rates and higher prices for banner and rich media advertisements.Where RTB could be truly revolutionary, however, is in the world of video advertising. Currently, advertising on television is the most valuable form of advertising, given its superior medium and large reach. This is the case despite the large amount of demographic leakage that comes from merely inferring who is watching what shows at what times. If advertisers can target ads to specific demographics and the ads can be purchased at scale via a variable pricing model, advertisers should find the RTB model superior to traditional television advertising forcing the television industry to change or to be left behind like radio.The art and glamour of producing and selling television advertising will become the science of buying and selling demographics. The art of producing video content to attract a large audience will shift to the science of producing content to attract the right audience against which to sell advertising at the right prices. For all we know, television becomes one giant Demand Media, focused on attracting viewers for shorter periods of time based on certain specific topics rather than conforming to the traditional half hour and hour time slots. It's hard to predict the precise effect on television economics, but it's easy to predict that the effect will be profound. Expect yet another victory of online technology over traditional media.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame showcases legendary exhibit via mobile app
By Dan ButcherThe Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Inc. has launched its first application for Apple’s iPad and iPhone to showcase the “Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll” interactive exhibit.The museum tapped Sideways Inc., which specializes in translating books, magazines and other publications for mobile devices, to create the multimedia app. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame app features more than 600 songs and includes a slide show that users can browse to listen to the music from a specific decade between 1920 and 2006.
“Our sole mission is to tell the world the significance of rock and roll music as a social force,” said Todd Mesek, vice president of marketing and communications for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Cleveland, OH. “The app simply gives us a new channel to tell that story.“The genesis of it was an exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, originally titled the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll, compiled by Rock Hall curators and a number of rock critics and historians,” he said. “This is the crux of what we do here: collecting, preserving and interpreting the story of rock, why it matters and how it intersects with our world.“Over time, the exhibit and the list of songs has expanded—we wanted to use this app as a new channel for telling the story.”The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a nonprofit organization focusing on educating visitors, fans and scholars about the history of rock and roll music.Sideways’ team of developers, designers, artists and editors creates applications for the Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android platforms.Rock for smartphones and tabletsThe Rock and Roll Hall of Fame app is available for purchase in the iTunes App Store for $1.99.Selected by the museum’s curatorial staff, education staff and a number of rock critics and historians, the songs are some of rock and roll’s most influential recordings. The list includes a variety of songs from artists and genres illustrating the evolution of rock and roll since the 1920s.Once a decade is selected, the app features an album cover slideshow to scroll through and select music. Users can then play the song sample from iTunes, purchase the song or add it to a custom play list contained within the app.The multimedia capabilities of the iPad and iPhone make them suited to an audio experience that is married to visuals and information, per Sideways.The target demographic of the app is a difficult question for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to answer.“Every day, we see teenagers coming into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame sporting t-shirts of the Doors, the Rolling Stones, the Who or the Clash—and right next to them, you’ll see a baby-boomer,” Mr. Mesek said. “At the same time, you’ll see a plumber standing next to a CEO and they’re both tapping their feet to the same song.“It’s a marketer’s nightmare, but everyone loves this music and it’s arguably the first time in history that the youth have embraced their parents’ art, so we’re offering this to everyone who’s a fan, who loves rock and roll and wants to learn more about the songs they love,” he said. “It’s also an opportunity for us to introduce people to songs they should know.“They don’t have to like all the songs in the app, but they need to understand that they’re significant in their impact.”
App users can download songs from iTunesThe Rock & Roll Hall of Fame claims to have an extensive network of members, friends and people who engage with us via social networks. Social is its first channel, per Mr. Masek.“We think it’s an app that people are going to want to know about, so between traditional media, digital media, social media and word-of-mouth, our hope is that people will immerse themselves in this app and share it with their friends,” Mr. Masek said.“We will work within the app guidelines to provide easy mechanisms for people to learn more about visiting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, supporting our mission and otherwise engaging in what we do to collect, preserve and teach people about how rock and roll changed our world and why it’s important,” he said.Final Take
Meet the Makers: How to fit the best songs of all time into one iOS app
By Brad Spirrison
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is one of the country’s most glorious cultural instituations and a must-visit destination for anyone who loves Rock & Roll. Of course, it’s not always easy to make the trek to Cleveland in order to understand the roots of rock.To that end, the Rock Hall in partnership with app developer Sideways collaborated on a new iOS application that debuted this week. The $1.99 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame app is designed around the museum’s “The 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll” exhibit and includes samples of each track (complete with a link to buy on iTunes) and narrative of context of why each is important.Appolicious Advisor Dan Kricke explains why you should induct this app to your iPhone right away in his review. In this week’s Meet the Makers, we also sat down with Todd Mesek from the Rock Hall and Eliza Wing from Sideways to discuss how to capture the heart and soul of rock in roll in a single mobile application.
