As a media and entertainment software consulting firm, we have extensive expertise in helping clients sharpen their D2C strategy, identify growth opportunities, gain control over their content rights, deepen the customer experience, and enhance audience engagement.
Our M+E strategy services allow clients to anticipate and meet demand, optimize their data assets, monetize their content, increase ad revenues, stay ahead of the rapidly evolving media landscape, and make more informed data-driven business decisions.
With a more comprehensive view of their company’s data, executives are able to quickly adapt to market or supply changes and be better positioned to gain a competitive edge in the fast-moving OTT streaming and video on demand markets.
Overall, our deep understanding of the media and entertainment industry combined with a robust set of proprietary and leading technology partner tools, positions us to provide valuable insight and guidance for our clients. We can help you to:
Transform your cost structure to meet the change in monetization needs
Integrate your acquisitions and licensing to increase and maximize your ROI
Identify the most effective OTT, SSAI, DAI, or FAST advertising revenue activities
Increase content monetization and distribution
Optimize and secure your OTT technology streaming service platform
Better manage title rights and availability with our proprietary CCAE system
Optimize D2C marketing mix to increase customer acquisition and retention
Enhance the customer experience
Access real-time competitive intelligence and data on marketing effectiveness, measurement and attribution
Help you adjust your operating model to support subscriber growth and increase market share
Why Work With Us?
Our experienced software consulting team has worked with top global media conglomerates including Apple, DIRECTV, CBS, Sony Pictures, 21st Century Fox, and leading OTT and satellite streaming services — giving us valuable insight into the industry. We understand what it takes to thrive in this dynamic market, and we are dedicated to helping our clients achieve sustainable success.
When you work with PDG, you get more than a software consulting company, you get a
partner. No one else will work harder to understand what makes your business
unique in the industry and what your needs are. Combined with our experience
creating media industry software development solutions and our
top-rated CMS development services, there’s no one better.
Contact our team today to get a customized quote on your next project.
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Project Name
DIRECTV STREAM Content Provider DAI
Overview
We led the initiative by designing, integrating, and testing an upgraded technology stack from the Server Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) vendor used in the over-the-top streaming platform at DIRECTV. The design allowed us to synethically separate the National (Content Provider owned) and Local (Distributor / DIRECTV owned) avails within a single commerical break, and request for ad decisions for each avail separate from the Content Provider ad decision services and DIRECTV's own ad decision services.
This involved iterative cycles of functional, integration, client, and load testing with focus on platform stability and user experience once the new content provider ads entered the system. We project managed this effort across numerous cross-function DIRECTV teams, external vendors, and content providers.
Tech Stacks
Elasticsearch | Kibana | Splunk | New Relic | Yospace | INVIDI
Project Name
Converged Ad Delivery
Overview
PDG spearheaded the multi-year effort by leading the project design, test management, and launch planning across DIRECTV and vendor teams. PDGC designed and developed the central measurement platform for reporting Hard Interconnect (HIC) ad placement success metrics back to the ad sales teams, as well as internal DIRECTV monitoring services and systems alerting. We previously led the Hard Interconnect deployment on DIRECTV Satellite and were looked to as experts on the DIRECTV STREAM rollout.
Tech Stacks
Go | Kubernetes | Elasticsearch | Kibana | Prometheus | Grafana | Sumologic | Couchbase | AWS S3 | AWS SQS | Kafka
Project Name
Tax Process Optimization
Overview
PDG owned and project managed the development of the EPIC TPO project, a domestic and international tax processing application that consumes data from SAP-BW, applies a set of tax business rules, and produces book to tax adjustments based on differences in GAAP and tax law. The system also lets business users to make additional topside or other adjustments to produce Warner Bros final pre-tax income.
Tech Stacks
SAP | Web UI | Enterprise Data Warehouse | .net
Project Name
Enterprise Production Incentive Cockpit
Overview
PDG owned and project managed the development of the EPIC enterprise portal used to track Theatrical and Television production tax credits, both domestically and internationally. By integrating the business processes of Production Planning, Theatrical & Television Finance, Treasury, and Tax, EPIC has streamlined and optimized the way WB, HBO, and Turner manage production credits, creating increased visibility and control of the credit process.
