Cynopsis: DIGITAL
10/16/12

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, October 16, 2012, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

Providence Equity Partners has completed a deal to sell its stake in Hulu for $200 million. One of the earliest backers of the digital video service, Providence had purchased a 10% stake in the company in 2007. This deal, which was first reported by TechCrunch, has been six months in the making, as reports indicated this past April that Providence was looking to buy-out its shares in the joint venture. Hulu’s other owners include Comcast, Disney, and News Corp. This deal reportedly values Hulu at $2 billion. It also signals that there might be significant changes coming to the company, including at the CEO position (as hinted by a Variety report in August), as the current CEO Jason Kilar is now able to cash out if he so chooses.

AT&T and Viacom have signed a deal to give U-verse TV customers access to full-length episodes of Viacom-owned television programming online. The deal covers shows from BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Spike, and VH1, all of which can be accessed by using U-verse TV login information on any of Viacom’s TV Everywhere websites for each of those channels. Consumers will be able to watch Viacom programming on U-verse.com and U-verse apps for connected devices “in the near future.”

The Onion Digital Studios is launching a new video series on its YouTube original channel to mock and parody the TED conference and its popular series of “TED Talks.” Titled Onion Talks, the first video will launch on The Onion’s YouTube channel this Wednesday. The Onion Digital Studios’ head writer Sam West tells TechCrunch that new parody videos will arrive every Wednesday thereafter for up to “about a dozen” episodes. According to the description under the trailer for the series, Onion Talks will look to provide “the most important ideas from the greatest thinkers on the planet.”

Netflix has started its plans for expansion into Scandinavia by launching its service in Sweden. The streaming service will be available to customers in the country for free for a month, after which they’ll be charged 79 Swedish kronor ($11.79) every month. Earlier this year, Netflix had announced its plans to expand to all of the Scandinavian countries by the end of the year. The brewing battle between Netflix and HBO Nordic in this region should be fun to see.

Israel-based OTT solutions provider Tvinci has landed a $4.5 million funding round, led by existing investors Kaedan Capital and Zohar Gilon, as well as new investor Trellas Enterprises. The fresh capital will be directed toward international expansion into new markets and further development of the start-up’s OTT 2.0 platform. Launched in 2007, Tvinci says 2012 has been the most successful in its history as revenues have tripled this year when compared to 2011. In addition, the start-up brought in seven new TV operators as clients, including Liberty Global, which owns multiple cable operators throughout Europe. Tvinci’s OTT 2.0 platform offers both an OTT back-end and a user experience management system for TV apps that deliver live and VOD content on connected devices, as well as social TV and video discovery features.

TopFloor, a video-driven e-commerce platform for brands, retailers, and celebrities to sell directly to their social followers, is making its public debut and has secured $6 million in funding from Polaris Ventures, Google Ventures, Crosslink Ventures, and Rustic Canyon Partners. Here’s how it works: TopFloor produces videos for clients, which they can share across their social networks. The videos employ YouTube annotations to let users buy products when they’re displayed on the screen, right from the video, regardless of where the user is watching the content. For example, annotated videos can be inserted into tweets, so a user does not have to leave his or her Twitter stream to buy the product. The annotations automatically place the product in the cart on TopFloor, ready to be purchased.

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Mojiva has launched a new mobile ad network focusing only on tablets. To show support for why a tablet-only ad network would be necessary, the company reports that its existing ad network reached 40 million tablet devices in June 2012, a staggering increase from the 25 million it reached in January 2012 and the 3 million it reached in January 2011. Moreover, the company says it has been receiving 2.13 billion ad requests per month as of August 2012. The new tablet-only ad network, dubbed Mojiva Tab, will allow advertisers to purchase inventory and display rich media ad units across multiple audience channels. “Tablet ads are proving more effective than mobile ads across multiple brand metrics, increasing demand for tablet inventory,” said Cathy Boyle, Senior Analyst at eMarketer, in a statement tied to the announcement. “We expect the bulk of mobile display spending will be allocated to rich media ad units, but growth in the category will be driven in greatest measure by video ads, which are particularly well-suited to the larger tablet screen.”

