Interactive TV

Tim's Pick: ICE Online Launches Revolutionary Online Ad Widget

Summary:  ICE Online (Interactive Commerce Exchange), www.theiceedge.com, a technology company focused on the interactive ad space, announces the creation of a new revolutionary interactive online banner ad widget, the ICE AdWidget(TM). The patent pending technology behind ICE will now allow for the online shopping experience to occur anywhere an advertiser advertises on the web.

The ICE AdWidget is the first no-redirection traveling ad widget of its kind where the online ad serves the widget rather than the more commonly experienced ad branded widget. The ICE AdWidget is also the first web-based widget that is fully accessible on any HTML-capable mobile device.

 

Tim's Pick: BlackArrow Unveils New Tools to Manage Ad Placement Opportunities Inand Around on-Demand Video

Summary:

BlackArrow, the independent provider of multiplatform advertising systems for viewer-controlled video, today announced BlackArrow AdMaps(TM), a sophisticated toolset that enables content providers and distributors to easily define and manage ad avails in and around video content. The AdMap suite extends BlackArrow's advertising system by introducing tools to manage ad-placement opportunities for programming delivered over broadband and SCTE 130-5 compliant video on demand (VOD) environments. AdMaps provide a time-saving workflow to create new advertising inventory, integrate new ad formats easily and update ad-sales models quickly - all without requiring changes to the existing infrastructure or media player code.

 

Tim's Pick: Can MySpace's Grand Experiment Help Save the Music Industry?

Summary:

MySpace's grand music experiment is launching this month -- and it'll be as much a test of how advertisers can help underwrite the music industry as it will be of the portal's most ambitious launch since, well, its own birth four years ago.

McDonald's, State Farm and Toyota are the first three advertisers to sign sponsorship deals around MySpace Music, a joint venture among the popular social network and major music labels that will milk many different revenue streams, including advertising and sponsorship, paid song downloads and ringtones, and concert-ticket and merchandise sales.

Tim's Pick: Michael Eisner: Web Video to Surpass TV

Summary:

Michael Eisner, the former Walt Disney Co. CEO and current investor in Veoh, said content creators shouldn’t wait for advertisers to jump into Web video.

At a small but packed Helen Mills Theatre in Manhattan, Mr. Eisner said that sites like Hulu that repurpose TV fare for the Web are the middle game, not the end game. Mr. Eisner believes that the maturing industry will be led by distributors who can navigate the unfamiliar online territory for audiences, letting viewers know when they can find new programming. In time, that programming will also bring in bigger numbers than anything on TV today, he said.

Tim's Pick: Suddenly, Rivals Want to Jump on Hulu Bandwagon

Summary:

Two months after Hulu launched in March, it became a top-10 video site. In August, by ComScore's measure, it served more than 122 million TV shows and short clips such as Tina Fey's impression of Sarah Palin on "Saturday Night Live." Among mainstream-media digital-video efforts, it now trails only Viacom Digital (an amalgam of hundreds of sites), Disney Online and Turner Network in ComScore rankings.

In just six months, it has overtaken the likes of CBS Corp. and AOL. Indeed, it is one of the few online video players not named YouTube that's actually gaining share in terms of number of videos streamed.

Tim's Pick: Verizon Launches New Wave of Interactive Features for FiOS TV Customers in Maryland and Virginia

Summary: Verizon FiOS TV - the ultimate home-entertainment experience - becomes even more dynamic for customers in Maryland and Virginia as Verizon introduces new interactive features for the TV service, delivered over the nation's most advanced fiber-optic network straight to customers' homes.

FiOS TV now also gives customers unique new features, including a fantasy sports application, free casual games, purchasing power via remote control, more widgets that provide on-demand access to information and entertainment, and other exciting options.

Tim's Pick: DVR Use Varies by Show Genre, Study Says

Summary:

There is a correlation between program type and the level of digital video recorder playback a show gets, according to a new analysis by a leading media agency.

Steve Sternberg, executive VP at Magna Global, said nearly all action and sci-fi drama show above-average DVR playback so far this season. That includes “Heroes,” “Fringe,” “Prison Break,” “Pushing Daisies,” “Chuck,” “Smallville,” “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” “Supernatural,” “My Own Worst Enemy” and “Ghost Whisperer.”

 

Tim's Pick: ION Media Networks Successfully Delivers Full-Motion Mobile Digital Television in Chicago and Denver

Summary:

ION Media Networks, Inc., owner and operator of the nation's largest broadcast TV station group and an industry leader in the development of mobile digital television (DTV), today announced two successful mobile DTV field trial demonstrations using WCPX, its station serving the Chicago market and KPXC, its station serving the Denver market.

The real-world field trials use new mobile DTV technology that will enable television broadcasters to deliver live, over-the-air digital television to next-generation mobile devices, including battery-powered digital televisions, cell phones, laptops and personal media players. Mobile DTV will allow users to watch their favorite programs - as well as local news, weather and traffic information - on the go, either at pedestrian or vehicular speeds.

 

Tim's Pick: YouTube To Sell Search Ads

Summary: ADOTAS – Google is applying its winning ad-selling formula (selling ads against search results) with its financially challenged child, YouTube, according to a report in The New York Times.

The Internet titan is going to sell space on YouTube’s search-results pages to advertisers – a boon for both advertisers and those that want to promote their videos. Advertisers and video makers are able to bid on keywords and the promoted videos (they’ll appear on the right side of YouTube search results pages, a la Google.com, along with an image and text). Advertisers are charged when viewers click on the ad.

 

Tim's Pick: New "Ad Battle" Social Media App To Rank the World's Best Advertisements

Summary:

Today Buddy Media, in conjunction with Atmosphere BBDO Senior Art Director Jason Culbertson, officially unveiled the new Ad Battle Facebook application, which allows people to view two different print and television ads submitted by fellow Facebook users and vote on which ad they think "wins" the battle. As an ad wins battles, its ranking increases, with the highest (and lowest) scoring ads highlighted under the app's "Best and Worst" section.

In addition, when users submit ads that win "battles", their personal Ad Battle ranking (which can range from "Featherweight" to "Heavyweight") improves. People can also use Ad Battle to compare their ad rankings with others on their social network, securing a perspective on whether their own "ad judgment" is in the mainstream or not.

"We think Ad Battle is a fun way for people to get a 'democratic' opinion on whether an ad is engaging or not," said Michael Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media. "Moreover, we feel that the application is a great way for Buddy Media to show the ad community how branded social media applications can be as engaging as print and television advertisements."