"'online television' news"

Why so many big spends on big shows? Sounds like the Internet in 1999...

2012-01-16T11:30:00.000-05:00

Hulu Spends First of its $500 Million on Original Programs

Posted at Tubefilter: 16 Jan 2012 06:45 AM PST

Last week, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar announced the internet's go-to destination for the on-demand streaming of movies and television is "excited to invest approximately half a billion in content in 2012 on behalf of our users." Over the weekend, Hulu revealed a handful of the projects in which that $500 million will be invested.

Battleground is a "workplace dramedy" set in the world and office of a Democratic primary campaign for a US Senate seat in Wisconsin. Conceived by JD Walsh (an actor who once worked for Senator John Kerry), the seemingly more faux documentary than mockumentary action follows the activities of head campaign strategist Chris Tak Davis as he strives to make his employer the latest representative of the Badger State.

Hulu picked up 13 half-hour episodes of Battleground after Fox Broadcasting Company developed and then dropped the project last year. The program premieres on February 13, with new installments released every Tuesday.

In addition to Battleground, Hulu is bringing back Morgan Spurlock's seres of half-hour mini-docs highlighting 24-hour periods in the lives of well-known celebrities will be back for a second season. The sophomore installments of A Day in the Life are set to feature comedian Marc Maron, actor and The Soup houst Joel McHale, UFC fighter Jason "Mayhem" Miller and more.

Hulu also announced it's behind Up to Speed, a non-scripted six-episode original web series hosted by Timothy "Speed" Levitch that will explore the crawlspace of notable destinations across the country.

Both A day in the Life and Up to Speed are set to launch in the first half of 2012.

New research predicts a more than five-fold increase over the next five years.

2011-10-12T10:33:00.000-04:00

LONDON - Global online TV and video revenues will grow more than
five-fold to $21.52 billion in 2016 up from $3.48 billion recorded in
2010, according to new a new report from London-based analyst firm
Digital TV Research.
Rapid growth in the availability of PC- and TV-based online television
- both from local and international players - is driving the global
expansion in the sector.
By 2016 the report predicts that 415 million homes in 40 countries
will watch shows online up from 177 million in 2010.
The U.S. will remain the dominant territory for online TV and video
revenues, with 54 percent of the global market in 2010 - but this will
drop to around 36 percent of the total global market in 2016 as China
and other territories become meaningful consumers of online video.
Over the five-year period China's online television and video revenues
are predicted to surge from $50 million in 2010 to $1.38 billion in
2016.
"The OTT television and video sector is on the brink of a huge
take-off," said report author Simon Murray, who said expansion was
being driven by multiple factors including international expansion,
increased demand and subscription services and emerging new content
partnerships.

TV is Still King of the Screens

2011-10-11T15:31:00.000-04:00

TORONTO (October 11, 2011) -- Given the choice between smartphones,
tablets and computers, 94% of adults between 18 and 49 prefer watching
their favourite TV shows on a television screen at home, according to
recent research from the Television Bureau of Canada (TVB). Television
Viewing Preferences and Online Synergy 2011 also found that 70% of the
same demographic think watching video content on a computer or mobile
device could not replace viewing on a television set. In a saturated
media landscape where consumers have the choice of a wide variety of
screens, TV remains the screen of choice.

--This latest research demonstrates the power of television as the
medium of choice for consuming video content developed for television
as the first screen,|| said Theresa Treutler, President and CEO of TVB.
--This bodes well for advertisers that maintain television as a core
piece of their advertising spend.|| According to the study, 52% of
respondents watch TV and browse the web simultaneously, and 57% of
them go online to research a product or service seen in a TV
commercial.

While television is the screen of choice, consumers now have the power
to record their favourite shows for viewing at any time with Personal
Video Recorders (PVRs), which according to another study (Television
and the PVR, TVB) is having a negligible effect on exposure to
television commercials. A conclusion that is corroborated by BBM
Canada's statistic that 96% of all television viewed in Canada is
viewed live - not recorded.

When using a PVR, 51% of viewers between 18 and 49 stop to watch
interesting commercials. This number is even higher in the 18 to 34
demographic where 65% stop to watch interesting commercials. According
to the study, adults who fast forward through commercials still pick
up on strong brands and creative, 72% recognize brands in ads they're
trying to skip. These Television and the PVR findings coupled with a
low 28% PVR penetration in Canada reaffirm the value of television
advertising - even when viewed with a PVR.

Despite the plethora of viewing and recording devices available,
PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts television advertising in Canada will
reach $4.5 billion (USD) by 2015 - a compound annual growth rate of
4.7% year-overyear. Furthermore, Deloitte predicts consumers worldwide
will watch 140 billion more hours of television in 2011, worldwide TV
advertising will increase by $10 billion, and TV shows will be the
subject of more than a billion tweets. TVB, BBM,
PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte all agree that the future is very
bright for the king of the screens.

About the Television Bureau of Canada (TVB):

The TVB is an industry association for commercial television
broadcasters (both conventional and specialty) in Canada. TVB was
incorporated in 1961 and provides leading edge research and
information about television advertising, as well as video services to
its member stations, networks, sales rep organizations, agencies and
advertisers.

Adobe AIR in your TV

2011-10-05T09:42:00.001-04:00

Adobe said Tuesday that LG Electronics and TiVo have become the latest
companies to bring Flash-based applications to connected TV's and
other digital home devices via its Adobe AIR solution. The company
also announced the availability of Flash Player 11 and AIR 3. "With
more than 100 unique digital home devices already certified to support
Adobe Flash and AIR, including Samsung Smart TV's, Adobe expects rapid
growth for Flash-based applications across connected televisions and
other devices," the company states in its press materials. "New gaming
apps like Frima Studio's 'Zombie Tycoon,' VH1's 'I Love the 80's
Trivia' or 'Raider' from PlayJam, as well as premium video experiences
from SnagFilms, Flingo, Epix and others are just a few of the
applications that are enabled by AIR...With the AIR SDK, Flash Builder
and Flash Professional CS5.5 software, developers can build new
applications for connected digital home devices or extend existing
Flash-based experiences from desktops and mobile devices to TV's. AIR
3 brings a series of advancements to TV's including full
hardware-accelerated rendering for 2D and 3D graphics to enable
console-quality gaming applications. Content publishers are able to
deliver HD videos with Dolby and DTS 7.1 channel surround sound for
full support of home theater systems. With the new Game Input API,
developers can also make a range of devices an integral part of the
gaming experience on TV screens, including joysticks, smartphones and
tablets...Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 enable the next generation of
immersive application experiences across devices and platforms
including Android, Apple iOS (via AIR), BlackBerry Tablet OS, Mac OS,
Windows, connected TV's and other platforms. Dozens of new features in
Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 allow developers to deliver a new class of
gaming and premium video experiences, as well as sophisticated,
data-driven applications with backend systems integration across
devices, including the iPhone and iPad via AIR...Flash Player is
supported on more than 98 percent of Internet-connected PC's today and
by the end of 2011, Adobe expects more than 200 million smartphones
and tablets including Apple iOS devices to support Flash-based
applications via AIR. By the end of 2015, the number of devices that
will support AIR is expected to increase to 1 billion. AIR, a superset
of Flash Player, enables developers to leverage existing code to
create and deliver standalone applications across devices and
platforms."

