Cynopsis: DIGITAL
10/18/12

Good morning. It’s Thursday, October 18, 2012, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

Aereo, the NY-based start-up that streams broadcast television over the internet to a number of connected devices, has added support for the Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Safari, and Opera web browsers. Prior to this, the service was only accessible via iPhones, iPads, Apple TVs, and Roku players. While Aereo has claimed in the past that it plans to expand into additional cities, for now it’s still only available in NYC. Backed by Barry Diller’s IAC, the monthly subscription service uses tiny antennas to deliver network television to users, and also offers DVR storage for up to 40 hours (depending on the plan). In March, Aereo was hit with copyright lawsuits from a group of broadcasters. In July, a federal judge denied the broadcasters’ request for a preliminary injunction to stop the service from retransmitting live network TV. This battle is still ongoing.

Blip has a new channel on YouTube called The League of Super Critics, which will feature the online video network’s roster of web personalities and producers, as well as the occasional celebrity, reviewing web series, books, films, TV shows, and other types of entertainment content.The channel consists of six original weekly series:

• Nostalgia Chick: Lindsey Ellis invites recurring characters to join her in discussing and lambasting past TV shows and movies about for women. Mondays.
• Maven of the Eventide: The Maven reviews vampire films and pop culture memes. Tuesdays.
• A Plug, A Chug, and A Review: This show will let celebrities plug a project as well as review a film, TV show, or book of their choice while they chug a “roll-of-the-dice concoction that could contain anything.” Tuesdays.
• Nostalgia Critic: Doug Walker takes a look at TV shows and video games from the 80s and 90s. Wednesdays.
• Todd in the Shadows: Todd Nathanson covers terrible pop songs from the past and present. Thursdays.
• The Show You’re Watching: A weekly round up of “what’s what and who’s who” in online video.

Two companies within the international production conglomerate Banijay Group are jumping into the YouTube premium channels game. In the US, Banijay Group’s Bunim/Murray Productions is partnering with Alchemy Networks to produce content for an urban-themed YouTube channel, which is scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter of 2012. Per the deal with Alchemy, Bunim/Murray will provide new original programming five days a week. Following YouTube’s recent announcement that it plans to expand the premium channels initiative globally, Banijay’s Air Productions has partnered with France Televisions to program and manage a new channel on the video site. This new channel is an extension of France Television’s live music show, Taratata. Titled Taratata On Air, the channel will offer a weekly schedule of original music content, including backstage videos, cover versions of featured songs, and quizzes. Taratata On Air will also publish archived Taratata TV content.

ITV Studios Global Entertainment (ITVS GE) has signed a deal with Netflix to bring a number of ITVS GE titles to the streaming service for its subscribers in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland. The multiyear deal covers titles such as the BAFTA award-winning psychological thriller Appropriate Adult, starring Dominic West and Emily Watson, as well as British dramas like Lewis, Vera, and Agatha Christie’s Poirot. Earlier this week, Netflix began its rollout to all Scandinavian countries, which will be completed by the end of the year.

AdRise, a SF-based start-up that provides video app and ad solutions for connected TVs, has landed $2 million in a round of financing led by Foundation Capital. AdRise supports a number of connected TV platforms, including Roku, Google TV, and Yahoo Connected TV, as well as connected TVs from Samsung, Sony, Vizio, and LG, and gaming consoles like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. According to a TechCrunch report on the funding, AdRise is currently building free apps for more than 70 content partners. Once the apps are finished and are ready to be distributed, AdRise will also power ad delivery, targeting, and analytics for those apps.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Facebook is rolling out Mobile App Install Ads to all developers. This means that mobile app developers for iOS and Android devices can now purchase ads within mobile news feeds to drive discovery and downloads. Once a consumer clicks on an ad, he or she will be directed to the App Store or Google Play to download the app. Developers can launch and manage campaigns via the App Dashboard, Power Editor, or the API; or they can enlist the services of one of Facebook’s Preferred Marketing Developers (PMDs). Facebook says a “select subset” of PMDs has been testing Mobile App Install Ads prior to this launch. According to the social networking company, Nanigans’ clients achieved 8-10X the reach compared to other mobile ad buys, and Ad Parlor witnessed “consistent” click-through rates of 1-2%.

