• The Scene – a platform for curated premium digital-first video content – will launch in July with content from CNE and partners including ABC News, Buzzfeed, Major League Soccer, Variety, Weather Channel Films and Jash. "The addition of The Scene will increase our reach to entirely new audiences," said CNE President Dawn Ostroff.
• Three new channels will get their own digital video networks  Bon Appetit, The New Yorker and Lucky.

New Series:

• Glamour: 30 Things: From executive producers Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos, the must-haves and must-knows for women on the cusp of, and beyond, the age of 30.
• GQ: Most Expensive Sh*t: the most outrageously decadent toys of the rich and famous.
• SELF: Treat Yourself: how to indulge without porking up.
• Vanity Fair: @VF Scandal: the most salacious, scandalous and intriguing tales.
• Vogue: 73 Questions: This format takes viewers inside a celebrity’s home, where they’ll answer 73 very personal questions – on the spot.
• Wired: Retro Grade: A gadget lab for antiquated and obsolete technology, this comic series offers tech demonstrations that viewers won’t believe were once possible.
• Renewed Series: Glamour’s Dressed to Kill, Elevator Makeover, The Single Life, Why Do Guys?, My Glamour Do; GQ’s America’s Bartender; SELF’s Girl vs. Sweat, Which is Worse?; Teen Vogue’s Besties, Breakfast with Bevan, Get the Look, My Room Makeover: College Edition, Outfit of the Day; Vanity Fair’s Vanity Code; Vogue’s Vogue Weddings: The Dress, The Fashion Fund; WIRED’s Angry Nerd, Codefellas, Design FX, The Window, What’s Inside.

At its Brooklyn event, AOL announced sixteen original shows that will premiere throughout the year on The AOL On Network. AOL and Nielsen also revealed that AOL has signed on to participate in a beta that will provide TV-comparable audience measurement across all of AOL’s new series. The Nielsen beta will deliver GRPs (gross ratings points) that reflect the audience reach by age and gender for AOL’s new programming as an extension of Nielsen Digital Program Ratings, which currently measures TV-originated content viewed online. In addition to measuring content, AOL will be tagging associated advertising using Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings; the combination of audience measurement across ‘digital-first’ content and related advertising will make it possible for complete audience comparisons to TV for the first time.

"We are fully committed to producing premium content at scale," said Ran Harnevo, President of AOL Video. "Premium content is premium content, regardless of screen, delivery, length, or format, and our relationship with Nielsen signifies that understanding. As TV and digital continue to merge into one ecosystem, we believe in one standard form of measurement, and we’re proud to be the first digital client to work with Nielsen to make this vision a reality."
New Series include:

• Making a Scene with James Franco: the actor recreates favorite film scenes, with a twist. Produced by Rabbit Bandini Productions and Trium Entertainment.
• Kevin Nealon’s Laugh Lessons: Nealon teaches comedy to kids. Executive producers Ellen DeGeneres, Kevin Nealon, Jeff Kleeman, Ed Glavin, Andy Lassner, Mary Connelly for Telepictures.
• That’s Racist: Jews and Money. Asian Drivers. Polish IQ. Actor and comedian Mike Epps explores stereotypes and how history and fact often distorts into a snide shorthand. Produced by Andrew Fried for Boardwalk Pictures.
• Connected: AOL’s first long-form video series chronicles the lives of five seemingly disconnected New Yorkers as they explore the concept of family in New York City. Produced by Koda Communications inassociation with Warrior Poets.
• Park Bench: Steve Buscemi and AOL have teamed-up to take over the streets of New York in this new original series  a local’s take on the special people, places and spirit of The Big Apple. Produced by Olive Productions and RadicalMedia.

Go to Cynopsis.com/Upfronts for more coverage.

The word from Bloomberg is that Vevo is exploring the idea of putting itself up for sale. Vevo LLC’s four owners are said to be "close to hiring Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to explore sale options." The company currently has offers from DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., Liberty Media Group, and a joint venture between AT&T and Chernin Group, Bloomberg notes. Current owners are Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Google, and Abu Dhabi Media Co.

Two of Vine‘s stars, 16-year-old Nash Grier and 19-year-old Cameron Dallas, have been signed to the AwesomenessTV network. Combined, the pair has more than 12 million Vine followers and as part of the deal, they will make a feature film with AwesomenessTV founder and CEO Brian Robbins.

