Media

TyreOnWheels is an online mobile tyre fitting service that allows customers to buy tyres online and get them fitted to their car at their home or their office. The company claims to have served around 700 customers since its launch in February 2013. Speaking to Medianama, TyreOnWheels founder Rajat Malhotra said that the mobile fitting service which includes tyre fitting, wheel alignment, battery replacement, TPMS and wheel balancing services is currently available for cars and is provided only in the Delhi and NCR region for the time being. However, customers can also buy tyres for their bikes through the website and have them shipped through Bluedart or FedEx to any part of the country for a nominal fee. When we checked, we noticed that one can buy a tyre by choosing the make of their car/bike, model, variant and state, followed by size details of the tyre like width, profile, and rim among others and then choose the brand of tyre of their preference. Based on the given criteria, the site provides you a list of available tyres. Each tyre has a product page that gives more information about the tyre. Customers can choose between availing a standard shipment or mobile fitting (if you are in Delhi & NCR region), after providing their personal details. In case of standard shipment, the company claims that the tyre will be delivered to customers within 1-7 days while for mobile fitting service, customers can set up the date, time and location to avail the service before making the payment. Payment options: Customers have the option of either making the entire payment during purchase or pay through a 3-6 months EMI. Malhotra said that they do not offer cash on delivery option due to risk of cancellations, however, customers who avail mobile fitting service (Delhi & NCR region) can make partial payment while buying the tyre and pay the rest during fitting. Expansion Plans: Next month, TyreOnWheels plans to launch new car services beyond tyre related services, although Malhotra didn’t disclose any specific details on this. By July 2013, the company plans to extend its mobile fitting services to Bangalore and Mumbai. Going forward, it also plans to launch mobile fitting services for bikes. On the mobile apps front, TyreOnWheels is presently testing a Windows mobile app and plans to launch it shortly. It also plans to launch apps for other mobile platforms in the future. Competition: Changemytyre, also based out of Delhi, is a direct competition to TyreOnWheels and offers car and bike wheels for sale. There is also Rescue First which offers roadside vehicle assistance service along with a mobile tyre fitting service.

Gillette is asking fans to explain how Superman shaves in an unusually playful promotional campaign tied to the June 14 release of “Man of Steel.”

Now that the Tetris tiles of the 2013–14 TV schedule have dropped into place, a number of intriguing programming showdowns await. With 51 new scripted series slated to premiere in the coming season, the newcomers will be fighting for their lives against established hits and fellow freshman shows. Here are the five time slots that are likely to kick up the most dust: Monday 9-10 PM Sleepy Hollow (Fox) vs. The Voice (NBC) vs. Dancing With the Stars (ABC) vs. Mom and Two Broke Girls (CBS). Familiarity may breed contempt, but doubling down on The Voice hasn’t eroded its popularity—yet. Meanwhile, there’s nothing at all familiar about the deliriously over-the-top Sleepy Hollow, which features a homicidal headless equestrian and George Washington’s secret Bible. NBC will win the hour handily over DVR-bait Sleepy, CBS’ comedy battery and the creaky DWTS. Monday 10-11 PM The Blacklist (NBC) vs. (CBS) vs. Castle (ABC). CBS’ scorched-earth policy pits its suspenseful new fall drama against NBC’s ambiguous thriller, its most intriguing freshman series. CBS will win, because win is what it does, although ABC will continue to dominate with women 25-54. Tuesday 8-9 PM Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC) vs. NCIS (CBS) vs. Dads and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Fox). The unsinkable NCIS will win the war for total reach, but it’s unlikely that any broadcast show can touch Joss Whedon’s S.H.I.E.L.D. among the 18-49 set. Gentlemen, start your DVRs—since the Fox comedies (respectively, Seth MacFarlane and Andy Samberg vehicles) will almost certainly overlap S.H.I.E.L.D. among younger males, time-shifted viewing will be particularly significant in the hour. Tuesday 9-10 PM (Midseason) New Girl and The Mindy Project (Fox) vs.About a BoyThe Family Guide (NBC) vs.The Goldbergs and Trophy Wife (ABC). When these three networks constructed a similar comedy roadblock in the 2012-13 season, a war of attrition broke out, leaving Fox’s female-skewing sitcoms the sole survivors. Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it; although the competition is much tougher than it was a year ago, look for Fox to eke out another narrow victory over the newbies. Thursday 8-9 PM Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (ABC) vs. The Big Bang Theory and The Millers (CBS) vs. Parks and Recreation and Welcome to the Family (NBC). While it’s disheartening that Margo Martindale ditched FX (The Americans, Justified) for this crass comedy from Raising Hope creator Greg Garcia, CBS viewers seem to actively enjoy jokes about breaking wind and, uh, roughing up the suspect. Good thing, too, because The Millers is particularly enamored with both strains of bodily-emission yuks. Of course, in the post-Big Bang Theory slot, CBS could just as well air 22 minutes of drowning-puppy footage and still pull a 4.0, and NBC’s new sitcom Welcome to the Family probably won’t do anything to change that. ABC will exorcise its demons with the Once Upon a Time spinoff, but Wonderland isn’t expected to take any share away from CBS.