"building this language is pretty important , so were doing it carefully and slowly,"

2011-09-23T20:35:00.000-04:00

Facebook F8: Spotify, Hulu, Netflix get deeper Facebook integration

After unveiling the Timeline profile redesign at Facebook's F8 conference on Thursday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a "new class of apps" that will make use of Timeline.

The central idea here is that users will be able to share what they're doing in Facebook-connected apps as they're doing it. If your Spotify account is connected to Facebook, a message will show up in your Timeline and in the Ticker stating the song you're listening to. If a friend wants to listen to the same song, he or she just hovers over the song in the Timeline or Ticker, and if they want, they can launch that song in Spotify too.

Spotify doesn't launch inside of Facebook, but rather the Spotify desktop app launches, and a new message will pop up in that user's Timeline and Ticker as well.

Zuckerberg said these changes were made to get rid of the pop-up boxes that ask users if they want to share to their walls what they're doing on Facebook.

"People have things they want to sharek but they don't want to annoy their friends by putting stuff in their friends' news feeds," he said. "Ticker is a lightweight stream of everything that's going on around you. ... We think that this is going to make it so that people can express on an order of magnitude more things than they could before."

Until Timeline, and the upcoming apps that take advantage of Timeline, this sort of "open graph" sharing wasn't possible on Facebook, Zuckerberg said.

"We believe that eventually all apps that you use will be social," he said. "Facebook's mission is to make the world more open and connected, and the way that we do this is to map out all of the things that you're connected to."

More changes will come with this new class of apps that will change the language of sharing, Zuckerberg said.

"You can connect to anything by liking it," he said. "This year, were taking the next step; we're going to make it so you can connect to anything you want, the way you want."

"You don't have to like a book, you can read a book," Zuckerberg said. "You don't have to like a movie, but you can watch a movie. You can just eat a meal, you can hike a trail, you can listen to a song."

Zuckerberg did say that "building this language is pretty important , so were doing it carefully and slowly," he said, not yet revealing when the Timeline or these new apps would roll out to users.

The CEO also said that the two categories of apps will be especially able to take advantage of the new Facebook media apps (music, movies, TV, news, books) and lifestyle apps (exercise, food, fashion, travel and more).

"The new class of apps will help you post stuff to your Timeline but also find new things you might like," he said. "It's a frictionless experience. If your goal is to just add lightweight activity, you'll never have to see one of these prompts ever again. So to make this work, we completely redesigned the permissions dialogue so that the entire reason you're adding an app, you're doing so to get that activity on your wall."

Mog, Vevo, Rhapsody, Turntable.fm, Songza, Spotify, DirecTV, IMDb, DailyMotion, Metacafe, Hulu, Netflix and other apps will make use of this new, more open sharing permissions change, Zuckerberg said.

Hulu and Netflix will be among apps that will make use of what he called a "canvas app" that will allow users to watch movies and TV from Hulu or Netflix right on top of Facebook itself, popping up in a video player in the same way that the prompt boxes -- which Facebook wants to get rid of -- do now.

Reed Hastings then took the stage to talk about what Netflix was doing with Facebook's "open graph." He said he hadn't started watching "Breaking Bad" even though the TV show had been recommended to him by both Netflix itself and friends. Once he saw on Facebook's new Timeline feature that a friend of his was watching "Breaking Bad" too, he finally got to watching it after more than a year of recommendations.

"Watching content my friend did really trumped watching content because of an algorithm," Hastings said.

However, Netflix will be one of the few apps that won't be able to list on Facebook in the U.S. what a person is watching in Timeline or Ticker. That's because the U.S. has a law, which Hastings described as outdated, that forbids the disclosing video rental information. Companies that violate the law are liable up to $2,500 for each infraction. Netflix is looking to get the law overturned, and Hastings promised Netflix would publish a blog post about the issue later in the day.

News agencies will launch canvas apps as well, such as News Corp.'s the Daily (which launched as an iPad-only news magazine), as well as the Washington Post. Games will also take advantage of canvas apps.

3D Entertainment Summit

2011-09-19T22:07:00.001-04:00

Costs squeeze 3D TV content
By ANDREW WALLENSTEIN
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118042974
Posted: Mon., Sep. 19, 2011, 3:00pm PT

Of all the problems bedeviling the growth of 3DTV, the dearth of
quality content may be the thorniest.

Research firm Ovum interviewed execs worldwide and reported in May
they rated production of 3D programming their lowest priority --
primarily because of the cost of the content. And consumers have
noticed the consequences of that reluctance: nearly 60% of respondents
to a NPD/CTAM survey in June complained there wasn't enough 3D
content.

That hasn't discouraged a few ambitious ventures in the U.S. from
making serious investments in this sector. "For 3D to take off,
content is going to be the key driver," said Tom Cosgrove, president
of 3net, a 3D-only cable net from Discovery Communications, IMAX and
Sony.

3net bowed in February, the same month ESPN launched ESPN3D. They are
the only networks stateside devoted to this nascent space, though
distributors including DirecTV and Comcast have also licensed 3D
movies for 3D-only channels and VOD offerings.

Building a 3D channel is tough. Most 24/7 nets are built by acquiring
a library of existing programming, but 3D is so new there is next to
none of that. That essentially forces channels into original
production, where shooting and post-production costs are high and
"will remain that way for the foreeseable future," according to
Cosgrove. 3D conversions are also pricey and problematic because, as
the film world is experiencing, the quality leads a lot to be desired.
"We're not necessarily opposed to it, but it has to be done right."

