Cynopsis: DIGITAL
01/20/12

Good morning. It’s Friday, January 20, 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.

The FBI has brought the hammer down on popular file-sharing site Megaupload, and its video streaming unit, Megavideo. The authorities have already arrested four individuals in New Zealand, including founder Kim Schmitz, charging them with “conspiracy to commit racketeering” and copyright infringement. Three other individuals have also been indicted on the matter. The websites, of course, have been shut down. In a press release regarding the arrests, the FBI said that Megaupload generated $175 million in profits and “caused more than a half a billion dollars in harm to copyright owners.” Incidentally, the FBI took great care to mention that these charges and arrests had nothing to do with the ongoing kerfuffle in Washington, D.C. (and on the web) in regards to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), and its sister bill in the Senate, PIPA. The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Univision Interactive, the digital arm of Univision Communications, has launched new websites for Telehit and Bandamax, two new cable networks from Univision. Available via UnivisionMusica.com, keywords Telehit and Bandamax, the sites are designed to provide visitors music-related content from both networks. Both websites feature short-form videos, photos, bios for stars on the shows, top five songs in each genre with direct links to the iTunes store and more. Telehit provides trendy, urban programming for Hispanic youths, while Bandamax focuses on the Regional Mexican genre.

Lovefilm, a direct competitor of Netflix in the U.K., has launched on LG connected TVs, according to GigaOM. The online video streaming, VOD and DVD rental service, which is owned by Amazon, will be available on Roku players as well. Roku players, which have been available for pre-order on the Amazon U.K. website, will start shipping in the country in February. GigaOM notes that the exact timeframe between Roku launch and Lovefilm’s availability on the device is unclear.

Grovo.com has launched Expert Series, a new web series that features interviews with leading entrepreneurs, celebrities, investors and other influencers on the web. The first three experts to be featured in the weekly series will be Andy Dunn, co-founder and CEO of BONOBOS, David Tisch, managing director of TechStars NY, and Ben Lerer, co-founder and CEO of Thrillist. The interviewees will discuss their respective company goals, the websites and tools they use the most, why they use them and how they get the most out of them. For example, Dunn will focus on his use of social media to build BONOBOS’ product and customer services, while Lerer will talk about how Thrillist approaches e-commerce and marketing opportunities on the web. Grovo’s content library of internet education and training videos includes over 1,300 lessons and provides education for over 100 websites.

Evolve Media Corp. has acquired RealityTea.com, a reality entertainment news website, as well as WebEcoist.com, a site dedicated to help users incorporate green-friendly living into their daily lives. Per the acquisition, Evolve Media will integrate both domains into the larger Momtastic online community. Founded in 2009, RealityTea’s coverage of reality TV attracts more than five million page views per month. Most recently, the blog gained national attention for breaking the story of an allegedly staged scene aired on Kourtney & Kim Take New York.

Chill is a social video platform that was first launched in August 2011 offering shared viewing rooms for music videos, live-streamed events and even full-length TV episodes. This week, the Los Angeles-based start-up launched a real-time platform for watching and sharing video content with friends. Chill says it wants to connect you to videos from people you care about. And not just from friends; it includes athletes, celebrities, filmmakers and other influencers who use the website to share media. Through this new sharing platform, Chill aspires to become a trusted centralized location for all types of video content (including full-length movies and TV shows), from all types of sources (YouTube, CollegeHumor, Break, Vimeo, premium video content hubs). In other news from the company, Tubefilter co-founder Marc Hustvedt has joined Chill as Head of Strategic Partnerships. “Chill is one of the first examples of a post-television product, where video consumption can truly be a social experience rather than a programmed one,” said Hustvedt.

Function(x) has announced the upcoming launch of its first product, Viggle, an application that rewards people for checking-in to the TV shows they are watching. The service is simple: Users earn points by checking-in to a TV show (the app uses audio fingerprinting technology to match the audio tag against Viggle’s database of over 100 channels); and can earn additional points for playing games, answering quizzes or participating in real-time polls. In fact, this is where brand advertisers come in. Brands can offer consumers opportunities to earn extra points by checking-in to games, quizzes, polls or even commercials. Hulu Plus, Fandango and Burger King are among the first companies to offer prizes on the service. Viggle is compatible with live, recorded and online TV content. It will be available for the iPhone and iPod Touch in the coming weeks. Versions for the iPad and Android devices, as well as a web app, will follow soon after that.