Tech Stacks
SAP | Web UI | Enterprise Data Warehouse | .net
Project Name
Sales Analytics and Data Insights
Overview
PDG helped Sony's Distribution Sales Analytics and Data Insights team democratize advanced analytics by creating alternative reporting tools to support sales, sales planning, sales strategy, and marketing areas. PDG designed and developed the analytical reporting database, created the BI data pipelines from source to end user, and supported the development of various business data models and KPI's that are socialized through various reporting tools and dashboards. By developing key metrics and normalizing data across territories and markets, the data is more easily accessible — empowering each group supported with shared insights and analyses.
Tech Stacks
Teradata | Alteryx | Tableau
Project Name
Apple TV+ Studio Systems - Deal Tracker
Overview
PDG drives the development, implementation and design of a new Deal Tracking system which is the technological heartbeat of the Apple TV+ production process. It services users from finance, legal, creative and business affairs departments — acting as the connective tissue between many of these groups. The application manages the deal making, negotiating, and closing processes required for any studio to produce content. PDG leverages its M+E industry expertise to provide timely and comprehensive solutions to Apple TV+ stakeholders.
Tech Stacks
NodeJS | VueJS | Elastic Search | Oracle RDBMS | Kubernetes | AWS EKS | Kafka | Cypress
Project Name
DIRECTV Cross-Platform Ad Decisioning
Overview
PDG designed and oversaw the implementation of converged ad decisioning across DIRECTV’s traditional satellite TV service and STREAM service, allowing for a single point of entry for ad campaigns and ad creatives while preserving specific inventory for existing DAI sales models. PDG set the technical architecture, developed the converged ad campaign measurement services and platform level monitoring, project managed the cross-functional effort, led validation, and ensured a successful launch.
Tech Stacks
SSAI | VAST | HLS | DASH | CMAF | Golang | Grafana | Elasticsearch | Kibana | Couchbase | Kafka | AWS SNS / SQS | Kubernetes | Splunk
Project Name
DIRECTV Programmer DAI Enablement
Overview
PDG oversaw enhancements of DIRECTV’s Dynamic Ad Insertion platform to enable insertion of content provider (programmer) sold ad campaigns on live TV breaks for all supported devices on the DIRECTV Stream and TV Everywhere streaming services. This completely separated ad decisioning between DIRECTV owned (distributor owned) ad breaks and content provider owned ad breaks to better separate ad decisioning and enable additional sales models while increasing available ad inventory on these live channels by about 600% per hour. PDG managed this first-of-its-kind effort including cross-company design, implementation, integration, testing, monitoring development, and launch.
Tech Stacks
SSAI | VAST | HLS | DASH | CMAF | Golang | Grafana | Elasticsearch | Kibana | Couchbase | AWS
Project Name
DIRECTV VOD Ad Targeting
Overview
PDG oversaw the integration, validation, and launch of new ad request routing and customer targeting services that introduced more specific targeting of ad decisions on Video on Demand content on DIRECTV STREAM. This enabled higher CPM ad campaigns to be used in decisioning, thus increasing ad revenue opportunity exponentially.
Tech Stacks
SSAI | VAST | VMAP | HLS | DASH | CMAF | Golang | Grafana | Elasticsearch | Kibana | Couchbase | AWS
Project Name
DIRECTV Dynamic Ad Insertion Analytics
Overview
PDG oversees the design and development of monitoring and alerting for the DAI platform on the DIRECTV STREAM and TV Everywhere streaming services on Live and VOD content. We focus on monitoring quality of service for the technical platform that drives the targeted ad insertion, quality of experience for the customer, and maximization of ad revenues. We ensure operations and executives have real-time views into fill rates, programmatic and auction-based ad buying management and health, and more.
Tech Stacks
SSAI | VAST | VMAP | OpenRTB | HLS | DASH | CMAF | Golang | Java | Grafana | Elasticsearch | Kibana | Splunk | Couchbase | Kafka | AWS SNS / SQS | Kubernetes | AWS Lambda | AWS DynamoDB
Project Name
Domestic and International TV Distribution
Overview
PDG redesigned CBS’s existing PDS rights management system and implemented a custom title availability reporting system utilizing a custom version of PDG’s CCAE software suite. Licensing modules were redesigned to support new contract paradigms and rights including complex license carveouts, and non-linear catch-up rights in numerous forms.