Though rumors swirls about their future viability, ESPN3D and 3net
have made to supplying original programming. In June, 3net bowed over
20 hours of original native 3D content across a range of genres. As of
Labor Day weekend, the amount of college football ESPN3D will
broadcast will double from the previous year.

Related link:
• Auds push back on 3D upcharges

Broadcast still has immense strength

2011-09-05T08:50:00.001-04:00

http://gigaom.com/video/online-video-finally-chipping-away-at-broadcast-tv/

Google chief outlines brave new world of online television

2011-08-29T10:42:00.000-04:00

LAURA SLATTERY in Edinburgh
The Irish Times - Monday, August 29, 2011

THE BATTLE for eyeballs is not really a battle at all was the message
of Eric Schmidt's MacTaggart lecture at the Mediaguardian Edinburgh
International Television Festival this weekend.

The launch of the online television platform Google TV, he claimed,
would "increase television viewership significantly", growing the
revenues pie for all. Most importantly, he said of television's next
wave of interactivity, "this time it's social".

Schmidt is the first person to give the MacTaggart lecture in its
36-year history who does not hail from the world of television or film
production, and a degree of scepticism lingered in the theatre as the
Google executive chairman struck a diplomatic but firm tone on issues
such as copyright, advertising revenues and funding the production of
content for YouTube (or, rather, not funding it).

The spectre of Google TV threatens to drain power away from the major
British broadcasters, who are still working on the development of
YouView, an internet television project of their own.

Google TV's success on this side of the Atlantic is not yet assured,
in any case. In the US, where it was introduced nearly a year ago, it
has failed to bring on board the major American networks ABC, CBS and
NBC, which have blocked their websites from the service.

Schmidt's explanation in a post-lecture QA on Saturday was that there
was "a presumption" that the service would affect revenues that flow
between cable companies and distributors – economics of the US
television industry that wouldn't apply in the UK. But the deal with
UK broadcasters has yet to be done, he conceded.

"We are talking to them," Schmidt said. "The real key is that will
become part of your TV over the next five years," he added, citing the
example of a children's television show that has interactive games
"layered" on top. But he didn't wish to dwell too much on Google's
tardiness in recognising the importance of social media, preferring to
talk up its new Google Plus "identity service" instead.

Online television platforms will make television "more personal, more
participative, more pertinent" and actually help preserve "appointment
viewing" (much in the way that Twitter does) in an era marked by
greater use of on-demand services and time-shifted viewing, Schmidt
claimed.

The "linear programming model" of channels whose "live" output is
fixed by one-size-fits-all, in-house schedulers would probably remain
as "an organising principle", however, especially given more than 90
per cent of broadcast TV viewing in 2010 remained live. "It's pretty
clear that it's not going to go away in our lifetimes."

While Schmidt talked up the opportunity for independent production
houses to trial content on YouTube, there was no chance that Google
would risk denting its profit margins by commissioning content – if it
did, it would probably just be "bad sci-fi".

At the same time, Schmidt argued in favour of less regulation of the
television advertising market – the same market from which it is on
the verge of taking a major slice.

On the question of dominance, he simply dismissed the idea that Google
could replicate its 85 per cent share of search advertising in
television advertising as "highly improbable".

The MacTaggart lecture, described by television executive Peter
Fincham as "the closest most TV people get to going to church", takes
place annually in the country where television was invented.

Schmidt's thesis was that – as successful as British TV format exports
such as Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing with the Stars have been – a
combination of an education system deficient in computer science, a
marketplace too highly regulated for his liking and a cultural fear of
scale businesses has undermined the UK TV industry's ability to
dominate the rest of Europe and the world.

This, he said, reflected Britain's track record for being
technologically innovative, but then losing the early lead and letting
overseas companies capitalise in terms of hard cash.

In his address, Schmidt made sure to pay tribute to the strengths of
each of the broadcasters whose representatives were present. "I have
just one request," he said as he praised the BBC for its iPlayer app
for iPad. "Please hurry up and make an Android version."

He also peppered his lecture with references to the actual television
programmes made by the people in the room. He remained committed to
Google even though Larry Page now has "the keys to the Google Tardis"
and joked that though it was impressive that more people had watched
vajazzle-touting reality show The Only Way is Essex online than when
originally broadcast, "I must confess that I have not seen this
high-quality show myself".

He also took Alan Sugar to task for comments made on The Apprentice
that engineers do not make good entrepreneurs. "Okay . . . " said
Schmidt, who has a degree in electrical engineering. "Shall we check a
few facts here?"

The Google executive chairman acknowledged that some swathes of the
television industry blamed the search behemoth "for the havoc wreaked
on your business by the internet".

But he wasn't going to have much truck with open hostilities. "You
ignore the internet at your peril," he warned. "The internet is
fundamental to the future of television for one simple reason: because
it's what people want."

UNAPOLOGETIC BIAS: QUOTES FROM ERIC SCHMIDT

At the Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival,
Google chairman Eric Schmidt spoke On his ideology: "I speak as an
American entrepreneurial capitalist who's also a technologist, so my
bias is pretty clear."

On satisfying current tax laws in Europe: "It's true that we could pay
more tax, but we would have to do so voluntarily."

On David Cameron's idea that social media sites be "turned off" during
riots: "I think it's a mistake and I hope that's a clear answer. It's
a mistake to look in the mirror and break the mirror."

On previous MacTaggart lecturers: "When he spoke here two years ago,
James Murdoch described himself as the crazy relative everyone is
embarrassed by. I wonder what he'd call himself now."

Piracy on Fox's shows goes up

2011-08-24T14:28:00.000-04:00

Whoops! There it goes! One week after Fox started holding back new
episodes of some of its summer programs from free viewing on Hulu and
its own Fox.com website, illegal downloads of Hell's Kitchen and
MasterChef have surged.

Blog TorrentFreak said illegal downloads of Hell's Kitchen increased
114 percent in the five days after it aired last week, and MasterChef
downloads were up 189 percent following the enforced waiting period.