Appolicious: When trying to compile the decades-long history of rock and roll into a smartphone or tablet, where does one begin?Todd Mesek (Rock Hall): The genesis of the app was an exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, originally titled “The 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll,” put together by Rock Hall curators and a number of rock critics and historians. This is part of what we do here: collecting, preserving and interpreting the story of rock, why it matters and how it intersects with our world. Over time, the exhibit and the list of songs has expanded. We wanted to use the app as new channel for telling the story.Appo: Beyond sampling selected songs for potential purchase on iTunes, what should consumers expect after they download the app?TM: The core of it is the songs, of course. Our hope is that people are introduced to songs that they might not know, but are critical to the development of rock and roll as a social force and an art form. You don’t necessarily need to like every song in the app, but you need to know about it. Second, our curators have added commentary into the app that gives fans some texture, some deeper understanding of why the song is important.Eliza Wing (Sideways): Users can read terrific original text from the Rock Hall curatorial and educational staff explaining that particular song's place in history. Users can rate the songs and add them to their playlists as well.
Appo: What apps did you and Sideways draw inspiration from when putting this together?TM: We knew Sideways and were familiar with their work, but the conversation didn’t start with a desire to build an app as much as it was a collaboration that drew on their expertise and helped us find new and innovative ways to tell our story.EW: To be honest, there aren't a lot of models out there for this sort of app. Early on, Sideways worked on apps that embedded the iTunes sample and purchase functional, so they had created that already. Both Sideways and the Rock Hall are very interested in using the mobile medium to create great multimedia music apps.Appo: Are there other smartphone and tablet apps based around the museum and its exhibits that consumers can download (or are currently in the works)?
TM: There are a number of interactive kiosks in the Museum that draw from multimedia databases and use technology to teach people about the rock and roll art form and how it made an impact. Through our website and collaborations with other organizations, we’ll be rolling out new vehicles that allow us use the technology to spread our mission.Appo: Are there plans to bring this app to Android-based phones and tablets? What was it about the iOS ecosystem and development technology that motivated you to launch on that platform first (and for the time being exclusively)?EW: Because the app is based on iTunes integration, there are no current plans to bring this to Android. The focus on the Apple devices had a tremendous amount to do with the iTunes functionality but also ... the penetration of the iPad versus any other Android tablet is so much larger and the tactile and visual experience is so much better at this point, we just felt it was important to focus on Apple.Rock & Roll Hall of Fame releases iOS app
By Jesse Hollington
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum has released an iOS application based on its Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll exhibit. The app features a multimedia showcase of over 600 songs from the 1920s through to 2006 selected by the museum’s curatorial staff and a number of rock critics and historians as influential in the evolution of rock and roll. Users can swipe through the app to experience the music from each era. Individual songs in each decade are presented using an album cover slideshow and users can listen to an audio preview of the song and read about the history of it and an explanation of why it made the celebrated list. Users can build a custom playlist of songs within the app or tap a link to purchase a song from the iTunes Store. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is a universal app and is available from the App Store for $2.
Up and Comers: MyVideoRights Thinks Big as it Expands Into the U.S.
