CYNOPSISDIGITAL
08.27.14

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, August 27, 2014, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

 
AT&T has finally worked out a deal with antitrust regulators that will allow it to buy DirecTV, according to the New York Post. The Department of Justice has given AT&T unspecified conditions that it has agreed to meet in order for the purchase to go through, though it isn’t expected to be completed until the first quarter. The plan to buy DirecTV for $48.5 billion became public in May.
 

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Amazon has purchased Twitch for a reported $970 million after months of speculation that Google would buy the streaming service that allows video gamers to watch one another play. The word had been that Google would shell out $1 billion for the property.
 
The iTunes Festival in London will hop into gear on Monday, Sept. 1 but Apple TV is already all over it. It has launched an official channel for the event that will feature such performers as Ed Sheeran, Tony Bennett, and deadmau5…
 
…in other Apple TV news, Showtime Networks announced the launch of Showtime Anytime on the service, giving Showtime subscribers unlimited on-demand access to hundreds of hours of programming, as well as the live broadcast of the network’s East and West Coast feeds.
 
Hulu and LOLflix have partnered up to create a new channel that showcases the events and talent at the annual Santa Barbara LOL Comedy Festival, which runs from Sept. 2-7. Throughout the festival, LOLflix will exclusively premiere four one-hour specials and have interviews and back-stage scenes from the comedy specials, Variety reports.
 
Popcornflix Kids, the free streaming TV and movie service from Screen Media Ventures LLC, has added new content, including Big Comfy Couch, The Saddle Club, Popeye, Eye of the Dolphin, Midnight Stallion, and Peter Pan as well as new musician and entertainer documentaries about kid favorites like One Direction, Taylor Swift, and Justin Bieber, among others.
 
 

 
As the Emmy Awards got closer Monday night, Netflix shares hit an all-time high of $485.30, according to CNBC. After all, the company had broken new ground at last year’s ceremony when it won three awards, including one for David Fincher’s direction of House of Cards and then collected 31 nominations for this year’s awards. While Netflix went home from the awards with seven statuettes, none of them was for the major categories presented on Monday night. The stock price was back to $480.93 by the start of business Tuesday.
 
Right at the deadline, Dish Network Corp. has officially filed a petition seeking a block from the Federal Communications Commission of the proposed merger of Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc. The request came Monday, the final day for comments to be accepted on the case, and said that the merger would bring about “substantial harm” to Dish and other companies, the Denver Business Journal reports. "The merger would permit and motivate the combined company to hurt or destroy online video rivals through its control over the broadband pipe, passing an estimated two thirds of U.S. households," Dish said in the request. More than 43,000 other comments on the merger have also been collected by the FCC.
 
Two of Canada’s largest cable television distributors, Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications, are teaming up to launch a joint video streaming service, according to the Toronto Globe and Mail. Called Shomi, the service has 11,000 hours of popular shows to offer customers, including 340 shows and 1,200 movies. According to CBC, it will launch in November and cost $8.99 a month, the same price as Netflix.
 

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

SPEAKERS INCLUDE:
Rob O’Neill, VP, Programming & Promotion Strategy – Comedy Central
Scott Thomas, VP, Consumer Marketing – Cartoon Network
Justin Pertschuk, Head of Digital Marketing – DreamWorks
Marc Normand, VP, Research – Disney Media Sales & Marketing

For more information & to register, visit our website.
Questions? Please contact [email protected] at 203-899-8483.

 
Wearable computing is on the rise but a common complaint about such devices as smartwatches is that there aren’t enough apps. Samsung is now making it known that its Gear smartwatches now have more than 1,000 apps available to them, The Next Web notes. Apple has been said for months to be experimenting with a smartwatch as well. In related news, consumer-technology publisher Digital Trends has launched a wearables category page dedicated to product reviews, breaking news, and commentary about wearable devices. A weekly column, “Wear Next,” is also part of the package.
 
