social tv

6rounds--a Tel Aviv-based company which offers a real-time interactive video chat platform that allows users to video-chat while watching video, playing games and otherwise using online media in real time (note: the company, which was founded in 2008, has so far raised $2 million in venture capital from Rhodium and Startup Factory)--said Tuesday that it has rebranded itself as Rounds and that it has launched a version of its platform, called Video Chat Rounds, for Facebook.

Panasonic said Tuesday that it has activated a Twitter app on plasma HDTV sets equipped with its Viera Cast connected-TV platform. The company also said that it will launch Twitter functionality on Viera Cast-enabled Blu-ray disc players at a later date.

Australian interactive TV company, Two Way Limited, has partnered with Australian pay-TV operator, Foxtel, to develop an interactive TV application, called "Chat On," that is accompanying the latest season of the reality show, "Australia's Next Top Model," on Foxtel's OpenTV-powered platform.

Here are some other interactive TV-related stories we didn't have room for in this issue:

TV Guide Digital (note: the company's assets include TVGuide.com and related programming guidance applications for iPhone and Android) said Monday that it has launched a free TV Guide App for iPad in the Apple App Store. According to the company--which says that its iPhone app has seen over 1.3 million installations--the new app, which is sponsored exclusively by Showtime Networks, features what it calls "social TV listings," as well as a day-by-day primetime schedule, entertainment news, photo galleries, original videos, and TVGuide.com's "signature" fall TV preview coverage.

Last month (see the article published on itvt.com, August 2nd), online video content discovery specialist, Clicker Media, announced the launch of a social TV service, called Clicker Social, which it billed as "allow[ing] people to discover, share, rate, discuss, and check-in to shows on Clicker and third-party partner sites."

Miso, a recently launched social TV platform which is operated by Bazaar Labs and whose backers include Google Ventures (see the article published on itvt.com, June 2nd), said last week that it has been tapped by WE tv, a Rainbow Media-owned channel that targets a female demographic, to drive viewership of the seventh season of the latter's original series, "Bridezillas" (airs Sundays at 9:00PM Eastern/Pacific).

Here are some other interactive TV-related stories we didn't have room for in this issue:

Because the [itvt] editorial team has been on the road the past few weeks, we are covering recent news stories in summary/round-up form. We anticipate that it will take a few 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. We apologize for any inconvenience to our readers.

Because the [itvt] editorial team has been on the road the past few weeks, we are covering recent news stories in summary/round-up form. We anticipate that it will take a few 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. We apologize for any inconvenience to our readers.

The [itvt] editorial team is currently on the road, 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. It will likely take a short while 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. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

The [itvt] editorial team is currently on the road, 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. It will likely take a short while 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. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

The [itvt] editorial team is currently on the road, 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. It will likely take a short while 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. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

[itvt] has just published an INTERVIEW with Matt Apfel, VP of content, East Coast, at Coincident TV.

Hive Media, a San Francisco-based company that specializes in branded social games, says that it has been tapped by Discovery Communications to develop and produce a social game based on "Deadliest Catch," which is currently the highest-rated show on the Discovery Channel (note: the show, which is produced by Original Productions, is a documentary reality series that centers on the crews of crab fishing boats on the Bering Sea). The game is slated to be released in November on Facebook. The deal between the companies is for the North American market only, and was brokered on behalf of Discovery by its licensing agent, the Joester Loria Group.