Greg O'Brien, Comcast

Chicago New Media Summit : Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 : 11:00 am : iTV Advertising Models

 

Greg O'Brien, Comcast The Talk: “Interactive TV” and the extraordinary impact it would have on product marketing has been a topic of conversation for more than 40 years--long before the emergence of the Internet. European nations have had narrowband interactivity for decades but the US has been slow to deploy. No longer. Driven by many economic and technological factors, Interactive TV is being realized right now.

Americans spend more time with TV than any other medium—more than 4.5 hours per day. As consumers are able to do more with their remote controls—learn, shop & buy—the world of product marketing will be revolutionized (again).


The News: Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSK, CMCSA), the nation’s leading provider of entertainment, information and communications, has announced that they are working with Intel Corporation to bring Internet Protocol (IP) based applications to the television experience set using a new technology co-developed by Intel and called the Widget Channel framework.

This technology, previewed today at Intel’s Fall Developer Conference, is an open software development framework that enables the ability to combine Internet-based applications with a TV experience through a widget-based user interface that can be easily accessed while watching television programs. The Widget Channel framework’s graphical user interface will let consumers click an onscreen widget to access and view a variety of Internet-based applications or content such as weather updates, news, games, and other -interactive applications on their TV.

Bio: Greg O'Brien, Vice President, Advanced TV

Greg is a 20 year veteran of both traditional and emerging media.

After working in the broadcast TV industry for CBS, Tribune and Katz over a 10 year time horizon, Greg transitioned to digital media in 1996.

His first role in digital media was to help startup a 24/7 Media. Working out of San Francisco he served as VP, Sales and Operations for the company. During his tenure 24/7 Media during the Internet’s “boom” years Greg had a key role in grow the company from 17 people generating less than $1 million in revenues to more than 225 staffers generating greater than $80 million in revenues.

After leaving 24/7 Media in 2000, Greg joined startup MediaSearch.com, then the Internet’s largest multimedia search engine. There Greg served as EVP, Sales and Business Development. In 2003 Greg joined Comcast, the nation’s largest cable services provider. His goal in joining Comcast was to help to develop and implement the business models that would be made available by Interactive TV technologies. There Greg holds the title of Vice-President, Advanced TV Initiatives where he develops and manages multiple lines of eTV businesses nationally for the company.

On CNMS: Connect with business leaders that can leverage Comcast's current and near future interactive TV platforms to build ad-supported business models.