A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM BRAVO MEDIA

Cynopsis: DIGITAL
09/07/12

Good morning. It’s Friday, September 7, 2012, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

Bloomberg reports that Apple will not release a new TV product this year, squashing rumors that the company has been planning to do so at some point this year. The report cites several reasons why, all of which center on the difficulty Apple has had in negotiating with cable operators in bringing such a device to market. These reasons include cable companies not wanting to cede full control of the user experience as well as the screen’s interface to Apple, which — fearing Apple’s superior design capabilities — they feel would undermine their existing products. Other issues include differences over whether Apple would be able to sell an STB-like product packaged with a cable subscription directly to consumers or lease it through the cable companies for a monthly fee. However, all hope is not lost. The report also indicates that Apple has made the most headway in its negotiations with Time Warner Cable. “Unlike other distributors, we are not religiously wedded to absolutely controlling the user interface,” Robert Marcus, COO of Time Warner Cable, told Bloomberg, without commenting on Apple specifically. As the report notes, this means that Apple’s foray into TV might be very similar to the TiVo business model.

Shut Up! Cartoons, a premium channel on YouTube from Alloy Digital‘s Smosh property, will now be represented by The Gotham Group, a leading management firm in the animation industry. Per the deal, The Gotham Group will represent the channel’s popular series for television and other brand extensions. Shut Up! Cartoons, which has amassed over 625,000 subscribers and more than 50 million total video views since launching on April 30, is currently in the midst of an extensive programming rollout for 2012 in which it plans to premier 18 short-form animated web series comprising 180 total episodes. The Gotham Group currently boasts a roster of more than 500 directors, writers, producers, illustrators, artists, animation studios, and more.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Online video technology company Ooyala has released several new products for media companies, broadcasters, and content aggregators to deliver and monetize streaming video. Ooyala Discovery is designed to help content providers increase view-related revenue by recommending relevant content within the Ooyala Player. The company says pre-release customers of the product saw a 60% increase in engagement with their video content. Ooyala Discovery mixes consumer behavioral data from nearly 200 million online video viewers with content metadata and other inputs to provide users with video recommendations. Then there’s Ooyala Now, a real-time dashboard that monitors “every video play within seconds of being viewed” in order to provide analysis of viewer engagement and content trends. The company says Ooyala Now is optimized for TV programmers and publishers with large global audiences. Beyond these two, Ooyala has also released a new HTML5 player that offers a publishing and playback experience for non-flash environments. Third parties can also build plug-ins using standard web technologies in order to deploy the player across a variety of devices. And finally, Ooyala has enabled in-stream ad insertion for both live and on-demand video content. It’s compatible with both HDS (flash) and HLS (iOS) streams.

Real Media Group, a business unit of WPP’s 24/7 Media, has unveiled three new ad units for advertisers looking to add some interactivity to their branded video content. The Social Slide Bar slides over an online video and offers links to up to three social media sites, including Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. The Action Button features a single call-to-action within the video, which Real Media says can be used to direct viewers to retailers or eCommerce services like Amazon.com, iTunes, and Fandango, or to the brand’s own site. The third new unit is Click-to-Long Play, which advertisers can use to offer viewers the chance to continue watching an ad by opting in, extending playback of branded content to the viewer for up to 3 minutes.

Yahoo plans to put more money into its ad exchange Right Media, instead of selling it. “Yahoo is committed to being a primary player in the ad technology space and Right Media is part of that strategy,” Michael Barrett, Yahoo’s CRO, told Ad Age in a telephone interview. According to what unnamed industry execs have told Ad Age, new Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is likely going to okay an investment of “at least several hundred million dollars” into Right Media as well as other ad-tech products owned by Yahoo.
 

TV Everywhere solutions provider Synacor’s update to its Cloud Identity Management platform includes a new feature called Social Login, which is the first of its kind in the TV Everywhere industry. Social Login gives Synacor clients the ability to let pay-TV customers link their social media accounts to their billing accounts, thereby simplifying the login process for TV Everywhere services. The enhanced Cloud Identity Management platform is meant for consumer electronics companies, wireless carriers, programmers, app developers, and, of course, pay-TV providers.

