Cynopsis: DIGITAL
11.28.12

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, November 28, 2012, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

Cyber Monday 2012 has become the busiest online shopping day in history, according to Adobe, based on data it released yesterday. The Adobe Digital Index, which tracks consumer shopping activity, reports that Cyber Monday online sales grew 17% over least year to almost $2 bilion ($1.98 to be more exact). Adobe says this growth also extended beyond our borders, to markets that don’t celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. For example, online sales in Europe jumped 8% on Cyber Monday this year.

What’s more, Adobe makes the claim that mobile shopping “has passed the tipping point.” This Cyber Monday, mobile devices accounted for 22% of total online shopping, up 100% year-over-year. When broken down, tablets represented 14.1% of total online sales (+110% year-over-year) and smartphones generated 6.8% of total online sales (+100% year-over-year). Adobe says its customers that have optimized for mobile brought in even higher sales, with top performers achieving mobile sales of 30% on Cyber Monday.

Overall, Adobe expects retailers to bring in $6 billion in online sales since Thanksgiving Day.

Bravo is bringing back its Emmy-nominated digital video series Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen for a second season, beginning tonight at 11:01pm ET. Airing immediately after episodes of Top Chef: Seattle, the digital series pits chefs eliminated from the TV show against each other in order to win a chance to return to the competition with a guaranteed spot in the Top Chef: Seattle finale. Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen will be available on a variety of platforms, including BravoTV.com, the BravoNow app, iTunes, Amazon, Xbox 360, Hulu, PlayStation 3, and connected TVs. This year, Bravo is also introducing a “Save a Chef” voting program, which will allow fans to vote on which chef eliminated from the digital series will get another second chance. The winner of “Save a Chef” will earn a spot in the finale of Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen.

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO) has launched a new holiday-themed original online video series called Martha Stewart’s Countdown to Christmas. The series features Stewart demonstrating holiday recipes, arts & crafts projects, baking techniques, and gift ideas. Comprised of 17 total short-form (3-4 minute) episodes, it will be available on the video hub at MarthaStewart.com, as well as on The AOL On Network and the Martha Stewart channel on YouTube. MSLO says fans will have the opportunity to win special prizes and products featured in each episode through special promotions on Facebook from November 26 to December 17. This past September, MSLO inked deals with the likes of AOL, Hulu, and Fullscreen to expand its online video presence. According to a statement from MSLO CEO Lisa Gersh, this new show is an example of that strategy being put into practice.

CBS Interactive, AT&T, and Stageside Productions are launching a new live-streaming concert series called Stageside Live. The show is scheduled to premiere on December 5 at 9pm ET from the Austin City Limits Live at The Moody Theater in Austin, TX, with a live performance from alt-rock band Neon Trees. Going forward, the Stageside Live events will be produced by AT&T in partnership with Stageside Productions, the in-house production team for Austin City Limits Live at The Moody Theater. CBS Interactive will distribute the series across its properties, including CBS.com and select CBS Audience Network partners. It will also be available on select AT&T U-verse platforms.

Livestream is partnering with AMC Theatres to broadcast a live Q&A session with director/producer Judd Apatow tonight at 9:30pm ET, following a sneak peek of his latest film, This Is 40. Those who want to submit questions for Apatow can do so on Twitter and Facebook in advance of the Q&A. Just use the hashtag #AMCApatow if enlisting Twitter or visit AMC Theatres’ Facebook page.

This week, NBCUniversal announced a pretty expansive TV Everywhere deal with Verizon to give FiOS TV customers access to its entire portfolio of broadcast and cable networks, beginning early next year. As is the case with how TV Everywhere deals are generally structured, customers who want to watch NBCU-owned programming, online or on other platforms/devices, both inside and outside the home, must first subscribe to FiOS TV. The TV Everywhere rights are part of a broader deal between NBCU and Verizon, which also covers retransmission consent for local NBC and Telemundo-owned stations. The long-term deal also includes rights to carry future Olympic Games, as well as several regional Comcast sports channels.

Univision Communications has brought UVideos, its bilingual digital video network, to the Xbox 360. Xbox Live Gold subscribers can access Hispanic programming from Univision via the UVideos app on the gaming console. UVideos delivers “thousands of hours” entertainment, news, and sports programming, generally 24 hours after airing on Univision’s linear channels. Other features include both Spanish and English-language content with closed captioning for select videos, as well as search and recommendation capabilities powered by Digitalsmiths. The UVideos app also enables voice- and gesture-based commands via Xbox Kinect.

Netflix has signed an exclusive licensing deal with Warner Bros. International Television Distribution to offer feature films and prior seasons of shows like The Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, and Fringe to streaming subscribers in Canada. The first two seasons of The Vampire Diaries are immediately available, with season three to follow on January 1. Complete previous seasons of Pretty Little Liars and Fringe will also arrive on Netflix Canada on January 1. In terms of feature films, subscribers north of the border can expect to see The Hangover Part II, The Dark Knight Rises, and Horrible Bosses, among other titles. These movies will be exclusively available on Netflix for a limited time following their pay-TV window.

