[itvt]'s Tracy Swedlow recently spoke to Tom Barreca and David Knise, who are respectively SVP and VP of AMC Digital Ventures, about why AMC decided to enhance MonsterFest--it's most heavily promoted programming event of the year--with ITV; about the 3-way collaboration process between AMC, GoldPocket and ExtendMedia; about ITV's role in the future of AMC and its sister networks; and more.

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[itvt]: Why did AMC decided to pursue 2-screen ITV now?

Barreca: I think the simplest answer to why we chose to do it is that our mission in life at AMC Networks is to find new and different ways to present a movie. For example, we have a franchise called "Much More Movie," where we run a letterbox version of the movie and we present all kinds of information about the individual scene you're in in the lower third of the screen. We've been thinking about other ways we can present a movie within the confines of our license. As you know, relationships with studios are fairly highly regulated, in terms of what you're able to present or how you're able to present a title.

[itvt]: What kind of limitations must you work within?

Knise: Well, there are individual directors who have clearance rights on a particular cut. There are limitations as to commercial applications: for example, if the film is being used in a non-traditional sense to generate incremental revenues. There are at times limitations in terms of the nature of the edits: you can't violate the story arc in certain ways.

[itvt]: Presumably there aren't any limitations on extracting information from the film for trivia purposes?

Knise: No, that's a fair use of the material. And, in fact, AMC has a lot of movie information contained in databases we actually own under copyright.

[itvt]: Why did you pursue 2-screen ITV versus single-screen. Are you happy with the 2-screen format or are you going to go in the direction of single-screen….?

Barreca: We'll see how this plays out. Historically our MonsterFest franchise, over the last several years, has always involved some sort of a technology hook. Last year, through David's group, we created a whole series of Flash games around the game franchise, "You Don't Know Jack!" We had thousands of people playing it through the Web. It wasn't synchronous like this stuff is, but it's all taking it up to the next level for us.

Knise: Yeah, I think this is actually a true convergence experience. During last year's MonsterFest event, you could play those "You Don't Know Jack" games without ever watching any of the movies, as long as you knew something about monster trivia. In this year's event, questions are directly based on what's happening on screen. You don't have to know anything about monsters or monster movies, but you can play along with this game because your answers are going to come from what you see on TV. I think this is a true convergence experience, versus kind of a half-baked experience that was put together with just online Flash games. It's actually great fun, and what's nice about it is that the application performs well, regardless of your speed at home--although certainly that's part of the cable business: we're encouraging all of our customers to have a high-speed connection.

[itvt]: What kind of budget has this project been given for promotion? What kind of priority does it have?

Barreca: Well, this is the network's single largest promotional effort each year. We probably do a disproportionate amount of our paid media and our heaviest email drops throughout the month of October. We do a lot of partnering and cross-marketing with Horde, Goth--the monster/SciFi kind of sites--to bring people in. It's actually huge for us. There's a ton running on the other Rainbow companies in terms of cross-channel marketing, as well as cross-medium marketing with Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, and the like.

[itvt]: How did the project get initiated? Who made the decision to jump in this direction and why?

Knise: Well, I think it was kind of a joint decision. MonsterFest has been going on for 5 or 6 years. We were wondering, "What are we going to do different this year?" And when we came across the GoldPocket technology, we were like, "This is actually a true convergence experience where we've got people playing online as well as watching TV!" So the technology seemed to be right. Although "You Don't Know Jack!" was very successful, it was a very different approach from what we're doing this year. We thought this was kind of the next step.

[itvt]: How did you come across GoldPocket?

Barreca: Good question! We met them at a tradeshow...

Knise: Right. At NCTA!

Barreca: Yeah, we met them at NCTA. They've used varying versions of the underlying engine with other cable programmers. The big difference with AMC is that no-one has ever really done it long-form. To actually have a game running the duration of a feature film…it's kind of a next step for them too.

[itvt]: Did you have to run the idea by the AMC higher-ups, or do you have final decision power?

Barreca: No, MonsterFest is sort of a joint entity. Digital Ventures, which is our business unit, is a contributor to MonsterFest because it has a technology bent to it. So it tends to be our largest project of the year--hence the entirely separate, new Web site. We spend a fair amount of the non-holiday, off-part of the year looking for what kinds of technologies are out there that we can apply. And we looked at everything from how can we lay in voiceovers during interstitials to other ways to get people to "play along." And when we met these GoldPocket guys, we said, "Hmm, this is interesting. They're doing it for these short-subject pieces…I wonder if they can do this for 2 hours?" And that's really how we came to it. We presented this and a number of creative ideas to the network. And it worked out that they liked it.

