PRESS RELEASE: PUBLIC MEDIA VENTURE GROUP ANNOUNCES COLLABORATION WITH CONVERGENCE SERVICES, INC.
BOULDER, CO (July 1) — The Public Media Venture Group (PMVG) is pleased to announce a new collaboration with Washington, DC-based strategic consultant Convergence Services, Inc. (CSI). The two organizations will work together to
identify and develop Next Generation TV services and strategic opportunities for PMVG’s nationwide collective of public media stations.
CSI’s president, John Lawson, will serve as an advisor to PMVG with a focus on ‘techno-political strategy,’ where business, technology, and policy intersect. CSI will add additional breadth and experience to PMVG’s work to develop new service and revenue models for it member public television stations. The collaboration work will also focus on the development of new revenue sources including private and public funding, private investment, and strategic partnerships. Overall areas of service-focused development will include expanded local program services, education and remote learning, emergency messaging, rural connectivity, and data delivery.
“We are excited to join forces with PMVG,” said Lawson. “They have a national footprint with leading public television stations that reach almost 70 percent of U.S. households. Equally impressive is the organizational structure they’ve built
that enables non-commercial licensees to pursue innovation and sustainability.
Through CSI, Lawson also serves as executive director of the Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN) Alliance, an international coalition of commercial and public broadcasters, consumer electronics makers, and B2B tech companies that are developing a voluntary framework for advanced emergency alerting, news, and information using NextGen TV.
“We see major synergies between our work for PMVG and the AWARN Alliance. Already, we have four public broadcasters who are members of both organizations, which is a good indication of how the missions intersect,” Lawson said.
“This collaboration with CSI will bring an important set of strategic links to PMVG and the PMVG stations,” said Marc Hand, CEO of PMVG, “and John’s experience, relationships, and strategic thinking nicely complement those we have at PMVG. We think that by working together we can help to accelerate the adoption of NextGenTV among PMVG stations and the broader public television community, a priority for both our organizations. Viewers and communities around the
country will benefit.”
About the Public Media Venture Group: PMVG is a nonprofit business development consortium of 31 public media organizations committed to furthering the mission and financial vitality of public media by developing and implementing a range of new service opportunities focused on the local communities these public media organizations serve. PMVG is especially focused on leveraging the power of the new broadcast platform, NextGen TV. PMVG media organizations own
and operate 118 public stations that together reach 235 million people. PMVG is led by Marc Hand and a national board that consists of five of the PMVG station managers.
About Convergence Services, Inc: CSI is a strategic consulting firm focusing on spectrum utilization, disaster resilience, NextGen TV, and new service and revenue models in education, connected cars, and hybrid broadcast-broadband networks. Leading up to the FCC spectrum incentive auction in 2016, CSI provided valuation analyses to multiple television license holders and private equity investors. CSI President John Lawson has served as CEO of the Association of Public Television Stations, Executive VP of ION Media Networks, and Executive Director of the Mobile500 Alliance. Lawson was one of four signatories to the original Joint Petition that led to FCC approval of NextGen TV transmission in 2017.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Marc Hand, marc@publicmediaventure.com; 303-781-5101
John Lawson, jlawson@convergence.mystagingwebsite.com; 202-302-1654