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Here's the video I mentioned in my earlier blog where Piers Morgan interviews Conan O'Brien. Conan is very articulate on the evolution of his social TV strategy. This video is a bit longer than what I usual post but worth your time if you're interested in social TV - and who isn't?

The final day’s action shifted from the exhibit floor to the General Session, featuring a great interview by Piers Morgan of Conan O’Brien, and a first-rate session on Social TV.

1. Conan O’Brien isn’t just funny, he knows social TV. Conan explained that a few years back when he decided to embrace change (we all know the story), he also decided to embrace social media as a strategy to engage his amazingly loyal core of fans. From a standing start, he and his team has created one of the most robust social TV strategies around.

With The Cable Show in high gear, I started the day early and went straight through to closing. Here's a snapshot of key iTV points made by one or more industry experts during the day.

1. Putting viewers in control of how they engage logically leads to giving them a choice of screens on which to engage. Softel's CEO Sam Pemberton underscored this during my one-on-one meeting with him as well as in his demo at Imagine Park of their just launched MediaSphere Bridge Ecosystem, a cool new take on engaging viewers on multiple screens.

Will Keller, President, Interactive TV Commerce, is the go-to guy for t-commerce sales strategy and execution. For more iTV insights, subscribe to Inside the Screen or follow him @iTVcommerce.

Will Keller, President, Interactive TV Commerce, is the go-to guy for t-commerce sales strategy and execution. For more iTV insights, subscribe to Inside the Screen or follow him @iTVcommerce.

NCTA's Cable Show started off with a rousing U2 song played entirely on iPads. Here are other themes that I heard above the din during day one.

1. What the consumer wants he or she will (eventually) find a way to get. Discovery Communication's CEO David Zaslav articulated that point in the opening session. So better for the industry to get behind consumer behaviors driving TV Everywhere.

2. Multi-screen capabilities are table stakes just like HD became table stakes a few years back. Ericsson's Matthew Goldman, SVP Technology CTO Group, made this point prior to cuing up a demo of their multi-screen ecosystem solution (check out my video of the demo below).

Multichannel News, Broadcast & Cable and TV Technology recently presented a day-long set of sessions entitled TV Everywhere: The Time is Now.

According to the assembled iTV experts the time is indeed now but participants would be wise to listen to their experiences and avoid key pitfalls. Panelists emphasized rapid learning from deploying TV Everywhere services as they gathered data from usage, focus groups and customers.

8 Learnings from the Tech and UI Experts

This week's inaugural Cynopsis Sports Summit in NYC featured an all-star panel line-up. Here's my highlight reel:

NASCAR Keynote speaker CMO Steve Phelps outlined the company's recent strategic transformation:

T-Commerce is Bigger Than You Think

According to the DMA (Direct Marketing Association), TV direct response sales (e.g., infomercials etc.) totaled $1.5 trillion in the past four years:

2008 - $392 billion
2009 - $356 billion
2010 - $383 billion
2011 - $430 billion

Source: DMA

5 T-Commerce iTV Strategies Poised to Grow

So given this pot of tv-driven sales, where should you look for more interactive television commerce revenue? Here are five t-commerce sales strategies to follow:

Here are my 5 key interactive television marketing observations from the Cable Interacts: Crossroads For Innovation conference in NYC (4/5/12), produced by Craig Leddy of Interactive TV Works:

I knew March Madness was truly on when I ended up at a concert sitting next to a work colleague who was watching the game on her iPhone via Turner Sports' March Madness Live app. This was topped only by her admission that she and several other Kentucky Wildcats fans streamed a game during a friend's wedding reception.

Enabling TV Everywhere for sports fans obviously increases viewing. This makes sense given the DVR downside of inadvertantly hearing scores prior to time-shifted viewing. So what overlapping strategic purposes do interactive television marketing and TV everywhere share?

Let's answer that by scoring some college basketball apps.

From Slam Dunk to Blocked Shot

With Rovi's recent announcement that its TotalGuide will be on yet more connected TVs - specifically on Panasonic Viera Connect platform televisions headed to Europe - I thought it was a good time to take a look at Rovi's second generation TotalGuide, expected to be released next quarter (Q2 2012).

First, check out my video of Rovi's Richard Bullwinkle demonstrating TotalGuide G2 during our meeting earlier this year at CES.

The "television" in interactive television these days too often seems to be secondary to "interactive". We're all about interacting with Facebook and Twitter and advertisers and second screens. Watchitoo, a NYC based start-up, brings "television" back front and center with it's multistreaming collaboration platform.

I recently met with the Watchitoo team in NYC to talk in depth about their strategy and to get a first-hand look at Watchitoo's features.

FROM WEB VIDEO TO DUAL SCREEN

I caught up recently with David Kaiser, CEO of Coincident, and John Gilles, EVP of Sales and Marketing to learn more about what Coincident has accomplished over the past several years and to see a demo of their just launched ScreenSync TV.

You may be familiar with Coincident, a start-up based in San Francisco, because of their Glee Superfan Experience from 2010, which enabled viewers to watch repeat episodes on the web while accessing bonus video and musical numbers with lyrics displayed on screen.

Talk about engaged fans, the Super Bowl serves them up like melted Velveeta on a corn chip (it was good). Typically one of the year's most watched programs and set of commercials, you'd think that the Super Bowl is perfect for engaging fans in interactive television.

Industry players certainly moved the ball forward, first and foremost the folks from Shazam, who enabled one in three ads. Meanwhile, Chevy promoted its Game Time app with thousands of prizes, including 20 trucks, NBC trumped it's Sports Talk app and you could fantasize about being at Detroit's Lucas Oil Stadium via the Super Bowl XLVI Guide.

Four Reasons Why iTV Didn't Score a TD