 

 
Once Labor Day is over, voters across America will be hearing a lot more about the midterm elections coming in November – and they may be hearing about it digitally. The word from ad research firm Borrell Associates in a new report is that more than $270 million will be spent across the nation on digital campaign efforts, Politico reports. That’s a 1,825 percent increase from 2010. Spending is expected to increase to nearly $1 billion in the 2016 election cycle. At that point, it should surpass campaign spending in newspapers, direct mail, and telemarketing. TV still leads the list, by far, with expected spending this year to be $4.6 billion and $6.4 billion in 2016.
 
Yahoo-owned Aviate organizes apps and aggregates personal data on Android devices. Along the way, of course, it collects a lot of consumer information as well. According to a new infographic from Yahoo!, Android users have an average of 95 apps and use 35 of them on average daily, The Next Web reports. Different apps are more popular at different times of day. Google Maps gets more action at night, but the Netflix app sees a rise throughout the day until it peaks around 10 p.m.
 
 

 
MediaMath has further enabled its TerminalOne Marketing Operating System so that advertisers can access Facebook Exchange inventory through T1 Platform API.
 
 

 
Gracenote has named John Batter its new CEO. Batter was formerly the chief executive at M-GO.
 
 

 
Cute animal videos hadn’t overtaken the screens of the world when Cesar Millan’s Dog Whisperer first hit the airwaves back in 2004. In its eight-year run, the show was seen in more than 80 countries and Millan rehabbed countless dogs at his Dog Psychology Center. He now hosts Cesar 911 on Nat Geo WILD and is celebrating his 45th birthday today. Here are a few highlights from his days as the Whisperer when he surely helped pave the way for animal-video creators across the globe. Check it out at www.cynopsis.com/#video.

Cynopsis Ad Sales: Mike Farina | VP, Sales | 203-218-6480
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Cynopsis CLASSIFIEDS – For More classifieds, visit the Cynopsis.com classifieds page here.

JOB OPENING: FREELANCE PA/Viacom/NYC: 1 yr exp. digi content, prod & CMS. Resp. incl. track schedules, gather assets, CMS content entries & publishing updates across mult responsive sites. Note: not a video prod role. RESUMES HERE (9/4)

JOB OPENING DIGITAL RSCH MGR/NYC: Support digital research for Bravo & Oxygen. Provide data analysis, insights & recommendations for all digital platforms. 3+ yrs relevant exp. Omniture a must. Full info/apply HERE (9/4)

JOB OPENING: DIR/SENIOR DIRECTOR OF SALES/JIM HENSON CO/LA: Sales of Company’s TV series in intl. territories to media platforms, including TV, home entertainment and digital. Must have proven sales track record with major kids’ TV brands. Email to [email protected] (8/30)

JOB OPENING: DESIGN DIRECTOR/IFC/NYC: responsible for overall look & feel of IFC brand across all platforms, must be highly creative, hands-on, design guru. 7+ yrs. exp, knowledge of current software, print prod, post prod & photo retouching. Full info/Apply HERE (8/30)

JOB OPENING: MGR DIGITAL AD OPS/AMC NETWORKS/NYC: Work across all networks monitoring campaign performance, managing external vendors, troubleshooting errors, 3+ yrs. ad ops exp., at least 1+ dig exp. Full info/Apply HERE (8/30) 

JOB OPENING: EXEC ASST/NYC: For on-air talent. Highly effective in Multi-tasking a must. Candidate should be resourceful w/exceptional commn skills. Fast paced high pressure envir. Plan’g travel, Mgmt of personal itineraries. Resume HERE (8/30)

JOB OPENING: RESEARCH ANALYST/Comedy Central & Spike TV/NYC: Freelance. Collect, analyze/interpret Nielsen TV, social data & other TV consumer tracking sources for client reqs. 4yr deg & exp w/Excel, Word & PP  Send resume/cover: HERE (8/29)

