Cynopsis: DIGITAL
08/24/12

Good morning. It’s Friday, August 24, 2012, and this is your first early morning digital briefing. If you would like to read this or any other Cynopsis editions online, click here.

News Corp.’s Chief Digital Officer Jonathan Miller is leaving his position at the company at the end of September as it moves forward on its plans to split into two. He will serve as an external advisor to News Corp. on digital issues through the fall of 2013, according to the company’s official release on the matter. “As we prepare for our proposed company separation, I respect Jon’s desire to return to an operational, entrepreneurial role with a standalone company,” said Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of News Corp., in a statement. During his three-year tenure, Miller was instrumental in the media giant’s investment in Roku and represented it on the Hulu Board of Directors, among other things. The news was first reported by AllThingsD.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM THE LUSTGARTEN FOUNDATION

TV Guide Mobile is rolling out a robust new social TV and video discovery app for iOS devices that will allow users to find out where they can watch their favorite shows online as well as share and discuss what they’re watching across their social networks. The main feature is a mobile extension of TVGuide.com’s Watchlist feature, which allows users to add shows, sports teams, actors, and movies to their personalized lists, and then discover ways to watch related programming; the app links to video sources like Hulu Plus, HBO Go, MAX Go, Crackle, iTunes, and others in order for users to quickly access the show. TV Guide says more video sources will be added over the next few weeks. Other features include:

• Social check-ins via the “I’ll Watch” button.
• Curated video channels featuring movie, TV, and web show recommendations from editors and guests. The first guest curator is Shira Lazar, with plans for a new guest coming on board every week.
• Videos featuring stars like Sigourney Weaver, Tina Fey, and James Van Der Beek discussing their favorite programs.
• Channel listings that offer alerts, filters, and social sharing.

The Huffington Post Media Group has announced the Shadow Conventions 2012, a content initiative that will run concurrently with the Republican and Democratic national conventions. The goal of the Shadow Conventions is to highlight three issues that The Huffington Post says are largely ignored by both major parties, namely the “corrupting influence of money in politics, the persistence of poverty in the midst of unprecedented prosperity, and the disastrous war on drugs.” Each issue will get spotlighted on the Huffington Post site and the HuffPost Live streaming news network during one of the three days of each national convention. A full site takeover, an array of HuffPost sections will devote editorial coverage to the aforementioned issues. In turn, HuffPost Live will devote “a significant portion” of its programming to that day’s issue, bringing on a number of as-of-yet-unnamed high-profile guests (“activists, political leaders, and celebrities”) and site users to discuss the issue at hand. The War on Drugs will be spotlighted on August 28 and September 4; poverty and job creation on August 29 and September 5; and the influence of money on politics on August 30 and September 6.

Vevo has premiered a new original series called Music Is My Sport, which shines a light on the training regimens of famous artists. The first episode profiles R&B singer/songwriter/producer Ne-Yo. As Vevo VP/Original Programming Scott Reich pointed out to me, the first episode has already racked up close to 180,000 views within the first 24 hours of its release.

Netflix has inked a multiyear deal with Radius-TWC, a new multiplatform distribution label from The Weinstein Company, for a slate of new titles that’ll arrive on Instant Watch for US subscribers early next year. These titles include several recently screened at the Sundance Film Festival, such as Bachelorette, a comedy starring Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher, and Lizzy Caplan; The Details, starring Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks, and Ray Liotta; and Academy Award-nominated director Stephen Frears’ Lay the Favorite, starring Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Vince Vaughn. Other titles that’ll be available for streaming next year through this deal include Only God Forgives, Nicholas Winding Refn’s follow-up to Drive, and Butter, starring Jennifer Garner, Olivia Wilde, and Hugh Jackman.

Now TV, Sky’s subscription-based movie streaming service, is now available on the Xbox 360 in the UK. The product lets viewers stream movies from any of the 11 Sky Movie channels, if they have signed up for the Sky Movies Pass, at a resolution quality as high as 720i. For those who do not select this monthly option, which is available for 15 pounds per month, there are over 1,000 titles that can be bought on-demand. As a reminder, Sky announced recently that it plans to bring new content to Now TV, including Sky Sports by the end of the year. Launched last month, the service is also available on PC/Macs, iOS devices, select Android smartphones, and YouView. Sky says all Now TV customers can register up to two devices through which to access the service.

