This entire article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (September 2007)

Advertiser Funded Programming (AFP) is a recent term applied to a break away from the modern model of television funding in place since the early 1960s. Since that time, programmes have normally been funded by a broadcaster and they re-couped the money through selling advertising space around the content. This has worked fine for decades, but new technological advances have forced broadcasters and advertisers to re-think their relationship.

The concept is as old as television itself; the term soap opera is derived from the fact that the original soap operas were in fact funded and produced by soap companies such as Procter & Gamble. Shows such as the Texaco Star Theater, which were among the earliest television programs, included the practice. It was not until the quiz show scandals of the late 1950s, when particularly aggressive advertisers began rigging game shows to produce a more entertaining product, that the practice fell on the wayside. By the time television became a worldwide phenomenon in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the original model had mostly been eschewed in favor of the modern model, which separates programming and advertising. (The fact that many of the early television broadcasters outside the United States were public broadcasters that restricted the use of advertising may have been a contributing factor to this.)

With the advent of digital recording devices, also known as personal video recorders (PVR's), viewers can choose to record episodes or entire series of their favourite shows and watch them in their own time. Not only does this skew the idea of 'primetime', (advertisers being charged a premium for buying spots around the most popular viewing times), but it means viewers can skip the ads altogether.

Advertiser funded programming (AFP), largely a neologism, is a solution to this change and means the advertiser pays to integrate their message in the tv programme itself, rather than just buying advertising space around it. It includes product placement, sponsorship, naming rights and more recently the actual creation of whole shows from scratch. Many of these projects are enabled by a Content partnership where the programming is co-funded by multiple stakeholders.

Both independent agencies and the global networks have even created dedicated units to concentrate on AFP, such as JWT Entertainment, BBH, Hubbub Communications, Now Inc., Mudra, WPP's Group M, or Omnicom's Grand Central, London based, Advertiser Funded Programming agency.

Some recent examples of AFP:^[when?]

• The Krypton Factor, in partnership with The Sage Group on ITV
• [1] The Factory on Eurosport, in partnership with the Philips and AT&T Williams F1^[1]
• Beat: Life on the Street on ITV, in partnership with the Home Office^[2]
• Vodafone TBA on Channel 4, in partnership with Vodafone^[3][4]
• Ford and Toyota in 24
• Crest toothpaste in The Apprentice
• American Express in The Restaurant
• Findmypast.co.uk sponsored the genealogy TV series 'Find My Past' on the Yesterday channel in October 2011.^[5]

Most sports organizations heavily restrict the use of advertiser funded programming, particularly amateur competitions such as the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup, both of which ban the practice as ambush marketing. Other sports have embraced the practice as an additional form of revenue, both for the leagues and the networks. Naming rights have been sold for bowl games, tournaments, television presentations, halftime shows, stadiums and arenas, with the practice of selling team names more common outside North America, while product placements and advertisements can be seen on the fields, on sideboards surrounding them, or as on-screen graphics without interrupting a telecast. Advertiser funded programming techniques give sports broadcasters a third channel of revenue, in addition to retransmission consent fees and traditional advertising, allowing stations such as ESPN to pay high rights fees and still make significant amounts of money.

References[link]

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. Its introduction may be too long. Tagged since July 2010. It may contain wording that merely promotes the subject without imparting verifiable information. Tagged since February 2012.

Ashley Highfield is CEO of Johnston Press, having worked in high levels in companies including Microsoft, and the BBC.

Formerly, he was UK Managing Director of Microsoft (Consumer & Online), responsible for Windows Mobile, MSN, Hotmail, Windows Live/Instant Messenger, and the Google search engine rival, Bing. His responsibilities include Microsoft Advertising, the UK’s largest digital advertising agency, which represents Microsoft’s web properties, as well as Facebook, and other third party sites across the web.

Highfield is a Non-Executive Director of bookmakers William Hill plc. He is also a Governor of the British Film Institute. He was recently appointed to the Conservative Party’s review of the Creative Industries, headed up by Greg Dyke, which will help set Conservative policy in the wake of the Digital Britain white paper.

Previously, he was CEO of Project Kangaroo.,^[1] the proposed 3-way joint venture (between BBC, ITV & Channel4) offering an internet-based one stop shop for all TV programmes on-demand, which was halted by the Competition Commission. Prior to that, he was the Director of New Media and Technology at the BBC for eight years, responsible for launching the BBC iPlayer. At the time of his appointment to the BBC he was the youngest ever member of the organisation's Executive Board. His department was responsible for the BBC's internet presence - bbc.co.uk, interactive TV - BBC Red Button, mobile services, the BBC's technology portfolio and the BBC’s Archive. He was responsible for around 1,400 staff across the BBC, and an annual budget of £400m.