THE FIVE BEST … As cable siphons off GRPs like a fat kid sucking YooHoo through a Krazy Straw, broadcasters have countered with manic fits of development. Among the best: (1) Resurrection (ABC) The River Styx flows upstream as those long dead and buried return to their families. Goosebumps. (2) Hostages (CBS) Tiffany Net leaves procedurals in the dust with this taut kidnapping drama. (3) Sleepy Hollow (Fox) This steampunk conspiracy thriller incorporates everything from time travel to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Crazy fun. (4) Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC) Don’t bet against $1.5 billion in Avengers box office and the kicky genius of Joss Whedon. (5) The Blacklist (NBC) Steff from Pretty in Pink is TV’s newest oddball criminal mastermind. … AND WORST NEW SHOWS That upfront attendees howled at trailers for the first two shows on this list suggests that people will laugh at anything after free booze. (1) The Millers (CBS) Of a piece with CBS’ lowestcommondenominator yuks, the sizzle reel was basically 3 minutes of masturbation and fart jokes. Dreck. (2) Dads (Fox) Seth MacFarlane’s first liveaction TV comedy is an ugly stew of racist and sexist shtick. Makes The Cleveland Show look like Cheers. (3) Undateable (NBC) Unwatchable. (4) The Crazy Ones (CBS) Mork and Buffy run an ad agency. Sufferers of Robin Williams Intolerance, steer clear. (5) Intelligence (CBS) The Six Million Dollar Sawyer meets Google Glass: The Procedural. … AND SOME PILOTS THAT NEVER LANDED Beverly Hills Cop (CBS) A spinoff of the ’80s movie franchise, the pilot focused on Axel Foley’s son (Brandon T. Jackson), who fights the good fight in the 90210. Eddie Murphy had signed on to do occasional guest arcs. The Sixth Gun (NBC): A geektastic supernatural Western that was passed over in favor of a raft of procedurals. Gun would make a fine, if pricey, addition to Syfy’s lineup. Delirium (Fox): Based on Lauren Oliver’s trilogy about a world where love is legislated out of existence, Delirium starred Emma Roberts as a girl with an outlaw heart. A bit too CW-ish for Fox. Mulaney (NBC): Starring standup du jour and SNL writer (“Weekend Update”) John Mulaney, the pilot garnered raves but apparently didn’t jibe with NBC’s new family sitcoms. Super Clyde (CBS): While this comedy about a regular Joe (Hogwarts alum Rupert Grint) who becomes a superhero tested well with CBS suits, Clyde was deemed off-brand.

