Connected TV Marketing Association Expands Rapidly Into Emerging Markets And Appoints New Board Members For Central and Eastern Europe

As of January 4th 2011, the Connected TV Marketing Association (CTVMA) activities across Central Eastern Europe, Russia, CIS and Turkey will get an immediate boost with formulation of CEE CTVMA Board and appointment of its first regional Executive Board Members.

Mirek Smyk, Managing Director of Mirek Smyk Consulting Group (MSCG), a renowned regional pay-tv, telecom and social media consulting boutique has been appointed Executive President CTVMA Central and Eastern Europe with an objective to roll-out CTVMA organization across the region.

Today he is joined on the newly formulated CTVMA CEE Board by regional key thought leaders in broadcast, pay-TV, over-the-top and connected TV space including:

• Mr. Tomasz Sieniutycz, former Director of New Media and TVP HD at Polish National Broadcaster TVP and former President of Supervisory Board of Polish Radio,
• Mr. Lukasz Skrzypek, Vice — President of iplex.pl the leading video — on — demand service in Poland,
• Mr. Petr Horak, Head of Voyo, the fastest growing online video platform by Central European Media Enterprises,
• Mr. Albert Szybiński, Product Director – ipla, Redefine, provider of the most popular multiscreen video platform in Poland, owned by Polsat Group.

The CTVMA CEE Board will consist initially of 10 Executive Members from all countries in the region including Russia and Turkey and local CTVMA Boards will be created in each country during next weeks, while membership, volunteer and other cooperation opportunities will be announced accordingly.

The CTVMA CEE Board has also appointed its two Honorary Board Members:

• Mr Marcin Pery, CEO of Redefine (owner of ipla)
• Mr Arkadiusz Świerczewski, CEO of iplex.pl and Partner at Warsaw Equity Holding
  

Welcoming the announcement from New York, USA, the Co-founder and CTVMA President of North America Zach Weiner said:

"We are incredibly excited to see Mirek in charge of CTVMA CEE activities.

Speaking from Bucharest, Romania, Mirek Smyk said:

"I am honored to be able to contribute to this exciting industry transition across Central and Eastern Europe region.

For many years Smyk has been one of the key regional opinion-makers and leaders in the interactive TV space in the region and he will play a pivotal role in opening up dialogue between content creators, CE manufactures, pay-TV and telecom operators as well as the leaders of advertising and entertainment in local markets."

The Connected TV revolution is rapdily sticking in the region according to Smyk and he adds that consumers' feedback is extremely positive.

 

In 2011 in Poland there were more than 1.6 M new TV-sets sold, out of which more than 50% are estimated to have capacity to connect directly to Internet and in Romania, the number of connected 3D TV sets reached almost 20k during last 2 years, while connectable HDTV sets present in the households are now counted in hundreds of thousands.

With increased awareness of the connected TV benefits among consumers, improving content and new ad-based business models this market will thrive over next few years.

Joining the Executive Board CTVMA CEE from Prague, Czech Republic Petr Horak, Head of Voyo said:

"I am excited about launch of Connected TV Marketing Association in the CEE region."

Voyo is the leading Internet OTT platform in six Central and Eastern European markets with an aggregate population of approximately 50 million people.

"We believe, that distribution of OTT service and channels via connected TVs will reshape TV industry in the future. Therefore, we will play the active role in our region to develop new ecosystem, which brings benefits to all involved parties".

Upon accepting the role as Executive Board Member from Warsaw Mr Tomasz Sieniutycz said:

"Connected TVs will play an increasingly important role in the new content distribution ecosystem. We're seeing more and more content providers present across multiple connected TV platforms , while advertisers & marketers start to use this very effective new channel to reach new audiences."

The CEE, because of its local market fragmentation, may adopt these changes faster than any other region globally.

"Our role will be to facilitate the missing link between content providers, CE manufacturers, advertisers and consumers." Mr Lukasz Skrzypek commented " Iplex.pl has already been present on Panasonic Viera TV sets and our users simply love the experience. We're working on bringing iplex to all connected TV platforms, and hence I am delighted to join CTVMA as a platform of education and information for our local industry."

Speaking from Warsaw, Marcin Pery said: 

" IPLA is present on almost every connected TV set sold in Poland and consumers consider our app as one of the key decision factors when buying a new TV set."

"The IPLA can be accessed today not only on all new TV-sets but also through gaming consoles, smartphones and tablets, said Pery. "By joining CTVMA as a Honorary Board Member I am looking forward to sharing our globally unique experience with other industry members as well as work further on development of connected TV ecosystem in Poland and CEE region"

The CTVMA CEE will close appointments for Executive Board Members from other CEE countries including Russia and Turkey by end of February 2012 and will announce its 2012 Annual CEE Activities and Development plan during major local, regional and global industry events in March 2012.

About CTVMA

The CTVMA is the global industry trade body of the advertising, media and entertainment sector.

It was designed to bring together and benefit a broad spectrum of CEMs, operators, ad networks and organizations from the advertising, media, broadcasting, programming and entertainment industries.

The CTVMA strives to promote and grow new commercial business opportunities on Connected TV platforms to the wider industry audience.

We aim to do so with a combination of endeavors involving education and research, events and networking, as well as advisory and oversight.

This year marks a turning point in the history of television.

Not only in terms of device proliferation, IPTV and Social TV, but because the very nature of television itself has now fundamentally altered control of both the business of entertainment, as well as the business of advertising.

It therefore poses to an industry, a unique set of challenges and host of opportunities for incumbents and new players alike, to come together in an open industry forum of debate with fresh ideas, to set out new standards, and to consult widely on an open industry terms of reference.

That is why the Connected TV Marketing Association has been formulated these past few months, in recognition of an old industry, about to be born anew.

• The CTVMA strives to promote and grow new commercial business opportunities on Connected TV platforms to the wider industry audience.
• The CTVMA is an international body with members throughout Europe, Australia, Asia and the US.
• The CTVMA encompasses members spanning the world's leading CEM brands, broadcasters, ad networks, studios, producers, advertising agencies, media buyers, publishers, games and music industries.
• The CTVMA operates on a global basis. Our country presidents set the policy and initiatives for their specific countries.

Regional leaders allow for a true local presence to be extended to all levels of membership and help orchestrate initiatives with a variety of their City representatives.

The most widespread initiatives of the CTVMA at large are also organized and governed into committees who set about creating and maintaining best practices for their specific areas.

Including education/evangelism, research, events/networking, oversight/advisory, and membership outreach.

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