Cynopsis: DIGITAL
08.28.13

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, August 28, 2013, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

Funny man Harry Shearer is debuting his first web series, “What’s With Honey Poo Poo?” on MyDamnChannel.com on Thursday. The series, of course, was inspired by watching TLC’s Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, together with co-creator Judith Owen. Asked to describe the show to Cynopsis, Shearer said proudly, “Just when you think American popular culture can’t sink any lower, we brought a steam shovel.” Episodes will be available at MyDamnChannel.com/HarryShearer, and can also be viewed on YouTube and Blip.

An online series featuring actor and environmental activist Ed Begley Jr. was sold to online television network start-up evox Television. On Begley Street focuses on the mission to build the most eco-friendly house in America, and will premiere with the launch of evox on Sept. 15th. Each of the nine episodes will be 10 minutes in length, and production for 13 episodes for season two is already in the works. Make It Happen Productions Executive Producer Billy Frank – the company behind the series – adds that other digital interactive components for viewers are in the works.

Amazon Studios is green lighting its sixth new kid series. The live-action show, Maker Shack Agency, will be available to watch on Amazon Instant Video early next year for customers to view and provide feedback. The company has already launched 14 pilots since April, and plans to turn four of them into full series for streaming on Prime Instant Video in early 2014.

Meredith Vieira took to Twitter to announce her new women-centered YouTube channel called “LIVES” to premiere on Sept. 9. The channel’s first three series are “Overshare,” “Instant Response Team” and “tmi.” Additionally, viewers can join Google Hangouts with her.
In Other Words: This channel will be a good promotional lead-up to Vieira’s January 2014 talk show- and is also a strategic gambit to hook some younger viewers.

YouTube’s children’s channel Cartoonium, from Maker Studios, announced a new deal to add Care Bares and Strawberry Shortcake to its library.
In Other Words: Children’s programming reigns on YouTube paid channels – the Sesame Street hub on You Tube hit a billion views in March 2013. So Maker is smart to offer familiar, quality content to parents and their kids.

Hulu announced that it has a new original series in the works with Lionsgate Television called Deadbeat. Arrested Development’s Troy Miller will direct and produce the 10 episodes ordered for the series. Production is set to begin in the fall, and will be distributed on Hulu and Hulu Plus next year.

Just announced: Cynopsis Future TV Summit -Content Innovation & Next Generation Advertising Models is set for October 17 in NYC. This is a 360-degree, in-depth look at TV’s opportunities and challenges at this critical moment in media, from the perspective of sellers, advertisers and content creators. Registration is now open: http://www.cynopsisfuturetvsummit.com/

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Washington DC TV broadcasters including Fox, NBC, and ABC are suing online video service FilmOnX for infringing on copyright laws. The group of broadcasters behind the lawsuit wants to shut down the start-up’s services across the country, which currently provides live TV streaming on mobile devices as well as DVR-like show recording capabilities. Another live TV online streaming service – Aereo – is in a similar lawsuit and prevailing in the New York courts, but not in Californian courts. A hearing is set for September 20th. 
In Other Words: Broadcasters are finding their tolerance levels as new technology and television coincide. Some say it’s only a matter of time before the issue hits the national courts.

Mobile video pioneer LiveU will be recognized at the World Economic Forum in China as one of 36 global companies that has contributed to society’s technological advancements. LiveU’s mobile video technology is used for news and event broadcasting around the world.

ABC News & Yahoo! News are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have Dream” speech with the first-ever live global multi-platform broadcast today at 11 a.m. from New York City. The hybrid digital-television event will be available across all ABC digital platforms as well as Yahoo! News. Interactive quizzes and infographics will round out the coverage. Viewers are also encouraged to participate on Twitter and Facebook using #IMarchFor.

…Yahoo!, by the way, is launching eight short-form comedy series, with plans to use its 5,000 Saturday Night Live clips as bait to lure viewers into sampling them. Following Netflix’s binge-viewing model, Yahoo! will offer most of the eps at once. “We are working hard to drive traffic and video views and will make this a primary area of investment over the next year,” said Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer in a July earnings call. “We think there’s room for lots of players and video really comes down to the question of the content.”

Boosting television ratings may just be a tweet away. A SocialGuide Twitter Causation Study found engaging with Twitter significantly impacted live TV ratings. Of the 221 episodes from prime time shows on major networks used in the study, the amount of tweets caused an increase in ratings by 29 percent. On the flip side, ratings of a show also had an effect on the quantity of tweets 48 percent of the time – meaning, a highly rated show will organically garner more tweets.

America’s got a commitment problem… to sticking with a television show. A recent Harris Poll surveyed more than 2000 Americans on their television streaming habits, and found 56 percent of subscription streamers rarely watch an entire video. Only 24 percent of those subscribers give a show a few minutes to spark any interest while 32 percent watch a video about a quarter way through before they move on to a different video.

Google’s Chromecast is pumping up the multiplatform appeal with its release of the app for Apple devices. The app is meant to help set up the equipment, find other Chromecast devices, and list compatible apps such as YouTube and Netflix. It continues to one-up Airplay and Apple TV, as neither of the rival tools can’t be used while making phone calls. Plus, Airplay can’t browse the web while in use, either.
In Other Words: Tech Crunch reports this app comes after Google endured some backlash for supposedly shutting down an outside app that allowed users to stream anything with an Android smartphone. However, Google made a statement saying they didn’t block the outside app; rather the app malfunctioned because the device still had come kinks to work out.

Apple TV is expanding with new Watch Disney and Watch Disney XD apps, providing live feeds and on-demand content from the nets. Apple TV viewers will also be able to access info via a new app from The Weather Channel; there’s an app for Smithsonian as well. The latter two are free, but Disney viewing will require a pay-TV subscription with a provider that has a deal with Disney.

Roku named Matthew Anderson its new and first CMO on Monday, after having been at Roku for a year as a strategic advisor. Previously, Anderson was a News Corp. international group director.

In a sure sign Twitter‘s serious about amping up its e-commerce activity, the social site has hired Nathan Hubbard, former president of Ticketmaster, as its first head of commerce. By offering retailers opportunities to sell products within tweets, Twitter could collect online shopping data valuable to advertisers, as well as extend the user experience. Hubbard told Bloomberg News he’s looking to partner with companies, possibly taking a percentage of transactions on the site. “We’re going to people who have stuff to sell,” said Hubbard, “and help them use Twitter to sell it more effectively.”

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Double Oscar winner and star of the first and wildly successful Netflix original series Kevin Spacey knows a thing or two about what TV viewers want. He took to the stage at the Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival on Monday to let everyone know just how big he predicts multi-platform and on-demand content will be for television’s future. During his speech, Spacey talked about pitching House of Cards to networks, and how inefficient and costly pilots are to television. Of course by now everyone knows that Netflix was the only company to not only produce the show without a pilot, but also to release all 13 episodes at once simply because they felt their data guaranteed that their consumers would love it. And, as Spacey noted they not only loved it, they “binged” on it. His emotional pep talk to the television industry pumps enthusiasm into the new world of digital television, and offers solutions to issues like piracy and production costs. Check it out at Cynopsis.com.

See you tomorrow,
Jessica Reese
08.28.13

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