Fox last week announced it would delay its shows from airing on the
free sites for eight days, an effort, it said, to both protect the
value of its content and the business of its pay-TV partners. It did
strike a deal allowing authenticated subscribers of Dish Network
(Nasdaq:DISH) and premium site Hulu Plus to watch the episodes within
24 hours, but that's so, well, pre-Millennial. And, despite Fox's
attempt to rouse the rabble into pressuring operators via a virtual
mail campaign to adopt its TV Everywhere initiative, not a single
cable company or telco has joined the fray. With the launch of Fox'
new Fall season just weeks away, especially its big hit, Glee, that
can't be sending any feel-good vibes to Hollywood.

Is anyone really surprised that piracy is on the upswing? As
TorrentFreak pointed out, Hulu's increasing popularity has coincided
with a drastic decline in TV-show piracy. Viewers have generally been
comfortable watching the shows--and the advertising they
carried--legally on the website.

Top YouTube channels

2011-08-16T16:42:00.000-04:00

http://m.adage.com/article?articleSection=digital&articleSectionName=Digital&articleid=http%3A%2F%2Fadage.com%2Fdigital%2Farticle%3Farticle_id%3D229281

Google backs planning tool for online TV

2011-08-09T16:35:00.000-04:00

Google is funding a multi-million pound planning tool that helps
brands understand consumer behaviour across TV and online media and
most effectively leverage their spend. It is working with research
firm Kantar to build the first panel that will measure TV and online
media habits from a single source.

Kantar will recruit a 3,000-strong panel, representative of the UK
population, by the end of this year, with data and measurement
analysis offered to the industry by 2012.

The aim is to provide brands with a planning tool where they can
benchmark the reach and footprint of a campaign that would run across
TV and online, helping them understand how leveraging spend between TV
and the web can impact consumer interaction through a single source,
rather than by fusing together two sets of data.

Content, Content Everywhere -- But Is It Safe To Drink? We Need A Marketplace For Web Video

2011-08-09T16:34:00.001-04:00

by Paul Kontonis, Tuesday, July 5, 2011, 3:17 PM

In a world where there are an incredible number of potential content
opportunities, marketers have limited means to actually discover and
evaluate them. In fact, among the content industry, it's all the rage
to name your favorite "over-looked" Web series that a brand should be
sponsoring. So why aren't we seeing more marketers make the smart move
into original Web series? What's holding them back?

There's a number of factors at play here. Let's start first with the
brand's content strategy. To effectively implement content that
maximizes paid, owned and earned media, brands and marketers need a
comprehensive game plan. This strategy becomes your program foundation
and directs the planning for original, co-created, curated and user
generated content.

Unfortunately, many marketers can't even get started because they
confuse original and co-created content. The telltale symptom of their
confusion is this: "We love your series idea but we want to make a few
changes." I've seen marketers and agencies alike make this mistake.
For instance, they start with an original scripted comedy for parents.
But after all the "feedback," they end up with an unscripted show
about moms, all centered on the brand. Close but no cigar.

In order to truly create a thorough content strategy, brands need to
step back and look at the big picture. For instance, in the last
example, instead of "making a few changes", the brand would be better
served through a strategy where it leaves the scripted series be,
produces its own unscripted series and then connects the two through
sponsorship and integration. That way, the brand can create its own
content but still benefit from an already established web series. It
can be as simple as airing an online ad during one series for the
other, having a character from the established series cross over, and
so forth. By creating a solid, comprehensive content strategy, brands
and marketers are able to maximize paid, owned, and earned media.

I've Never Heard of That Show

Once a complete content strategy is in place, the next hurdle
marketers and agencies face is characterized by the oft-said
statement, "I have never heard of that show." Feel free to change out
the word "show" with either series, YouTuber, etc.

This objection is a lot tougher to handle than it first may seem. You
have to start by realizing that that statement is really a few
questions rolled up into one: how do I know the show is good? Where do
I find it? How big is their audience? How do we make a deal with them?

Media agency partners have become the main source for information
regarding content opportunities. Unfortunately, very few agencies are
actually equipped to successfully navigate and interpret the world of
original online content. And to complicate matters, there are no
standard measurements to evaluate the popularity of content. How does
one define a view of content? Every platform measures a view
differently. And how do you differentiate between a user-initiated
view and an auto play view? Right now there is a huge variance in
engagement (though it should be said: the International Academy of Web
TV (IAWTV) is actually working with various web video publishers and
metrics providers to provide clarity on this issue).

It comes down to this: everyone, including marketers and agencies,
like to work with what they know. But with the explosion of original
web series, it's become impossible for someone to stay informed about
it all. And considering partnering with a web series that you've never
heard of is like buying a product that you haven't heard of: very
uncomfortable. In this case, YouTube and blip.tv have become the first
places to look for new content. But even then you don't have all the
information you need.

So here's the fix. What brands really need is a marketplace for
original web video: a trusted service that can help you evaluate a web
series in terms of audience composition and size, distribution
methods, publishing model, context, and media value. Something that
can assign an overall "good housekeeping" seal of approval to web
series. A service where you can make media buys and plan program
sponsorship. It would be a welcome addition to the execution of any
marketer's content strategy-and the key to helping more marketers move
into original online video. We'll be there waiting.

Google TV Gets Social, Leans Back

2011-08-09T16:33:00.000-04:00

I'm not a cord cutter. Crazy! Right? I know! It's because the person I
live with loves her some Andy Cohen (all the Bravo fans in the
audience know who's got the 411) and I'm all shivers every Sunday
night with Old Nan's stories about the White Walkers and knowing that
Winter is Coming (all the George R.R. Martin fans reading know
wassup). But if I was a cord cutter, this news about this new native
application for Google TV could maybe have me shredding up my cable
bill to make faux snow like people do with phone bills in those Vonage
commercials.

Redux is Google TV's answer to the questions "How do I find good
things to watch on the internet?" and "How do I sit back on my couch
and watch good things from the internet on my TV that's 10 feet across
the room?" The socially curated, leanback TV experience launched
yesterday with a blog post from Redux Founder and CEO David McIntosh.

The concept is not terribly unlike VHX.TV and basically goes like
this. There a lot of video sharing sites on the web (YouTube, Vimeo,
blip.tv) and places to find great content (Hulu, Netflix), but there
aren't a whole lot of places to comfortably watch that content in the
manner by which humans have been conditioned through 70 or so years of
television and the basic setup of America's living rooms. Redux brings
all those videos you want to watch and didn't know you wanted to watch
into one convenient place for leanback, continuous viewing.

