Cynopsis: DIGITAL

05/22/08

Good morning, it’s Thursday, May 22, 2008, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.
 
Buying Yahoo’s search business is one way to improve Microsoft’s market share. Paying users to search is another. Yes, Microsoft unveiled a new Live Search Cashback site yesterday, which promises to share a portion of the purchase price of the item searched for with the user, with the percentage ranging from 2% to 30% depending on the item. Similar to Google’s Product Search, it is set up primarily as a shopping engine. But the Microsoft site actually bakes in discounts to pass along to the consumer, then deposits that amount into their account.
 

 
MTV will produce an array of VOD extras around films nominated for MTV Movie Awards this year for affiliates including Comcast, Time Warner, Cox and Charter. Look for making of featurettes behind-the-scenes clips, music videos, etc. There will also be a reprise of the best movie spoofs online UGC contest as well as the top nominated films from mtvU’s Best Film On Campus.
 
RDF Digital is producing original webisodes based on RDF’s faux Japanese game show format Banzai, which will have an exclusive home on MySpaceTV for the first 30 days before being syndicated to popular U.S. platforms YouTube, Hulu, MetaCafe and Dailymotion. The show, which has aired on Fox, USA, Comedy Central and G4 in the U.S., has attracted an array of celebrity guests including Angelina Jolie, Kelsey Grammar and Bill Murray.
 
Lifetime has enlisted the talents of Large Animal Games to create its latest casual game, Fashion Solitaire, to be distributed in retail stores in June by Brighter Minds Media. Lifetime’s Blood Ties game sold over 50,000 units during its first month of release this past winter.
 

 
Social entertainment producers Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried, creators of LG15 and KateModern, look to branch out into a variety of interactive genres in upcoming EQAL projects for CBS including comedy, drama and non-scripted series, the two said in an interview. (In the meantime, the deal has provided enough funds to allow them to move their workspace from their living rooms to an actual LA office space.) Miles, head writer on both projects, did not rule out more shadowy, conspiracy-themed material he admits to gravitating toward. The point after all is to engage the audience and nothing lights up a chat board or motivates a wiki contributor like a good conspiracy yarn. Also expect more strong female characters. More than 65% of the fans that follow their shows are women. “And a vast majority are fans of Buffy the Vampire slayer,” says Goodfried. “It’s got to be #1 most overlapping category.”
 
Michael Eisner divulged some details about Vuguru‘s next big online series. (This one will launch during the 50-webisode run of Foreign Body, a prequel to the Robin Cook hospital thriller about medical tourism set in India, set to launch May 27.) Back on Topps stars Randy and Jason Sklar, former hosts of ESPN’s Cheap Seats, as two of a group of executives vying to succeed the fictional founder of their company, Marvin Topps. The yarn is constructed to synergize with Topps trading cards, acquired by Eisner last year.
 
Bravo‘s Television Without Pity is branching out into movies, featuring TitanTV‘s man in the street movie review program, RevYou, hosted by comedian Grace Randolph.
 

 
Time Warner is going to be flush with cash after spinning off Time Warner Cable – $9.25 billion to be exact – thanks to a special $10.27/share dividend to be paid by the MSO. What will it do with all that money? Go shopping, of course. Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes described plans to make “disciplined acquisitions,” as he looked forward to “greater strategic, financial and operational flexibility.”
 
Newly renamed and reorganized KIT Digital (formerly ROO) will announce the acquisition of digital video content creator Kamera today, adding mobile content to its suite of IPTV solutions for the first time. Kamera offers video content to over 100 clients, including 40+ mobile operators and 70+ broadband media publishers, enabling companies such as Vodafone, MSN, Orange, Telefonica, O2, Hutchinson and China Mobile to deliver IPTV channels and content to their customers over mobile and online networks.
 
NBCU‘s push into iTV includes an integration with Dish Network‘s interactive television platform. Dish DVR subscribers will be able to use the one-button trigger on their remotes to request additional info or discount coupons from sponsors advertising on NBCU’s 14 television networks and 10 owned & operated stations.
 

