May 2009

The Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM) last week announced the results of a study of broadband video users and their viewing habits that it commissioned from The Nielsen Company. The report, entitled "Crossing Over: Understanding Viewer Multi-Screen Migration" and billed as based on a complex, multi-dimensional segmentation analysis that was developed by Nielsen, focuses on a segment of consumers whom it dubs "Extreme Techies" and who it says watch significantly more broadband video than other consumers.

Live broadband video and rich media asset management solutions provider, The FeedRoom, announced last week that it has formed a partnership with Clearspring Technologies, a provider of distribution, management and monetization services for widgets and other distributable Web content. According to the company, the partnership deal will allow it to enhance its social bookmarking capabilities and add expanded video content distribution capabilities to its flagship FeedRoom 4.0 Enterprise Video Platform (EVP). By integrating Clearspring's capabilities at the player level, The FeedRoom says, it will be able to allow viewers to easily bookmark and share video content across the Internet via social networks, blogs and bookmarking sites, using simple point-and-click tools.

Sony Ericsson last week announced plans to launch on June 4th a multiplatform interactive show, entitled "Pocket TV" and devoted to music and "youth culture." The show, which was produced by Iris Experience and JA Digital, will be available in 90-second episodes on a dedicated WAP site (pockettvshow.mobi) and in three-minute episodes on a dedicated YouTube channel (youtube.com/pockettvshow). The show will have presences on Twitter and Facebook, and will invite viewers to influence its subject matter through their comments on those services and on YouTube.

New York-based interactive marketing company, Oddcast, announced Wednesday that it has released an embeddable widget version of its 3D VideoStar technology.

At the ANGA Cable show in Cologne, Thursday, interactive TV and conditional access technology provider, NDS, announced that it has secured the first deployment of its XTV DVR solution in Germany: Tele Columbus and PrimaCom, two independent German cable operators which work in tandem (and which, between them, have around 3.5 million subscribers), have selected the solution to launch what is billed as Germany's first cable HD DVR service. According to NDS, the new DVR service offered by the two operators will be based on a hybrid set-top box that incorporates an Ethernet connection, as well as dual cable tuners.

Broadband video publishing solutions provider, Brightcove, has secured yet another deal to power video on a newspaper's Web site (note: the company's newspaper customers include the New York Times and the Washington Post in the US; the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian in the UK; and 60 regional newspapers in Germany): the company announced Thursday that Barcelona-based newspaper, La Vanguardia, has chosen its platform to power its advertising-supported online video initiatives, and will use the platform to publish video on its site, integrate advertising, and expand distribution through search engines.

Wrestling promoter, Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling, announced Thursday that it has launched an online video-on-demand service, called TNA Video Vault, that offers coverage of TNA pay-per-view events and specialty features (200 hours of programming in all), and that will soon offer exclusive, original programming.