Ad Meter: It’s not just for Super Bowl ads anymore. USA Today is expanding its Super Bowl ad-rating platform to other categories of sports media. Ad Meter: The Year in Sports will invite sports fans to vote in categories like Best Sports Marketing Campaign and Best Athlete Endorsement Ad. Online voting will take place on Ad Meter’s digital hub in November, with the winners to be announced Dec. 9 at an event in New York. The Gannett daily is trying to carve out a stronger identity among the other national newspapers, and one way it’s seeking to do that is to amplify social engagement (after all, the paper claims to have its finger on the pulse of the nation’s conversation). This past Super Bowl, Ad Meter judging was opened up to consumers (before, it was done by a hand-picked panel), resulting in 20 million pageviews in the 48 hours surrounding the game, up from 9 million the year before. “We’ve tapped into that popularity of sports, that phenomenon that people want to weigh in,” said Tom Beusse, president of the USA Today Sports Media Group. "The Ad Meter has been the gold standard. It's just been underleveraged." USA Today sees more room to expand the Ad Meter concept, which hadn’t been used for a non-Super Bowl event since 1997, around the finale of Seinfeld. A mobile app for the Tony Awards was launched in April, and USA Today president and publisher Larry Kramer is looking at extending it to other events like the Oscars, as well as other sports franchises like the World Series and the Final Four. Basically, the platform could apply to other events that have ads created specifically for them. Extending the Ad Meter isn't just about getting more interaction with readers, though. Beusse said that the consumer data it collects through the platform can be sold to or shared with advertisers. "The more we can gain, the more of a service we can provide the marketer," Beusse said.

On Monday, top executives at both NBC and Fox upfronts did something you don’t usually see in a network presentation. They admitted they weren’t happy with their product, either. “We had a challenging first quarter, as well as our share of midseason disappointments,” NBC’s Bob Greenblatt said to buyers and clients. “This was not our best year,” said Fox’s Kevin Reilly. Jimmy Kimmel made his network’s diminishing audience into a joke at the ABC presentation: “Every year, Apple products get smaller, and nobody has a problem with that.” Cable networks have been waiting for this moment. Mel Berning came out swinging at the A+E Networks upfront, scolding broadcasters for charging a “failure tax” and telling ad buyers that the smart money was with his networks’ hits. David Levy, head of ad sales for Turner (who shows buyers his wares during the same week as the broadcast presentations, along with USA), has been pushing for parity with broadcast for years, and now, he told Adweek, “We’re getting there.” “Sports, kids and news have been at parity for five, six years,” Levy said. “For entertainment, there just hasn’t been enough quality programming, but we’ve really stepped things up in the last four or five years.” Many across the negotiating table agree. “You can get three spots on cable for the cost of one on broadcast,” said a buyer for an over-the-counter medicine brand (every buyer who spoke to Adweek for this story asked to be quoted anonymously). So why buy broadcast at all? “We don’t.” A more senior buyer at a different agency put the question in more complicated terms. “The reality is, for certain shows that can deliver broadcast-like ratings or quality, the CPMs can get close to broadcast,” the buyer said. “For Walking Dead, why wouldn’t I give it a very similar CPM?” But if cable wants the same kind of pricing for its originals that broadcast demands, buyers want to see ad packaging change. “The challenge,” the senior buyer said, “is when you get to prime replacement”—cable shows that air opposite broadcast prime-time series. “You can’t just buy the original; you buy all the repeats, and that dilutes your average rating.” In other words, I may buy an episode of Gritty Cop Show on Awesome Cable Network at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, but ACN requires that I also buy the show’s 2 a.m. reruns ... which means that even though Gritty Cop gets 4 million demo viewers at 8, the 400,000 demo viewers who tune in at 2 a.m. make the show average out to 2.2 million for the buy. ACN might even require that you buy spots on its corporate sibling, Struggling Niche Channel. Not every cable network does this, but those offering prime-time à la carte tend to skew younger and rate lower. On balance, broadcast still offers more reach when you average out all the extra requirements. Jeff Wachtel, co-president of USA with Chris McCumber, says that duking it out with broadcast isn’t really a line item on his agenda. “It’s not our instinct to do that,” Wachtel said. “Chris and I have the good fortune of being able to emphasize the positives.” Part of that strategy is corporate—NBC is USA’s sister network—but it also has to do with very different business models, which involve pushing off-network content as aggressively as USA does original programming. “If you take a look at Modern Family, what we can give to an advertiser is that the show is across all seven days,” Wachtel said. “ABC can only give it to you one day a week.” McCumber says there’s little duplication in the show’s broadcast viewership, as well. Turner has employed a similar strategy with CBS’ hits Two and a Half Men and Big Bang Theory

