Interactive TV News Round-Up (III): Comcast Spotlight, Cox, 3G Studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment

Because the [itvt] editorial team has been busy this week working on the TV of Tomorrow Show 2011, we are covering recent news in round-up/summary form. Once again, we anticipate that it will take us a few days to catch up with all the news we plan to cover: so if your company has sent us a press release or briefed us on an announcement, and you don't see your news covered in this issue, please bear with us.

• Comcast's advertising sales arm, Comcast Spotlight, believes that 2011 will be the "most successful year yet" for banner advertising on Comcast's i-Guide EPG, according to a blog post by VP of advanced advertising sales, Chip Meehan. "In late 2006 we started with very limited distribution in just a few markets," Meehan writes. "The advantage the i-Guide banner offered sales, marketing, and, most importantly, consumers was obvious and distribution climbed steadily. By 2010 we had rolled the banner out to virtually the entire Motorola set-top box (STB) universe and were selling a full footprint of more than 15 million households. This year, we're pleased to report even greater distribution gains as we will enable the almost five million Scientific-Atlanta (SA) STB's within our footprint. This is particularly noteworthy because SA homes have historically lagged Motorola homes in video-on-demand (VOD) behavior. Banner-enhanced navigation to VOD and linear programming will bring SA homes up to the Motorola customers' industry-leading performance. We have already added close to 500,000 SA homes, and by year-end should have our entire footprint enabled. Comcast also benefits from an extraordinarily high ratio of more than two STB's per household in our Motorola universe. Projecting that number to the expected banner distribution, on a full-footprint basis we will be selling almost 40 million 'viewing decision' points. That's scale and that makes a difference...The platform enhancements don't stop at simple distribution growth in 2011. We have some exciting new ad units in future releases where that will be beneficial to our tune-in and studio advertisers as consumers become more and more empowered to control their viewing from a variety of devices. We have built a solid business with the i-Guide, supported our core business in a key category, and learned about interactive TV products. That learning will enable us to speed the new generation of EBIF-enabled interactive linear and VOD products to market. We're just getting started on this interactive journey, and the i-Guide has been at the forefront of our move to this space. It will remain an important tool for Spotlight for years to come." (h/t Steve Donohue, Light Reading Cable)
• Cox Communications has launched Cox Mobile Connect, a free app for iPad, iPhone and Android that allows Cox Advanced TV and Telephone customers to manage their DVR and phone services remotely. The app supersedes a standalone DVR management app that launched last fall. According to the MSO, the app allows customers to: "1) Schedule recordings 'on-the-fly,' anytime, anywhere. 2) View TV listings and home call logs. 3) Check voicemails and manage home phone call settings while away from home and PC. 4) Get help with common support issues instantly. 5) Receive weather alerts and school closings. 6) Eas[ily] access...Cox Communications' Facebook page."
• Game development company, 3G Studios, has teamed with Sony Pictures Entertainment to launch a social game based on the classic TV game show format, "The Dating Game." The game, located at http://www.datinggame.com, can be played via Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Friendster, Bebo and Hi5. "Just as in the show, 'The Dating Game' consists of a main contestant and three hopefuls," 3G Studios explains in its press materials. "The main contestant first answers a series of questions based on his or her personal preferences and then the three panelists must advance through three rounds of gameplay, including Question and Answer, Word Association and Ad Lib to win a 'date' with the bachelor or bachelorette. In each round, the player whose answers most closely resemble those of the main contestant's receives the most points and advances into the next round in the lead. Two types of rewards--points and hearts--can be earned or purchased and traded for in-game premiums, such as virtual gifts and special avatar features." According to an article in USA Today, 3G Studios CEO, James Kosta "hinted other versions of 'The Dating Game' are in the works for other platforms, including iOS devices and some interactive television-based services."