Media Metadata Is a Signal to Detect Real From Fake

Episode Summary

Allan McLennan, founder and chief executive of PADEM Media Group, calls metadata the lifeblood of everything in entertainment, because every moment created or shared carries a tag. Without those tags nothing establishes that a piece of content is the studio’s, the producer’s or the creative’s, or tracks the alteration that makes a new version and potentially puts its copyright at risk. The same tags carry the second half of the conversation, an IBC Accelerator project he proposed and lists himself among the champions of, alongside CBS News, BBC News, Al Jazeera News and ITN, all working on identifying fake news at a volume he puts at 34 million stories a day. His account of where that leaves a viewer is the sharpest thing he says: the first question now, whether you voice it or not, is whether the thing in front of you is real.

Key takeaways

About Allan McLennan

Allan McLennan is founder and chief executive of PADEM Media Group, and a longtime media and entertainment executive who has worked across many parts of the industry, including as an analyst. That analyst framing is where he starts on this episode: generative AI in media comes down to economic and production efficiencies, and the industry is taking layoffs now against improvements he says do not really happen right away but come down the road. From there he moves to the two subjects that fill the middle of the episode. The first is metadata, which he calls the lifeblood of everything in the entertainment industry and the only way to establish that a piece of content is yours. The second is identifying fake content: he proposed an IBC Accelerator project and counts himself among its champions alongside CBS News, BBC News, Al Jazeera News and ITN.

 

In this episode

00:58 Welcome, and who Allan McLennan is
01:34 A longtime media and entertainment executive, and an analyst
01:45 The opening question: an analyst’s view of generative AI in the industry
01:57 Economic efficiencies and production efficiencies
02:51 Layoffs now, against improvements that arrive later
03:22 AI is good and great, and what about the livelihoods
03:39 Brian Lakamp at Paramount Global, and studios as content creation companies
04:18 More content is the need, and what the SAG-AFTRA strike did to the pipeline
04:37 Lowering debt and lowering expenses across the industry
05:02 Studios as production facilities, live programming, and the vast libraries
05:47 Creating content while cutting the expenses that drive it
06:17 Metadata as a cost factor and as a way to commercialize content
06:33 Metadata is the lifeblood, and every moment carries a tag
06:46 What generative AI does with the tags
07:42 The only way to recognize that content is yours
08:11 Alter it in any way and it becomes a new version
08:40 Identifying fake content, and whether it relies on metadata
09:07 IBC, and the idea he came up with
09:28 Why news is the number one revenue generator
09:53 Alerting an editorial team that a story may be faked
10:17 The champions, and his figure of 34 million fake news stories a day
10:55 Mapping and verification, the Nordics, and C2PA
11:52 Not one product but a unified effort, and the question is it real
12:29 Is it true, the gating point, and the US elections
13:21 Whether generative AI is used to find the fakes
13:36 The vendors’ platforms, and visual mapping of the entities
14:29 The AI Realized panel with Megan Mauck, Brian Lakamp and Blake Bassett
14:39 Personalization, and what generative AI actually adds to it
15:12 Free ad-supported television, and where it stands today
15:31 Segmenting programming for ad insertion, and the anger that goes with it
15:59 Six commercials, sometimes eight, and the audience that leaves
16:22 Understanding the viewer by content and by purchase behavior
16:55 What the industry knows through the credit card associations
17:29 Matching the commercial to the viewer, and what it is worth
18:07 Zip code registries, and what has changed since
18:35 Fewer ads in the break, because they are targeted
19:07 Generative AI assimilating it for measurement and distribution
19:33 Take a breath, and do not hyperventilate about falling behind
19:55 Do not stick your head in the sand, and where the problem really is
21:05 Not a favorite, but the fellow from AI Realized, and the name he is reaching for
21:21 Paul Baier, and why figuring it out in public is more impactful
22:00 The daily email, the learning labs and the HBR articles
22:43 Substack, and the Ankler for media and entertainment
23:20 Close

In Allan’s words

“metadata is the lifeblood of everything”

Allan McLennan   (06:33)

“The only way that you can actually recognize it that it’s yours, that it’s the studio’s, that it’s the producer’s, it’s the creative, is through the metadata”

Allan McLennan   (07:42)

“any time that any piece of content is altered in any way, shape, or form, it becomes a new version”

Allan McLennan   (08:11)

“it isn’t just one product that will solve this. It’s a unified effort of different products that weave together”

Allan McLennan   (11:52)

“whether you say it or not, your first thought now, sadly, is, is it real?”