Global smart TV shipments are expected to grow 15% in 2012, according to the latest report from NPD DisplaySearch. While this is great news for the smart TV market overall, when NPD’s research is broken down by region, it shows that North America is still pulling up in the rear when it comes to market penetration. NPD says smart and connected TV penetration in North America is hovering around 20%, which is the lowest of any region. Meanwhile, consumers in regions like China and Western Europe seem to be embracing connected TVs, as shipment shares have spiked from 26% in China and 34% in Western Europe in 2011 to more than 40% in both regions in 2012. In addition, Japan has the highest penetration with more than 55% in 2012. The reason for this, according to NPD, is the accessibility of content and broadcast services. In China, there is a lot of free content and few structured services for consumers, which favors TVs with built-in browsers, says NPD. In addition, Western Europe consumes more free content every month than North America does, with broadcasters showing little interest in hardware. However, North American households “consume the highest level of internet video,” says Paul Gray, Director/European TV Research at NPD DisplaySearch. “We find that North America leads by far in paid on-demand services, which tend to be tied to set-top boxes.”

Digital media tech company C3 Metrics, which focuses on providing solutions for viewable impressions, conversions, and online attribution, recently released a market analysis of the current state of ad viewability, technology, and proposed industry standards. In the white paper, C3 Metrics notes how a recent study it conducted on viewable impressions found that 68% of display ads are never seen, which C3 Metrics says is why viewable impressions are receiving more attention within the industry. In addition, since viewable impressions standards will be in place by Q1 2013, this is going to create a problem on the measurement side, which the industry needs to pay attention to. This is because view-through cookies are set on all display ads immediately, as soon as they load in a browser. Thus, since view-through cookies signal conversion credit, brands and agencies will be giving conversion credit to ads that were never in view, says Jeff Greenfield, Co-Founder of C3 Metrics. This is why it’s imperative for advertisers to use viewable impression technology on the buy side as well as update the measurement side with viewable conversions, according to the study.

REGISTER NOW for the Cynopsis Digital Video Measurement Summit. Scheduled for November 14, 2012, in the great city of New York, the half-day event will examine where we are on the path to effective and acceptable video measurement standards. Come for the executives from AOL, FreeWheel, Horizon Media, IAB, IAWTV, NBCUniversal, VideoHub, Videology, Yahoo, and YouTube, as well as Sahil, and stay for the cocktails.

Microsoft has released an updated Xbox Live dashboard, visually aligning it with the tile-based Windows 8 UI. Among its features:

• Internet Explorer for the Xbox, allowing users to surf the web using their Xbox 360 controller and/or Kinect.
• TV & Movies have been combined into one channel on the dashboard, while a new Sports channel has been added for users in the US to access content from ESPN, the NBA, and others.
• The Zune Video Marketplace has been rebranded as Xbox Video, offering users the ability to buy, rent, or stream “hundreds of thousands of” TV shows and movies.
• Web video results, including those from the YouTube app, via Bing voice search.
• Recommendations for movies, TV shows, and games based on what users have previously watched or rated, what their friends have consumed, and what’s popular on Xbox Live.

Xana Antunes has been named to the newly created position of Executive Editor and VP for CNBC Digital. Effective immediately, Antunes is responsible for setting the editorial direction of CNBC Digital’s products and services, such as CNBC.com and its suite of mobile apps, as well as leading the editorial team behind them. Previously the Editor of Crain’s New York Business, she will remain based in NYC.

AudienceScience, a global digital marketing tech company, has tabbed Michael Greene, formerly an Analyst at Forrester Research, to be its new Director/Research and Marketing Strategy. The company says Greene will work with sales and strategic accounts to provide thought leadership, training, and support to its enterprise clients. This includes research, reporting, and training programs. Based out of AudienceScience’s NYC office, Greene will report to Emily Riley, VP/Marketing and Sales Strategy.

Pearl Media, a provider of 3D projection experiences and interactive storefronts, has hired Joe DePreta to be its Chief Marketing Officer, a new position at the company. DePreta will oversee all marketing, strategy, creative, social media, and public relations for Pearl Media. He will report to CEO and President Josh Cohen.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Turner’s Adult Swim has launched a new comedy website and has brought in an army of former staff members from The Onion to power it. Thing X, which will be led by former Onion editor Joe Randazzo, will focus on satirizing everything on the web via “videos, columns, interviews, reviews, emails, blurbs, bleeps, cybersnips, and podcasts.” It will also regularly feature contributions from comedians such as Tim Heidecker, Gregg Turkington, and Dave Willis. The list of former Onion writers, producers, and staff members now working for Thing X is kind of staggering. Which makes sense — “to be the best you have to…”

Later – Sahil
Sahil Patel, Associate Editor for Cynopsis Digital
10.18.12

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

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