The application "leverages the talents of your friends, interesting
curators, and influencers," and "feels like the traditional veg-out TV
we've all come to love" allowing you to "flip between channels using
the up/down arrow." Those channels can be made by you, come as
suggestions from your social circle, or be populated by selections
from featured Redux curatorialists, like Thrillist or GreeneStreet
Films.

Applications and sites like Redux, VHX.TV, and YouTube Leanback show a
dedicated interest from technologists in trying to crack the code for
what can turn the internet into a viewing experience that's as
comfortable, easy, entertaining, and gratifying as sitting down in
front of your TV and not having to think too hard to be entertained.
It'll be interesting to see which company's cryptanalysis wins out.

If you own and operate Google TV, give Redux a try. No Google TV? No
problem. Check out Redux on your Google Chrome browser at
redux.com/tv.

In 2 Years Nearly All TV Content Will Be Online On mobile too, predict network execs

2011-08-09T16:32:00.000-04:00

Executives from Disney, Turner, and Comcast were in unanimous
agreement that we are only two years away from 75 percent of TV
content being available online and on mobile devices. At the Elevate
Video Advertising Summit in New York this afternoon, Matt Strauss from
Comcast Interactive Media, Jeremy Legg from Turner, and David
Preshlack of Disney and ESPN predicted that TV "everywhere" was
imminent, and that in the same time frame the networks will be almost
completely agnostic about where and when their video content is being
viewed.

"It's interesting to think of what the definition of a TV is,"
said Comcast's Strauss. "My kids think an iPad is a TV. People don't
think of TV anymore, they just think of video. For us, in the broader
context of what we're doing, we're beginning to migrate everything to
Internet video."

There are hurdles, of course. Negotiating broadcast rights across
platforms is a big one, as are the looming threat of broadband usage
caps and fees.

Nonetheless, to hear these executives tell it, universal TV is an
inevitability. As the line between traditional TV and Web video blur,
it will no longer make sense for networks to distinguish between TV
and every other video-capable device. This means migrating not only
single programs to the Web—along the lines of what Hulu, Apple, and
others do now—but also letting viewers access traditional linear
television from mobile phones, iPads, and computers.

"I feel like were in the first inning of what TV everywhere can
become," said Strauss. "But consumers want to be able to watch what
they want to watch."

Apple's rumored 'Replay' service a ways off

2011-08-09T16:31:00.000-04:00

The rumors from last week about Apple being "on the edge" of launching
a cloud movie service, which would enable iTunes users to stream
movies from Apple's servers and then re-download them to other
devices, are at best premature.
Apple has yet to sign cloud agreements for feature films with at least
four of the top six film studios, according to multiple film industry
sources who spoke to CNET. Apple has indeed pursued such agreements,
which CNET reported in May, but Apple's negotiations could drag on for
months before the company acquires cloud rights from all six film
studios, the sources said. A launch is not imminent, the sources said.

Cloud computing is the term used to describe when a person performs
computing chores on some third party's servers instead of their own
PC. The cloud supposedly represents the next generation of media
management and many consumers as well as studio executives are eagerly
waiting to see what Apple can do with its cloud. Apple has announced
that a cloud service is coming for music and last week rolled out an
offering that enables iTunes users to re-download TV shows.
But a cloud service for films is going to be a tougher nut to crack
for Apple. Here's why:

One reason is the HBO window. During specific periods of time--often
referred to in the film industry as windows--HBO owns the exclusive
electronic distribution rights of films from three of the six top
films studios: 20th Century Fox, Universal, and Warner Bros. Any
retailer that wishes to sell physical DVDs from these studios during
HBO's window is totally unrestricted. But online retailers are legally
prevented from delivering movie downloads from the three
HBO-restricted studios during HBO's window and they also can't stream
titles from those studios. This means that right now iTunes can't
stream a movie to a customer during the HBO window that the customer
may have purchased outside of the window.

Not only are these agreements one reason for the hold up to the roll
out of Apple's cloud-movie service, but they are also a roadblock for
UltraViolet, a cloud platform backed by all of the large studios with
the exception of Disney.

In addition, while Apple has discussed different video-on-demand deals
with the studios, there's no truth to another rumor that floated
around last week about agreements Apple had in place to create a
subscription film service to rival Netflix, according to industry
insiders.

The main takeaway from all this is that one of the most powerful
people in cloud video now is Jeff Bewkes, CEO of Time Warner, the
media conglomerate and parent company of HBO, Warner Bros. Studios and
CNN.

HBO is not blocking the streaming delivery of films with the intent to
prevent customers from acquiring legally purchased moves, according to
multiple industry insiders. HBO is trying to cover its backside. The
company entered into electronic-distribution agreements with Fox,
Universal, and Warner long before cloud-video services came along. The
contracts are tricky and complex, and HBO doesn't want to give up
certain rights without making sure it won't put the company at a
disadvantage later on.

The sources say that one scenario HBO wants to avoid is allowing
services to stream movies purchased on a pay-per-view basis during the
HBO window and then deciding later to switch and sell films on a
subscription basis. A rival could conceivably use a relaxed HBO window
to offer older titles from NBC, Fox and Warner for less money than
what HBO charges and compete with HBO.

These are just some of HBO's concerns, but regardless, the word going
around is that Time Warner and Bewkes are committed to cloud
distribution and to getting a deal done. They are close to a final
agreement with at least one of the studios that would allow it to sell
streaming rights during the HBO window. (Grain of salt time: I was
told last spring that a deal would get done by mid summer.)

So, for Apple and the company's quest to acquire cloud-streaming
rights, the chances look good, but it's going to take some time. As
for the studios not covered by an exclusive HBO distribution
agreement, it's unclear where they stand but sources said that Apple
doesn't have agreements in place with all of these studios either.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs is the largest individual Disney shareholder so
that would appear to be a slam dunk. Sony Pictures is a big booster of
cloud distribution and and of UltraViolet, so that studio seems a
likely Apple partner.

As for Paramount, the studio's parent company, Viacom, seems more
bullish on digital distribution than ever. With Google, Hulu, Amazon,
Apple and Netflix competing in the streaming-video business, they are
helping to bid up content prices. Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman remarked
on that last week following the company's earnings report and added
that traditional movie distributors, such as cable and satellite
operators, are also looking to acquire Web rights.
So maybe the message from Hollywood is that regardless of who's
distributing video over the Web, if you want content you had better be
prepared to pay because if you don't someone else will.

