Cynopsis: DIGITAL
08.19.13

Good morning. It’s Monday, August 19, 2013, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

YouTube gets so much revenue from advertising that it’s unclear why the video site is, as ghacks.net reports, testing a version of the site that eliminates all the ads on the site: the roadblock ad on the front page, the in-stream video ads, and the ads placed near the videos when they are played or searched for. Ghacks has figured out a way for viewers to opt into the ad-free version, which surely isn’t bringing joy to the YouTube executive offices.

A new report from mobile-analytics firm Flurry.com, The Who, What, and When of iPad and iPhone Usage, reveals that moms, home-design enthusiasts, and small business owners are using iPads more than iPhones. Meanwhile, health and fitness enthusiasts, music lovers, and photography and video enthusiasts are all over the iPhone. Other stats follow:

• The heaviest period of use for the iPad during the day is from 6 pm to 11 pm; iPhone app usage also peaks during these hours.
• App usage on the iPhone is higher on the iPhone than the iPad from 2 am to 4 am.
• The app categories for which average time spent on iPad exceeds that for iPhone are Education, Newsstand, Games, and Reference.
• iPhone is used for navigation far more than the iPad.

In Other Words: Adjust your content to fit the mobile device that your desired demographic prefers.

Targeting and personalization are the name of the game these days. San Francisco-based Apsalar, the creator of a mobile ad platform that has more than 800 million anonymous mobile users in its network, has raised $9 million in a second round of funding. It now has raised around $15 million.

Mobile-ad startup Vungle specializes in native video ads in high definition. It’s responsible for 2 billion video views since last year and it now has $6.5 million more to work with. The company closed a round of funding that had money coming from Crosslink Capital, Google Ventures, AOL Ventures, 500 Startups, SV Angel, Maynard Webb, Scott McNealy, SoftTech VC, and Tim Draper. This brings Vungle’s total investment to $8.5 million.

NBCUniversal‘s SyFy was thought to be considering a remake of the British TV classic Blake’s 7, which ran back in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Now the word from several British newspapers is that Microsoft will actually be funding the remake for its Xbox Live. Why not? Netflix had a hit when it remade the BBC’s House of Cards. If true, this will be a big move by Microsoft to do battle against Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. It already has a deal in place with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin TV to make a series based on the video game Halo.
In Other Words: Keep an eye on Microsoft in the streaming-video department. Its announcements are bound to pick up as the original-content battle intensifies.

Year-old YouTube food network Tastemade, an online competitor to the Food Network and Cooking Channel, has raked in $10 million in funding. The L.A.-based channel founded by three former Demand Media execs has more than 200,000 subscribers and its shows have been viewed more than 18 million times. Tastemade also runs some affiliated channels, which account for another four million subscribers and 50 million views each month.
In Other Words: Cooking content on mobile devices makes total sense. It’s a lot easier to take your mobile into the kitchen than it is to plunk down your laptop. This online content area will continue to grow.

Fox Sports is fresh off its first weekend of having the Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2 channels in its portfolio. In the days before that launch, Fox Sports Digital acquired the assets of social sports startup Fanhood. Brandon Ramsey, the founder and CEO of Fanhood, joins Fox Sports as vice president of platform engineering. Ramsey, who once was the head engineer for Yahoo! Shopping, Yahoo! Deals, and Yahoo! Travel, will be responsible for running personalization and social-product development for the company.

Jerry Seinfeld scored a hit with his online Emmy-nominated series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, which drew more than 10 million unique visitors to Crackle during its first season last year. Famed drag queen RuPaul appears to be taking a page from Seinfeld’s book with the launch of his new web series today, RuPaul Driving. It features him driving around with other such semi-famous folks as musician Henry Rollins, fellow drag queen Alyssa Edwards, and YouTube vlogger Tyler Oakley.

One thing about putting a web series up online is that nobody can censor it. That works to the advantage of a new series coming out of New Zealand, High Road, which features a community-radio DJ that the very small community doesn’t particularly like.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

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Cynopsis Future TV: Content Innovation and Next Gen Advertising Models
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This summit will examine what networks are doing – and what they need to do more of – to aggressively evolve to compete, and profit in this shifting landscape. Join us as our experts share the latest business and advertising models for success.

For sponsor information, please contact Mike Farina (203) 218-6480.
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New research from Futuresource Consulting says that while global pay TV set-top box shipments keep on growing, demand will peak in 2016 at 180 million units. The biggest area of growth will come in Latin America and Asia Pacific. In more developed areas, Futuresource says the market for set-top boxes are “predominantly saturated.”

DirecTV has removed its NFL Sunday Ticket app from PlayStation 3 game consoles. The app that allows viewers to watch any out-of-market NFL game on their mobile or online has been on PS3 since 2011.

For some time, YouTube viewers who liked the merchandise they were seeing in the video they were watching have been able to click on links within some videos and get taken away to such sites as Google Play, Spreadshirt, and Jinx. Previously, any sites on that list were either owned by the individual posting the video or owned by a multichannel network. Now Subblime, a site dedicated to highlighting the style choices of YouTube stars, is the first site that can be linked out to from videos that isn’t owned by the individual or a multichannel network. “We want to help creators make more money in a way that keeps them on YouTube in a sustainable way,” Adam Winnick, CEO of Subblime told Cynopsis Digital. “YouTube agrees with that philosophy and saw our product as being true to it. We were the first, but we won’t be the last.”
In Other Words: As YouTube explores new and alternative ways to bring in revenue, watch out for more sites to join this group.

