investment

Because of the volume of news already being generated by next week's 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and because the [itvt] editorial team has a backlog of news to cover following TVOT NYC Intensive 2011 and our post-event vacation, we are covering stories in this issue in round-up/summary format. We anticipate that it will take us several days to catch up with all the recent news: so if your company has sent us a press release or briefed us on an announcement, and you don't yet see your news covered in this issue, please bear with us.

Because the [itvt] editorial team is on the road this week, we are covering stories in this edition of the newsletter in round-up format:

Because the [itvt] editorial team is on the road this week, we are covering stories in this edition of the newsletter in round-up format:

Audio-based automatic content recognition (ACR) specialist, Shazam (note: the London-based company is best known for offering a mobile application that consumers can use to identify music, as well as TV shows and other content--a process it calls "tagging"), said Wednesday that it has raised $32 million in a funding round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Institutional Venture Partners, with the participation of existing investor, DN Capital.

Open-source online video platform provider, Kaltura, said Monday that it has secured an additional $20 million in a funding round that was led by new investor, Nexus Venture Partners, and that also saw the participation of Intel Capital, existing investors .406 Ventures and Avalon Ventures, and technology lender Silicon Valley Bank.

Revision3--a company which bills itself as "an actual TV network for the Web," and which produces its own original, broadcast-quality programming for distribution on the Web, mobiles, and connected-TV devices--has announced that it achieved profitability in Q4 of 2010, and grew its year-over-year revenues by 80%. It also says that it grew its roster of advertisers to over 60, including such Fortune 500 companies as Verizon, Ford, HP, EA, Sony and HP; and that its total views increased nearly 165% year-over-year, with over 42 million views in December alone. "We had another incredible year in 2010, with impressive gains in revenue, viewership, advertising and distribution," Revision3 CEO, Jim Louderback, said in a prepared statement.

UK broadcast transmission company, Arqiva, said Wednesday that, following a strategic review, it is seeking an investment partner for its broadband TV service, SeeSaw (offers programming from the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5, as well as from Disney, MTV and NBC Universal), with the aim of accelerating the development of the service.

Due to the large volume of news coming out of the Consumer Electronics Show, which kicked off Wednesday in Las Vegas, we are covering stories in this issue in summary/round-up form. We anticipate that it will take us several days to catch up with all the news generated by the show: so if your company has sent us a press release or briefed us on an announcement, and you don't yet see your news covered in this issue, please bear with us. Our regular news coverage will return shortly.

Due to the huge volume of interactive TV-related news generated over the past few days by the IBC, we are covering stories in this issue in round-up format. We anticipate that it will take a couple of days for us to catch up with all the recent news: so if your company has sent us a press release or briefed us on an announcement, and you don't yet see your news covered in this issue, please bear with us. Our regular news coverage will return shortly.

In a press release in which it announced its financial results for the first half of 2010, the Kudelski Group, the company which last fall acquired full control of pioneering interactive TV middleware provider, OpenTV (see the article published on itvt.com, November 16th), revealed that it has, since then, been investing heavily in its middleware operations: "Personnel expenses rose by CHF [i.e. Swiss Francs] 20.5 million from the first half 2009, representing an 11.1% increase to reach CHF 205.7 million," the company stated.

blip.tv, a New York-based distributor of independent Web shows, said Wednesday that it has closed its third round of institutional capital, raising $10.1 million in new funding. The funding round was led by Canaan Partners, and saw the participation of existing investor, Bain Capital Ventures. blip.tv's first funding round, which was concluded in 2007, raised $2.5 million, and its second funding round, concluded in 2008, raised $5.2 million.

The [itvt] editorial team is on the road this week, so we are covering most stories in round-up/summary form, and we anticipate that there will be some additional interruptions of our regular news publishing schedule beyond that. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

Last month, [itvt] published an interview with Chad, Matt & Rob--Chad Villella, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Rob Polonsky--a trio of 20-something Los Angeles-based filmmakers who have risen to prominence as a result of a series of interactive comedic shorts they have created, using YouTube's Annotations feature (note: their videos--which are influenced by Bantam Books' classic series of "Choose Your Own Adventure" children's gamebooks--includ

Advanced advertising technology provider, BlackArrow, announced Monday that it has closed a $20 million Series C financing round that was led by interactive TV and conditional access technology provider, NDS, and that also saw the participation of existing BlackArrow investors Cisco, Comcast Interactive Capital, Intel Capital, the Mayfield Fund and Polaris Venture Partners.

Live Internet broadcasting service provider, Ustream, announced late Monday that it has secured $75 million in a Series B funding round that was led by Softbank of Japan, and that additional funding commitments are pending from other investors in the US and Asia. The company says that the funding will help it continue its growth in the US, and allow it to expand its presence in the Asia Pacific region where it is hoping to pursue opportunities in Japan, China, Korea and India.