Biographical Information

Articles for Nadine Krefetz

Why Ad Tech Is Becoming Smarter Than Ad Buying

SGAI is an ad-insertion technique that combines the advantages of CSAI and SSAI. This approach allows for more targeted ads and better technical delivery. It's part of an industrywide effort to standardise the ad-insertion process in which the server and client video player share the responsibility of ad insertion.

Rebundling Fatigue, Ad Tolerance on the Rise, Says TiVo Video Trends Research Report

We're here to parse a new market report from TiVo called "Q2 2024 TiVo Video Trends Report: North America Consumers Getting Smarter as Fatigue Sets In Amidst the Re-bundling Marathon." The title is a mouthful, and the research doesn't deliver on everything it promises.

Q&A: Microsoft Worldwide M&E Strategy Director Simon Crownshaw Talks Gen AI

In this expansive interview with Simon Crownshaw, Microsoft's worldwide media and entertainment strategy director, we discuss how Microsoft customers are leveraging generative AI in all stages of the streaming workflow and how they're using it in content delivery and to enhance user experiences in a range of use cases. Crownshaw also digs deep into how Microsoft is building asset management architecture and the critical role metadata plays in effective large-language models (LLMs), maximizing the value of available data.

Dynamic Paywalls for Streaming Services

What would happen if we started to have dynamic paywalls for streaming ser­vices? Leveraging user data, machine learning, and generative AI could create offers based on con­sumption patterns. Some companies are dab­bling in this, but now we have the technology to really start developing it.

NBCUniversal SVP Monica Williams Talks Streaming the Olympics, Cross-Platform CX, and the Power of Metadata

In this wide-ranging interview with Monica Williams, NBCUniversal's SVP of digital products and operations for the company's content distribution business, we discuss how the proliferation of digital platforms across the OTT, CTV, and online ecosystems has brought new content distribution challenges, the boon of metadata for improving customer experiences, and the 17-day everything-must-go-perfectly marathon of distributing the Olympics.

Games On! Programmatic Ads Compete for Eyeballs at the Olympics

FreeWheel is ready to support a streaming marathon for this summer's Paris Olympics, enabling programmatic buying for the first time for targeted ad-serving. Here's what this means for FreeWheel, NBCUniversal, advertisers, and premium sports streaming.

NAB 2024: Top New Tech for a Disruption-Ready Streaming Industry

Exciting new and (mostly) AI-driven tools and services from NAB 2024 that very specific problems, from shooting great iPhone footage to automatically creating short clips to providing live low-latency translation and captioning to creating customised radio programming to building purpose-driven social communities.

Michael Cerda, CPO for Streaming at TelevisaUnivision, Talks Building and Growing the World’s Largest Spanish-Language Streaming Service

Nadine Krefetz interviews Michael Cerda, CPO for streaming at TelevisaUnivision. He discusses the from-the-ground-up rebuild he implemented when he arrived at the company. He describes how—in just 9 months—his team assembled and scaled the tech stack dri­ving ViX, the world's largest Spanish-language streaming service, which haslive-streaming, AVOD, SVOD, and FAST offerings.

Best of CES 2024

Streaming Media's Nadine Krefetz recounts media tech highlights from CES 2024

The State of CTV Advertising

Ad buying is changing. For example, now you can buy from an agency that has deep knowledge of data around local viewing, or you can go to a TV manufacturer that has deep knowledge of all of the viewing on its hardware.

Generative AI and the Future of Media Tech

Incorporating generative AI into our workflows has the potential to impact almost everything in media technologies, and I'll examine several of the possibilities in this article.

Scripps Networks’ Senior Director of Product Yazmin Wickham Talks Viewer-Centered OTT UX Design

Recently I caught up with Scripps Networks Senior Director of Product Yazmin Wickham to get a better sense of the role a Director of Product plays in developing and managing UX at a diversified media company in the OTT and CTV universe. I learned how Scripps approaches the viewer experience, both in AVOD and SVOD models, and attempts to deliver as consistent an experience as possible across a wide array of platform, and the challenges and advantages of maintaining a unified (or nearly unified) text stack across the board.

Server-Side vs. Client-Side Ad Insertion: Which Side Are You On?

There are two broad categories of CTV ad insertion: Server-side (SSAI) and Content-side. We've had the SSAI vs. CSAI debate many times before, with SSAI often coming out on top in recent years, but the uptick in FAST viewing is changing the conversation for many stakeholders in the current media landscape. Effective ad delivery is far from a one-side-fits-all proposition these days.

