Cynopsis: DIGITAL
12.10.13

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, December 10, 2013, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

E.W. Scripps Company has acquired digital video news network Newsy for $35 million. The company’s headquarters will remain in Missouri. “We’re thrilled to be acquired by E.W. Scripps, which has a long tradition of editorial excellence,” Newsy President Jim Spencer told Cynopsis. “This will enable us to grow our business further and win the digital news marketplace.”

Yahoo has acquired online streaming event service EvntLive, a “virtual venue” for concerts from artists such as Bon Jovi and Slash. Yahoo has already dipped into the music space with its On the Road series; this move seems to indicate that more will be in the offing as the company beefs up its video portfolio.

Network A, the online action sports YouTube channel from BedRocket, is now its own online network: NetworkA.com. Fans of BMX, snow, ski, skate and surf sports will now be able to follow videos and interact within a new social media network on the site. NetworkA has 38 program partners with more than 121 million views, and is known for the series Tuerck’d and Alana: Surfer Girl, which has each clocked seven to eight million views.

Animal Planet’s digital network, Animalist, launched a new web series, Cat Mojo, from current host of My Cat From Hell‘s Jackson Galaxy. Each week Galaxy will share his thoughts on cat-related topics, which can be viewed at animalist.com/catmojo or Animalist’s YouTube channel.

The video publisher behind The Walking Dead‘s Telltale Games announced that it will now do the same for HBO Game of Thrones. The game will be released in 2014 as a digital download for videogame consoles, PC, Mac and mobile devices. Telltale Games has won more than 90 “Game of the Year” awards since its release in 2012, according to Variety.

Tomorrow! As kids programmers and distributors search for new ways to reach advertisers and viewers, online games and apps have emerged as an effective method to drive engagement and ultimately revenue and ratings. Join Cynopsis Kids for How to Drive Tune-In & Dollars with Apps and Games webinar on December 11 from 1:30-3p to learn more.Sign up for the webinar at www.cynopsis.com.

Google announced its new Google+ native ad network called +Post. Because Google+ doesn’t allow formal advertising, +Post will be seen on sites within Google’s ad network. When web users hover over the ads, they’ll become interactive by giving the option to join a Hangout, leave comments and other Google+ features. All Things D reports Toyota is one of the first to adopt the +Post network.

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Shazam updated its Apple app yesterday to fully integrate the music streaming service app Rdio. The incorporation allows Rdio app users to listen to Shazam songs to create a “My Shazam Tracks” playlist. Shazam boasts more than 375 million users in 200 countries. The Android app will be updated in the upcoming weeks.

A new study from Ggya, a social login provider for companies such as ABC, NBC and FOX, found that 20 percent of all Q3 media-related content was shared on Pinterest. Facebook recorded 40 percent and Twitter 30 percent, yet Pinterest had the highest in ecommerce-related social share, at 44 percent.

Here are this week’s top ten YouTube channel ratings from OpenSlate,sorted by SlateScore, monthly views and subscriptions. Take a look at the winners in the People & Blogs category for the week ending December 7, 2013.

OpenSlate YouTube’s Top 10 People & Blogs Channels

Source: Outrigger Media’s OpenSlate is a video analytics platform producing targetable data about the nature and quality of content on YouTube. The SlateScore is a uniform quality rating based on measures of engagement, consistency, influence and momentum. It’s on a scale of 1-1000, with 1000 being better and the average usually around 300.www.openslatestudios.com

Nielsen Twitter TV Top Ten for the week of December, 2-8 2013

Source: Nielsen SocialGuide. SocialGuide captures relevant Tweets from three hours before, during and three hours after an episode’s initial broadcast, local time. Unique Audience measures the audience of relevant Tweets ascribed to an episode from when the Tweets are sent until the end of the broadcast day at 5am. The data includes new/live primetime and late fringe episodes only and excludes sports events. Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings are only available for English-language U.S. Broadcast and Cable Networks.

NBC’s The Sound of Music Live! featuring Carrie Underwood brought in mega ratings during the three-hour broadcast on Dec. 5 not only on TV, but also in online buzz according to social media analytics company Kontera. The title alone boosted consumption (based on how many shared and used the phrase) by 791.27 percent on the day of broadcast. Underwood’s name increased consumption by 0.2% more on the same day, suggesting that she was the main reason for the chatter. Nielsen Twitter Ratings also rated the broadcast as first in unique tweets this week (see above).

Global multiplatform video service provider Vubiquity has hired Darcy Antonellis as its new CEO effective on Jan. 2. Antonellis was formerly President, Technical Operations and Chief Technology officer at Warner Bros. Entertainment.

Roku has appointed Stephen Kay as its new Senior Vice President and General Counsel. Kay joins Roku from Hogan Lovells, where he was a managing partner and leader of the firm’s global Technology, Media and Telecoms industry team.