Large Scale Disruptive Project

[Marc Allan Feldman]

Sorry, long post. Feel free to skip down to "What I am looking for"
to see if you might be interested.

I am from a generation that loved TV.
TV has grown dramatically in quantity, and deteriorated in quality. I
think part of the reason was that before, programs had to compete for
air time for a small number of channels. Television programming was
free to the viewer and programs were supported by advertising fees.
Unfortunately today, advertising fees do not cover the cost of
satellite and cable systems.
I had an idea to make television free to the viewer again, with an
improvement in quality and entertainment experience.

The answer is the use of a far more efficient, and valuable form of
advertising. Called interest-based, or targeted, or directed, or
addressable ads. The bottom line is that different households
watching the same show on the same channel at the same time can see
different commercials.
Some advantages are:
1. The same commercial time slot can be sold to many different
advertisers, as long as they have different audiences.
2. Commercials are less annoying when they are geared for the
particular viewing audience. Diapers for people with babies, etc.
3. Geographic targeting allows local business to buy TV ads just in
there small local areas.

Current television advertising raises about $50 billion dollars in
revenue. Addressable advertising should be more entertaining, more
effective, and generate more revenue. Many corporations have been
trying to get into this space including Google TV Ads, Canoe ventures
(Cable consortium), DISH/DirectTV, etc.

There are three barriers that have blocked addressable advertising so
far.
1. Hardware. Many homes are still using analog cable with no set-top
box. Most current set-top boxes do not have the power for two way
communication to collect and upload viewer data and download and
insert commercial files.
2. Market Issues. Most commercial time slot inventory is owned and
controlled by the networks. The infrastructure for content delivery
is mostly owned by the cable and satellite companies. Up until now,
the networks were unwilling to give up control of time slot inventory
to the cable and satellite companies. The cable and satellite
companies are not willing to share the control of their
infrastructure.
3. Privacy issues. The public generally is not willing to give up
their privacy to allow more commercials, especially when they already
have to pay monthly fees for service.

I found a potential solution. I have been setting up HTPCs in my home
for about 7 years. I used to have TiVo, but I hated the inflexibility
and the monthly fees. It occured to me that a network of HTPCs would
be an excellent platform for addressable advertising.
1. The internet-connected PC is the perfect data communication
device.
2. DVR software allows time-shifting. This bring the potential for
an infinite inventory of commercial time slots. The managed network
provides the infrastructure. Commercials could be added at any time
on any channel without negotiating with broadcast networks or cable
and satellite providers.
3. Although people do not want to give up their privacy, or
especially have their privacy infringed with their knowledge, peope
are willing to share privacy on two conditions. 1. That their
information will be secure and will not be abused. and 2. They get
something of considerable value in return. Security can be optimized
with appropriate systems and encryption. Free DVR service,
potentially free internet connection, and free content would be
effective inducements.

An addressable-advertising subsidized system could work with any and
all DVR systems. BeyondTV, SageTV, or Microsoft Windows Media Center.
I think the best and most flexible system would be open source. The
potential for accessory apps is also huge.
..................................
What I think I am looking for (always want to hear other suggestions):
A skilled MythTV dev to code modules for
1. Commercial insertion with rapid recognition of commercial cuts.
Method needs high specificity, sensitivity less important. Probably
based on scaled down version of mythcommflag? Could be either on the
backend when programs are recorded, or probably better on the frontend
during program play.
2. Logging viewer data and upload to central servers.
3. Download and storage of commercial files.

Payment:
I would much prefer an individual who primarily shares my passion for
making the world a better place to watch television. Potential
reimbursement could include;
1. Payment for hardware
2. Share in potential equity
3. Pay at hourly rate
4. Pay for deliverables.

Marc Allan Feldman
Founder and owner
Openivo, Inc.

[Another Sillyname]

I think you've missed the point.

A LOT of people use DVRs so they don't have to watch any adverts.

So:-

Where's your value proposition?

What's your route to market?

How deep are your pockets? frankly trying to play in this game with
anything less then $100m in the bank does not even get you a seat on
the table (simplistically large advertisers won't even waste their
time talking to anyone who can't deliver at least 10m eyeballs over
the period of a campaign)

Sorry to rain on your parade but I'd rather give you free honest
advice then take money out of your pocket.

[Marc Allan Feldman]

Thanks for your rapid and frank response.

Studies have shown that people actually only skip 50% of commercials.
Remember that the only real difference between a commercial and a TV
show is that one lasts 30 seconds and the other lasts 30 minutes.
Commercials could be just as entertaining as the shows. Consider the
Super Bowl commercials for example. With the proposed system (Openivo
tm) all commercials would still be skip-able. It will be up to the
marketers to come up with ads that people will not want to skip.

Value proposition: Much of the increased value of the addressable ads
will go to the viewer, who will get free DVR service, potentially free
internet access, and a better entertainment experience.

Route to market. Once the software is in beta I will give systems to
10 or 20 early adopters. When it works and is really cool, I would
sell it in one local market at a time, and market advertising
inventory to local business. If it catches on, it could scale up
nationally. Because it uses industry standard computers and tuners,
Openivo will not have to build, inventory or service hardware.

Depth of pockets. I make a very nice salary, but I have two kids in
college. I am not a millionaire. But circumstances are allowing me
to be a virtual entrepreneur. Open Source operating system and
software, so I do not have to negotiate with Apple or Microsoft.
Cloud infrastructure on Amazon Web Services so we only pay for the
computing power and storage that we use. AWS is scalable, so we
should be able to scale rapidly from 1000 users to 100,000 as
necessary. Client systems would be sold with a rebate over time to
limit inventory expenses and debt.

There is no guarantee of success by any means. But there is at least
a potential path to success. There are several major industry players
very interested. You might be surprised by the marketing and media
people already on the team.


On Nov 16, 1:25 pm, Another Sillyname <anothersn...@googlemail.com>
wrote:

> I think you've missed the point.
>
> A LOT of people use DVRs so they don't have to watch any adverts.

> ,

> So:-
>
> Where's your value proposition?

> D

> What's your route to market?
>
> How deep are your pockets? frankly trying to play in this game with
> anything less then $100m in the bank does not even get you a seat on
> the table (simplistically large advertisers won't even waste their
> time talking to anyone who can't deliver at least 10m eyeballs over
> the period of a campaign)
>
> Sorry to rain on your parade but I'd rather give you free honest
> advice then take money out of your pocket.
>

[Another Sillyname]

Marc

Have you done a 3 year business plan?

When is your expected break even point?