In 2003 Highfield was awarded the Digital Innovator internet award by The Sunday Times (UK) who dubbed his vision of a 100% digital Britain a "tour de force". In 2004 he was named ‘most influential individual in technology’ by online technology news site Silicon.Com [1] for overseeing a number of ‘firsts’ for a major broadcaster, including the use of peer-to-peer, interactive TV, and multi-casting of TV. In May 2006, Broadcast Magazine [2] wrote "The Creative Future review will enhance the already high standing of Ashley Highfield, the BBC's director of new media and technology. As the principal architect of the BBC's digital convergence strategy, he is increasingly coming to be recognised as one of the most influential figures in world media". ^[2] In 2007, The Guardian placed Highfield at #31 in its annual survey of the most powerful people in the UK media industry.^[2]

In November, 2007 he courted controversy by launching the iPlayer only on the Windows platform.^[3] Subsequent iPlayer releases for the Mac, Linux and iPhone have been welcomed by these communities. The iPlayer has been a significant success with over 1,000,000 programs being watched each day from a userbase of over 4 million.^[4]

Career[link]

Educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey, Highfield worked as first as a computer programmer before turning management consultant.^[2] He worked in the TMT sector for Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) for six years, working in post-apartheid South Africa.^[5] In 1994 he returned to the UK to become head of IT and New Media for NBC Europe.^[5] He then joined Flextech TV — a pay-TV channel provider — where he worked for five years as managing director of interactive services.^[2] While at Flextech he founded Flextech Interactive^[6] and invested in online ticketing agency WayAheadGroup and mapping company Multimap.^[6]

In October 2000 he joined the BBC as Director of New Media & Technology^[5] working for Greg Dyke who said in his autobiography Inside Story pp178-9 "Ashley is one of the most inventive people I know and our one-to-one monthly meetings were amongst the most creative and stimulating I had in my time as Director-General". Tellingly Dyke also noted "Ashley didn't have an easy task bringing all the BBC's online activity under one division, but he did it with great success". In 2005, under new Director Genera Mark Thompson, Highfield retained his place on the new slimmed down Executive Board and was given additional responsibility for Broadcast and Production technology across the BBC. In July 2006 the BBC reformed its structure, turning the New Media department into the 'Future Media & Technology' department (including BBC's Information & Archives business) with Ashley Highfield at its head. During his tenure, Highfield has overseen a massive growth in the BBC's online presence (from 3.5 million to 17 million users), interactive TV and mobile, as well as projects such as BBC Backstage and the BBC Creative Archive — although the latter has been in abeyance since September 2006 pending a public value test. Highfield has also overseen the development of the BBC iPlayer, which has been both praised and criticised (especially over its use of digital rights management).^[7] Whilst at the BBC, Highfield claimed £47,000 in expenses between 2004 and 2009, whilst on a salary of £466,000. This included a subscription to Sky and two iPods.^[8]

In November, 2007 he courted controversy within the Linux community by understating the GNU/Linux users to the BBC web site, the actual number being somewhere between 0.3% to 0.7%. He apologised for this in his blog.

Highfield is a Chartered Engineer.

Profile[link]

Now 46, Ashley was previously a vice-president at Microsoft, in charge of its UK consumer and online business, including the MSN website. Prior to that he was director of new media and technology at the BBC where he launched the iPlayer.

He lives in central London and will divide his working week between Edinburgh and London and visiting Johnston Press centres. He is divorced and has shared custody of his three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Amelie.

He holds two non-executive roles – on the boards of William Hill and the British Film Institute.

He enjoys walking with friends and has a cottage in the Chiltern Hills – in the village where the Vicar of Dibley was filmed. He’s also into photography and likes to get behind the wheel at track days when he gets the chance. “I’m a bit of a petrolhead.”

His favourite gadget is his new Sonos music system at home which streams music from either the internet or music stored on a server. An app allows him to remotely select what music he wants to play in which room of the house. “I’m well impressed with it. It’s simple and doesn’t cost the earth. If you have wifi the kit starts at a couple of hundred pounds.”

He’s inspired by great leaders including Greg Dyke, his former boss at the BBC, as well as great innovators such as Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, and Steve Jobs.