Like most sentient Americans, NBC is a huge Michael J. Fox fan, and the network demonstrated as much last summer when it outmaneuvered its broadcast competition by way of a risky and unprecedented leap of faith. If the actor would agree to bring his new comedy series to NBC, the network suits would rubber-stamp a binding order of 22 episodes, sight unseen. In trumping its rivals, NBC not only boasts the best odds for a breakout hit in the 2013-14 season, but it also brings back one of the single most beloved TV stars of the last 30 years. (Seriously, in terms of universal appeal, the man is up there with Tom “Drunk Uncle Ned” Hanks and Bugs Bunny.) Last week, Adweek caught up with the star of The Michael J. Fox Show, a warm but spiky single-camera comedy that cribs liberally from the 51-year-old’s own life. Fox stars as a celebrated local TV newsman in New York (at WNBC/Channel 4, naturally) who decides to return to work five years after being sidelined by a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. As was the case with his turns in Curb Your Enthusiasm and Rescue Me, the actor’s illness is written into the narrative, the physical manifestations fodder for genuinely funny jokes. If nothing else, the new show is a declaration of sorts from a man who has been in the public eye since the 1980s. Michael J. Fox doesn’t need or want your pity—he’s simply looking to create and embody a character who elicits the same response he always has. So don’t be afraid to laugh. It’s been 30-plus years since Family Ties premiered on NBC, and suddenly you’ve been called back into service as the face of the network’s revamped Thursday night lineup. What can you tell us about the new show. In a way, the show is a throwback. It’s a traditional family comedy … I mean, it’s not aimed at ’tweens or anything, but it’s the kind of show you can sit down and watch with your kids and there’s no [Alex P. Keaton-esque groan of disapproval]. There are family themes and family dynamics, which is something that I’m familiar and comfortable with, in both my personal life and the sort of things I’ve done on network television. And a lot of the subject matter is going to reflect your own life. The stories we’re going to tell in the show are roughly based on stories that I’ve told in my books. I met with [executive producers] Sam [Laybourne] and Will [Gluck] and we started talking about raising kids and being in New York. And as we started talking about this common experience we had, the whole idea started crystallizing to the point where we felt we could get our heads around it.> We cast children that are roughly the same age of my own kids, so a lot of the experiences and interactions are the same. Although they’re not so much alike that my real kids are going to think that every time one of the kids on the show does something goofy it’s a reflection on them. Your character decides to return to a full-time job in television after some time on the sidelines. What made you both want to jump back into the fray? I play a newsman named Mike Henry, and he’s like me in the sense that he gets recognized when he’s out and around. When I walk around New York, my wife calls me the mayor. People come up and say hi, and honestly there’s a comfort and a joy in that. Because you’re part of people’s experiences, and New Yorkers aren’t shy about sharing that with you. So my character left the news business a few years earlier when he was first diagnosed because he really didn’t know what to expect. He devotes all his energies to family, and because they weren’t used to having him around 24/7, he drove them crazy. When the opportunity to go back to his old job presents itself, they’re like, “Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.” Whereas for me, I’