 
Fresh from its record March Madness streaming effort, CBS is forming a college sports-themed vertical ad network to deliver display and video ads across CBSSports.com, NCAA.com (produced by CBSSports.com) and the roughly 215 official college athletic sites operated by the CBS College Sports network (formerly known as CSTV.) CBS estimates the network reaches 10 million unique users, based on March metrics.
 
AOL and Virgin Mobile USA announced that Platform-A (one of the first remnant networks,) will serve as the exclusive display advertising and sales partner for Virgin Mobile USA’s WAP banner inventory. The Platform-A sales team will manage Virgin Mobile USA’s WAP banner inventory and leverage Platform-A’s Third Screen Media mobile ad serving platform.
 
Discovery landed GM as a major sponsor for its multiplatform eco-lifestyle network Planet Green launching June 4, beginning with sponsorship of Greensburg, a 13-part documentary series co-produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way production company. The automaker sees the platform as the perfect place to promote its line of hybrid and alternative fuel cars and trucks.
 

 
Scarborough Research came up with a new moniker to describe the technically inclined among us: the Digital Savvy, based on ownership of certain tech devices and inclination to engage in web 2.0 behaviors. About 6% of U.S. residents fit the classification with higher concentrations in certain cities like Austin, Sacramento and San Diego. They tend to be male (56%), well-heeled (more than half make $75k+) and more than willing to shop online. Interestingly they also tend to live active lifestyles, suggesting they don’t spend all their time in a dark room with their gadgets. 
 

 
The creative team behind the failed mobile content service Amp’d Mobile will run a new branded content and marketing division for William Morris Agency called Agency 3.0, reports paidcontent.org, co-owned by former Amp’d Mobile CEO and founder Peter Adderton. The team includes founder of Interpublic’s Emerging Media Lab Greg Johnson as head the agency’s practice addressing brands and agencies; former COO of Amp’d Steve Stanford, who will head the company’s practice in the entertainment industry and Scott Anderson, former creative head and co-founder of both Boost Mobile and Amp’d Mobile, who will lead the creative and design team.
 
MTV Networks Music & Logo Group named Nancy Bennett as SVP/Creative and Content Development for Program Enterprises. Nancy will oversee creative direction and branding strategies for the division’s various initiatives involving movies, DVD’s, video games, merchandise, virtual worlds and publishing, among other avenues. She reports to Jeff Yapp, EVP/MTV Networks Music & Logo Group Program Enterprises.
 
The ABC Owned Television Stations Group named former ABC National Sales Digital VP Rich Vedder, as VP/Digital Media Sales, effective immediately. Rich will work with senior management and each of ABC’s 10 stations to develop and implement digital sales strategies and initiatives, reporting to Bill Burton, EVP/Digital Media, for the ABC O&Os.
 
Jeff Kunken was upped to VP/Digital Media & Creative Development for the Sundance Channel. He will continue to oversee content strategy, production and overall site design for sundancechannel.com and continue to report to Christopher Barry, SVP/Digital Media and Business Strategy.
 
Veteran entertainment marketing executive Mary Pat Ryan will join ReelzChannel‘s  Executive Management Board, joining Chairman and CEO Stanley Hubbard, Vice Chairman of the board Doug McCormick, President and COO Gary Thorne and EVP/Finance and Administration Bernie Weiss.
 

 
Spinal Tap fans have to check this out. Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) pontificates about his theories on Stonehenge in a series of brilliant viral videos to promote Nat Geo’s Stonehenge Decoded special, premiering Sunday, June 1 at 9 pm. There’s even a puzzle game created by Arkadium that reveals facts about the monument, which continues to fascinate hippies the world over.  Nigel himself doesn’t watch the channel – it’s too difficult for him. “They should do puppets shows,” he suggests.

Later — Wayne
Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
05.22.08

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JOB OPENING: EXEC PROD/WPIX/CW11- NYC: AM news 5-9a, strong creative/collaboration/people mgmt skills, resp. for overall editorial decisions/news content, 5+yrs EP exp. 4+yrs line prod/writer exp. Visit:  http://www.cw11.com/   EOE  (5/30)

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