Awards[link]

Highfield has won several awards, including the following:

• In 2003, Highfield was awarded the Digital Innovator internet award by The Sunday Times.^[6]
• In 2004, he was named the ‘most influential individual in technology’ by online technology news site Silicon.com [3].
• In 2004, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
• In 2007, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Television Society

References[link]

1. ^ "Ashley Highfield appointed as CEO of Kangaroo". BBC Worldwide Press Releases. 2008-04-14. http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/bbcworldwide/worldwidestories/pressreleases/2008/04_april/ashley_highfield_kangaroo.shtml. Retrieved 2008-04-14. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d} "Ashley Highfield". MediaGuardian.co.uk (London). 2007-07-09. http://media.guardian.co.uk/top100_2007/story/0,,2118621,00.html. Retrieved 2007-10-11. 
3. ^ "iPlayer Launch: First Indications". 2008-01-14. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/01/iplayer_launch_first_indicatio.html. 
4. ^ "iPlayer Figures and Feedback". 2008-02-21. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/02/iplayer_figures_and_feedback.html. 
5. ^ ^{a b c} Ian Burrell (2006-08-14). "Ashley Highfield: '99 per cent of the BBC archives is on the shelves. We ought to liberate it'". The Independent (London). http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article1219009.ece. Retrieved 2007-10-11. 
6. ^ ^{a b c} "Ashley Highfield biography". bbc.co.uk. http://db.bbc.co.uk/info/running/executive/eb_ashley_highfield.shtml. Retrieved 2007-10-11. ^{[dead link]}
7. ^ Johnson, Bobbie (2007-05-14). "Situation critical". MediaGuardian (London). http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2079046,00.html. Retrieved 2007-10-11. 
8. ^ Dowell, Ben (2009-06-26). "BBC expenses: Ashley Highfield claims £1,400 for Sky subscription". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jun/26/bbc-expenses-ashley-highfield. Retrieved 2010-04-25. 

External links[link]

• Highfield's Twitter feed
• Highfield's official BBC blog
• BBC Backstage blog
• 2007 Silicon Agenda Setters placed #5
• 2006 Silicon Agenda Setters placed #8
• The future is to move beyond DRM
• BBC unveils radical revamp of website
• DCMS review of the BBC's online service
• Department expands
• Bobbie Johnson, The Guardian

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this article if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions. (July 2009)

Michel Amato, better known by the stage name The Hacker, is a French electroclash and techno producer who has worked extensively with Miss Kittin. His work has been influenced by Electro artists like Kraftwerk, New Wave artists such as The Cure and Depeche Mode, as well as the French rave scene of the early 1990s. His artist name comes from Jeff Mills' track with the same name.

Career[link]

The Hacker started making music in 1989 at the age of 17 in Grenoble (France). At the time, Duran Duran was an early influence, but he later discovered the dark side of Electro through Electronic Body Music groups like Cabaret Voltaire and D.A.F. In 1993, The Hacker took on the hardcore side of Electro and released a few 12”s with Benoit Bollini (aka The Money Penny Project) under the moniker XMF on the label of the same name.

In 1995, he made his own music in classic Detroit style with Jeff Mills in mind. His first tracks were released on the Ozone and Interface labels. Three years later, The Hacker founded his own label, Goodlife Records (named for a classic track from Inner City) with his friends Oxia and Alex Reynaud. However, he still releases tracks on other labels such as A Strange Day on UMF and Method Of Force on Sativae. The tones of his debut album Mélodies En Sous-Sol (spring 2000) surmise his musical dreams where one can hear distant echoes of New Order, Dopplereffekt, and PCP^{[disambiguation needed ]}.

In the mid 1990s, The Hacker began producing electro-pop with his friend, Caroline Hervé (AKA Miss Kittin). DJ Hell loved their first track Gratin Dauphinois on Technics and signed them on his new label Gigolo in 1997. In Germany, their success was immediate owing to the releases of Champagne and Intimités. With the dawn of the electroclash music movement in 2001 and the release of their First Album and its single "Frank Sinatra", they became popular worldwide. The Hacker is also sought-after as a producer, and has done remixes for Marc Almond, Fischerspooner, Air, and Nitzer Ebb.

In 2002 after their U.S. tour, The Hacker and Miss Kittin decided to take a break from their collaborative projects. The Hacker took this opportunity to produce many new tracks released vinyl, such as The Beach on Mental Groove and Dance Industria on Tiga's label Turbo. He collaborated with Kiko, Alexander Robotnick, millimetric and David Carretta, touring all over the globe as a DJ and started work on his next album.

