Title: Senior VP, media and cable, Filter TV, New York
Background: Mr. Edelman is one of the founders of Filter Media, an interactive TV consultancy that opened its doors in July 2000 and has steadily been making a name for itself with its balanced views on the medium it follows. Prior to starting Filter Media, Mr. Edelman worked with The Shooting Gallery, the now defunct independent film company, as head of its digital division. He also worked as a senior development executive with News Digital Media, managing Web-based and broadband product development for News Corp. properties, and has also been an executive producer with CBS New Media, focusing on convergent strategies for CBS’s entertainment properties.
Filtering out the ITV noise: “The idea with Filter Media was to focus on services relevant to today’s market. [ITV players] all need to justify their investment with market and research analysis. It’s really important to figure out, especially with lessons learned from the dot-com bust, why are we doing this. There has been such a deafening hype about ITV. People haven’t taken the time to figure out what they need and how to achieve that,” he said.
ITV realism: “The idea for Filter is not to be an apologist for the ITV industry. We have always focused on realism and education for our key qualities. The [ITV] rollout is slower than expected,” he said. ITV is not about the much-touted example of clicking on a button to buy Jennifer Aniston’s sweater while watching “Friends,” he said.
“That example has been more detrimental than any slow rollout because it blinded our expectations,” he said. Simple applications that can actually generate revenue, like video-on-demand, gaming and niche casting, are the way to start with ITV. “People who come in expecting to reap massive rewards are delusional. It’s a nascent market. It’s going to happen, but it’s a matter of when. It’s happening on a utilitarian level with services that can actually generate revenue. There’s a lot of hype about what’s cool. ITV isn’t about what’s cool. It’s about making money.”
Filter Media will host an executive seminar in New York on April 2 titled “ITV Expectations/ROI Realities.” The seminar will provide an analytical framework for evaluating ITV business decisions.
Clients: Filter’s clients include infrastructure providers AT&T and Cablevision, media companies Discovery Networks and Sony Digital Pictures Entertainment and brands such as Mattel Toys.