More consolidation: OnSite buys Boondoggle April 24, 2008 by Dave HaynesOnSite Network has announced a deal to acquire Nevada New Media, the owner of Boondoggle Sports Network, a screen network playing in the same restaurant and bar space. No deal terms were released. The buy almost doubles OnSite’s footprint, to 200 locations in the US, which in relative terms is still teeny. But the plans …
Major screen networks to get Nielsen ratings April 24, 2008 by Dave HaynesA big development out of that one-day industry conference in New York yesterday – word that measurement giant Nielsen is going to start distributing ratings reports on some of the larger place-based video networks in the US. Reports MediaPost (which organized the event): In a move that could bring the kind of structure to the …
More detail on that "free" software from Puerto Rico April 24, 2008 by Dave HaynesGiovanni Collazo, the lead designer behind a free digital signage platform out of Puerto Rico, sent me a link overnight to a Quicktime presentation that runs through the attributes of what is challengingly called s3mer. It has been decades since I took a marketing class, but I suspect somewhere in there was a suggestion that …
Mixer reminder April 24, 2008 by Dave HaynesA quick reminder that the next mixer for the Toronto industry (and anyone else who’s strayed through town) is tonight at Alice Fazooli’s. Things should start around 6:30, and carry on from there. The place is about halfway between Spadina and University on Adelaide. There is an NBA playoff game on at the ACC tonight, …
Adcentricity closes $3 million finance deal April 23, 2008 by Dave Haynes The deal was cut a couple of months ago, but after all the due diligence stuff got done Adcentricity was able to announce Wednesday a $3 million series A equity financing that will help the founders pay down their tab at Toronto’s Spoke Club. The great majority, however, will go to help expand the year-old …
The marvels of staged photos April 23, 2008 by Dave Haynes I get such a kick out of staged photos in this space. You see this with a lot of small network operators who have images proving (“There, ya see, people ARE watching the damn screens!”) there is indeed an audience. But even monsters like Cisco feel the urge. The poor woman looks utterly delighted to …
Latest Strategy Institute event seems to tone down the vendor nonsense April 21, 2008 by Dave HaynesThe Strategy Institute has been running high-end conferences targeting this space going all the way back to 2004, but I have not been all that interested in going to one for a while because of the way show sponsors can tend to drive the speaker line-up. As I have noted a few times, not many …
Channel M gets new financing completed April 21, 2008 by Dave HaynesOn the heels of a post last week about the challenges of getting investor money comes word in MediaPost that Channel M has completed another round of financing, this time with Intel Capital. There was a $6 million raise announcement a few months ago, as well. Total money in the door to date: $24 million. …
Cell phone-based gadget saves cost of rolling a truck April 21, 2008 by Dave HaynesFor many years now I have been recommending the use of something called an automatic ring rebooter when network operators are using DSL for connecting and monitoring screen networks. Simply put, it’s a switchable power bar that you run the DSL phone line through. When, not if, the DSL modem or router fails, all you …
Standards finally getting some attention April 17, 2008 by Dave HaynesI am told, reliably, that past efforts by POPAI to get technical standards discussions going in this industry were met with a, umm, tepid response. As in, all you could hear on the conference call was the sound of crickets. Fast forward to last week, when there was a renewed effort via conference call to …
