Inspired by the BBC's 50th anniversary simulcast, the Downton creator says the period drama should be shown at the same time on both sides of the Atlantic
No, Hugh Bonneville’s character won’t be changing his name to Time Lord Grantham, or going on an adventure in the Tardis (unless you count the time Bonneville himself starred in an episode of Doctor Who). But Downton Abbey could take a leaf out of the Doctor’s book when it comes to timey-wimey stuff, says its creator Julian Fellowes.
Having been impressed by the BBC’s simultaneous broadcast of Doctor Who 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor to over 90 countries last November, Fellowes believes Downton fans on both sides of the Atlantic should at least be able to see episodes debut on the same day – and he hopes it would help avoid spoilers for US viewers too.
“I want to have simultaneous transmission in America and Britain,” said Fellowes. “The difficulty that we have is that people are discussing the series as it happens online before America’s seen it and on the internet we’re all in the same company. It’s madness.”
“The BBC have shown it can be done because they did it with Doctor Who so all this talk that it’s impossible is wrong,” the writer told The Telegraph. “I don’t mean exactly the same time so people have to stay up all night but instead the same day in order for everyone to have a chance to watch it.”
But does the writer think he has enough influence to implement the changes? “I don’t have enough sway to choose my own clothes,” he said. “It’s what I’d like but who cares what I think.”
The most recent fourth series of Downton Abbey began on US channel PBS in January, four months after it debuted in the UK on ITV. And while American fans are keen to see it as soon as possible, channel bosses may not feel the same.
“The fact that word-of-mouth travels after it airs in the UK has actually benefited us,” one PBS exec said previously. “We kind of don’t want to mess with that.”
At first I thought that the guy on the air should have learned in broadcasting school to always listen to the 'on-air' feed, not the 'board feed'.
Then, it dawned on me that somebody probably had enough of reading all night traffic all night long and had ...quit.
At 120 am I noticed AM730 went from a newscast by Kyle Benning directly into another newscast read by Erin Newbells (sp?).
Sadly there was a false double outcue at the end of her report where she signed off the newscast... twice.
Then the computer went into a commercial cluster and...you guessed it...went back to a Benning four minute newscast again.
Between 3 am until 439am the station ran non stop 30 second commercials...back to back... approximately 180 commercials!!!
"I just got here and gotta get some stuff organized. I know you just listened to a whole bunch of commercials but I need to take a break. Here's some more".
After a bunch of spots the announcer came back with some quick generic traffic info before declaring:
To his credit, he DID recover nicely after obviously having been called in the middle of the night to come put out the fire.
Meanwhile, kudos to Real Radio CBC's Stephen Quinn for getting his ass into the station at FOUR AM to start Tsunami coverage for the province.
That's what happens when a corporate-run radio station runs on autopilot from a broom closet server.
What an absolute joke. Last week NW was off the air for five hours one night, now AM 730 and it's computer trying to change format.
To alter the topic, kudos to CFAX for pre-empting Coast to Coast to live broadcast the potential tsunami.
Jim Walters wrote: What an absolute joke. Last week NW was off the air for five hours one night, now AM 730 and it's computer trying to change format.
For what it's worth, under local ownership, there wouldn't be a traffic format on 730 in the first place, or likely any English language format at all. Corus' size allows them to run 730 at a loss, when its only purpose is to take tuning away from 1130 in order to help 980.
Built from the ground up using the most modern and reliable technologies today: .NET and the fantastic graphical subsystem WPF. This is the future of automation.
(click thumbnail)Philippe GeneraliQ. What’s new that you will show at the 2008 NAB Show and that radio broadcasters should look for there?
We continue to beef up our new music scheduling system Gselector, with its patented Goal Scheduling technology, by making it more hybrid. Rule based concepts are now included from our classic Selector program. This has significantly boosted the adoption of our system: we currently have two to three clients per day migrate over to GSelector.
The first interactive interface between NexGen Digital, our leading automation system and GSelector has been completed. Each system is independent, yet the level of interactivity between them is unprecedented in the industry.
At our booth, we reveal our brand new digital audio system for radio stations (code name: Bengal). Built from the ground up using the most modern and reliable technologies today: .NET and the fantastic graphical subsystem WPF. This is the future of automation.
And we will be introducing to our international customers and prospects our brand new traffic system called Aquira. There again, the most advanced concepts have been used to build the traffic system of the future from the ground up. Aquira is the most powerful and scalable traffic system ever created.