PointRoll has revealed the findings of its recent Video Benchmark Study, which found that 78% of users completed 100% of interactive in-stream ads on its network. Comparatively, 69% completed 100% of non-interactive in-stream ads. In addition, user interaction rates were more than three times higher for in-stream video ads than in-banner video ads. The highest performing ad verticals for interactive in-stream ads were automotive, entertainment and non-profit organizations. Consumer electronics manufacturers and telecommunication companies were among the top verticals for non-interactive in-stream video ads. With all of that in mind, PointRoll has introduced a slate of new video ad formats, ranging from a basic in-stream format to more dynamic ones, including one which incorporates local product offers into an overlay that coincides with the pre-roll ad.

Twitter has acquired Summify, a news-aggregation service, and will be turning the service off in the coming weeks. Available on the web, via e-mail and on iOS devices, Summify delivered relevant news and information based on how often the stories were shared by both a user’s friends and the global network on social media websites. Summify’s team, which will move from Vancouver to Twitter’s offices in San Francisco, said in a blog post that they are “joining Twitter’s Growth team and will continue to explore ways to help people connect and engage with relevant, timely content.” No specific indications were made, however, as to whether this was simply a hiring-by-acquisition, or if Twitter is looking to introduce a similar aggregation service to users.

The European Union will decide whether or not to approve Google’s proposed acquisition of Motorola Mobility on February 13. This comes after the European Commission’s decision in December of 2011 to suspend the original deadline, which had been set for January 10, according to Reuters. The proposed deal is also being reviewed by regulators in the U.S. and China.

Futuresource Consulting expects global connected TV shipments to jump from 27% in 2011 to 80% of all units shipped by 2015. By region, Japan is the leader in terms of adoption as 59% of TVs shipped in the country in 2011 had internet-connection capabilities as a standard feature. Penetration in the U.S. and China in 2011 sat at 29%, with Europe falling behind at 24% of shipments being of the connected variety. The report also took a look at the state of 3DTVs, and expects 2011 shipments for the devices to reach 16 million units. It also anticipates growth for 3DTVs, forecasting that they will account for 50% of the market in 2015. Futuresource is a research-based consulting company that looks to provide insight on consumer electronics, entertainment media, broadcasting, and digital imaging, among others.

Per the latest eMarketer forecast, U.S. online ad spending will grow 23.3%, reaching $39.5 billion, in 2012. “Advertisers’ comfort level with integrated marketing is greater than ever, and this is helping more advertisers (and more large brands) put a greater share of dollars online,” said eMarketer principal analyst David Hallerman. In fact, the double-digit growth is expected to continue through 2014, when eMarketer predicts U.S. online ad spending to hit $52.8 billion. And it is essentially displacing traditional media spending, as the report states that 2012 will be the first year where online ad spending will surpass dollars spent on print magazines and newspapers (aforementioned $39.5 billion versus $33.8 billion). TV, on the other hand, will be safe from the growth in online ad spending.

NPD In-Stat reports that the proliferation of over-the-top devices has brought about the added effect of increased demand for Wi-Fi enabled devices in home entertainment systems. To that end, new research from the company indicates that the number of in-home video WLAN-enabled devices will approach 600 million in 2015. “Wi-Fi has moved from a nice-to-have feature to a must-have feature as it provides the connectivity necessary to support IP-based video content,” said Frank Dickinson, vice president of research at NPD In-Stat. He also noted that Wi-Fi has become less about just accessing content from a network, to one that also enables content sharing between devices.

Facebook opened up its Timeline this week to 60 new apps from a variety of content providers and services; one of which is the USA Today + Me app from the national news organization. The app delivers select USA Today news and information to users based on what their friends have read and/or recommended. The app is customizable as users have the option to select how they want relevant stories presented to them (grid or list view). They can also filter available stories based on what is popular among their friends or what is trending across the social network. The app also features a “My News Feed” option that taps a user’s social connections and “Likes” in order to deliver contextually relevant stories and ones the user may have not seen or read yet.

