Big Changes Afoot

A whole bunch of exciting changes this month. The main ones being that I am leaving Piksel to relaunch my own consulting service and that as of today, I am taking over as Chairman of the 2nd Screen Society.


The parting with Piksel was quite amicable— they are actually one of my first clients— but there’s just so much going in the Future TV space, it seemed like the right time to pursue some of the opportunities I'd been seeing. I’ll be offering a range of consulting services to companies in the media and entertainment industries through Toad Stool Consultants. The primary focus will be on digital/future strategy, product marketing and thought leadership. You can see the complete list here.

One of those great opportunities I was referring to is that I am taking over as Chairman of the 2nd Screen Society. (Chuck Parker becomes Chairman Emeritus.) There’s a real revolution happening in the broader 2nd screen space with social TV, multiscreen and everything in between, and S3 will play a crucial role in helping this nascent industry gain traction. Among the ways we'll be doing that is by introducing standards, by getting both content creators and advertisers more involved and by promoting the actual success stories our members now have. It’s thrilling to be riding this wave of change as it becomes more and more mainstream-- I have been very involved in the 2nd Screen Society since its inception and the people who run it are incredibly smart, passionate and (most importantly) just plain good people.

So I’m really looking forward to hitting the ground running.


The final announcement for this morning (and one that should come as no surprise to many of you) is that I’ve written a book about the TV industry and it’s due out later this fall. Called Over The Top: How The Internet Is (Slowly But Surely) Changing The Television Industry it’s comprised of three sections. The first details the current business relationships in the TV industry: who pays who for what, why and when. The second section deals with the changes currently buffeting the industry, everything from the rise of binge viewing to streaming services like Netflix to second screen and social TV to the empowerment of fan communities. 
The final section are my predictions about where we’ll wind up in the next ten years and why it’s a lot better than where we are now.

Writing the book chewed up much of my evenings and weekends over the past six months, but it's finally done and I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted on the publication date.

Thank you all for your support these past 7+ years and I look forward to having you along on the next part of the journey.