Consumer Watchdog is not buying Google’s $22.5 million settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission over the search giant allegedly bypassing the Safari browser’s privacy settings in order to track and deliver targeted advertisements to users. The non-profit advocacy group is challenging the settlement by filing a motion this week to US District Court Judge Susan Illston in which it asks the judge permission to grant the nonprofit “friend-of-the-court” status and allow it to submit briefs opposing the settlement. Consumer Watchdog doesn’t agree with the decision since it allows Google to deny any culpability. To that end, it wants to aid the court in making “the appropriate valuation” on whether the proposed settlement is “fair, adequate, reasonable, and in the public interest.” A statement from Google claims that the company is confident that there is no merit to the challenge from the nonprofit, per MediaPost.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM WESTDOC

NPD Group’s DisplaySearch recently conducted a survey of 14,000 consumers across 14 regions on the topic of online video consumption. Findings include: 18% of respondents indicated that they watch online content through their TV sets on a daily basis. “Online content is mostly viewed on computers or mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones, but TVs are increasingly becoming devices of choice for consumers, particularly since an increasing number of sets have either built-in connectivity or can be connected to the internet via a peripheral device,” said Riddhi Patel (no relation), Research Director/Consumer Insights, NPD DisplaySearch. “In fact, 25% of consumers surveyed said they view online content on their TV several times a week.” But before you get too excited, take note:

• Among those consumers who do not view online content via TV, 44% said they have no interest in doing so, while 30% answered that they aren’t watching online content on their TV because they do not own the necessary devices.
• Of those respondents, 33% said they would be interested in doing so if given the possibility of viewing online content on their TV.
• Which means, even though results differ by country, they “imply that there is still a general lack of interest in viewing online content via TV. This can be attributed to usage of devices other than TVs to view online content as well as a lack of infrastructure and/or expertise to connect their existing TVs to the internet,” said Patel.

According to the latest comScore data, the top web properties for July 2012 are as follows: Google continues to be the king with 190.3 million unique visitors in July. Microsoft rolled in second with 168.7 million unique visitors, with Yahoo (162.6 million), Facebook (160.7 million), and AOL (110.2 million) rounding out the top five. Of note, Comcast/NBCUniversal cracked the top 10 in July (76.8 million), largely driven by that little thing called the Olympics.

The second quarter of 2012 set a new record for tablet shipments, with nearly 25 million units shipped worldwide during the time period, according to ABI Research. This represents a quarter-over-quarter growth of 36% and year-over-year growth of 77%. The iPad carved out a large slice of the market in the second quarter, accounting for 69% of all tablets shipped worldwide. In comparison, Samsung and ASUS accounted for 8.1% and 4.0% of tablets shipped, respectively. RIM’s troubles continued as it witnessed the largest decline in shipments, reaching only 1.0% of the global market during the second quarter. Looking ahead, “The tablet market is on track for 102 to 110 million shipments worldwide for full-year 2012,” says Jeff Orr, Senior Practice Director/Mobile Devices at ABI Research.

More politics, more ways to access it digitally: The newly released CNN-TIME Convention Floor Pass app, which is available for free on iOS and Android devices, offers access to a wide range of multimedia content from both Time Warner properties as they gear up to cover the upcoming political conventions. Developed by Carnival Labs Limited, the app delivers breaking news, daily analysis, and what will be a constant stream of articles from the 2012 conventions. Users will be able to access as much as 50 stories every day via the app’s News Feed, or check out the Top 5 section to get a curated round-up. Other features include a TIME Cover of the Day, which will align with that day’s cover story; a library of speeches from the conventions; maps and local information for those attending either event; a Social tab to access what’s buzzing on Twitter, with the ability to filter by convention-related hashtags; and badges for all 50 states, which users can access by bumping their phone with those who are from other states.

A couple of app-related news bulletins concerning Facebook: It’s released an updated version of its iOS app, which the company says is now twice as fast as the previous version. In addition, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has cleared the way for Facebook to acquire Instagram. When news first came out about the deal earlier this year, it was reported to be worth $1 billion, which consisted of $300 million in cash and the rest in Facebook shares. With Facebook’s public stock price not doing too hot ever since it debuted, the purchase price now sits at roughly $747 million. I’d still take that deal.

Amazon is holding a press conference on September 6 in Santa Monica, CA. It did not indicate what the event was for, but the rumor mill is speculating that it’ll have to something to do with a new line of tablets.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

With the next installment in the forever-running Resident Evil franchise around the corner (next film comes out on September 14), here’s a nifty little thing for which Sony Pictures teamed up with male lifestyle site CraveOnline: It’s a “3D Destructive” trailer page that features the movie’s main character blowing up the screen with a grenade, which then leads to a trailer of the movie. The trailer itself is 3D of sorts as well; for example, when something particularly destructive is happening in it, the video player starts shaking and rumbling and is accompanied by all sorts of effects pushed out on to the screen from each and every angle.

Later – Sahil
Sahil Patel, Associate Editor for Cynopsis Digital
08.24.12

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