Warner Bros. Discovery SVP Renard T. Jenkins Talks About Managing WBD's Massive Production Pipeline

Figuring out how Warner Bros. Discovery can pick the best technology to manage its massive production pipeline is what Renard T. Jenkins and his team do. Jenkins and I spoke on Zoom in late March about how those choices have changed in the past few years, his thoughts on machine learning (ML)/artificial intelligence (AI), and the unique demands of leading technology teams.

A Broadcaster's Cloud Migration Primer

This article offers a primer on how a traditional broadcaster could start to move services to a cloud provider. I spoke with an engineer from a government-owned European television station and subscription service who agreed to walk us through the process without direct attribution.

Netflix Ad Verification Is Good Science but Underwhelming Maths

The fact that Netflix is embracing ad verification and thus doing what is expected of every major media company that serves ads is good to know, but not particularly newsworthy on its own. What makes the announcement significant is that it shows that Netflix is relying on a measurement requirement (not of their own creation) which is simply hard to take seriously.

Winning the Data War: Accessing and Leveraging Streaming Analytics

This article explores the topic of data rights versus technology capabilities as it impacts media companies' ability to leverage accrued data and analytics to target relevant audiences, expand their reach, and monetize their content offerings. If the intersection of data rights ownership and technology capabilities access were captured in a Venn diagram, the space in between would be very small for some media companies.

The Streaming Toolbox: Ateliere Discover, Axinom Mosaic, and nanocosmos nanoStream Cloud

In this article, I'll look at three tools that provide interesting services for building media services and products. Ateliere Creative Technologies provides not just traditional MAM capabilities but also content management and app delivery. Axinom, likewise, has a development platform for building back-end services. nanocosmos expands on the old OVP model by delivering low-latency video for live, interactive-product developers. While I see a little bit of overlap with two of these products, it would be interesting to try to use everything here together.

Q&A: Jarred Wilichinsky, Paramount’s SVP of Ad Operations

Wilichinsky offers a look inside Paramount's ad-tech stacks and strategy.

The Streaming Toolbox: Tedial, Frequency Studio, Mlytics

The set of tools I'll explore in this article will help you orchestrate workflows, create FAST broadcasts, and do multi-CDN worldwide live streaming management. Using all of these tools, you could get your own channel up and running and deliver it everywhere—even in China. These set of tools were demo'd for me. In order for me to test an application, vendors need to provide dummy data, and not everyone can make it available within our editorial timeframe.

The Streaming Toolbox: Vistex GTMS, Agora, Transmit

Vistex's GTMS manages content licensing, Agora provides transport protocols and SDKs for interactive media app developers, and Transmit offers a new spin on advertising

Why Should Broadcasters Make the Switch to the Cloud?

Broadcasting has been behind streaming in its embrace of the cloud, but the rewards of making the switch can be significant. We talk to executives from service providers and broadcasters that have made the leap to learn from their experiences and get their advice.

The Streaming Toolbox: Hovercast, Prophet, and Pulsar

In this installment, we look at products for interactive live streams, ad inventory pricing, and CDN balancing

Navigating the Ad Tech Maze

Here's how five industry experts are finding their way through the complicated world of advertising technology.

The State of Video Ad Tech 2021

As ad-supported viewing grows, the industry grapples with three key challenges: privacy, workflow fragmentation, and scale

The Streaming Toolbox: FILMIC Pro, Bitcentral FUEL, Touchstream VirtualNOC

This installment of The Streaming Toolbox is all about remote control, for mobile devices, advertising, and network operations

Android TV: The Future of Television?

Google's TV platform may be the best hope for a future in which pay TV and OTT exist side by side.

The State of Server-Side Ad Insertion 2018

For years, SSAI has promised targeted advertising in a seamless stream that defeats the ad blockers. Has the promise finally been realized?

Content Licensing Gets Complicated: Who’s Minding the Store?

The video ecosystem is getting more complex, so managing licenses manually is becoming impractical. Learn how publishers and broadcasters are turning to automation to solve the problem.

The State of Video and AI 2018

The machines aren't taking over; they're just helping video publishers achieve their goals more efficiently and effectively.

Amazon, Netflix, and More Go Global With the Cloud

At NAB, execs from Amazon, Netflix, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros. shared their insights into how virtualized workflows in the cloud are helping them meet international demand

The Top Ten Enterprise Video Trends: Where Business Is in 2016

User-generated content, moving to the cloud, and going live: Here are the ten biggest issues impacting corporate video strategy today.

10 Essential Elements to Creating a Great Video Streaming App

From ad insertion to analytics, successful video app developers focus on more than just the content. Here's a roadmap to creating a successful app.