At RCS and Media Monitors, we’re passionate about radio. Almost 30 years ago, we invented music scheduling with the help of the first personal computer. That changed the lives of many programmers who, at that time, relied on shoe boxes full of index cards to rotate their music. The agreement with Arbitron continues the RCS tradition of groundbreaking innovation for the programming department. Which program director has not dreamed of visualizing the audience’s reaction to his/her programming strategies? We are talking about the “real thing” that is the direct result of what was on the air. With Audience Response, you can see whether the members of your PPM panel, your actual “judges,” are listening – or not! Next, we empower the programming staff by letting them injest these findings right into the music rotation goals in GSelector. This is the best way to program your station intelligently. RCS and Media Monitors will be there to help the programmer get the most out of the PPM data with easy to use software.
Q. Do your company’s “niches,” i.e. scheduling and automation on the content output side, monitoring/verification on the other end, affect each other? In other words, has the ability of users to get such enormous data about what actually played, had an impact on how radio stations buy and use your delivery products?
Absolutely. In 2008, radio is all about accountability. When an engineer, a sales person or program director makes choices, they want to make the all the right decisions for very good reasons. As a program director, if you play this song more often, or change your clock to move that morning bit 30 minutes later in the hour, it is because you have the proof that it is better for the station, for the audience and therefore for the advertiser. Why rely on guess work, assumptions or hunches, when you now can find the facts? You can see if the audience likes it or not. You know it, your boss knows it and ultimately the advertiser will know it. Between RCS and Media Monitors, we help you see the consequences of your actions. Programming a station without knowing the audience response to your station would be like driving a car with a blindfold.
Q. Your iSelector is a personalized online player, streaming a radio station’s content to listeners who can customize it. Some people think online is the only place where radio will be able to see increased revenue anytime soon. What are your streaming clients telling you about that part of the market? Is it growing, has it plateaued?
Streaming audio of your terrestrial broadcast is just another transport for the content. But with WiMax around the corner, streaming will be mobile and soon, in your car. That will certainly change the rules of the game. All of a sudden, the number of formats and choices available will be virtually unlimited.
We have two ways to handle streaming. The first one is called RCS RadioShow, which lets the station match content – visuals, graphics, artist and song notes, RSS feeds, concert information, etc – to what is playing on the air in either a web display or on a cell phone. This is powered by Selector in concert with the automation system of the station.
The other system that we have a patent on is called iSelector. With all the available streaming content, the ultimate format is YOUR OWN exclusive format; the one you carve out by picking your songs and determing the rotations. This is what iSelector lets you do: it is a consumer-grade music scheduling system, under supervision and control of the radio station brand. The consumer just has to say: I want more of that artist, or less of that song and the system will adjust the rotation automatically for that listener only.
We are based in White Plains, N.Y., with offices in over 100 countries with more than 500 employees.
Today we are convinced that radio broadcasters are ready to deploy network audio on a large scale. Our product and technology portfolio reflects this fundamental change, notably with Visiblu, our network...
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Intern-generated content increased social media attention for the company and produced lots of new applications for the talent pool.	
Michigan-based organizations supporting the auto industry have an employee pipeline to fill, but they face an exodus of talented workers attracted to tech companies and startups located outside the state. One of these auto suppliers, Yazaki North America, took on the challenge, and its efforts have won it first place in the “User-Generated Content” category of PR Daily’s 2016 Content Marketing Awards.
Yazaki North America created a social media-based employer branding effort that let its interns—drawn from local universities—share their internship experiences alongside the hashtag #internYazaki as brand ambassadors. The range of content these stories created sparked surprisingly high social media interest.
Some interns shared photos of themselves with executives or from testing facilities. While others shared insights into their daily activities as interns. The common thread was their newfound interest in one of the country’s oldest and technologically advanced industries. Over the summer #InternYazaki hashtag appeared on Twitter and Instagram over 1,300 times, with each post highlighting a dimension of being a Yazaki intern and being the future of automotive.
Before long, the movement took root on Snapchat, as interns participated in a takeover of Yazaki’s official account—an increasingly popular use of Snapchat by companies—to give viewers a behind the scenes look at their journey as they experience everything the auto industry has to offer. Each intern takeover produced an average of 50 new followers.
The campaign peaked when several interns were invited to attend a conference where they provided live content and fresh-faced commentary for an automotive media publication. At the conference, which was mostly attended by automotive executives, the Yazaki interns quickly gathered attention spawning Q&A sessions about Millennials and their thoughts on recruiting, work culture, and the future of the automotive industry.
Traffic to Yazaki’s website increased by 35 percent each month; the campaign generated 54,000 impressions and (more importantly) an increase in internship applications.