Optimum for iPhone allows a user to watch TV or manage her DVR.

2011-08-09T16:29:00.000-04:00

Cablevision (NYSE:CVC), which in April rolled out its Optimum App that
gave subscribers with an Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad access to 300 live
linear TV channels, today launched a new Optimum App for iPhone and
iPod touch devices.

The free app, available in the Apple App Store, like its iPad
predecessor, still chains a user to the home environment, but
nonetheless delivers access to more than 300 channels of live TV and
thousands of titles of video on demand. In the past four months, the
app has been downloaded 200,000 times. With the increased
functionality, that number should quickly swell.

The app also lets users access and manage their DVRs, an interactive
program guide, and conduct searches. And, here's a bonus, it allows
any of the devices to function as a virtual remote control for
conventional TVs in the home.

Cablevision uses its own network to deliver programming to customers
for viewing on its Optimum App, not the Internet. In fact, Cablevision
doesn't require customers to have Internet access to use the Optimum
App.

Cablevision, which faced lawsuits after it rolled out its iPad app,
contends it has the right to distribute programming over its cable
system to in-home iPhones, iPods, iPads and other devices functioning
as televisions under its existing distribution agreements with
programming providers.

My favorite survey in a while

2011-08-05T10:59:00.001-04:00

http://m.techvibes.com/blog/older-folks-are-still-not-that-into-smartphones-or-digital-media-report-2011-08-04

Fox Delays Online TV Show Access for 8 Days With New Paywall

2011-07-27T13:24:00.000-04:00

July 26 (Bloomberg) -- News Corp.'s Fox television network will delay
Web access to new shows for eight days after their initial broadcast,
creating a new TV paywall to protect advertising and subscription
sales.

Viewers without Hulu Plus, Dish Network or other participating pay-TV
services won't be able to watch Fox shows such as "Bones" and "The
Simpsons" on the Web during that time, Los Angeles-based Fox said
today in an e-mailed statement.

The change, effective Aug. 15, is designed to "enhance the value" of a
pay-TV subscription, Michael Hopkins, president of affiliate sales,
said in the statement. Fox, the most popular TV network among the
younger viewers targeted by advertisers, is the first broadcaster to
create an exclusive period for shows on the Internet.

Hulu, owned by Fox, Walt Disney Co.'s ABC and Comcast Corp.'s NBC
Universal, was put up for sale last month.

News Corp., controlled by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rupert
Murdoch, fell 7 cents to $16.16 today in Nasdaq Stock Market trading.
The stock has gained 11 percent this year.

Disney's ESPN and Time Warner Inc.'s CNN earlier this year began
providing Web and mobile access to programming to subscribers of
participating pay-TV services. Time Warner Cable Inc. and Cablevision
Systems Corp. are streaming channels live on the Internet to
customers.

Netflix preps Facebook integration for international markets

2011-07-27T13:23:00.000-04:00

Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) took a wallop on Wall Street over its second
quarter financial performance and perceptions about how its price
hikes will affect growth, but the company continues to innovate.

During its earnings report, it announced that it will soon offer
in-network integration with Facebook to its customers in Latin America
and Canada. The cool feature will not be available in the U.S. due to
a privacy protection policy here that began life more than 20 years
ago when a newspaper published the video rental records of Supreme
Court nominee Robert Bork. Congress may amend that policy, however, so
U.S. customers may not need to wait too long.

Netflix appears to be surfing the wave of controversy created by its
price hikes and moving on to stay ahead of the pack, a notion that
will disappoint a cable TV industry that was hoping consumer revolt
over price changes would stop the juggernaut in its path.

Apple mulling Hulu acquisition?

2011-07-22T13:42:00.000-04:00

JULY 21, 2011 6:00 PM PDT
by Steven Musil at CNET

Apple has reportedly joined a growing list of companies said to be
considering a bid for Hulu.

The iPad maker and iTunes purveyor is in early talks that may lead to
an acquisition of the online video service, two unidentified sources
told Bloomberg.

Apple could not immediately be reached for comment, and Hulu
representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Apple, which currently holds $76.2 billion in cash and securities, has
hinted that more content is coming to Apple's iTunes catalog, and
Hulu's subscription service would instantly bolster its offerings and
let it mount a greater challenge to Netflix and Amazon.

During Apple's Tuesday earnings call, Brian Marshall from Gleacher and
Company asked why iTunes didn't have more TV and movie titles
available and what Apple was doing to expand its offerings.

Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer responded, saying that
the selection of movies and TV shows was "very, very broad,"
especially in the U.S., and that the company was adding more in other
countries each quarter.

"Look for some more content later this quarter across the various
stores," Oppenheimer said. "We have some neat stuff coming."

Hulu's current owners--Walt Disney, News Corp., Comcast, and equity
firm Providence Equity Partners--have reportedly attracted a slew of
interest from potential buyers since they put the company up for sale
last month.

Yahoo has reportedly offered to pay up to $2 billion to acquire Hulu
if the deal includes four or five years of exclusive access to current
TV shows and older movies. However, Hulu's owners have reportedly been
willing to offer the five years of access but only two years of
exclusivity.

Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have also reportedly shown interest in
Hulu, along with a host of other suitors. But Microsoft has since
reportedly dropped out of the bidding.

In the last few years, Apple has held back on making major
acquisitions, short of buying up mobile-advertising network Quattro
Wireless for $275 million, and semiconductor maker Intrinsity for a
reported $121 million, both in 2010.

Articulating Online TVs reality appropriately

2011-07-17T14:28:00.000-04:00

http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/17/television-online-video-programming/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29

Traditional TV driving Internet Commerce

2011-07-11T12:50:00.000-04:00

Nearing 2M Members, One Kings Lane Lands A Lucrative Endorsement From Bravo
Posted by: Leena Rao at TechCrunch Jul 10, 2011

I happened to be watching my new favorite show, Bravo's Million Dollar
Decorators, last week and noticed a very familiar name. The show,
which follows five LA-based, high-end interior designers in their
industry, prominently featured One Kings Lane, the Kleiner Perkins and
Greylock-backed flash sales site for home décor, furnishings and
accessories.