Kaltura, a developer of an open source online video platform, has added cross-device video delivery capabilities to its suite of video applications for broadcast/media companies, enterprises, and educational institutions. The new solutions include SDKs and reference applications for Google TV; integration with the Xbox 360 via Kaltura’s .NET SDK; and native reference applications for the development of both iOS and Android video apps, which when combined with the company’s mobile SDK can boast features such as custom players with adaptive bitrate streaming, file upload and downloads, sharing across Facebook, Twitter, and email, and search with auto-complete. The company’s platform already provides support for an array of set-top boxes from companies like Roku, Boxee, and Flingo. “The beauty of Kaltura’s open and flexible platform, is that it is constantly evolving to support new devices, new formats, and new technologies,” said Chairman and CEO Ron Yekutiel. “From the customers’ perspective, they can simply manage all content within the Kaltura Management Console, and from there distribute it across the web, to any device or distributional channel at the click of a button.” Current Kaltura media customers include HBO, ABC News, Warner Bros., and Paramount.

Here’s some more news from Ooyala: According to the company’s Q2 2012 Global Video Index report, which analyzes the viewing habits of over 200 million viewers in more than 130 countries, long-form video content like movies, sports, and TV shows, accounted for more than 60% of the total time users spent watching video online in the second quarter. Looking at specifically at tablets, the data shows that the share of time tablet viewers spent watching long-form videos grew 47% in the second quarter. Other interesting data from the report includes:

• Politically speaking, “Blue State” viewers (states that went to President Obama in 2008) watched 26% more online video, in terms of number of plays, compared to their compatriots in “Red States.”
• PC viewers tuned into live videos for an average of 33 minutes in Q2.        
• When using connected TVs, set-top boxes, and/or gaming consoles, viewers spend 93% of the time watching movies, TV shows & other long-form videos.

A new eMarketer forecast sees Twitter bringing in $129.7 million in US mobile ad revenues this year. In comparison, eMarketer predicts the other social behemoth, Facebook, to take home $72.7 million in the US this year. Looking ahead, eMarketer is very bullish on how much mobile ad revenues both social networks will bring in over the next couple of years. In 2014, the research firm predicts Twitter will hit over $444 million and Facebook to surpass $629 million. Both companies would still lag behind Google however, which is expected to bring in nearly $3.58 billion in mobile ad revenues in 2014. Overall, the mobile advertising market should reach $6.62 billion by 2014, according to the forecast.

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Amazon unveiled three new Kindle Fire devices yesterday. The company also announced a number of updates to the Kindle Fire operating system, of which the most notable one is the expansion of its X-Ray discovery service to now include movies and textbooks alongside books. When watching a movie on the Kindle Fire, users can look up information about the title, including any actor in the scene. Users can then read that actor’s biography, see which other movies he or she has been in, and even add a new movie to their queue. The information on X-Ray for Movies is powered by IMDB. Here is the pricing and shipping information on the three new Kindle Fire devices:

• 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD, 4G LTE  (32GB): Available for $499, it will ship on November 20.
• 8.9-inch Kindle fire HD, (16GB): Available for $299, it will also ship on November 20.
• 7-inch Kindle Fire HD (16GB): Availabe for $199, this one ships much earlier on September 14.

Content discovery platform provider Outbrain has hired Avi Zimak to be its new National Sales Director/Publisher. Zimark comes to Outbrain from Hearst, where he oversaw tablet, eReader, and app ad sales for the company’s 20 national magazine brands. Leading the national publisher sales team, his new role at Outbrain is focused on building and growing relationships with digital publishers.

Global digital technology company PulsePoint has named Alex Kuhnel as its new UK General Manager. He will be charged with overseeing the company’s UK office and building new opportunities for advertisers and publishers throughout the European region. Kuhnel will be based in London.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

ESPN‘s long-form sports-and-pop-culture-writing website Grantland, the brainchild of Bill Simmons, has launched a branded channel on YouTube. So far, the channel is being populated with a variety of video clips from podcasts and interviews Simmons has conducted with actors, comedians, athletes, journalists, his friends, President Obama, and more. The channel also features what will be a running animated series called “Animated Archives,” which will take even more bits from Simmons’ podcasts and animate them for your viewing pleasure. A cursory glance at the channel, as well as the Simmon’s “mission statement,” suggest that it’ll contain a wide variety of content, including things such as following some writers on a trip to Las Vegas, and anything else that comes to their mind. If you’re a fan of Grantland, check it out. I am particularly fond of the interview Simmons did with Louis C.K.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM CTAM

Later – Sahil
Sahil Patel, Associate Editor for Cynopsis Digital
09.07.12

Denise O’Connor: Group Publisher, Media Entertainment
Diane K Schwartz: Senior Vice President, Media Communications Group

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JOB OPENING: SR ANALYST, PRIMARY RESEARCH/SYFY/NYC: Work with team to plan, design, analyze & report consumer research projects. 2-3 years media/market research and BA/BS req’d. www.nbcunicareers.com (#6940BR) (9/14)

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