{"id":286547,"date":"2025-03-04T19:48:24","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T03:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/?p=286547"},"modified":"2025-03-14T05:01:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T12:01:00","slug":"katherine-pond-making-connections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/katherine-pond-making-connections\/","title":{"rendered":"Katherine Pond \u2014 Making Connections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Connected TV, or CTV, is one of the hot buzz terms in today\u2019s streaming world. 
\n 
\nOfficially it\u2019s simply a television set that\u2019s connected to the Internet, either through a streaming device or because it\u2019s a smart TV with the device built in. 
\n 
\nBut in reality, CTV means so much more than that. It\u2019s a gateway to a world of entertainment options, connecting the consumer to a far-reaching menu of FAST channels, customized streaming portals, and even proprietary content.<\/p>\n

Indeed, connected-TV systems, with their customized, personalized home pages, are in many ways the new home entertainment retailers, merchandising streaming apps in much the same way brick-and-mortar retailers in the not-too-distant past merchandised DVDs and Blu-ray Discs. 
\n 
\nAnd that brings us to Katherine Pond, our 2025 Fast Forward honoree. As I\u2019m sure many of you know, the Fast Forward Award is presented each year by Media Play News<\/em> to people, technologies, or organizations that move the home entertainment industry forward. <\/p>\n

Read Our Profile on Katherine Pond, Our 2025 Fast Forward Honoree<\/strong><\/a>
\n 
\nPond, Group VP of platform content and partnerships at Vizio, is both a key driver and pioneer in the CTV realm. She heads distribution, content acquisition, programming, platform partnerships and marketing at Vizio, a top smart-TV maker and a leader in the consumer electronics industry\u2019s embrace of streaming. She leads content acquisition for Vizio\u2019s AVOD and FAST businesses. She oversees digital distribution for Vizio\u2019s third-party content and app partners. And she plays a key role in getting Vizio to leverage opted-in platform data to gain insight into what consumers want to watch and then use that data to make content choices for Vizio\u2019s WatchFree+, a free service that offers live-TV, news, sports, music and upwards of 25,000 on-demand movies and shows from all the top studios. <\/p>\n

WatchFree+ is available not just on Vizio TVs, but also on the Vizio app for iOS and Android devices. It has more than 300 live channels and 50 local channels, as well as seven owned-and-operated channels under Pond and her programming team\u2019s watch. <\/p>\n

TVs don\u2019t get much more \u201cconnected\u201d than that.<\/p>\n

But Pond isn\u2019t just about connecting consumers with entertainment through Vizio TVs and the WatchFree+ service.<\/p>\n

She also excels at making connections within the industry. She\u2019s a regular presence at industry events, including the annual CES in Las Vegas, the Stream TV Show in Denver, and the various conferences and other events staged by home entertainment\u2019s two trade associations, DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group and OTT.X. She\u2019s also on the advisory board of NATPE Global, the big annual conference in Miami for TV programming executives.<\/p>\n

In the more than 12 years she\u2019s been at Vizio, Pond also has been great at making connections inside the Vizio organization. When she refers to her colleagues as \u201cmy team,\u201d you get the sense that she really means it, and observing her interactions with her staff members at industry events you can tell there\u2019s far more mutual respect and genuine affection than there normally is in business relationships.<\/p>\n

Credit her Midwestern upbringing, her devotion to her family, or her incredible luck in having a series of wise, smart and savvy mentors throughout her career. Or maybe it\u2019s her tendency to say \u201cyes\u201d to whatever is asked of her at work, regardless of how difficult it might be.<\/p>\n

More than likely, it\u2019s a combination of all these factors that make Katherine Pond the real deal, a true leader in an ever-changing, always-evolving industry. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Connected TV, or CTV, is one of the hot buzz terms in today\u2019s streaming world.    Officially it\u2019s simply a television set that\u2019s connected to the Internet, either through a streaming device or because it\u2019s a smart TV with the device built in.    But in reality, CTV means so much more than that. It\u2019s … Continue reading “Katherine Pond \u2014 Making Connections”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,18],"tags":[19947,684],"coauthors":[64],"class_list":["post-286547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs","category-tk-arnold","tag-katherine-pond","tag-vizio"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nKatherine Pond \u2014 Making Connections - Media Play News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/katherine-pond-making-connections\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Katherine Pond \u2014 Making Connections - Media Play News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Connected TV, or CTV, is one of the hot buzz terms in today\u2019s streaming world.    Officially it\u2019s simply a television set that\u2019s connected to the Internet, either through a streaming device or because it\u2019s a smart TV with the device built in.    But in reality, CTV means so much more than that. 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