News Round-Up (VIII)

The [itvt] editorial team will be on the road this week and next, so we will be 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.

• TV search and recommendations specialist, TV Genius, has announced that it has won a Red Herring Top 100 Europe award. "We're delighted to be named a Red Herring Europe 100 winner, in recognition of the enhancement that our Content Discovery Platform is making to the TV viewing experience," TV Genius CEO, Tom Weiss, said in a prepared statement. "Our search and relevant recommendation functionality is enabling viewers to find the content they want to watch and discover more programming that is highly relevant to their interests. Our aim is to provide operators and content owners with a platform across TV, the Web and mobile that will enable their viewers to discover more and consume more of the great content available to them."
• Verizon FiOS TV has announced the launch of an "International Soccer Widget," which it says is similar to its existing NBA League Pass, Baseball and Pro Football widgets, and provides viewers with "instant access to real-time scores, headline news, player reports and more for your favorite international soccer team throughout the season." Viewers can click on the widget to subscribe to the Fox Soccer Plus programming package: according to Verizon, the widget provides subscribers to that package with "unique on-screen alerts with real-time scoring updates for teams in top international leagues and competitions," and allows them to "set up an alert for the 'Start of the Game,' 'Start of the 2nd Half,' 'Goal Scored,' and 'End of Game.'"
• Verizon Wireless has announced that its V Cast mobile TV service is now available on its Android-based smartphones.