Cynopsis: DIGITAL
02.20.13

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, February 20, 2013, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

With the introduction of the new HTC One smartphone, the device manufacturer has also unveiled a new content discovery service available worldwide next month, called HTC Blinkfeed. Via Blinkfeed, users will be able to access and share content directly from their home screens without having to open up any apps. To power the service, HTC has inked partnerships with the Associated Press, ESPN, MTV, Vice, and AOL properties including The Huffington Post, Engadget, and TechCrunch.
Why this matters: In Gartner’s year-end data on 2012 worldwide mobile phone sales, HTC ranked 10th with a market share of 1.8%. Blinkfeed might be HTC’s way to carve out a bigger slice of that market.

Warner Bros. Television (WBTV), The CW, and Machinima have teamed up to launch a live recap show online tied to WBTV and The CW’s new drama series, Cult. The show airs every Tuesday night at 9p ET/PT. Beginning with last night’s broadcast, Machinima’s ETC (Entertainment, Technology, Culture) YouTube channel will stream an interactive episode immediately after Cult ends at 10p ET/PT. It will feature cast members, producers, and other experts answering viewer questions.

To promote History’s new scripted series, Vikings, the channel is partnering with Sony to make show-related video content available on Crackle throughout March. When Vikings premieres on History on March 3 at 10pm, ET, Crackle users will have access to new promos, trailers, and behind-the-scenes clips, as well as exclusive animated features that delve into the mythology behind Vikings. The content will be available on all screens Crackle currently supports, including online, mobile devices, gaming consoles, and connected TVs.

Video discovery start-up Taboola has raised $15 million in Series D financing led by Pitango Venture Capital, with participation from existing investors Evergreen Venture Partners, WGI Group, and Marker. The start-up’s content recommendations platform, which provides users with links to articles and videos they might be interested in based on what they’ve engaged with before, is currently used by a number of major media publishers, including Bloomberg, FOX, TIME, USA Today, and The Weather Channel, among others. Taboola says its technology serves 1.5 billion recommendations every day. The new capital will be used toward international expansion and the “development of the next-generation of content distribution.”

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Akamai Technologies has launched a new offering called Ad Integration Services, which allows for the dynamic insertion of targeted video ads from multiple ad platforms and networks into linear and on-demand streams across multiple connected devices. Available via Sola Vision, the Akamai’s cloud-based portfolio of online video services, Ad Integration Services is powered by mDialog’s Smart Stream Platform technology. The mDialog technology helps clients to not only deliver but also measure the reach of video ads.

Social ad company 140 Proof has launched two new mobile products. Social Check-In Targeting enables advertisers to reach custom audiences based on their interests and location. In addition, the company’s new Rich Media Ad Units allow advertisers to insert high-quality visual content like videos, photos, and maps into interactive banners that can expand to fill the screen. 140 Proof says that its mobile social ads currently reach more than 30 million unique social media users in the US, and that they deliver click-through rates that are 5-10x above the industry average.

Unicorn Media will be providing dynamic ad insertion services for Net2TV’s Portico web video programming platform for smart TVs. Per the deal, Net2TV will use the Unicorn Once solution to insert traditional 15- and 30-second spots where traditional commercial breaks would occur. The company will also be able to measure ad performance in real time. The platform packages web video content from publishers like CBS Interactive, Revision3, and The Wall Street Journal into television-length “shows.” The programs are available through interest-based channels as well as standalone, branded channels for some online video providers.

Saffron Digital has partnered with content curation engine The Filter to create an end-to-end online video solution that feature personalized content discovery and recommendation capabilities. By integrating The Filter’s technology into Saffron’s online video platform, the result is a mix of consumer viewing history and habits, content metadata, and contextual data points like time of day, device type, and location to generate personalized movie, TV, and video recommendations. The joint solution will be available to device manufacturers, carriers, mobile networks, broadcasters, and retailers.

Tim O’Brien, The Huffington Post’s Executive Editor, is leaving the publisher to work on the second installment of a five-book deal. While no official decisions have been made as to who will replace O’Brien, Huffington said in an internal memo that O’Brien’s reporters will transition to the editorial team of Howard Fineman, Peter Goodman, Ryan Grim, Kate Palmer, John Montorio, Sam Stein, and Amanda Terkel.

Dea Lawrence has been named Director/West Coast Mobile and Online Sales at AT&T AdWorks. She will oversee day-to-day operations for the company’s mobile and online sales in the region. Based in LA, she will report to Michael Rosen, VP/Online and Mobile Sales, AT&T AdWorks. Most recently, Lawrence served as VP/Sales at PointRoll, a Gannett company, for the western region.

Participant Media has named Craig Parks as the SVP/Digital & Live Programming for the company’s upcoming, yet-to-be-named cable television networking targeting millennials. Based in LA, he will be responsible for the creation of digital and interstitial content and live, multiplatform programming for the network. He will also be responsible for the creation of video content for TakePart.com and branded content for sponsors and partners.

Ad targeting technology company Simulmedia has hired Chris Polos to the newly created position of SVP/Operations. He will report directly to Simulmedia CEO Dave Morgan.

Penthera Partners has appointed Melani Griffith to the position of EVP/Business Development. “[Griffith] brings a wide spectrum of experience including video product management, affiliate sales, content acquisition, and advertising sales. Given our focus, she’s the perfect person to discuss our products with our distribution and programming network partners,” said Penthera’s President and CEO Michael Willner.

TruEffect has named Tim Mayer as its new Chief Marketing Officer. In addition, the digital ad tech company has also hired Joel Miller as Senior Sales Executive.

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How about this for streamlining content discovery: Amazon has introduced direct links on the IMDb iOS app for TV shows and movies available via Prime Instant Video (Amazon purchased IMDb in 1998). When a user checks out a TV show or a movie on the IMDb app, they will have the option to watch that show or movie by clicking through to the Prime Instant Video app. If the user is a Prime subscriber, the access will be free. This feature has already been available on IMDb’s website, but with Amazon opening it up on the database’s iOS app, it’s clearly a gambit to get more people to subscribe to Amazon Prime.

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Later – Sahil
Sahil Patel, Associate Editor for Cynopsis Digital
02.20.13

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