DoSomething.org, a website dedicated to toward teenagers and social change, has hired (now former) Mashable COO Adam Hirsch as its new Chief Digital Officer, effective February 7. At his new position, Hirsch will oversee all aspects of member engagement, including social media, product development and mobile. The socially conscious website experienced significant growth in 2011, doubling website traffic and staff, as well as more than doubling revenue. It plans to increase its number of campaigns from 16 to 28 in 2012.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Kik Messenger is an absolutely wonderful multiplatform text messaging app and a must-have if you don’t have access to iMessage or BBM, or if you want to send a text message to a friend who has a smartphone, but doesn’t have an iPhone or BlackBerry. The app is fast and its visual design is very sleek (trust me, I pay more attention to that than normal people should). On top of that, Kik Messenger notifies you (within the chat thread) when your message has been sent, delivered and read. Personally, it has come in handy when I’ve had to send texts to a friend overseas. As far as I can tell, since Kik uses your data plan, as long as you’re sending international messages over Wi-Fi, you are not going to incur additional charges. It’s available for free on iOS and Android devices, as well as Windows Phone 7, Nokia and Symbian devices. RIM has not approved Kik for BlackBerry devices, but the website does offer you a quick guide to download the app.

Later – Sahil
Sahil Patel, Associate Reporter for Cynopsis Digital
01.20.12

Cynopsis Ad Sales:
Mike Farina – VP/Sales and Marketing – 203-218-6480 / [email protected]
Classifieds – Trish Pihonak- 203-381-9096 / [email protected]

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Cynopsis CLASSIFIEDS – For More classifieds, visit the Cynopsis.com classifieds page here .

JOB OPENING: VP PROGRAM SCHED & PRGRAM PLANNING/RLTV/BALTO, MD: Optimize ratings & leverage prgrm inventory to max brand positioning. Exp: managing var. prgm formats, cable, ratings & research systems. Send resume: [email protected] (1/27)

JOB OPENING: VP/DIR, INT’L SALES/JIM HENSON CO/LA: Oversee sales TV, DVD & dig platforms for current & catalog series. Exp selling. Sig relationships w/buyer of children’s content internat’l mkts a must. [email protected] (1/26)

JOB OPENING: DIR-PROD/TLC/MD: Talented EP to lead all aspects of Ntwrk prod projects; create/produce/mng ground breaking innovate tv prgms; 10+yrs field/studio prod exp in doc/reality; http://careers.discovery.com/ # 4972 (1/26)

JOB OPENING: DIR, BRAND MTKG/USA NTWK/NYC: Strategic dvlpment of all off-air mktg & branding efforts: media campaigns, affiliate mktg programs, cross promotions. 5 yrs exp TV mktg and/or media planning. www.nbcunicareers.com/4104BR (1/26)

JOB OPENING: NAT’L ACCT EXEC- IPTV/AT&T AdWorks/Detroit: Nat’l Acct Exec-IPTV. 2+ gen mkt TV ad sales in automotive/agency contacts. Apply- https://att.taleo.net/careersection/10161/jobdetail.ftl?lang=en&job=1202963&ctx=1 (1/25)

JOB OPENING: EDITOR, AD STANDARDS/NY: Ensure ads for NBC Network comply with internal & external standards, laws & regulations, & public interest considerations. 1+ yr exp. To apply, visit www.nbcunicareers.com Job# 4133BR (1/25)

JOB OPENING: SALES PLAN’R/CHI Loop: Captivate Network  need enthusiastic sales support 4 VP+Team – facilitate presales + add creativity & gr8 cust skillz. U need BS+2yrs advrtsng support+Pivotal/similar CRM exp. Apply: [email protected] (1/25)

JOB OPENING: ADMIN ASST/BBC WORLDWIDE AMERICA/NYC: Provide admin supprt to 2 Execs.  2+ yrs exp w/in TV, film, cble or dig mdia indstry.  Fluency in Spanish required. www.bbcamerica.com/jobs (1/25)

JOB OPENING: WRITER/PRODUCER/Atlanta: Write and produce on-air promotional campaigns for TNT. 4-5 yrs brdcst &/or cable exp. Include link to reel. http://www.turnerjobs.com/careers#/careers/job-details/128145BR (1/25)

JOB OPENING: SR WRITER/PRODUCER/On-Air Promotions/ATL: 5+yrs exp writing and producing on-air promotional campaigns at the network level. Include link to reel. http://www.turnerjobs.com/careers#/careers/job-details/127102BR (1/25)

JOB OPENING: ASSOCIATE PRODUCER/Scholastic/NYC: Freelance position avail to assist in all aspects of developing and producing high-quality console/mobile/interactive games for kids. 1-3yrs interactive exp req’d. Apply: [email protected] (1/25)

