Cynopsis: DIGITAL

7/23/07

Good Morning, it’s Monday, July 23, 2007 and this is your first early morning digital briefing. 

MTV Networks’ Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group is investing $100 million over the next two years into the development, distribution and creation of casual gaming titles, sites and platforms. Look for more virtual world creations, console/handheld titles and broader integrated advertising opportunities targeted at the 8-14 year old crowd. MTV has acquired several gaming properties in recent years including online portal Xfire, GameTrailers.com and Guitar Hero publisher Harmonix. New initiatives include:

• myNoggin, an educational subscription cable gaming service planned for a fall launch with Charter, Cox and Insight. It will also be offered online.
• Nick.com/Nicktropolis Multiplayer Games/Tournaments
• Nick Gaming Club, a subscription-based gaming service planned for 1q 2008 featuring multiplayer games, 3D avatars and community features.
• Ngames.com, a casual gaming site planned for early 2008 focused on teen girls, produced by The-N.com and AddictingGames.com
• Neopets will become NeoStudios, focusing on developing new virtual world gaming experiences online.

 

 
Virgin Comics and MySpace launched Coalition Comix, an online comic book platform allowing leading comic artists to create interactive comic adventures with the MySpace community. Each digital issue will be put together within a two-week time frame utilizing sketches, artwork and scripts uploaded by contributing users. Mike Carey (Voodoo Child, X-Men), will produce the first title.
 
Last week’s Emmy Award nominations included two “juried areas” (meaning no nominations) in the realm of Interactive Television Programming. Finalists for Area One (Programming) are Heroes Interactive, DirecTV Interactive Sports, The Jericho Experience, The Fallen Alternative Reality Game and Big Brother Goes Mobile. Finalists for Area Two (Service) are MLB Mosaic, Current TV, BravoTV.com, Disney Channel Broadband Video Player and Yahoo Fantasy Football Television Tracker.
 
Disney is rolling out several online, mobile and on demand extras for High School Musical 2, premiering on the Disney Channel on Friday, August 17 at 8 pm ET/PT :

• Disney.com is featuring music videos, an audio streaming simulcast of the entire HSM2 soundtrack on Disney XD and an interactive supersite offering exclusive online video content.
• Mobile features include a new interactive mobile WAP site providing users with “insider access” including video, SMS alerts, polls and trivia. Various carriers will offer games, graphics and ringtone tie ins. Sprint TV customers will be able to see HSM1 and 2 in their entirety during August.
• The film will be available on demand via Cablevision iO Digital Cable and Verizon FiOS TV prior to its premier on the Disney Channel. Music video selections will also be up on iTunes.

 
NBC Digital Entertainment announced a wealth of new content and social networking tools that will begin appearing on NBC.com this summer:

• MyNBC will enable users to create modular, customizable profiles; gain access to exclusive content and live interactive events; create blogs, photo galleries and video galleries; join groups to discuss their favorite shows; grab widgets for all of their social networking profiles and blogs and keep track of all the games they play and the contests they’ve entered.
• The Heroes 360 initiative continues with YamagatoFellowship.org, a webisode documentary series exploring the legend of Takezo Kensei, the role model of Heroes’ Hiro.  On ActivatingEvolution.org , fans can learn about Shanti Suresh, Mohinder’s sister and the mysterious virus that killed her.
• The Office 360 extensions include a Dunder Mifflin corporate site where fans can form new branches and join an online job fair.
• NBC Fantasy Talent Scout allows fans to build their own talent roster from three online talent agencies featuring characters from NBC’s roster of shows. Users earn points if their characters do or say selected actions or phrases, competing for a quarterly top prize of $100,000.

 
Nickelodeon debuted Nick Cannon’s Star Camp last night, its first original broadband series produced by Nick Cannon, Quincy Jones and Quincy Jones III. The show will premier new 15-minute segments exclusively on TurboNick each Sunday with the finale airing August 26 at 6 pm ET/PT on the network’s TEENick block.
 
The NHL chose NeuLion to power a new Integrated Video Portal that will give fans access to up to 40 live HD games each week as well as behind the scenes footage and highlights viewable on multiple screens.  NHL Center Ice Online will offer team channels for all 30 NHL teams next season, enabling fantasy stat tracking, video sharing and playlist building. Prices for premium content have yet to be set.
 
WCSN and Yahoo! Sports announced a strategic partnership to provide fans with an exclusive sampling of select live events and on-demand coverage of Olympics sports competitions leading up to coverage the 2008 Olympic Games on Yahoo! Sports and Yahoo! Olympics. Events include FIVB World Championships in Gstaad, Switzerland (July 24-29), IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Osaka, Japan (Aug. 24 – Sept. 2), FIG Artistic World Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany (Sept. 1-9) and UCI RoadWorld Championships in Stuttgart (Sept. 26-30).
 
E! Networks and Australia’s online media company ninemsn signed a deal to launch E!’s entertainment news and lifestyle content to ninemsn’s 8+ million audience in the next month.
 
Sci Fi Channel is bringing its former signature series FarScape back as an online series exclusive to SciFi.com Pulse broadband channel. The short form web series will be executive produced by Brian Henson and Robert Halmi Jr and produced by the Jim Henson Company in association with RHI Entertainment. Other SciFi.com announcements include Invent This!, a series from Peacock Productions about quirky inventions and technology blog Sci Fi Tech, also produced by Peacock.

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Sony’s video sharing site Grouper changed its name to Crackle and will no longer offer user generated videos. The site will focus instead on professional-quality HD video, submitted by users and selected and edited by the company’s in house production crew. Crackle’s new model will give creators access to other Sony entities including Sony Pictures Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Sony Pictures Television and Columbia Pictures. Crackle Studios will seek to strike development deals with creators who submit content to Crackle’s various channels. An embedded video player will also offer multiplatform distribution and syndication via Sony digital devices, IPTV outlets and web portals including MySpace, Facebook, hi5 and AOL.
 
Babelgum struck a deal with non-fiction programmer Off The Fence to offer around 200 hours of documentary programming for the P2P video service. The deal includes travel, naturally history, science and health programming including the series 21st century Garden Art and Wild Asia.
 
Amp’d Mobile will officially shutter its mobile service tomorrow at midnight. The company filed for bankruptcy protection and plans to hold an auction to sell off its assets, using the proceeds to pay down debt and pay off some of its investors. The good news is that Amp’d users won’t face an early termination fee while they decide which carrier to switch to. (Amp’d operated on Verizon’s network up until now.)
 

 
Google said it will bid at least $4.6 billion in the upcoming FCC auction for wireless spectrum in the 700 Mhz band in a letter to FCC chairman Kevin Martin. Google encouraged the FCC to require the adoption of four types of “open” platforms as part of the licensing conditions it has yet to set, including open applications, open devices, open services and open networks. An article in The Wall Street Journal last week outlined the company’s strategy of currying favor in Washington by offering free tools and tutorials candidates can use to help win elections instead of making cash donations. Google spent only $800,000 last year on outside lobbyists compared to $20 million by AT&T.
 
Clearwire and Sprint Nextel Corp. are teaming up to create a nationwide WiMax broadband network. The companies will provide roaming services to each other’s customers as they work together to build out the network they hope will reach 100 million customers by the end of next year. The deal will allow Clearwire and Sprint to swap 2.5 Ghz spectrum in key markets and give  Clearwire access to Sprint’s EVDO broadband network. The companies also will work jointly on product and service evolution, shared infrastructure, branding, marketing and distribution. 
 
Scripps Networks acquired user-generated recipe and community cooking site Recipezaar. The site, founded by former Microsoft employees Gay Gilmore and Troy Hakala, is built on proprietary software that allows users to submit, browse, rate and tag recipes as well as build personalized cookbooks and shopping lists.

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A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM PODSHOW

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Online video reached 81 million people or 63% of US internet users as of March 2007, up from 70 million 6 months ago, according to a broadband study commissioned by CTAM and conducted by Nielsen Entertainment and NielsenConnect. Net video viewing was found to be additive to TV viewing rather than displacing; 33% of those surveyed said watching video online actually led to an increase in TV viewing. Consumers indicated that greater awareness of where to find the videos they’re after, better navigation interfaces and availability of internet video via home television sets could significantly drive future broadband video content use. ABC.com was the leader in broadband viewer visits among TV network Web sites. Yahoo Movies led in the movies category.
 

 
BET named former MTVN digital media EVP Denmark West as President of Digital Media, reporting to new President and COO Scott Mills. Denmark will lead the company’s portfolio of digital brands, including BET.com, BET Mobile, BET on Demand and BET’s digital download offerings. He will oversee the development and implementation of the company’s global digital strategy from BET’s Washington, D.C. office.
 
Allen Wastler was hired as Managing Editor of CNBC.com to guide and oversee all editorial content for site. Allen served as Managing Editor of CNNMoney.com prior to joining CNBC.
 

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The Harry Potter phenomenon has been benefited greatly from a host of online community sites that pour over the novels’ characters, back stories and other media that have flourished around the JK Rowling series. Needless to say it was a busy weekend for sites such as LeakyCauldron, Potterfourms.com and of course JKRowling.com, the official site that warned users to ignore misinformation spreading on the net about the plot of the final Potter book. Check out one of the originals, Mugglenet.com. It’s run by a group of teens who understand what fan sites are all about.
 
Correction : Back on July 6 we reported that U.K. digital channels Five Life and Five US were launching channels in the U.S. on a time-shifted basis. In fact, Five Life +1 and Five US +1 will launch as time-shifted services on Sky in the U.K. this fall. We regret the error.
 
Later — Wayne
Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digitals
07.23.07

Cynopsis Ad Sales:  Mark Bohn- 203-583-1224 / mark@cynopsis.com
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JOB OPENING: RESEARCH MGR/iN DEMAND/NY, NY: Design, execute & analyze primary mkt research. Qualitative & quantitative + syndicated sources. Bachelors + 3-5 yrs exp all phases primary research. Apply at: resume@indemand.com (7/28)

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