By James CarelessAfter great success in the U.K., MyVideoRights is working to manage usage of major content libraries in the U.S., with clients including the Reda ArchivesAlmost $6 billion per year: That’s the potential revenue that could be generated by professionally produced U.S. videos online if they were effectively paired with advertising.That’s a number that set mouths watering at MyVideoRights.com (MVR), the London-based digital rights management company. MVR acts on behalf of digital rightsholders to protect their content from unauthorized usage and helps these rightsholders earn money by linking advertising to their online materials. The company’s U.K. catalog, which currently gets more than 160 million views per month, includes content from The Football Association, Tiger Aspect (Mr. Bean), BBC Worldwide, Ministry of Sound, Comic Relief, and Hat Trick Productions (Father Ted).To capitalize on the untapped U.S. market, MVR recently opened MVR-North America (MVR-NA) in New York City, headed by COO Ron Schneier. As former executive vice president of A&E Television, Schneier is very familiar with the U.S. broadcast scene. During his 17 years at A&E, he helped build A&E, The History Channel, The Biography Channel, and History International.“There are significant incremental revenue opportunities for content owners, entertainment companies, record labels and news and sports organizations,” says Schneier. “Even if just 20% of the video gets advertising attached to it, that represents over $1 billion in new revenues. That is a profit potential too good to miss.”MVR’s Upbeat ApproachUnauthorized video usage over the web is a major headache for content producers. Sites such as YouTube don’t actively police their content, though they willingly remove any proprietary content if rightsholders protest. Meanwhile, the surge in peer-to-peer file sharing makes it easy for popular content to spread like wildfire, and the people who own it aren’t making a penny in profits.There are a number of ways to deal with unauthorized usage. The hard-line approach favored by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has been to sue unauthorized users as severely and publicly as the law allows. It’s a strategy that has garnered much bad press for the U.S. music industry and has done little (if anything) to stem the problem of illegal music usage.MVR prefers to take a much softer, more pragmatic approach to surfers who post its clients’ content without permission. “Our goal is not to penalize the access to the content, but instead to make this access generate money for the people who own it,” says Schneier. “For instance, rather than remove a popular clip from YouTube so that no one can see it, we replace it with a higher quality version that provides a better viewing experience and makes money from advertising, i.e., through a short commercial preroll before the content is shown or a midroll of ads during the content itself. This keeps the content accessible to the people who want to see it, thus motivating them not to bother trying to post it elsewhere online. Meanwhile, it helps our clients earn money from content in a new way.”All Sorts of PossibilitiesNetwork television, music video, and sports highlights: All are popular on the web, and thus are naturals for tie-ins with advertising. But there are all kinds of content attracting online eyeballs—how-to videos being a popular example—that could be making their producers money as well.For instance, one of MVR-NA’s first clients is Lou Reda Productions and its newsreel archives. Within its 16,000 hours of film are events such as the iconic raising of the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima, the stock market crash of 1929, and Jesse Owens’ four gold medals wins in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.MVR-NA is currently licensed to distribute 150 hours of selected newsreel footage, which the company intends to package with short preroll and midroll commercials. “Unlike traditional TV, the viewer first needs to choose to watch a video before an ad is served,” says Schneier, “making online video advertising more impactful than passive television.”“The Reda Archives is one of the largest privately held archives in the world, and by working with MVR, millions of viewers can now access parts of our vast collection,” said Scott Reda, managing director for Lou Reda Productions, in a news release. “MVR gives us a way to maximize revenues by extending the distribution of our valuable content while expanding our audience.”“This is footage that, without the internet, would rarely make it outside of the can,” Schneier says. “Rather than just sitting on the shelf, the web makes it possible for Lou Reda Productions to earn income from its archives, and for the content itself to be seen again by new audiences. The rightsholder benefits, as do the viewers and the advertisers who buy preroll and midroll.”The potential of advertising-supported online video doesn’t stop here. Anything that people want to see on the web can make money from commercial prerolls and midrolls, as long as they are short enough to keep impatient viewers from clicking away. Online videos of cute kittens, local news clips (both current and archival), niche hobby programs, TV bloopers—literally any video that is being served onto the web today can be packaged with advertising. Better yet, this advertising can be highly targeted so that the promoted products can reach the people who are most likely to buy them. Is it a fan site running blooper clips of Star Trek? Then sci-fi products are natural advertisers in this venue; especially those selling Star Trek-licensed items.The greatest irony is that unlike broadcast television, there are no web PVRs (personal video recorders) that allow surfers to prerecord content and then skip the commercials when they play it back. (Though streaming recorders do exist, they’re not in widespread use.) In many ways, web video hearkens back to the good ol’ days of broadcasting, when the most viewers could do was run to the washroom during live programming. “Because our prerolls are short, there’s no time for people to duck away,” Schneier says. “Unlike traditional TV, I don’t think many viewers will bother tuning out for a 15-second preroll given that they have chosen to watch this video. And we do not build commercial pods with lots of ads that just push viewers to tune out. Rather we only run one preroll before the video begins, which creates a very positive viewing experience for the consumer.”Clearly, Schneier has great hopes for MVR’s North American operation and the revenue it could help earn for content providers—as well as for MVR itself. “We don’t kid ourselves that we will corner this market—it’s far too potentially lucrative—but we do hope to get a big piece of the pie by starting now,” he says. “And now with advertising dollars moving from traditional TV to online video companies including MVR, it is impossible to do anything besides thinking very, very big.”