In trying to gauge the health of the TV ad sales market, one can opt to discard macroeconomic data on the GDP and spreadsheets on scatter rates. In fact, look no further than the nearest hors d’oeuvres tray. If at any point during an upfront party a waiter bearing a silver tray offers you a jumbo shrimp cocktail, things are looking up. When the networks aren’t feeling so flush, you’ll be lucky to round up a plate of chilled Sea-Monkeys slathered in ketchup. Austerity matters were such that during the recession-throttled 2009-10 upfront, even the most resourceful junior buyer soon learned that the closest thing to a free meal was the garnish on a watered-down drink. If that’s an (admittedly) absurd methodology, it’s probably not much goofier than trying to pass judgment on the fall prime-time schedule based on having watched a bunch of three-minute promo reels from the nosebleed seats at New York’s Carnegie Hall or Radio City. And yet this is what media buyers and clients are asked to do every May; the likelihood is high that many long-term investments will be made based on fleeting first impressions. Sure, it’s a lot easier to identify the pineapple Life Savers, those shows that are met with a mix of incredulity and nervous laughter when they’re trotted out during the dog and pony shows. (Think Work It, or Animal Practice.) Picking a winner is another matter altogether. Whereas only a handful of new series really seemed to distinguish themselves during last year’s upfront, this year at least a dozen shows appear strong enough to help marketers reach their target demos. Fox, ABC and The CW all bet heavily on sci-fi/fantasy pilots, and even procedural-happy CBS has slotted a midseason show in which the prefix “cyber” gets thrown around an awful lot (Intelligence, with Josh Holloway and CSI alum Marg Helgenberger). Three of our five best bets for next season can be classified as sci-fi/fantasy dramas. Another recurring motif involves “event” programming, which is to say self-contained, limited-run story arcs. Designed to spackle the cracks in an overlong 35-week season, these stand-alone projects allow for scheduled multi-week breaks for popular episodic series without having to rely on repeats. The 13-episode scheme is also a nod to the cable model; three of the five broadcast programming chiefs (ABC’s Paul Lee, NBC’s Bob Greenblatt, Fox’s Kevin Reilly) all made their bones on the other side of the fence. If this year’s upfront market is anything like last year’s—and the preliminary signs suggest that radical shifts in pricing and dollar volume are unlikely—then the last budgets will be registered just after Memorial Day weekend, clearing the way for the first round of dealmaking to begin. As buyers and sellers prepare to negotiate terms, here’s a rundown of what will be on the table at each network. CBS Les Moonves last Wednesday kicked off his day crowing to reporters that his network was on the verge of winning the seasonal ratings race by the largest margin in 24 years. But before the CBS Corp. CEO moved on to talk about his network’s fall schedule, he took a moment to address some barbs thrown at him by ABC mouthpiece Jimmy Kimmel. In accordance with classical precedent, the late-night host mocked CBS (“those smug motherfuckers”) for its older demos. Moonves responded that he was “flattered” to be characterized as such. “You don’t call somebody [that] unless they’re smug and they’re winning,” Moonves observed. “We’ll try to be a little less smug and a little more gracious, but that’s hard for me, as you know. But anyway, Jimmy, ABC is still going to finish fourth in 18-49.” With few holes to ?ll in its prime-time lineup (the network renewed 20 series for 2013-14), CBS is beefing up on comedies. After years of

Gary Pruitt said the Obama administration’s handling of a leak investigation had already diminished journalists’ capacity to report on the government.

BOSTON – Effective video search has been limited, largely since  search engines don’t index  images. But things are changing with the implementation of Schema, a technology which allows video producers to “wrap” a transcript as an “object” into a video.    The Schema initiative is an industry collaboration of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Yandex.   It was first introduced to the industry last year. For an explanation of the impact of Schema, we spoke with Tole Khesin, VP for Marketing at 3Play Media, a Boston-area company that has a voice-to-text technology which is used by media companies, education and enterprise customers. We interviewed him last week at the Brightcove global customer conference in Boston.