JOB OPENING: SR WRITER/PRODUCER/NYC: Write, produce, concept high impact on-air promos and orig series launch campaigns. 3+ yrs exp & an impressive reel demonstrating a range of creative executions. Full info/apply HERE (8/29)

JOB OPENING: DIGITAL RESEARCH DIRECTOR/NBC.COM/NYC: Lead digital research for NBC.com. Provide data, analysis & insights on traffic & performance across digital platforms. 5+ yrs relevant exp. Omniture a must. Full info/apply HERE (8/29)

JOB OPENING: DIGITAL RESEARCH MANAGER/NBC.COM/NYC:  Support digital research for NBC.com. Provide data & analysis on traffic & performance across all digital platforms. 3+ yrs relevant exp. Omniture a must. Full info/apply HERE (8/29)

JOB OPENING: MGR PRGRM INVENTORY & ADMIN/AMCN/NYC: Track rights all prgrm content across all ntwrks, in-depth knwldg of complex media rights, 6+ yrs. exp at TV/cable net, or similar bus. that specializes in ent/media transactions. Apply HERE (8/28)

JOB OPENING: ACCT EXEC. AD SALES/CSI SPORTS/NYC: NY Expanding Ad Dept. 70m+ Sports Net. 5+ yrs. TV ad sales exp. Nat’l DR and Digital exp. preferred. Res/cvr to Rose: HERE (8/28) 

JOB OPENING: INT’L SALES/CSI SPORTS/NY: Multimedia co. seeks energetic/driven ind. to license content to int’l ntwrks & operators worldwide. +7yrs int’l sales exp. req. pref. in media ind. Sports bckgrnd a +. Res/cvr to Rose: HERE (8/28)

JOB OPENING: SR DIR, STRATEGIC MKTG/NYC: Develop & drive brand strategy for Sprout. 10+ yrs media/mktg exp required. Exec must have strong creative & strategic experience. Analytics are a plus. Apply HERE (8/28)

JOB OPENING: HEAD OF CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT/AMAZON INSTANT VIDEO/Seattle: Amazon Instant Video seeks a talented individual to join the team. 10+ years’ exp in online and/or consumer mktg pref w/online retail exp. Full info/apply HERE (8/28)

JOB OPENING: SALES DEVELOPMENT MGR/NYPost/NY: Cross platform sales support & oppty dev’t w/focus on digital. 3+ yr sales mktng/dev exp, w/sales writing, project management, client svc, digital media exp preferred. Details/apply: HERE (8/28)

JOB OPENING: DIR, ON-AIR PROMO & PGRMNG STRATEGY/CMT/Nashville: Dvlp tactics to support varying levels of prgrmmng priorities. 5+ yrs exp prgrm plan’g/sched &/or in on air promo sched’g @brdcst/cbl ntwrk. Strong knwlg. of PTS, OAP & GRiPit software. Apply HERE (8/28) 

JOB OPENING: MGR, PR/Scripps Ntwks/Chevy Chase MD or NYC: help dvlp & implement strategic publicity plans for key Travel Channel prgrmng & initiatives. Demonstrate track rec creative/successful PR pro. a must. 5+ yrs PR exp. Full info/apply HERE (8/28)

JOB OPENING: DIRECTOR EDITORIAL VIDEO/Washington Post/DC: Leader w/6+ yrs in video production Drives audience traffic w/track record storytelling w/graphics & video in time constraints [email protected] http://linkd.in/1lXVn28 (8/28)

CASTING CALL: Companies can showcase their casting notices/casting calls here. For information on rates and specs for posting a casting notice, please email Trish at [email protected]

EXPERT SERVICES ADS: These ads are for companies or people who offer an expertise in the field of media by way of production, voice over artistry, writing, set development, etc. For information on rates and specs for posting an Expertise Service ad email Trish at [email protected]

SITUATION WANTED: Production Manager/Field Producer staff position wanted. 20 yrs experience working at all major entertainment companies from long form to promos. If you need someone to get it done, look no further. Email: [email protected] (8/28)

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