Cynopsis: DIGITAL
11.15.13

Good morning. It’s Friday, November 15, 2013, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

AOL and Roku launched a news channel for the Roku home screen, the companies announced yesterday. The platform will have business, entertainment and tech news, as well as give Roku users access to AOL partners like the AP, WSJ, Reuters, and BBC News.

Pinterest released its first API to let outside sites showcase their pins on their own websites and mobile apps; partners include Zappos, Walmart, Disney, Nestle, Random House and Hearst. The API includes top pins, re-pin and clicked pins, a stream of the latest pins to a brand’s site, keyword search result pins and related pins.
In other words: As a result, both Pinterest and brands will be able to better track consumer data, which means more advertising and marketing dollars for both parties.

Funny or Die announced it is currently in production on a new untitled sports documentary series for the Discovery Channel. The hour-long show will document Olympic coach Mike Barwis training a new athlete every episode. Funny or Die plans to create seven more episodes. The comedy site has worked on shows for Fuse, IFC, HBO, and Comedy Central.

Maker Studios’ network Polaris and Snow White and the Huntsman’s screenwriter and director, Evan Daugherty, have premiered their four new Super Mario Bros. inspired films. Called The Four Players, the films reimagine characters from the popular Nintendo franchise. “Making these short films gave me a chance to really ‘do my own thing,’ while having a little fun, treating one of my favorite video game properties with a darker vibe,” Daugherty said.The films are available to watch on Polaris’ channel today.

PBS Digital Studios launched a new video series on its YouTube channel called Songs for Unusual Creatures yesterday. The series revolves around composer and writer Michael Hearst as he travels across the country to meet strange animals like sea pigs or glass frogs. He then creates theme songs for each one.

CBSNews.com will air historical coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in real-time to commemorate the 50th anniversary next week. The stream begins at 1:40 EST on November 22nd. …HISTORY is also commemorating the JFK assassination anniversary next week by hosting a Twitter takeover, which will live-tweet how the dark day unfolded in real-time, too.

Please join Cynopsis on Thursday, November 21 for an exclusive training webinar, Leveraging Social Media to Drive Tune-In and Ratings. Featured speakers include Deirdre Bannon, VP Product for SocialGuide; Sumeet Kanwar, Managing Director Midwest & Strategy for OMD; Jake Katz, VP Audience Insights & Strategy for REVOLT; and Dana Ortiz, VP Brand Marketing for Syfy. In this special webinar, you’ll hear about strategies for using social media to spread the word about programming and generate the kind of excitement that boosts viewership.

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Nielsen will start to place measurement tags on YouTube videos, which will give advertisers an easier way to compare data from different videos.
In other words: TubeFilter reports that the partnership should alleviate advertisers’ concerns about the objectivity of Google-provided metrics. The tags will launch in early 2014.

American Express has struck a first-of-its-kind deal with Fox to sponsor clips of its shows via Twitter Amplify. Promotional clips that will be amplified on the microblogging site include Glee, New Girl, Bones, The Mindy Project and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. The arrangement allows Amex “to be able to partake in the conversation quickly enough to be relevant and to be topical,’ Jill Toscano, the company’s VP of media, told Variety.

Microsoft is enlisting sharks to keep the Xbox One hype going in light of the PS4 release. The company is using a New Zealand aquarium’s sharks to secure a watertight case containing the first console; Xbox One goes on sale November 22.

Sharper Image has brought on Betty White to help promote its holiday Black Friday sales in a video ad exclusively for Mashable‘s use. The theme of the ad is Girls Love Gadgets, and plays off a tongue-and-cheek story line of White purchasing her “man-cave” products. Check out the spot at Sharper Image’s YouTube channel and Mashable.

The wait is over for Sony’s PlayStation 4, which finally hit U.S. shelves today. However, some are skeptical about Sony’s recently announced digital game platform partnership with Amazon, called the Amazon PlayStation Network Store. A recent Live Gamer and DFC Intelligence report predicts that from 2014-2017, 36 percent of game revenue will come from these digital sales. “The PlayStation is Sony’s number one direct-to-consumer asset and allowing a competitor into the ecosystem is… a terrible move for Sony,” said Co-founder and President of Live Gamer Andrew Schneider.

Call for Submissions: Cynopsis is producing its annual Holiday Programming Guide, which comes out on November 26 and will be sent to all Cynopsis and Cynopsis Kids subscribers. If your network has holiday-themed programming airing from November 27 through December 31, please send your listings to Lynn Leahey at [email protected] no later than Monday November 18. Please include the following information: type of program (i.e. series, special, documentary, movie or holiday-themed episode), title, dates and times of all airings (please indicate when the show first premieres and when subsequent encores will air). A confirmation email will be sent following each submission from Lynn (if you don’t receive a confirmation email, please resubmit).

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Discovery Digital Networks’ Test Tube channel has enlisted Abraham Lincoln to dish out his two cents for its latest web series, Brutally Honest Abe. The show uses a CGI created version of Lincoln to comment on anything from historical figures to pop culture. In the first episode, George Washington is a Jerk, he describes… just that. Check out the first episode at www.cynopsis.com, and catch a new episode every Thursday on TestTube.

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See you tomorrow,
Jessica Reese
11.15.13

Roberta Caploe: Editorial Director
Diane K Schwartz: Senior Vice President, Media Communications Group

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