Multiplatform video services provider Avail-TVN has struck a deal with Havoc Television to deliver the cable network’s indie music and action sports VOD programming to affiliates in the US, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. The partnership includes licensing, deliver/provisioning, transcoding, and advanced asset management for multiplatform and TV Everywhere services as well as international expansion into regions such as South America and Europe. In addition to providing VOD services for Havoc’s two ad-supported channels, Havoc Music and Havoc Sports, Avail-TVN will also work to expand the distribution of Havoc’s linear social TV channel, Havoc 247. “Today, our focus is on extending our reach — by launching innovative multiplatform services that help our fans to interact with content and each other on any device, through a broader worldwide distribution network,” said David de Kadt, President, Havoc Television, while describing the deal.

Argonon, a “super-indie” production group formed by Leopard Films CEO James Burstall has hired Accelerate Worldwide, a management consultancy co-founded by former CEO of AOL Europe Kate Burns, to support its digital growth strategy. Per the announcement, Argonon and Accelerate will work together to build out Argonon’s digital production capabilities, either through an acquisition or executive appointments. “The brief includes the option of a digital specialist company with a proven track record in working closely with brands to develop exciting and creative content,” reads the statement. Argonon recently announced that next year it plans to launch a “global hub” for the long-running BBC series Cash in the Attic.

Google Sites led the US explicit core search market in September with a 66.7% market share (+0.3% versus the previous month), according to latest comScore data. It was followed by Microsoft Sites at 15.9% (no change), Yahoo Sites at 12.2% (-0.6%), the Ask Network at 3.5% (+0.3%), and AOL with a 1.8% market share (+0.1%). Overall, comScore reports that more than 16.3 billion explicit core searches (those with which the user intends to interact with the search results) were conducted last month. When looking at organic search results “powered by” a specific engine, comScore found that Google powered 69.4% of searches, while Bing powered 25.1%.

Join us on November 14, 2012 at the Cynopsis Digital Video Measurement Summit in NYC. Speakers from the likes of comScore, ESPN, Nielsen, NBCUniversal, VideoHub, Vuguru, and Yahoo, among many others will look to offer you insight on where we are on the path to effective video measurement, and where we need to go. REGISTER NOW.

Alison Moore, formerly HBO’s VP/Digital Products, has been named EVP & GM of DailyCandy, a lifestyle brand for women and a unit of NBCUniversal’s Entertainment & Digital Networks and Integrated Media. She will be responsible for overall business growth, with a strong focus on launching new DailyCandy “experiences” across its web, mobile, and social channels. Moore will also lead DailyCandy’s video initiatives, including plans for multiple original web series as well as a multiplatform programming partnership with the Style Network, dubbed StyleCandy. And finally, Moore is tasked with building deeper ties with other NBCUniversal digital and TV properties. Effective as of November 1, Moore will report to Nick Lehman, President of Digital for the NBCUniversal division.

DanceOn, a dance-centric channel on YouTube that is part of the site’s original programming initiative, has selected Amanda Goodfried to be its new Chief Marketing Officer. Coming from Disney Interactive, where she was Senior Manager/Digital Content, Goodfried will oversee DanceOn’s marketing and promotions efforts across programming and corporate initiatives. It’s a new position at the dance entertainment network, which recently relocated from NY to LA. Goodfried was also the Executive Producer and Co-Creator of the 2006 viral web series, LonelyGirl15.

Young Hollywood, a digital media brand focusing on celebrity and lifestyle programming, has named Liz Coughlin SVP/Business Operations. She will oversee new business initiatives for the company, as well as be responsible for all digital operations. Most recently, Coughlin served as Head of Yahoo TV and omg! at Yahoo Entertainment.

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Continuing with the Disney and Pixar theme for a second consecutive day: To promote the prequel to Monsters, Inc., Pixar launched an official website for Monsters University, as in, the school that’s going to be at the heart of the upcoming film. Explore the website, which comprehensively gives you every information you would need to consider the college as a viable place for higher learning for you or your (monstrous) child. There’s a detailed map, a list of fraternities (“Roar Omega Roar”) and sororities, information on its sports programs, and, of course, all you need to know about MU’s academics, from the School of Scaring to the School of Liberal Arts & Monstrosities.

Later – Sahil
Sahil Patel, Associate Editor for Cynopsis Digital
10.16.12

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