Cynopsis: DIGITAL
10/10/12

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, October 10, 2012, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

Put one in the win column for copyright holders. A US District Judge has denied Megaupload’s request to dismiss the US Justice Department’s criminal case against it. In its request for dismissal, lawyers for the Hong Kong-based file-sharing site argued that the US government did not follow proper procedures when it tried to serve papers to Megaupload in the US. The lawyers pointed to Rule 4 of Criminal Procedure, which articulates that a summons must be mailed a company’s last-known address in the US or “principal place of business” outside the country. Prosecutors argued that they attempted to deliver summons to Megaupload in Hong Kong and that the company was aware of the criminal proceedings.

In his ruling, the judge sided with the US government, writing that a foreign company can’t “evade the jurisdiction of the United States courts by purposefully failing to establish an address here.” The judge also opened up a workaround solution for the prosecution, who can establish one of the defendants as an “alter ego” of the company, and if successful in making that connection, “the corporation’s last known address within this district will be the address of the individual defendant, once extradited.” The extradition hearing for Founder Kim Dotcom is scheduled for March 2013, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Hulu and Viacom are expanding their content partnership to bring Nickelodeon programming to Hulu Plus as well as MTV Tr3s content to the Hulu Latino service. Hulu Plus subscribers can watch the five most recent episodes of currently airing Nick shows, including iCarly, Big Time Rush, and SpongeBob Squarepants, among others, 21 days after they air on TV. They will all be available via new branded destination on Hulu Plus, which will feature tune-in information and other promotional elements in an effort to drive viewership of Nick’s on-air lineup. Under the agreement, the two parties will also continue to make current full episodes and clips of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report available on both Hulu and Hulu Plus. In addition to all of this, Hulu Plus subscribers will also have access to programming from BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Spike, TV Land, and VH1, including a selection of current shows, also 21 days after they air, and more than 1,500 episodes of archived programming. Financial terms of this deal were not disclosed.

Women-centric digital media brand PopSugar is launching a new lifestyle channel on YouTube (part of that original channels initiative) called PopSugar Girl’s Guide. Looking to serve women in their 20s and 30s, PopSugar will orient its original programming on the channel to serve as an informative and entertaining resource — covering fashion, beauty, career, life, and more — for women in that demographic. The decision to join the YouTube party seems to come from PopSugar’s recent successes on the online video front. The company cited comScore’s August Video Metrix rankings, which showed that PopSugar averaged 20.8 minutes per viewer and ranked near the top in the Entertainment News (#2), Community Lifestyle (#3), and Community Beauty, Fashion & Lifestyle categories (#3).

What’s Trending with Shira Lazar, a live interactive talk show airing every day at 12pm PT on YouTube, is teaming up with KGO-TV, an ABC-owned station in San Francisco, to launch a new segment spotlighting top YouTube videos. The co-branded segment will run for 1-2 minutes every Tuesday and Thursday during ABC7 News at 4pm PT. What’s Trending was nominated for a Primetime Emmy this year in the Interactive Media category, while Ms. Lazar received a 2012 Webby nomination for Best Web Host/Personality.

Kids-centric lifestyle website Fanlala is debuting a new animated web series this week, titled 282, which follows five people as they come across an evil laptop that grants wishes, for a price. Written, directed, and animated by Shawn Adeli, new episodes of the series will be released every Wednesday, with the finale arriving on Halloween. Tied to the series is the 282 Fan Club, an “interactive zone” that offers weekly quizzes and challenges, branded avatar items, limited-edition profile badges, additional information about the show, extra content, and more.

At MIPCOM, Canada’s CTV has ordered Backpackers, an original digital series produced by Smokebomb Entertainment, the digital media division within Shaftesbury. The live-action show, which will be available as both a straight narrative and a “choose-your-own-adventure” style app, follows two best friends, Ryan and Brandon, as they go search all over Europe for Ryan’s fiancé, Beth, who has embarked on her own separate European vacation. Targeted for the 18-34 demographic, Smokebomb says it will begin principal photography in spring 2013 with the intention of delivering eight, six-minute episodes to CTV in the second quarter. The series will be available across all CTV and Bell Media digital platforms. The Backpackers app will launch in conjunction with the series.

Mnet, a youth entertainment brand focusing on lifestyle content inspired by Asian pop culture, plans to launch MCube, a digital portal “for all things Asian cool,” on October 13. The launch will occur at KCON, a large-scale convention in Irvine, CA for fans of K-pop and the Korean Wave. MCube plans to exclusively live stream events and concerts from KCON through Back Stage Pass, a proprietary app that will let users stream video content through a wireless device on to MCube’s platforms. Other video content to be available at launch includes The Stitch, a new web series covering K-pop fashion, hosted by stylist David Yi.MCube will initially be available online, followed by the debut of its iOS app later this month. The portal will offer content broken down into six different categories:

• Music: K-pop news, artist information, fan clubs, concert schedules, etc.
• Social: Integrated with top social networks, this section will allow users to interact with each other.
• Studio: Mnet shows, Asian movies, and other video content.
• Culture: Fashion video blogs, beauty tips, and more.
• Games: A custom game called Seoul Runner.
• Swag: Online store.

BRB Internacional’s online web portal, BRBplay.com, has launched a new subscription service that enables users to access BRB’s complete animation catalog, which consists of over 1,000 hours of cartoons available in both English and Spanish. This “Premium Channel” offers three different types of subscription plans, broken down on a monthly, quarterly, or four-monthly basis, with a starting price of 2,39 Euros. The Premium Channel is also accessible on iOS devices via the free BRBplay Cartoons app, and is coming soon to Android devices and connected TVs.

