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:

Having seen the iTV Doctor's session at TVOT (ACR panel) I realised that the significane of the Companion Screen is much underestimeated by the traditional Broadcasters & Network Operators who have moved sluggishly in the traditional middleware space.

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:

Over the last few weeks I have been doing a great deal of listening and generally observing the space we have come to know as social media. There have been a great number of conferences in the first quarter of 2012 dedicated to second screen and digital media. The first event I attended this year that was actually specifically for social media was the SMWF (Social Media World Forum) at Olympia, London.

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

At lot of the  work we do at CTV Advertising tends to be greatly impacted by predictive analysis of trends within the emerging TV landscape for both advertisers and content owners. We take in an incredible amount of expert opinion and advice in these regards that is often on point, but equally, many that falter no matter the level of expertise distilled from. Today, I want to highlight two opinions that while widespread, need further commentary on their accuracy.

 People want to come home and just turn on the TV and zone out. It’s a lean back experience.

As an Angeleno and a baseball fan, I’ve always been a one-team man. But even though I’ve bled “Dodger Blue” for as long as I can remember, I’ve always been able to appreciate the on- and off-the-field personalities of some of the most notable figures.

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.

Whenever I watch the “Kitchen Sync” or “OTT Monitor Minutes” reports by Colin Dixon, the well-regarded senior partner from The Diffusion Group, I come away with a nugget or two of insight that makes me think.

ITV veteran, John P. Roberts, SVP of Digital Content & Cross-platform Entertainment at The Hub,contacted us to tell us his good news. John and his wife, Christie, have had their first child called Jason Patrick recently on February 28th at 1:53 AM! He weighed weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz.

We're very happy for you!!

-- Tracy Swedlow, [itvt]