[itvt]: Why do you think they gave it the go-ahead?

Barreca: Nobody can exist in the cable business today without having at least one eye on the ITV horizon. I do think that the network people are saying, "Hey, this is a way for us to put our toe in the water and see how it goes." And knowing that we're doing it with a project that is going to be heavily marketed was, I think, part of it. Secondly, the network made a strategic business shift in the last month or so to begin to carry more advertising than ever before. A project like this really helps build an audience, because you're getting people literally to stay with the programming for its duration. I think it's attractive to the network.

[itvt]: Is the network considering more ITV projects? Or are they just thinking about improving an online experience? Is there a shift in thinking going on?

Barreca: It is a shift. I definitely think that the AMC team has an eye toward making a mark on some of these new technologies. This is a good first step, and, frankly, we happen to have come across a piece of technology that they like and that we found easy enough to work with, and which is something that will work for long-form programming.

[itvt]: How has it been to work with GoldPocket?

Knise: It's been great. They know their business. They've done a lot of short-form. They've got some great tools and technologies in place. It's gone pretty smoothly. They work directly with the broadcaster to hook up the tools that synch up the online and on-air experience. There have been no hiccups.

[itvt]: How did the front-end application get developed? I know ExtendMedia was involved. Are your editors producing the content?

Knise: The Web site and the front-end were all done by Extend, and then there is an on-air component which is produced by our on-air group.

[itvt]: How is all that being coordinated with GoldPocket?

Knise: They have an event producer who coordinates with us, the Digital Ventures Group, and also with our broadcast group, to make sure that all the technology is working. And then, within our group, we have people who are working with our on-air folks to make sure that all the necessary artwork and stuff is delivered where it needs to be delivered.

[itvt]: So you guys have been the central coordinators, and Extend didn't really have to communicate with GoldPocket?

Barreca: We tend to sit in the hub of all of this, because the technology is so integral. But frankly, the GoldPocket tools made it relatively simple from a coordination standpoint. GoldPocket has done a lot of work in cable, and this experience made it relatively painless. And Extend was really able to master the graphic tools that the application brings with it, and they know our technical infrastructure, as we've used them for other ITV projects before where we've created virtual channels for MSO's.

Knise: Extend has worked on virtual channels for us for both AMC and We (Women's Entertainment). They've worked on tons of high-speed content for us, for individual MSO's. They do a lot of back-end database and technical development for us.

Barreca: And again, I think you'll see, as you watch this product unfold on both screens, that the smooth flow in delivery is largely a function of the beauty and grace of the GoldPocket tools and the stellar approach and technical know-how that Extend brought to the party. It was really a great marriage. And everybody tended to embrace it as a collective, collaborative project. You know, from having worked in ITV, that sometimes it can be a bit of a catfight. That didn't happen at all. A pleasant surprise to me. We had a surprisingly complementary set of skills, technical ability and creative ability.

Knise: Just as an example, the registration was built by Extend but obviously it had to hook up to the GoldPocket technology, so that when people get ready to sign up for the event, all of that stuff happens without a problem. The 2 groups were able to put that together without pointing fingers. It's been a great, great working experience.

[itvt]: That's good to hear. Because I know some people are afraid of the costs, the unknowns, and the complexity of ITV.

Barreca: Frankly, I think we see an ever-shrinking pool of good-quality developers out there, because the business models haven't necessarily substantiated a lot of the aspirations. But we're with 2 companies that happen to be survivors. Extend did a ton of work with us at other networks and satellite providers up in Canada and the like. And GoldPocket, of course, has worked with broadcast networks, they've worked with individual network affiliates, they've worked with other cable networks. So we're working with companies that have confidence that they're able to get things done, and we know that they're going to be there tomorrow if anything were to go wrong.

[itvt]: Did you face any big problems that you had to solve?

Knise: Not yet!

Barreca: Knock on wood!

Knise: It's actually gone quite smoothly. I think that everybody involved knew their roles and their parts and stuck to it…I hate to keep blowing the horn here, but at this point everything is rock solid and ready to go.

Barreca: I think a big part of it was that this is the network's single largest initiative. We started meeting on this back in February or March. It's one of those things where the luxury of time also healed--or rather prevented--a lot of grief.

[itvt]: How did Chevrolet get involved?

Barreca: Chevrolet is the overall sponsor of the MonsterFest event. They're involved and included in everything such as print advertisements, promotional mentions and stuff. They'll be doing product placement on the screen as you're playing the game online.

[itvt]: Do you know how they feel about the ITV aspects of the project?