More news coming out of MIPCOM, Saban Brands announced that it plans to globally expand its recently acquired kid-friendly website, Zui.com. The goal is to make Zui.com a global kid-friendly entertainment platform via a worldwide network of connected sites that feature over 6 million pieces of age-appropriate content (videos, games, activities, etc.), all of which can be licensed and to broadcasters across the globe. “Content can be localized, branded, and translated to suit each [broadcast] partners’ branding, creating a kid-safe online environment that complements the broadcasters’ existing website experiences,” said Elie Dekel, President, Saban Brands.

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The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has announced that it is fully backing the Digital Advertising Alliance’s (DAA) position against machine-driven “do-not-track” (DNT) browser standards. Stemming from Microsoft’s decision to make DNT settings the default on Internet Explorer 10 (IE10), the IAB and DAA’s argument is that such auto-DNT browser standards restrict user control and freedom of choice. With that in mind, and answering “publishers’ concerns about what will happen if they do not honor IE10-imposed DNT flags,” the DAA, the digital ad industry’s self-regulatory body, released a statement saying it would not require companies to honor DNT signals that are automatically set in IE10 or any other browser. In addition, the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) will not sanction or penalize companies that ignore the default settings in IE10 or other browsers.

Univision Communications has inked a multiyear deal with Internet Broadcasting (IB) through which Univision Television Group (UTG) will license digital ad products and services from IB. “With this agreement, IB will integrate with Univision’s internal systems to provide digital sellers with efficient operations and high quality support,” said IB CEO and President Elmer Baldwin. The deal goes into effect on October 15, encompassing ad creative design and development, ad trafficking services, campaign management, ad products, digital sales training, and support for all of UTG’s 62 owned and operated stations across the US and Puerto Rico.

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Looking to serve cable providers on this side of the pond, London-based Motive Television has launched its TV Anytime Anywhere platform in the US. The platform is designed to deliver on-demand video and live TV to set-top boxes and multiple mobile devices using the cable operators’ existing infrastructure. According to the TV software and services company, a cable operator can deliver VOD titles by downloading them into already-deployed set-top boxes. Then, using the platform, the operator can stream or download content from the set-top to smartphones and tablets. “Nearly three years ago we launched our software solution with broadcaster Mediaset in Italy, who has consistently delivered 40-50 SVOD movies per month, including HD and 3D films,” said Gianluca Ferremi, VP/Sales and Marketing for Motive Television. Now, the company has its sights set on the US.

Twitter might develop its own video-hosting technology, according to AllThingsD. Similar to what it’s done with photos on its platform by essentially taking third-party services out of the equation, such a move would allow users on Twitter to upload videos directly via the social company’s mobile apps, instead of having to use services such as yFrog and TwitVid. The report notes that this doesn’t mean Twitter expects to become the primary source through which users upload and share videos – that’s still YouTube’s (and Hulu’s and Vimeo’s) territory.

Google is rolling out an update to Google TV over the next few weeks that will make movies, TV shows, and music from Google Play available on the platform. Users will be able to buy or rent content directly through the Google Play store, while purchases they’ve already made will also pop up on Google TV. In addition, Google Play titles will be searchable via the TV & Movies app, which also offers recommendations for shows and movies on live TV and on streaming apps from companies like Netflix and Amazon.

Ad tech company Media6Degrees (m6d) has promoted Brett Moskowitz to VP/Sales. He joined the company in August 2009 and had previously been its Director/Eastern Region. Now he will focus on growing m6d’s national presence with agencies and major advertisers. In addition to Moskowitz’s promotion, m6d has also hired Maureen Noonan and Jennifer Galvin to be Account Executives in Chicago and San Francisco, respectively.

Online video news company Streamworks International has named Bernie Gershon as an Advisor, with a focus on driving the company’s business development strategy in the US. In the role, he will work with Markus Ickstadt, the company’s Director/News, to help distribute Streamworks’ online video products to the US news market. Gershon was formerly SVP and GM in Disney’s Corporate Strategy, Business Development, and Technology group.

Picrow (Pictures in a Row), a production studio that creates content for the advertising, art, film, documentary, and digital industries, has added Adam Feinstein to its roster of directors. This past summer, Feinstein was behind the ABC series Final Witness, which blended dramatic and documentary filmmaking for a story that he produced and for which he directed the first three episodes. He was also the director of the ABC special Un-Broke: What You Need to Know About Money, working with talents like Will Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Christian Slater, Seth Green, and Rosario Dawson, among others. He has also worked with an array of brands in the past, including Tide, Head & Shoulders, Lipton, and Subaru.

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SF-based social apps developer Fanhood has launched a new gaming app on Facebook that lets users bet on and interact with others about the sports teams/games they’re watching. Using only virtual currency, Fanhood lets users engage with others through friendly wagers, challenges, pools, trivia games, and more. During its pre-launch beta phase, Fanhood signed up over 40,000 registered users. Fanhood was founded by Brandon Ramsey, who in the past served as Head Engineer at Yahoo Shopping, Yahoo Deals, and Yahoo Travel. The start-up says it has brought in talent from Yahoo, Zynga, and Slide to develop its infrastructure and technology, and has already raised capital from investors like First Round Capital, Mayfield Fund, and Foundation Capital.

Later – Sahil
Sahil Patel, Associate Editor for Cynopsis Digital
10.10.12

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JOB OPENING: MANAGER OF MARKETING & CLIENT SOLUTIONS/PHX AZ: Oversees the day-to-day execution and operation of a team of marketing and analytical ad professionals. 5+ yrs exp,. Apply: www.cox.com (Job ID 41708) (10/17)

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