November 7, 2006 (Dallas, TX) - The Diffusion Group, the nation's leading digital home and new media research consultancy, has added two veteran industry consultants to its growing staff of expert advisors.
"The Diffusion Group is proud to announce the expansion of our research and advisory staff," notes Michael Greeson, Founding Partner and Principal Analyst with The Diffusion Group. "The addition of Michael Fischer and Nicholas Givotovsky expands both the breadth and depth of our firm's expertise, providing our clients with unparalleled capabilities in the fields of advanced digital media services and interactive media, technology, and policy."
Michael Fischer
Michael Fisher has 14 years experience in the broadband/cable industry. In his last role as Director of Products and Programming for Comcast, he was responsible for digital cable, programming and high-speed Internet. He has also worked extensively with new product development and deployment, call center management, and operations.
Michael has broad project and product management experience, spearheading VOD, HDTV, DVR and broadband efforts. Past experience includes time at Q1 Nanosystems, Comcast, AT&T Broadband, and Time Warner. As a consultant, Michael recently helped lead a multi-company, call center re-organization, integration and consolidation project involving three leading U.S. cable operators. Michael has conducted research and analysis on VOD, DVR and the impacts of digital music downloading on traditional retail.
Michael received his MBA from the University of California at Davis, concentrating in Marketing and Strategy. He also holds an undergraduate degree in Business Administration.
Nicholas Givotovsky
Nicholas Givotovsky specializes in strategic consulting for interactive media, technology and policy. For more than a decade Nicholas has worked to advance the leading edge of interactive media design and development, innovate cross-platform publishing and advertising models, develop digital rights management, inform privacy policy, and set international standards.
Nick has focused on the conception, design, and delivery of personalized, scalable and portable user-centric new media applications and the development of interoperable solutions required to support them. Current activities include in-depth analysis of the roles of identity, interoperability, and transparency in markets where attention and affiliation are recognized as user-owned and business-enabled assets.
Personal clients include leaders in content, advertising and technology such as Apple, Columbia House, Dentsu, Hewlett Packard, Home Box Office, Interactive Advertising Bureau, and Tribune.
Recently, he co-chaired the Rights Management and Protection working group of the TV Anytime forum where he forged agreement across industries to enable the adoption the digital video recorder rights management standards now endorsed by hardware manufactures, broadcasters, software companies, and content owners. As Secretary of Contecs: DD, a consortium that includes representatives from the Motion Pictures Association of America and Recording Industry Association of America, he contributed to the creation and adoption of a key interoperable rights "data dictionary" now formally standardized through ISO/MPEG21.
Nicholas is a graduate of St. Andrews University . He is the author of TDG's latest report, "The New Digital Deal: Engagement, Advertising, and the Market as Conversation", which focuses on the impact of new media on classic concepts such as 'engagement' and 'attention,' as well as what this revaluation means for media consumption and digital identity in the digital age.