Cynopsis: DIGITAL
06.07.13

Good morning. It’s Friday, June 7, 2013, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

The latest in the “Who wants to buy Hulu?” sweepstakes: AT&T might partner with The Chernin Group to make a joint bid for Hulu, though no official bid has been placed yet, according to AllThingsD. The other suitors for the premium video site include DirecTV, Time Warner Cable, Guggenheim Digital, and Yahoo. The Chernin Group has already placed a $500 million bid on Hulu, with the understanding that the price could rise depending on the licensed content that comes with the site. None of this, natch, means the site will be sold.

While we’re on the topic of Hulu, the company has released an update to its iPad app, which now lets users minimize the video player in order to browse the site. Other improvements include new series pages, which offer the “most entertaining clip” and the “most relevant episode,” according to Hulu. 

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Sarah Silverman will help kick off Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee when it returns for a new season on June 13. The show will be available on Crackle and its own website at noon on that day, with new episodes rolling out every Thursday at the same time through July 18. As announced yesterday, Acura is serving as the exclusive sponsor for 24 new episodes, which will be released this year and next.

Travel Channel has launched its first TV Everywhere app. The Watch Travel Channel app, which is currently available for iOS devices, offers full episodes of Travel Channel shows such as Rock My RV with Bret Michaels, Airport 24/7: Miami, and Bizarre Foods America. Features include “Watchlist,” which lets users subscribe to content based on individual shows, hosts, destinations, or interests. When a new episode becomes available within any subscription category, an alert will notify the user of its availability. Content also syncs up with iCloud, so users can pause on one Apple device and resume watching that episode on another. The app supports closed captioning and Airplay. No word on when the app will launch on Android devices.

BBC.com has launched two new business sections: BBC Capital and BBC Entrepreneurship. Both will focus on covering global economic/business news. For BBC Capital, BBC.com has brought on a newsy cast of writers/columnists, including former Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek Editor Jennifer Merritt and former Thomson Reuters News Editor Chelsea Emery. 

ZUUS Media, which recently launched a multichannel music video network that’s available across TV, online, and mobile/connected devices, has acquired The Country Network (TCN) and is rebranding it ZUUS Country. The new channel will continue to operate from the former TCN’s Nashville headquarters. ZUUS Country will be available in more than 40 TV markets nationwide as well as via ZUUS.com, the ZUUS mobile app for iOS and Android devices, and the recently launched ZUUS Facebook app. The channel will feature programming TCN has already been producing as well as some new shows, including: Inside Tracks (which tracks a featured artist’s path to success culminating in an acoustic performance from that artist) and Breaking Out (in which ZUUS music experts spotlight new country music talent). ZUUS says more original programming announcements are on the docket.

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YouTube’s mobile ad sales have tripled in the past six months, said Lucas Watson, the video site’s VP/Sales in an interview, per Bloomberg. This growth has apparently generated as much as $350 million in revenue for YouTube. In addition, Watson said about a quarter of YouTube’s 1 billion users now access the site via mobile devices.

Real Media Group has launched Socialite, a product that packages all of the company’s social media capabilities for advertisers. Among the features:
An image-recognition technology that lets brands know when content from their site is shared across the web

• A social media retargeting function that identifies users who have visited a brand’s site or engaged with its content
• The ability to overlay social buttons on the company’s proprietary interactive video units as well as IAB Rising Star rich media ads
• The ability to target the same users across social, video, mobile, and display.
• With Socialite, advertisers will also be able to track each like, pin, tweet, click, or share.

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ActiveVideo has upgraded its CloudTV H5 platform to make it easier for service/content providers to deliver a consistent user experience on their TV apps across devices. The updates include: “render layers” (which enables smooth rendering of complex interfaces and animations while also reducing the required bandwidth by as much as 50%); “smart multiplexing” (which increases the number of CloudTV sessions across an existing cable QAM network); and “dual-stream rendering” (which allows providers to deliver partial-screen user interfaces from the cloud). ActiveVideo also announced deals with Charter and Cablevision in the US. Charter is enlisting CloudTV for “cloud-based UI strategies” while Cablevision is using the platform for its interactive apps.

T-commerce solutions provider Delivery Agent has renewed its agreement with Discovery Communications to manage Discovery’s e-commerce services through 2015. Delivery Agent says it will optimize Discovery’s existing commerce channels as well as help the company expand to new platforms. The deal also covers t-commerce services through the Delivery Agent platform, which allows TV viewers to shop for products while watching Discovery programming. Delivery Agent has existing partnerships with device makers like Samsung to let viewers buy the stuff they see on their favorite TV shows. Overall, the company has exclusive commerce partnerships with more than 500 TV shows across over 50 networks.

Zeebox has launched TV Rooms, a new in-app feature that allows users to join or create virtual chat rooms based on specific shows, characters, and themes, among other topics. The app is starting out with more than 4,000 TV Rooms (though that number varies based on location/TV provider) as well as 60 TV Rooms tied to themes such as “Late Night Show Breakdown.” The top 50 Rooms will be highlighted every week and ranked based on activity (likes, comments, shares) and members. Each TV Room also includes a program schedule that feature shows tied to the theme of the room. Zeebox is also giving networks and brands the ability to create sponsored chat rooms, the first of which will come from Bravo for the 100th episode of The Real Housewives of Orange County. The Bravo-sponsored room will go live during the premiere of the 100th episode special on Monday, June 24 at 8pm ET. The room will also feature some current and former “Real Housewives” as well as Bravo’s Andy Cohen. Currently available on iOS devices, the TV Rooms will show up on Android in the coming weeks. Zeebox says it also has plans to introduce additional features in the coming weeks, including rich media/video experiences, show clips, and the ability to post external links.

Nickelodeon has launched a new mobile game for fans of SpongeBob SquarePants: SpongeBob Moves In. The city-building app allows fans to build their very own version of Bikini Bottom, the setting for Nick’s hit animated series. The app is very much like other city-building games where the player has to make sure everything is running smoothly and the citizens are happy. The game also features un-lockable short animated videos, which tell the story of how the show’s characters arrived to Bikini Bottom. These shorts were written by the SpongeBob SquarePants series writing staff.

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Now that the euphoria about the return of Arrested Development has subsided (that is, until someone comes out with third-party research on how many people watched the season), it’s time to turn our attention to the NEXT Netflix original series: Orange Is the New Black, which premieres on the streaming service in July. From Weeds creator Jenji Kohan, this gritty show follows a woman coming to terms with being imprisoned as her life on the “outside” falls apart. It stars Taylor Schilling, Jason Biggs, Taryn Manning, and Laura Prepon. Check out the at-times-unsettling trailer (not NSFW).

Later – Sahil
Sahil Patel, Editor for Cynopsis Digital
06.07.13

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