Barreca: The thing about the project is that they've been shown all the material and been briefed on everything. When you go on the Web site, and you roll over their logo's with your mouse, you'll see there are all kinds of Easter eggs and fun little interactive playthings available. They've been really, really supportive and happy about the fact that we've been able to deeply integrate them into all aspects of this project.

[itvt]: Are you going to provide them with reports about how the ITV application is doing?

Knise: GoldPocket technology supplies us with all kinds of data in terms of usage, the length of time people stay, and all that good information that an advertiser is dying to know. So, yeah, they'll get that immediately following the event.

Barreca: And I think it's to GoldPocket's credit that they recognized early on, unlike some ITV developers, that there's a business here. Any marketer who is going to de facto support an ITV initiative has to consider things like reporting. The GoldPocket tools do that really easily.

[itvt]: Will sponsorship by Chevrolet cover your costs? Will you break even?

Knise: Chevrolet paid a healthy amount to participate. It's part of a longer relationship they have made with our networks, extending from the 4th quarter of this year into next year. This is a subset of that.

Barreca: If I were to fully cost it between the man-hours it took internally, as well as the external developers and what we've spent on the technology licenses and the like…it's a fairly significant investment. It's the single most expensive individual initiative we've ever worked on in the Digital Ventures Group.

[itvt]: Any new projects beyond Monster Fest?

Knise: I think you'll see us coming back with a radically different use of the same underlying GoldPocket engine. Either for AMC and/or its sister network, We (Women's Entertainment). We can't disclose when, but we are definitely going to work with these guys again using their technologies. Both what we're using here, and things that haven't seen the light of day yet.

[itvt]: Does that include single-screen?

Knise: It may. But you know, it's difficult here because, to some degree, it depends on…if we're going to test some things with a particular MSO who's got a vested interest in a particular platform or infrastructure piece. But, I guess if you want us to foretell if we are looking at ITV applications, the answer is definitively yes.

[itvt]: Was this a big production effort?

Barreca: It's fairly involved. There's a lot of legwork just on the pure editorial side, beyond what we're doing technologically, and from a registration-capture side. And from pushing resulting data up the network operations and back onto the air…it's fairly involved.

Knise: We started way late and we've had to crunch things in. It's probably been 15 weeks for core production. We probably could have used another 5 weeks to really relieve some of the pressure we had in terms of getting stuff together.

Barreca: It was compounded by the fact that AMC introduced a new on-air look October 1st.

Knise: Right. That delayed us getting the on-air look-and-feel to translate into the product.

Barreca: Virtually every visual element we touched--whether it was for ITV, for on-air, for the Web, or for promotional use--needed to be completely done from scratch, because we didn't have any elements at all.

[itvt]: If you hadn't had that problem, how long do you think production would have taken?

Barreca: 15 weeks. I'm being facetious. I think it's sort of like a murky blob: the project expands to fill the time you have to complete it.

[itvt]: Will more experience and more templatization shrink the time to completion?

Barreca: Yes, I definitely think that's true. I think now that we've got creative concepts, we've got branding elements developed, it's much easier to manipulate going forward. Even purely from a design perspective, now that we have these things done, it's much easier to manipulate.

[itvt]: How big was the team working on this?

Barreca: In our group, about 10 people. Plus GoldPocket and Extend, plus network operations, plus media. I don't know, maybe five or six different businesses or business units? Around 40 people.

[itvt]: Other than the new on-air look, were there any other major hurdles you faced?

Knise: We had another hurdle with AMC's going to a dual feed. So our broadcast center didn't want to talk to us until that was taken care of. AMC had always aired in prime time, and only had a single satellite. So we would run from 8 to midnight on the East Coast a line of programming which appeared in prime time and then that would mirror, it would repeat itself so that it ran in prime time on the West Coast.

[itvt]: I see.

Barreca: Now we've added a second feed on a second satellite. And that's effectively doubled the work and doubled the distribution of receivers on the West Coast. So our network operations guys, who specifically make sure the programming gets there, were totally swamped. We hit that switch on October 1st, too.

Knise: They had equipment to install, and basically they were nervous about having everything work smoothly on the West Coast …all these things happened at once.

[itvt]: What do the network operations guys think about the ITV applications? Are they interested?

Barreca: I think they're interested, but I always think they're nervous when new technology comes into their center. They're ultimately responsible for making sure that there's something on air. But the GoldPocket engineers flew out to meet with the engineers at our broadcast center and they hooked everything up. I think they probably think that it's pretty cool. That's one of the things that speaks to your appetite to do it again. Once that infrastructure is installed in your plant, it's there. So now, going forward with GoldPocket, it's easier for us to take the next step, because a lot of those assets are already in place.

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