Comcast‘s X1 triple-play customers will soon be able to live stream personal video from their mobile devices, over the Internet, directly to the television.The new feature, which will be part of Xfinity Voice, is expected to be available to customers by the beginning of 2015.

IFC is bringing back comedian Marc Maron for a second season of "Maron" that will launch on May 8. Before then, though, the network debuted a web series, "Inside Maron’s Garage," to help build buzz. It explores such things as the fine fan art Maron receives, what the real Marc thinks of the TV Marc, and what Maron actually has in his garage, among other subjects.

Upwave — Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.’s (TBS, Inc.) fairly new digital entertainment brand — is launching five original health-andwellness series, featuring such folks as Shaquille O’Neal, Dave Lingwood of MTV‘s "The Buried Life" and Esquire editor-at-large A.J. Jacobs. The shows — #KnowIt, We are Champions, What’s In My Fridge, How We Work, and upList — are all available at upwave.com and on YouTube.

Eonline had more than 30 million multi platform unique visitors in March, comScore reports. This is the seventh straight quarter that Eonline has seen growth. Mobile has grown more than three times from the same time period last year, earning more than 20 million uniques in March.

Siri may be coming to Apple TV. No, she won’t get her own show, but her voice may be part of Apple TV’s next version. The word from 9to5Mac is that Siri may be integrated into the remote. "With Apple targeting voice commands for the Apple TV, the company is also looking to pull some market share from Amazon’s Fire TV," which already includes voice commands, Fansided.com reports.

Craig Ferguson’s announcement that he’s leaving CBS at year’s end triggered soaring interest in him online. There was 41% as much consumption about him online as there was about Stephen Colbert on April 10 when he was named the new host of the Late Show, Kontera reports. It’s been a busy year for late-night hosts, but Colbert’s switch still leads the year for information consumption. David Letterman had 77% as much consumption as Colbert when he decided to retire and Jimmy Fallon had 67% as much consumption the day after his first Tonight Show back in February. Jay Leno pulled in 57% as much consumption the day of his final Tonight Show. When Jimmy Kimmel had Rob Ford on as a guest on March 4, his consumption peaked at 31% as much consumption. Seth Meyers picked up 15% as much consumption on the day after his first Late Show in February and John Oliver brought in 9% as much consumption just this week after his new HBO show premiered on Sunday.

NBCUniversal has expanded its partnership with FreeWheel, the advertising technology and services provider for the digital television industry, to automate its video-on-demand inventory via dynamic ad insertion. "This integration with FreeWheel gives our clients more flexibility and accuracy in delivering their campaigns across online, mobile and video-on-demand programming," said Krishan Bhatia, digital atrategy & operations, ad sales, NBCUniversal. "It further enables our Total Audience approach, which gives advertisers access to all of our audiences wherever they experience our content."

YouTube marketing software company Octoly has launched a beta of its Suite 360 Dashboard and ContextID tools. The software is aimed at giving marketers a holistic overview of a brand’s owned, earned, and paid media footprint on YouTube.

Israel’s Nextpeer is adding 1.5 million users a day to its Android multiplayer mobile-gaming network, VentureBeat reports. The platform "can convert both iOS and Android games into multiplayer titles," the site reports. "Since multiplayer is social, it makes games more engaging and enables them to retain players for longer periods." It is growing 15 times faster on Android than it did when it launched on iOS last year. More than 70 million users are now using Nextpeer-enabled games.

Amazon acquired digital-comics company Comixology less than a month ago but it has now angered a few of its fans by removing the ability to make in-app purchases on the company’s iOS app, Mashable reports. Amazon would rather users make purchases from the company’s web-based storefront.

Marci Hughes has been hired to be executive producer of CelebTV. Hughes previously worked as a producer for the The Oprah Winfrey Show.

David Jacobs of AOL Networks will join the Board of Directors of online video platform Playwire.

Canaan Schladale-Zink has been promoted to VP sales at Sizmek, the ad management company. The company has also added Patrick Meehan as RVP Sales, West. He was previously the head of platform sales at Google. Tony Lane is the new RVP sales, central, for the company. He has previously worked for PointRoll, USAToday.com, and RadiumOne.

See you tomorrow,
Jessica Reese  @JMarieReese
04.30.14

Roberta Caploe: Editorial Director @robertacaploe
Diane K Schwartz: Senior Vice President, Media Communications Group

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