The Hacker released his second album, Rêves Mécaniques in 2004. It became his first album to chart on the French Albums Chart, peaking at #130 and spending a total of four weeks on the chart.^[1]

In 2007, he rejoined with Miss Kittin to release the double A-side "Hometown" / "Dimanche". To celebrate his tenth anniversary as a recording artist, The Hacker released the CD/DVD set X in 2008. The compilation contains live recordings, singles and some new studio tracks.^[2]

Miss Kittin & The Hacker reunited as a duo in 2008, after a short tour of European clubs at the end of 2007, and the "Hometown EP" released in June that year. Further touring followed throughout America and around the world in 2008, before they both started recording new songs, some of which were performed whilst touring. In March 2009, they released their second album Two, 8 years after their first and only full LP as a duo. The first single "1000 Dreams" was also released in March, alongside a new club single "PPPO - People Pleasure Objects Power", both taken from the new album. The reformed duo have embarked on a new European tour all summer in 2008, kicking off in France in early April.^[3]

Influences[link]

Amato has mentioned his respect for Terence Fixmer, David Carretta, DJ Hell, Adult., Ersatz Audio, Dopplereffekt, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, New Order, Cybotron, Bobby Orlando and Giorgio Moroder.^[4]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• Champagne (with Miss Kittin) (1998)
• Intimités (with Miss Kittin) (1999)
• First Album (with Miss Kittin) (2001)
• Rêves Mécaniques (2004) #130 FRA
• Two (with Miss Kittin) (2009) #102 FRA

References[link]

External links[link]

• Discogs: The Hacker
• The Hacker's official site
• 2010: Soundtracks by Miss Kittin and The Hacker - interview with Miss Kittin and The Hacker, plus 3-tracks for listening to.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2012)

"The Man" is a slang phrase that may refer to the government or to some other authority in a position of power. In addition to this derogatory connotation, it may also serve as a term of respect and praise.

The phrase "the Man is keeping me down" is commonly used to describe oppression. The phrase "stick it to the Man" encourages resistance to authority, and essentially means "fight back" or "resist", either openly or via sabotage.^[1]

History[link]

The earliest recorded use^{[citation needed]} of the term "the Man" in the American sense dates back to a letter written by a young Alexander Hamilton in September 1772, when he was 15. In a letter to his father James Hamilton, published in the Royal Dutch-American Gazette, he described the response of the Dutch governor of St. Croix to a hurricane that raked that island on August 31, 1772. "Our General has issued several very salutary and humane regulations and both in his publick and private measures, has shewn himself the Man." ^{[2][dubious – discuss]} In the Southern U.S. states, the phrase came to be applied to any man or any group in a position of authority, or to authority in the abstract. From about the 1950s the phrase was also an underworld code word for police, the warden of a prison or other law enforcement or penal authorities.

It was also used as a term for a drug dealer in the 1950s and 1960s and can be seen in such media as Curtis Mayfield's "No Thing On Me", William Burroughs's novel Naked Lunch, and in the Velvet Underground song "I'm Waiting for the Man", in which Lou Reed sings about going to Uptown Manhattan, specifically Lexington Avenue and 125th Street, to buy heroin.

The use of this term was expanded to counterculture groups and their battles against authority, such as the Yippies, which, according to a May 19, 1969 article in U.S. News and World Report, had the "avowed aim ... to destroy 'The Man', their term for the present system of government". The term eventually found its way into humorous usage, such as in a December 1979 motorcycle ad from the magazine Easyriders which featured the tagline, "California residents: Add 6% sales tax for The Man."

In present day, the phrase has been popularized in commercials and cinema, featuring particularly prominently as a recurring motif in the 2003 film School of Rock.^[3][4][5][6]

Use as praise[link]

The term has also been used as an approbation or form of praise. This may refer to the recipient's status as the leader or authority within a particular context, or it might be assumed to be a shortened form of a phrase like "He is the man (who is in charge)." One example of this usage dates to 1879 when Otto von Bismarck commented, referring to Benjamin Disraeli's pre-eminent position at the Congress of Berlin, "The old Jew, he is the man."^{[7][dubious – discuss]}

In more modern usage, it can be a superlative compliment ("you da man!") indicating that the subject is currently standing out amongst his peers even though they have no special designation or rank, such as a basketball player who is performing better than the other players on the court. It can also be used as a genuine compliment with an implied, slightly exaggerated or sarcastic tone, usually indicating that the person has indeed impressed the speaker but by doing something relatively trivial.

See also[link]

• Absentee landlord
• Big Brother (Nineteen Eighty-Four)
• New World Order (conspiracy theory)
• Ruling class
• The Establishment
• Power elite
• Corrections officer
• YTMND

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Lighter, J.E. (Ed.). (1997). Random House Dictionary of American Slang. New York: Random House.