Tech Stacks
C# | Microsoft .NET 4.5 | Angular 6 | Microsoft SQL Server
Project Name
B2B Asset & Content Management
Overview
PDG developed a Digital Asset Management and Content Management system for three different business divisions to offer a common storefront for ViacomCBS distribution customers to browse digital content and access marketing/promotional materials. PDG owned and managed the design, development, implementation, and QA of all new and upgraded application components. This includes creating APIs to migrate legacy assets to OTMM (OpenText Media Management), building a modern Security Authorization module, and building a web interface with modernized UI/UX.
Tech Stacks
ASP.NET Core | Angular 10 | Microsoft SQL Server | Salesforce/PARDOT
Project Name
Revenue Pipeline Management (RPM)
Overview
PDG supported the analysis and requirements gathering processes along with owned the technical design, development, and worldwide rollout of this custom system. RPM integrates existing sales & distribution systems with a custom data warehouse and forecasting application in order to increase television sales by providing more information about product availability. The distribution system handles all licensing, customer, fee, and shipping information for 300,000+ titles and thousands of concurrent deals. RPM is used by hundreds of sales planners and finance users worldwide.
Tech Stacks
Java EE | Spring | Angular 7 | DevExtreme | Active MQ | Oracle DB | Microsoft SQL Server | Microsoft SSAS
Project Name
Film & Television Distribution
Overview
To provide near real-time contract validation and availability reporting, PDG installed its cloud-based CCAE application suite to augment Fox’s contract management system and manage its multi-billion-dollar distribution business. Additionally, enterprise messaging services were built out to connect product, rights, release, and scheduling metadata throughout the organization.
Tech Stacks
PDG CCAE v3.0 – Java | Spring | Angular 6 | Kafka | PostgreSQL | AWS EC2 | Splunk
Project Name
TV Production Data Warehouse
Overview
For this project, PDG managed the data warehouse and report development while also providing functional and technical design. This included managing and making key design decisions for the development of the ETL process, data model, reports, and automated Excel applications. PDG also designed and managed the development of web and mobile-based Microstrategy production budget executive dashboards. The data warehouse provides consolidated cost and budget data from SAP and three external production accounting systems (Entertainment Partners, Cast and Crew, and Ease Accounting). This allows for the automation of numerous finance processes including the production recap (budget and forecast) consolidation and reporting process for over 100 users across all TV productions providing visibility to up-to-date forecasts through reports and executive dashboards.
Tech Stacks
SAP | Teradata | Informatica | Microstrategy | Cast & Crew | Ease Accounting | Excel
Project Name
SAP ERP Business Planning
Overview
PDG helped implement the automation and standardization of the FP&A processes for the Television Distribution group at NBCUniversal with the goal being to transition all their planning models in Excel into a comprehensive BPC Solution to speed up processes.
Tech Stacks
SAP BPC | SAP HANA | ABAP
Project Name
SAP BPC support
Overview
PDG provided application support for the implementation of SAP S4 Hana and BPC to fulfill STX’s financial accounting, forecasting, and consolidations needs. STX uses BPC to perform film, television, digital, and home entertainment P&L forecasting on both a cash and accrual basis.
Tech Stacks
SAP BPC 10.1 | SAP AO | S4 Hana
Project Name
DIRECTV Advanced Business Planning
Overview
PDG built a Business Intelligence tool that provides high-value dashboards to ATT Advertising business stakeholders as well as Tech Ops. It allows users to drill down and slice and dice across huge volumes of historical ad performance and customer behavior events. In addition to creating an actionable, centralized data lake for all things ad-related, its main value resides in providing predictive algorithms that leverage big data and Spark distributed computing, which allows users to visualize the predicted performance of upcoming advertising campaigns.
Tech Stacks
Spark | Scala | Spring | AWS Glue | Amazon QuickSight | Amazon EMR | Amazon S3 | Redis | AWS CloudFormation
Project Name
AT&T TV Program Scheduling
Overview
PDG fully migrated the DIRECTV TV / VOD Guide metadata pipeline to the cloud. This included movie poster images, celebrity headshot, aggregated guide schedules & celebrity biographies over a satellite using Kafka, Couchbase, GoLang, & Kubernetes.
Tech Stacks
GoLang | Kubernetes | Amazon S3 | Couchbase NoSQL Database | Java | Kafka