In an episode that aired a few weeks ago, One Kings Lane was
co-hosting a party with one of the decorators, Nathan Turner, to
celebrate a new curated sale from Turner featuring hand-picked
furniture and accessories from India. The site actually got a ton of
air time, and even featured co-founder Susan Feldman (pictured in the
post with Turner). The Turner-curated sale on One Kings Lane (which
featured the Bravo endorsement) started the following morning after
the episode aired and One Kings Lane saw most items sold out within
minutes.

This past week's episode again featured One Kings Lane as part of the
story line, with celebrity designer Martyn Lawrence Bullard
accompanying Feldman and another One Kings Lane employee to London to
pick out items for a similar curated sale. One Kings Lane got much
more air time in this past episode, and when the sale hit the next
morning, the event was 96 percent sold out 3 hours into the start of
the Bullard-London sale. And Wednesday was all time high for daily new
member acquisitions, thanks to the feature on the show.

A Bravo endorsement is a big deal for the flash sales site,
considering the channel is seeing record viewership among adults ages
18 to 49. Feldman tells us that the site was originally doing a
Tastemaker Tag sale with Turner last year, and One Kings Lane actually
took a TV crew with them to film the journey in the effort of pitching
Bravo with the idea to use the flash sales site in the reality TV
show. Upon return, Feldman says Bravo ended promoting the startup in
the show because of the strategic fit.

Nowadays, broadcast is traditionally not thought of as a "direct
action" marketing channel for web startups. But this example with One
Kings Lane and Bravo (who has also featured partnerships with
Foursquare and Shazam) demonstrates the power of connecting broadcast
to next generation commerce, such as the flash sales model.

One Kings Lane has proven that a niche commerce model can not only
draw a large userbase (the company is nearing 2 million users, says
Feldman), but see revenue growth as well. The startup grew revenue
over 500 percent from 2009 to 2010. In this Wall Street Journal
interview, One Kings Lane CEO Doug Mack says that he expects to
continue this growth (by "hundreds of percent") this year as well. And
more than 75 percent of sales come from repeat customers (I happen to
fall into this category).

The truth of the matter is that commerce is evolving and promotional
deals with networks, technology companies and other content providers
is just one way in which flash sales sites are innovating. Gilt has
been combining editorial with commerce in its foodie site Gilt Taste
as well as in its Home And Furniture vertical. And Gilt just launched
an interesting deal with in-flight WiFi company Gogo Wireless to offer
exclusive in-air deals and free access on the flash sales site.

Celebrity partnerships are another way that flash sales sites are
trying to draw business and engage with users. One Kings Lane featured
a deal with actress Gwyneth Paltrow to promote her new cookbook and
held and event in New York in her honor as well. Gilt and Lady Gaga
teamed up for a curates dale featuring Gaga-inspired merchandise,
access to Gaga events and more.

Feldman explains that not every celebrity or broadcast partnership is
the right one. It's important to make sure the brands fit, she
explains, "where there is good synergy, there's a win-win for
everyone."

Martha Stewart Gets Animated Web Series on AOL

2011-07-04T10:48:00.001-04:00

Posted at Tubefilter: 01 Jul 2011 09:05 AM PDT

Speaking of nostalgia, do you wish you could watch a 1980s-inspired, Saturday-morning-cartooned version of a media mogul discussing DIY projects with young children in 10-minute-or-less installments of web series with a Jem and the Holograms-inspired theme song and Xtranormal aesthetic? You do?!? Then A Squared Entertainment and Martha Stewart have just the original web show for you.

The full-service branded entertainment company just launched Martha & Friends, an online program distributed through AOL that's been at least two years in the making. It features a ten-year-old Martha Stewart who shows us how to do things yourself (including spa makeovers, pet-themed paraphernalia, and Hallmark-sponsored greeting cards) together along with her circle of friends and French Bulldog sidekicks. The program feels like a Blues Clues for the children of people who read Make.

For each project Stewart completes in the episodes, you can find instructions on MarthAndFriends.com showing you all the ingredients and step-by-step instructions you'll need to make it own your own. That includes personal pet bowls, classic lemonade, flower flip flops, and other projects that will keep you and your kids occupied for a few hours while you figure out what else to do with them now that they're out of school for the summer.

Martha & Friends isn't the only animated series for AOL produced by A Squared featuring a household name. The company is also behind Warren Buffet's Secret Millionaire's Club and Gisele Bündchen's Gisele and the Green Team.

Online TV is a format just waiting to click

2011-06-29T14:10:00.000-04:00

By ROBERT LLOYD, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES - Kiefer Sutherland, the star of "24," and John Hurt, the
eminent British thespian, recently joined forces, playing opposite
each other in "The Confession," a sort of short feature about a hit
man and a priest. I say "sort of" because "The Confession" was created
specifically to go online, in installments - there are 10 of them,
averaging about seven minutes each; they ran from the end of March to
the beginning of May on the video-streaming website Hulu. So it is a
sort of television series as well, though one whose entire season
lasts in the aggregate not much more than an hour.

"The Confession" is certainly one of the better and more ambitious
dramas to have launched on the Internet, but that is, as of yet, an
especially relative judgment. Written and directed by Brad Mirman, who
penned the Sutherland-directed "Truth or Consequences, N.M." and the
much-hooted-at Madonna film "Body of Evidence," it is talky in a
theatrical mode - "That collar gives you power," hit man tells priest.
"Without it you're just another man without a voice, a lonely man who
thinks that breath mints and cologne will mask the scent of cheap
Scotch and cigarettes" - and finishes with the sort of shock twist
that writers were advised to employ back when popular magazines still
ran short fiction. But neither star needs the work, and their
willingness to get involved in the project is the most significant
thing about it.

Whether the Internet is the future of television or not, it looks like
the future, the place the future wants to be. As the spoiler that
steals eyes from established media and mediums, it announces itself
again and again as the game that must be played. Big-time
entertainment companies want a piece of it, hoping to dominate an
emerging market that none of them really understands - they do not
even understand whether it is in fact an emerging market - even as
outsider artist-citizens see it as a way to breach the thick walls of
show business in the not entirely paradoxical hope of being themselves
admitted to the establishment.

Comedy has done well on the Web, as anyone with an email or Facebook
account must know. Humor is bite-sized - "Take my wife, please" - and
doesn't need much context. It takes only a second for a man to slip on
a banana peel, but if you want to know how the banana peel got there
and where the man was going and what was distracting him from the
danger dead ahead, that will take time. (And time is money.)

Comedians like to say that comedy is harder to play than drama, but
good drama is harder to pull off online. Perhaps the small-packet,
stop-and-go rhythms militate against it. There is no dramatic
equivalent to such viral sensations as Funny or Die's "When Harry Met
Sally 2" trailer, with Billy Crystal and Helen Mirren, or the Will
Ferrell video featuring a toddler as his alcoholic, foul-mouthed
landlord.

Nielsen research indicates a dip in TV ownership, in part because the
younger set gets all the television it needs off computers. But even
as these lines are breaking down, they reinforce the old model: If
online comedy cuts loose in unexpected ways, most Web dramas still
aspire to look like conventional movies or TV series, and most, being
inferior to television, reaffirm the old medium's difference and
dominance.

Nevertheless, as improving varieties of streaming media become an
increasingly popular way to watch what once could be seen only on an
actual television set or in a theater, distribution points such as
Hulu have begun to act as networks or studios. (Hulu, which has put
itself up for sale, is actually owned in common by several of them.)
Sony Pictures' Crackle has some of the Web's flashier offerings,
including "The Bannen Way," with its wiseguy con-man hero, stylish
split screens and hot-girl assassins; "Angel of Death," penned by
comic-book writer Ed Brubaker, with Zoe Bell ("Tarantino's #1 stunt
woman") as a hired killer who acquires the compulsion to kill her old
masters; and the sci-fi "Trenches," picked up from Disney's
now-defunct Stage 9 Digital, which sports impressive "Battlestar
Galactica" special effects. All have completed their single seasons
but remain available for download in the timelessness of the Web.

Of all the emerging neo-networks - also including My Damn Channel
(home to the immigration comedy "Gigi: Almost American," starring Josh
Gad, Tony-nominated for "The Book of Mormon"), and Babelgum, which
hosts the clever sci-fi sitcom "Date a Human" - perhaps the most
compelling is Koldcast, which bills itself as "The Other TV" for the
sheer volume and breadth of its offerings. Most of what I've seen
there is fairly accomplished, which is to say that much of it is not
derivative or artistically immature. (Many of these shows have their
own websites or YouTube channels as well.)

Among the interesting scenery there is "Ruby Skye P.I.," a Canadian
tween mystery; "Verse," a mystery story that features cameos from
several estimable poets and the New York underground legend Taylor
Mead; and the popular "Anyone But Me," co-created by "thirtysomething"
vet Susan Miller, a teen lesbian dramedy that makes up in sweetness
and likeness to life what it sometimes lacks in polish.

The best of the straight-ahead dramas that I've seen in my trawling
through cyberspace - still largely a journey of random discovery,
short on comprehensive guides - is "Downsized," now in its "second
season," a serio-comic collection of scenes in which seven New Yorkers
deal with love in a time of economic recession, written by and
costarring Daryn Strauss, whose character begins the series being
fired by a sock puppet. Though there is a kind of through-line, the
show, which is not especially plot-driven, plays more as variations on
a theme, giving each episode a sturdy structural integrity even as
they lock into the larger whole.

Still, for the moment, comedy continues to rule, in longer as well as
shorter form. When it comes to storytelling, there is no Web drama
I've seen as good as "The Guild," a full-service sitcom about a group
of online role-playing gamers thrust into real-world social
relationships. Created by and starring nerd-heroine Felicia Day (of
"Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog") and originally made on donations
from fans and later with support from Microsoft, "The Guild" has four
seasons under its belt and a fifth to come. Smartly written with a
superb central performance, it's accessible beyond the niche-iness of
its subject matter. Also marvelous is "Easy to Assemble," Illeana
Douglas' Ikea-sponsored series about recovering actors working at ...
Ikea. With a third season starting this year, it features an
especially brilliant turn by Justine Bateman as Douglas' manipulative
frenemy: "You and I were friends for weeks," she says, "before I
realized you weren't Allison Janney."

After several false dawns, we are still at the beginning. Only a
fraction of the people who spend time online will have watched any Web
series at all, and only a fraction of those will have watched with any
dedication. A successful series might have an audience in the
(millions, but this is not yet a venue in which fortunes will be made.

And that's a good thing, because if the Web is going to find its own
voice to shake off its status as the third-best place for a filmmaker
to work, it won't be because of the industrial thinking that in 2007
created the Michael Eisner-backed teen thriller "Prom Queen" and
"Quarterlife," from Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick
("thirtysomething"), which streamed over MySpace and its own dedicated
social networking platform and seemed to pander to a generation even
as it got them wrong; when NBC reran "Quarterlife" on "actual"
television, it was canceled (and moved to Bravo) after a single
episode.

If there is for the moment more craft than art on display in Web
drama, craft is nothing to sneeze at. To watch the Web is to be
reminded how many talented actors, cinematographers and designers (and
so on) there are in the world - more than there are jobs to fit them.

The point about the Internet isn't simply to replace one delivery
system with another but to extend the palate and the possibilities.
When the art arrives, it will be something we couldn't have imagined
ourselves, made by people less concerned with making a fortune than
that thing that doesn't exist yet, that they just have to see.

Microsoft, Nielsen Test To Measure How Web Ads Affect TV Tune-In

2011-06-29T14:09:00.000-04:00

Duo's Television Online Effect Pilot Slated to Launch Before Aug. 1

By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 6/27/2011 6:08:26 PM

Microsoft's advertising division announced a collaboration with
Nielsen that promises to give advertisers an idea of how effectively
online advertising for TV programming leads desired viewers to
actually turn on the tube.

The Television Online Effect pilot program, slated to kick off before
Aug. 1, will use aggregate profile data from Nielsen's TV/Internet
Fusion panel, an integrated database of more than 250,000 people that
merges the Nielsen National People Meter panel with its online NetView
panel.

Based on that data, Microsoft will create a customized target audience
based off TV viewership and online behaviors and then run the a
campaign across multiple Microsoft properties.

Subsequently, advertisers will be able to measure the actual tune-in
from people who saw the online campaigns, Joslyn Moore, Microsoft
Advertising general manager of scale media, wrote in a blog post
announcing the pilot Monday.

"So, if advertisers are looking to capture food enthusiasts for the
launch of a new cooking show or networks are looking to drive Moms to
primetime programing, they can leverage our exciting new service,"
Moore wrote.

Initially the Television Online Effect pilot program will focus
entertainment advertisers but it's the "first of several broadcast
connected offerings that we plan to release in future," Moore added.