• This Column Has Been Updated With A Correction: New Social TV Player Umami Inks CBS Deal; Weaves in Online Video
    New social TV companion app Umami is expanding on its launch earlier this month via a deal with CBS syndicated shows "Entertainment Tonight" and "The Insider" that will mark the start of a push into online video as well for the social TV service. Umami is one of a growing number of social TV startups vying to compete in what could become a crowded field. Already, Getglue and Miso have established beachheads in this space. But Umami has an interesting technology proposition since it relies on audio fingerprinting to sync its app to live or timeshifted programming from TV networks, …
  • Too Many Devices for Video? Let Social TV Save the Day!
    Social TV is the cat's meow these days. (Maybe even the cat's pajamas. Speaking of, which one is better?) In any case - social TV is purring and networks from HBO to Discovery are regularly rolling out new social TV applications for synched viewing, while social TV startups like GetGlue and Miso are quickly amassing more venture funding and more clients. With all this social TV activity, I started wondering - what's the online video play in social TV? I posed that question to Colin Donald, director of research firm Futurescape, who recently penned a white paper on the market …
  • Kindle Lights a Fire Under Video Use -- Big Uptick in First Five Days
    Coupled with the news that Black Friday was good to retail came happy news for the online video business - the Kindle Fire has been kind to video so far. Online video technology provider Ooyala released some early data on Kindle Fire usage confirming that users are indeed watching video on the new tablet. Sure, the bulk of Kindle Fire users may be playing Angry Birds and some may even be - gasp - reading eBooks, but video is part of the device's draw. Ooyala reviewed device video plays in the United States for the five-day period starting Nov. 14, …
  • Buying a TV Today? It Better Have Online Video in It, Or You Can Give a Mouse a Cookie
    Just as work expands to fill the time available, so does video. In its annual survey of cross-platform video consumption, Frank N. Magid found that while half of online consumers are watching TV shows and movies via the Internet, they are also upping what they spend on traditional subscriptions. The study found that consumers who watch video programming on alternate devices aren't changing the amount of time they spend watching traditional TV. In fact, the more we watch, the more we watch - there is still plenty of growth in VOD, DVR and DVD usage even among those consumers who …
  • A Chaos Theorist on Video Guides: Maybe We Need Them, But Maybe We Have Outgrown Them
    Research firm Futuresource Consulting said yesterday that free and paid online video views will grow 20% worldwide this year to 770 billion, up from 640 billion last year across the USA, UK, France and Germany. That's a whole lot of videos. That may be why so many companies from Tribune Media Services to Clicker to The Filter to Rovi are aiming to play a role in how consumers find the videos among the 770 billion that they actually want to watch. In a new report on the state of entertainment discovery, Tribune Media Services said video choices have ballooned like …
  • SheKnows.com Planning Kate Walsh Web Series, Part of Site's Branded Video Strategy
    Web publisher SheKnows.com launched the third season of Shoparatti-sponsored Web video series Style Showdown last week starring Melissa Rivers in a deal that calls for five new episodes. The new season is emblematic of the Web publisher's strategy when it comes to creating brand-friendly video series. SheKnows is banking on winning marketers by creating, producing, editing and distributing branded videos in-house, rather than having brands hire outside studios. The strategy is gaining early traction: the previous two seasons of "Style Showdown" were sponsored by Marshall's and fared well, with more than 700,000 views on the SheKnows.com site.
  • Spider-Man on Broadway's Social and Video Strategy Can Help Ticket Sales
    I'm not afraid to admit that when I was in New York two weeks ago I saw Spider-Man on Broadway and I loved it. Yup, the troubled show that went through endless previews, cast injuries and so-so reviews is a good one, after all. And one of the first things I did after leaving the theater was - surprise, surprise - tweet about the show and the star, Reeve Carney .Both responded to me on Twitter.
  • You Have No Choice; Connected TV Ads Are Coming to Get You
    Okay, fine. I get it. I'm holding my hands up and surrendering. Connected TV is a big deal. That's clearly what the market is trying to say, but the market is about to get super crowded. Real-time media buying platform TubeMogul is the latest entrant into connected TV ads and is introducing tools to let marketers buy targeted video ads across Internet-capable TVs. Research firm Informa has said that connected TV sales will surpass 52 million units this year. In the last month we've seen companies such as ad networks Tremor Media and Yume, as well as entertainment discovery service …
  • Sundance Channel Debuts TV Show on Twitter, Hulu... and Then TV.
    When Sundance Channel premieres the first episode of the second season of Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys on PerezHilton.com today, it'll be a full 24 hours before the on-air debut of the show on Nov. 18. What's more, the blogger's unveiling of the show follows a Twitter premiere earlier in the week, as well as a Hulu debut of the episode. The Twitter debut marked one of the first time a network has leveraged the social platform to bow a show, and while the Twitter-cast only generated 2,000 views, it's a start to using social video to drive …
  • CMO to Agency - I Want Video that is Measurable, Successful and Totally Original! Stat!
    Digitas has been one of the most progressive agencies working in online video via its Third Act division and regularly executes successful online video campaigns, such as those for Kraft, Starburst and Holiday Inn Express. So when Digitas executive Dave Marsey, senior vice president and group media director, spoke during a Beet.TV online video Webcast this week about what makes online video campaigns work, my ears perked up. For starters, Marsey said agencies must work first to understand what the customer is thinking, how they consume various channels of content, and how they watch linear video versus streaming video.
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