JOB OPENING: VIDEO EDITOR/PRODUCER/Omega Institute/Rhinebeck NY: shoot, edit, produce video, b-roll & graphics for web/social platforms; Final Cut Pro 7, Adobe Creative Suite, HTML, Photoshop, CMS. 1-3 min exp. http://eomega.org/ (1/25)

JOB OPENING: MGR CONSUMR INSIGHTS & CORP RESEARCH/BBCWW AMERICAS/NYC: do qualitatve/quantitatve/3rd prty resrch. Primry & secndry resrch skills. SNL Kagan Forrester Nielsen NPower  & socl mdia monitr tools www.bbcamerica.com/jobs (1/25)

JOB OPENING: RESEARCH ANALYST/NICKELODEON/Chicago: 2+ years in media research; Working knowledge of Nielsen ratings’ systems; Experience using consumer based syndicated studies. Apply: www.mtvnetworkscareers.com (1/25)

JOB OPENING: MGR NTL PRTNRSHPS/Home Team Sports/CHI: Sell TV driven multi-platform sponsorships (nat’l, local & dig). Dvlp partnerships w/new & existing clients/props. BA/BS pref.5 yr min ad sales exp. www.foxcareers.com FNG0000906 (1/24)

JOB OPENING: ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE/Oakland, NJ: Seeks AE for local ad sales.4+ yrs ad sales exp. pref cable tv, radio, e-media adv. Valid NJ DL. See full posting and apply to www.cablevision.jobs req 16187BR (1/24)

JOB OPENING: ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE/Elmsford, NY: Seeks AE for local ad sales.4+ yrs ad sales exp. pref cable tv, radio, e-media adv. Valid NY DL. See full posting and apply to www.cablevision.jobs req 14320BR (1/24)

JOB OPENING: MEDIA RATINGS MGR/STAMFORD CT: 2+yrs Nielsen Ratings Exp (Arianna & Galaxy) & working knwede of Sports Broadcasting. Knwldg of SQAD CPMs exp helpful as well as referential DB knwldg. RESUME: [email protected] (1/21)

JOB OPENING: SALES PLANNER/TV Guide/NY: 2+ yrs digital exp. Plan/ execute online media plans, wrk w/ mktg to devlp client presentations, monitor campaign delivery & deliver superior custmr service to clients [email protected] (1/21)

JOB OPENING: DIGITAL SALES PLANNER/Weather Chan/NY: Motivated, self-starter, exc. comm skills. Strong PC skills; PP word, excel. Solid presentation skills & using multi media tools; BA/BS req’d. Res: [email protected] (1/21)

JOB OPENING: RSRCH DIR/MEREDITH/ATLHUB: Supports offsite sales mgmt in DMA 25+ stations. BA & min 3 yrs in brdcst TV/cable. More info/apply: http://www.meredith.com/meredith_corporate/careers.html (1/21)

INTERNSHIPS – These positions are for credit only – nobody gets paid here. These ads are always posted for free, and students work for school credit only. For more information on the specs for posting an Internship ad, email Trish at [email protected].

SITUATION WANTED ADS, POSTED BY THOSE LOOKING TO BE HIRED … There is no charge for placing your Situation Wanted ad … for more information contact Trish Pihonak at [email protected]

SITUATION WANTED: EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT POSITION FILM/TV/NY: 10 years experience: Interned for a President, Executive Assistant to SVP/VP/film director/celebrity [email protected]  (1/26)

SITUATION WANTED: AD SALES ASSISTANT/CHICAGO: Interned at Comcast Sports Net in Ad Sales, Works as Sales Assistant at NBCUniversal. Has B.A. from DePaul in PR/Advertising. Resume upon request. Contact [email protected] (1/26)

SITUATION WANTED:  I’M ALL YOURS N.Y. Seeking to Assist, Currently an E.A. to Chief of Dept. 5 Yrs. work exp. B.A. Mass Comm. Contact, [email protected] (1/26)

SITUATION WANTED: Jeanne Intile Burns, VOICE-OVER ARTIST/VOICE COACH, Cell: 845-721-9681, E-Mail: [email protected], Web Links: www.castingnetworks.com/jburns, http://jburns.voices.com, www.allegro-music.com (“American Biographies”) (1/25)

SITUATION WANTED: Dedicated & Experienced ADV. SALES PLANNER/(NYC): Sales proposals, resolving client discrepancies, quarterly post analysis, special sales service projects, expert computer skills. Contact- [email protected] (1/21)

E-mail [email protected] or call Trish Pihonak at 203.381.9096 for rates and specs for Job Openings.

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