April 2008

NBC Universal last week relaunched its Digital Studio, which is now
tasked with developing and producing "brand-centric" digital content
(including both episodic programming and what NBCU describes as
"deep interactive experiences"), distributing them across the company's
various digital properties, and also finding and developing quality
digital programming into which advertiser brands can be "organically
integrated."

The American Film Institute Digital Content Lab has announced the
companies, organizations and media properties that will be
participating in its next production cycle: PBS ("NewsHour"),
ABC.com ("Grey's Anatomy"), and Earth Echo. The Lab, now in its
tenth year (note: it was originally known as the Enhanced TV
Workshop, but subsequently changed its name to reflect a focus on a
broader range of interactive media), brings together media
companies/properties and volunteer "mentors" (i.e. individuals and
companies with extensive experience in interactive media), in order to
create innovative interactive prototypes. "The new slate of prototypes
promises to be one of our most exciting and challenging to date,"

--Says its VOD Service has Generated over 7 Billion Views since 2003

--Company's Fancast Service now Features Video from over 100 Providers

--Company to Spend up to $70 Million on "Project Canoe" this Year

Comcast, the US's largest cable MSO, last week launched a service
called AnyRoom On Demand to its digital cable customers in New

‘
Jersey who are equipped with Motorola set-top boxes (note: the
company says that New Jersey customers with Scientific-Atlanta digital
set-tops will receive the new service later this year, and that it also
plans to roll it out in other markets over the course of the year). As its
name suggests, the new service--which requires no extra equipment and

The BBC has formed a partnership with Nintendo UK to make its BBC
iPlayer "catch-up TV" service available via the Nintendo Wii gaming
console (note: last month, the Corporation also made the iPlayer
available via the Apple iPhone). The partnership was announced by
Erik Huggers, the BBC's group controller for future media and
technology, in a keynote speech at the MIPTV-Milia conference in
Cannes earlier this month. "Working with Nintendo marks another
exciting milestone for BBC iPlayer," he said. "It underlines our
commitment to reaching new audiences by making BBC iPlayer

--Player Version 2.7 Integrates Microsoft Silverlight, Atlas Ad Server

--Appoints New President and COO

--New Deals with tvtv, CAN Communicate and FIFA, Fox Intl's BabyTV

Broadband TV infrastructure company, Narrowstep (note: the
company's telvOS technology has been used to power a number of
high-profile broadband TV services, including the ITV Local service of
UK commercial terrestrial broadcaster, the Independent Television
Network; it recently announced that it was shifting the focus of its sales
and marketing efforts away from smaller niche content
providers--which it says "traditionally had lower margins and less

The BBC recently relaunched its younger-skewing digichannel, BBC
Three, as a multiplatform service with programming that heavily
features interactivity, user-generated content and social-networking
components. The channel, which according to its controller, Danny
Cohen, aims to "become Britain's ambitious multiplatform network,
combining television and the Web into a single, integrated offering,"
now simulcasts all its programming on the Internet; invites viewers to
upload clips of themselves introducing their favorite programs, the best
of which are featured during the channel's peak-time schedule; and,
according to its press materials, promises to produce original, online

CBS Sports contacted [itvt] last week to provide statistics on the
broadband video service it offered for the recent NCAA Division I
Men's Basketball Championship (popularly referred to as "March
Madness"). According to the company: