Interactive TV News Round-Up (V): TVGuide.com, Ustream, Mobile Roadie, Wowza, Encoding.com

Because the [itvt] editorial team is catching up with a backlog of news--and has also been working on TVOT NYC Intensive 2011--we are covering stories in this issue in round-up/summary format.

• TVGuide.com earlier this month launched a new version of its Watchlist entertainment guide. "The new version of Watchlist enables users to easily find and share where to watch their favorite shows, sports teams and actors," the company states in its press materials. "It also integrates original TVGuide.com editorial, recommendations and social networking tools, including the 'I'll Watch' check-in feature that allows users to broadcast what they'll be watching to their social graph. Since the feature launched in October, TVGuide.com has registered more than 3.5 million check-ins, currently averaging 20,000 check-ins per day. TVGuide.com's Watchlist features include: 1) Comprehensive entertainment guide: personalized listings, video-on-demand options, and online videos from over 120 sources. 2) