A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM BRAVO MEDIA

Cynopsis: DIGITAL
04/05/12

Good morning. It’s Thursday, April 5, 2012, and this is your first early morning digital briefing. If you would like to read this or any other Cynopsis editions online, click here.

Yahoo! is laying off 2,000 employees, which amounts to 14% of its workforce. “Today’s actions are an important next step toward a bold, new Yahoo! — a smaller, nimbler, more profitable and better equipped to innovate as fast as our customers and our industry require,” read a memo from Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson. This is Yahoo!’s most significant round of layoffs, and will lead to more management-level restructuring, and possibly even more cuts in the months ahead. Yahoo! said it will provide additional details when Q1 results are released on April 17. According to AllThingsD, the new organization will probably include a global media division; another that will oversee the company’s consumer products businesses; and a third that will focus on global and regional sales. A much smaller division (consisting of about 50 employees) might be created to focus on future innovation.

Paramount and Google have inked a new deal that will make 500 movies available for rent on YouTube and Google Play. These titles include newer fare such as Captain America, Hugo and The Adventures of Tin Tin, as well as more classic titles like Coming to America and The Godfather. The movies will be available to users in the U.S. and Canada. Rentals will be priced at $3.99 for new releases and $2.99 for most of the older movies. Almost all of the movies will be available for 24 hours once the user has begun watching. Of interesting note, YouTube and Viacom, which owns Paramount, have been locked in a copyright battle for the last five years, yet here they are, still doing business.

At its 2012 Upfront presentation yesterday, Bravo Media introduced Digital as a sixth “passion point,” to join its existing pillars of Food, Fashion, Beauty, Design and Pop Culture. The passion point will focus on creating multiscreen interactivity and social experiences across all content. Bravo says Digital will also provide an expanded development filter for shows focused on the digital world, and is teaming up with Randi Zuckerberg (sister of Mark) to produce two new shows focusing on Silicon Valley and the staff behind icanhascheezburger.com. Bravo also announced that its recent Last Chance Kitchen transmedia initiative, which was an online series that allowed viewers to follow storylines across multiple platforms, generated 8 million video streams.

The Tribeca Film Institute’s Interactive Day on April 23 will feature thought leaders across media, entertainment, technology and education, and will explore the future of storytelling in the digital age. Presentations will include an interactive case study of the multiplatform rollout of HBO’s Game of Thrones; insights from The Onion’s Digital Director Baratunde Thurston; among other conversations and events. The event will begin at 9:30am at the IAC Building and is open to all Tribeca Film Festival badge holders and invited guests. Tribeca is also hosting a Future of Film Lunch Series that will include notable speakers such as Paranormal Activity producer Jason Blumb, Tumblr founder David Karp and CollegeHumor and Vimeo founder Ricky Van Veen. This event will take place on April 23 to 26, from 12pm to 1:30pm ET, with two 30-minute sessions per day. The Lunch Series will be highlighted via daily video segments on tribecafilm.com and throughout the Film Festival itself. Here is the schedule for TFI Interactive Day.

The University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication announced the winners of the 71st Annual Peabody Awards, recognizing excellence in electronic media for 2011. Among the 38 recipients were: TED.com, a digital extension of the popular conference and speaking series; BBC.com; GlobalPost.com, a news website devoted to reporting on news that is neglected by other outlets, and which posted video reports from 34 different countries in 2011; the riveting documentary “Who Killed Chea Vichea”, and multimedia reports (photography, video, interviews and written analysis) from The New Yorker and Human Rights Watch. The awards will be handed out on May 21 at an event hosted by Sir Patrick Stewart in New York City.

Call for Digital Content/Insights: Cynopsis Media will be producing an E-Special Report: Digital Content NewFronts for delivery on Monday, April 16, three days before the first-ever Digital Content NewFronts (DCNF) kick off in New York City. The E-Special Report will take an in-depth look at the key players and new programming being served up at the DCNF. We’ll examine the issues and challenges facing buyers and sellers, as well as highlight the important digital hits going into the event and those that are still yet to come. If you are an exhibitor at the DCNF, or have authored relevant data and insights that inform trends relating to digital video content, and want to be featured in this free and highly-viewed special edition, please contact Sahil Patel at: [email protected] no later than Wednesday, April 11, 2012.

Civolution, which provides technology and solutions for identifying, managing and monetizing media content, has signed an agreement with Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution, which will employ Civolution’s media monitoring service, Teletrax, to monitor the international broadcasts of its video content. The deal will allow Twentieth Century Fox to accelerate rights windows for the overseas broadcast of its content, monitor on-air promotions of series and develop new and improved business models for global distribution of video assets. The timing of the deal will serve Twentieth Century Fox’s global launch of TOUCH, a new series starring Kiefer Sutherland that premiered near day and date in over 100 countries.

Social games developer Digital Chocolate (Millionaire City, MMA Pro Fighter) has partnered with Amsterdam-based Spil Games to bring its selection of titles to Spil Games’ independent gaming platform, which currently reaches more than 170 million monthly unique users across 30 countries in 15 languages. The first Digital Chocolate property to benefit from the new partnership will be its sci-fi game, Galaxy Life. Per the deal, the Spil Games API will be available for use to Digital Chocolate, giving it the ability to quickly scale across multiple languages. Galaxy Life will be available across Spil Games’ social gaming platforms beginning at some point this month, with more titles from the developer to follow.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

comScore‘s MobiLens service has released its latest report on key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry, this one covering the three-month average period ending in February 2012. According to the report, Google’s Android crossed the 50% mark to capture a majority share of the U.S. smartphone market for the first time in its history (it accounted for a 46.9% share during the three-month average ending in November 2011). Apple and its iPhone line captured 30.2% of the smartphone market (+1.5%), while RIM, Microsoft and Symbian rounded out the top five in that order. All together, comScore finds that 104 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in February, which is up 14% versus November. In terms of mobile content usage:

• 49.5% of U.S. mobile subscribers used downloaded apps (+4.6%).
• 49.2% used a browser (+4.8%).
• 36.1% accessed a social networking site or blog (+3.1%)
• 32.3% played games (+2.6%).
• The top dog was still text messaging, which jumped from 72.6% to 74.8%.

A study undertaken during the fourth quarter of 2011, conducted by Ernst & Young LLP, under the direction of the Council for Research Excellence (CRE), finds that digital publishers’ user-data collection methods are inconsistent. The CRE says the objective of the study was to examine how various digital publishers capture and maintain user data and to understand how these data can supplement existing research-panel data, all designed to strengthen digital audience measurement. Among the study’s findings:

• Publishers feel the potential to leverage user data is inhibited by a lack of interest or sophistication from advertisers and agenicces, and therefore are reluctant to develop better processes until they have a better sense of what the buy-side wants.
• The amount and type of data requested of users varies greatly, with few universal data elements.
• Certain data elements can have multiple definitions (e.g. Geography can mean: a coffee shop from which a user is posting to Facebook via a mobile device, or a computer’s IP address.)
• Very few respondents indicated that they require users to register and provide declared data; many employ optional user registration.

As part of Discovery Communications‘ decision to rebrand Planet Green as Destination America, which will take place on May 28, the company will launch an original iPhone app that will offer recommendations on attractions and places to visit, as well as allow users to share their favorite U.S. destinations.

Big Idea Entertainment is aiming to give its popular VeggieTales brand a digital boost by partnering with mobile app developer Playful Owl and multiplatform video applications creator GorillaSpot. VeggieTales is the first property to launch on Playful Owl’s Step-by-Story mobile app, which allows children to create their own short story through a series of simple choices. The app automatically turns their selections into an animation that can be shared with parents and friends. Big Idea has already launched VeggieTales: The Goofy Gift and VeggieTales: Larry’s Missing Music, with six other additional titles to roll out in the coming year. The apps are available for iOS and Android devices. The deal with ReelCards, powered by GorillaSpot, will allow fans to create, share and access e-cards featuring short clips from popular VeggieTales titles via a Facebook app. It will be available as an iOS and Android-based mobile app in early summer 2012.

Kunimasa Suzuki has been named President and Chief Executive Officer of Sony Mobile Communications, effective May 16. Bert Nordberg, the current President and CEO, will step down and slide over to the position of Chairman of Sony Mobile. In his new role, Suzuki will oversee the planning and design of all Sony consumer products and service, with the specific aim of unifying the user experience across all Sony devices and offerings. He will also head up the mobile business, which Sony has defined as one of its core electronics business areas, including smartphones, tablets and PCs.

Zynga has hired Julie Shumaker to be its new VP/North American Sales. She will report to Zynga Chief Marketing and Revenue Officer Jeff Karp. Previously, Shumaker served as SVP and GM at social games developer RockYou Media.

Marketron, a provider of business and software solutions for the media industry, has appointed Jeff Haley as its new President and Chief Executive Officer. Formerly, Haley served as President and CEO of the Radio Advertising Bureau and SVP for Time Warner Global Marketing. Haley will assume the CEO position on April 16. Marketron says currently 80% of the U.S. radio advertising spend flows through its systems.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Google has unveiled Project Glass. It’s a concept for a wearable eyeglasses-like device (without the lens) that would essentially integrate all of Google’s services and many of the functionalities of a smartphone, including text messages, maps, directions, video chats and more, all through a voice-based command system. This is according to the video Google published that explained the concept. Augmented reality, virtual reality or whatever you want to call it, give it a look.

 A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM CABLEFAX

Later – Sahil
Sahil Patel, Associate Reporter for Cynopsis Digital
04.05.12

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