Allan McLennan   (11:52)

“there’s comfortably a 38 to 40% greater chance that that viewer will find that engaging”

Allan McLennan   (17:29)

“don’t hyperventilate on feeling that you’re missing something and that you’re falling behind, because you’re not”

Allan McLennan   (19:33)

“don’t stick your head in the sand, and understand that the more that you know how to better utilize this tool, the better you’re going to be moving forward”

Allan McLennan   (19:55)

 

Resources

Named or described on air, with links

  • C2PA: The Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity, the alliance he describes at 10:55 as an organization Microsoft and Adobe are putting together to verify content. It was founded in February 2021 and its founding members include both of them

  • Design Your Weapons in the Fight Against Disinformation: The IBC 2024 Accelerator project he describes from 09:07, on news organizations collaborating to identify disinformation and authenticate genuine reporting

  • GAI Insights: The firm behind the person he recommends at 21:21. The host names it at 21:18 and describes its daily email and its learning labs, which are what make the recommendation a practical one

  • Paul Baier on LinkedIn: The person he recommends, chief executive and co-founder of GAI Insights, and the guest on episode 2 of this podcast

  • The Ankler: The publication he calls the de facto one for media and entertainment at 22:43, spelling it out letter by letter. He describes it as a Substack, which it was at the time

  • AI Realized Summit speakers: Where the panel he refers to at 05:02 and 14:29 took place, with Megan Mauck, Brian Lakamp and Blake Bassett

Named on air

  • CBS News, BBC News, Al Jazeera News and ITN: The four news organizations he names at 10:17 as champions of the accelerator project alongside himself, saying up to twenty broadcasters and networks worldwide are behind the effort

  • Microsoft and Adobe: The two companies he credits at 10:55 with putting the content verification alliance together

  • SAG-AFTRA: The strike he says at 04:18 crippled the industry by reducing the content pipeline by two-thirds

  • Brian Lakamp: Formerly EVP, Media Supply Chain at Paramount Global. The host recalls his argument at 03:39 that studios are content creation companies that make more content as they get more efficient. Allan McLennan says at 04:37 that he knows Lakamp well, and at 05:02 that the argument is absolutely correct

  • Megan Mauck and Blake Bassett: The two other panelists he names at 14:29 from the AI Realized panel, senior vice president of media operations at NBCUniversal and vice president of product for emerging tech at Tubi

  • Tubi and Pluto: The two free ad-supported platforms he names at 15:59 when describing four-minute commercial breaks

  • Substack: The platform he recommends at 22:43 for writers covering this subject matter daily

Published since this conversation

  • Stamping Your Content, C2PA Provenance: The IBC 2025 Accelerator project, which IBC says builds on the 2024 disinformation project. It is the continuation he predicts at 13:01, and it is organized around the C2PA standard he names at 10:55

Ideas and terms discussed

  • Metadata as the lifeblood: The claim he returns to throughout the conversation. Every moment created or shared carries a tag, and the tags are what make ownership recognizable at all

  • A new version: The copyright consequence he raises. Altering content in any way makes a new version, and a new version potentially puts the copyright at risk

  • Perceived economic improvements: His phrase for the gap the industry is currently living in, between layoffs taken now and efficiencies expected at the back end

  • FAST: Free advertising supported television, the streaming format he uses to explain what targeted advertising would change

  • The gating point: His term for where a viewer now stands, asking whether what they are watching is real before they engage with it

  • Take a breath: His own number one, and the thing he says before anything about tools

 

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