The YouTube app had been unavailable to Windows phones since May because Google wasn’t happy that phone owners could download video to their devices; it also didn’t help that video advertisements were unable to play. Things finally seemed to get ironed out and the app reappeared last week. But two days later, it disappeared again thanks to the folks at Google, who were again unhappy with the way YouTube was experienced on a Windows phone. Now, nobody has to worry about that since no Windows phone owner has access to it – again.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Way back in 1934, newsman Myron Scott convinced Chevrolet to sponsor the first All-American Soap Box Derby ever. It was held on August 19 in Ohio, and every year since, barring wartime, a derby has been run at the Derby Downs in Akron. The idea has spread across the globe with races taking place annually in a wide variety of locales and everybody from Cub Scouts to Red Bull-sponsored “athletes” taking part.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

See you tomorrow,
Mark Miller 
08.19.13

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JOB OPENING: VP FINANCE/NYC: Mng all financial & accnting for busy fast growing TV production cmpny. 7-10 yrs accnting exp in media/film. Strong kwldg of Quickbks + analytics essential. Resume: [email protected] (8/30)

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JOB OPENING: RESEARCH ANALYST/FX NETWORKS/LA: Analyze ratings trajectory of FX Networks and key competitors. Service all FX Networks & partner on custom requests and ad hoc needs. 2 yrs media exp. Apply here: http://bit.ly/143jbMF (8/24)

JOB OPENING: DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR/NY: Mng dev initiatives. Identify, cultivate & evaluate dev activities. BA deg & 5 yrs of exp at ntwrk/prod co. Knwldg audience & industry trends. Resume: www.Nationalgeographic.com/jobs (job 5720) (8/24)

JOB OPENING: DIGITAL SALES EXECUTIVE/NYC: 3-5 yrs exp, health & wellness media network interest send res & $ to: [email protected] (8/24)

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JOB OPENING: SR RSRCH ANLYST/MGM TV/LA: Use quant & qual rsrch tools to track & anlyze compet TV lndscpe. Create nat’l, local and cable present. Rsrch sftwre + 1 yr exp w/ nat’l & local NR anlysis. Apply: [email protected] (8/22)

JOB OPENING: SR ANALYST AD SALES RSCH/NBCU/NYC: 1-3 yrs media rsrch exp, support Sports & Olympics sales rsrch, proficient w/rsrch software, able to visually communicate & provide mktplce insight URL or Email: HERE (8/22)

JOB OPENING: DR SALES PLANNER/Travel/GAC/NYC: Mng, assist sale of long & short form invntry. 2 yrs sales exp, we are looking for career focused pro w passion to develop career in Ad Sales. www.scrippsnetworks.com #3843 (8/22)

JOB OPENING: ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE/Fox Sports/San Diego, CA: Responsible for ad sales, develop mktg programs/presentations, reporting, maintain accounts. Req’d 4 yrs exp @ media comp. Apply: http://goo.gl/791ig3 (8/22)

JOB OPENING: SALES PLANNER/Screenvision/NYC: Sales acct management support, sales reporting, campaign tracking, Need BS+3yrs media exp, strong excel. Apply at www.screenvision.com (8/22)

JOB OPENING: DIR BUSW DEV DIGITAL/NY, NY: for Zee TV must have OTT experience for Pay TV/Cable/On Demand Send resume and $$ [email protected] (8/21)

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JOB OPENING: DIR, BUS INTELLIGENCE & SALES ANALYSIS (20TH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT)/LA: Create/analyze/deliver standardized & ad-hoc performance reports using industry-wide point-of-sale (POS) data from our data warehouse. Apply: HERE (8/21) 

JOB OPENING: TV SYND SALES ASST/NYC: Review/enter sales contracts into an order processing sys to main accurate sales data, assist w/billing revisions & stewardship reporting. BA, strong math & PC skills req’d. 1-2 yrs media exp pref’d. Resume HERE (8/21)

JOB OPENING: ASSOC DIR, VOD SALES PLAN’G/Fox Broadcasting Co/NY: Mng/track/steward/forecast VOD & other dig. convergence deals as well as pricing, plan’g & rev. analysis responsibilities.BS/BA Deg req, Strong Excel skills a must. Apply: http://bit.ly/11MJTHK (8/20)

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FALL INTERNSHIP CREDITS ONLY: SALES/INT MKTG: Assist on all aspects of sales and marketing efforts for startup digital video network. Please send resume, cover letter, links and other work to [email protected] (8/24)

FALL INTERNSHIP CREDITS ONLY: MARKETING: Assist with all aspects of marketing campaigns for startup digital video network. Please send resume, cover letter, links and other work to [email protected] (8/24)

FALL INTERNSHIP CREDITS ONLY: Raw Travel TV show debuts Oct. 5. Seeking 2 PRODUCTION & 1 MARKETING: interns to help with new season. Email: [email protected] (8/24)

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SITUATION WANTED:  DEV. PRODCR/AP/Reality/Talk Shw/Docs: long/short formats A&E; Bravo; Dis; E!; CBS; Hist; Logo; MTV; Spike; TLC; VH1; Travel; solid showrunner/prodco/agency/network relationships, runs on batteries! [email protected] (8/24)

SITUATION WANTED:  LIFESTYLE HOST/NUTRITION EXPERT: available for television, spokesperson & hosting. Trained host, experienced, represented by agents. See lisadefazio.com. Contact [email protected] (8/24)

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