YouTube is extending the international rollout of its original content initiative to Japan. The video site has signed deals with 13 content partners, including Fuji TV, TBS, and Vicom, to launch a bunch of new original channels. Like it’s done with program partners in the US and Europe, YouTube is fronting some cash to get these new channels started. It will recoup the investment via ad revenue generated by the channels. Several of the channels have already launched, with the rest to come later this month into December and early next year.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM THE LUSTGARTEN FOUNDATION

The Council for Research Excellence (CRE), a group of senior-level research professionals from across the media and advertising industries, is launching a new study to determine the impact of mobile devices, including tablets, phones, and laptops, on overall TV viewing behavior. The CRE has retained Boston-based market research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey to conduct the study, which the CRE says will also seek to improve measurement of mobile media devices. “Not only is the use of mobile devices growing rapidly, so is its impact on television consumption,” said Joanne Burns, Head of Research, 20th Television, and Chair of the CRE’s Media Consumption and Engagement Committee (MCE). “So it’s important that the media industry obtain greater understanding not only of methodologies for measuring media consumption on mobile devices, but also the impact on television consumption overall and the implications for content development and advertising.”

New research from The Diffusion Group (TDG) finds that 12.5% of broadband subscribers, or roughly 11 million households, do not subscribe to cable-like pay-TV services. According to TDG’s tracking research, this is an increase from 9.5% in late 2010 and 11.2% in late 2011. “Though pay-TV operators rightly argue that OTT’s impact on basic video subscriptions has been negligible, when one focuses exclusively on broadband subscribers — those most likely to have access to OTT services — the numbers tell a different story,” says Michael Greeson, TDG’s Founding Partner and Director/Research. Separating this group into “cord cutters” and “cord nevers,” TDG says the latter group will pose a bigger challenge to pay-TV operators, even though the company expects the number of “pay-TV refugees” in both groups to increase over the next five years. “Imagine you were a 20-year-old struggling to find a job… Spending $80-$100 per month for a pay-TV service, though enjoyable, is more of a luxury than a necessity. And by combining free over-the-air broadcasts with a couple of $8 per month OTT subscriptions and free online video, they can easily create an imperfect but sufficient substitution solution. And many will,” says Greeson. On the other hand, those cord cutters are generally older and enjoy higher annual incomes.

Boosted by the release of the iPhone 5, Apple’s iOS now has a 48.1% share of smartphone sales in the US, overtaking Android, which accounts for 46.7%. This is according to the latest data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, which tracked smartphone sales over a 12-week period ending on October 28, 2012. “The last time we saw iOS overtake Android in the US was when the iPhone 4S was released and Apple managed to retain its lead for three consecutive periods,” said Dominic Sunnebo, Global Consumer Insight Director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. “This time we predict that Apple will beat its previous high of 49.3% and achieve its highest ever share of the US smartphone market within the next two periods.” It’s not all doom and gloom for Android. It’s holding stronger in Europe, powering 73.9% of smartphones sold in Germany and 81.7% of smartphones sold in Spain during the same 12-week time period. “Germany remains a tough market for Apple with its share falling by 5.1 percentage points over the past quarter. The Samsung Galaxy SIII has taken almost a quarter of the country’s smartphone sales over the past 12 weeks to boost Android yet further,” added Sunnebo.

Apple continues its dominance of the tablet market, with iPad devices capturing a 55% worldwide unit shipment share in the third quarter of 2012, according to new data from ABI Research. While this results in Apple holding the top spot in the tablet market for the 10th consecutive quarter, it’s actually ceding some ground to competitors, says ABI. The 55% number in the third quarter is the lowest share Apple has ever had since launching the iPad in 2010. “With the introduction of a smaller, lower-cost iPad Mini, Apple has acknowledged Android’s beachhead of 7-inch-class tablets, though at the same time, it has failed to deliver a knockout punch through innovation, pricing, and availability during the most critical selling period of the year,” said Jeff Orr, Senior Practice Director at ABI. In fact, ABI believes the introduction of the iPad Mini has caused demand for the regular iPad models to shift down-market. The runner-up in the global tablet market, Android, powered 44% of the tablets shipped during the third quarter of 2012, according to ABI.

It goes without saying that Thanksgiving is probably one of the busiest days of the year for food-related websites such as Allrecipes.com. This year was no different as Meredith reports that Allrecipes.com broke new grounds in terms of web traffic, with 7.9 million visitors on the day before Thanksgiving. In addition, 12 million people visited Allrecipes.com via a mobile device during the week leading up to Thanksgiving Day (a 97% year-over-year increase), and 4 million of those used a tablet device (up 232% year-over-year). When looking at how video performed on the site, Meredith reports that 1.6 million visitors checked out original, made-for-web video content, resulting in video views spiking 200% year-over-year across the site’s web, mobile, and connected TV platforms. The top instructional video was “How to Prep and Roast Turkey,” while the top recipe video was “Whipped Sweet Potato Casserole.”

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

TimesTalks, an interview series from The New York Times, streamed two different conversations featuring a couple of my favorite actors in Hollywood right now. Aired through Livestream, the first interview, which ran from 5:30pm to 6:30pm last night, featured Academy Award-winning actress Marion Cotillard sitting down with Melena Ryzik to discuss her latest film, Rust and Bone, as well as her roles in movies such as The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, Midnight in Paris, and La vie en rose. The second interview featured Matt Damon and Gus Van Sant talking about their careers and collaborations, including their latest film together, Promised Land. It ran from 7:15pm to 8:15pm. Both interviews are available on-demand via the website as well as the specific Livestream links attached to each discussion.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Later – Sahil
Sahil Patel, Associate Editor for Cynopsis Digital
11.28.12

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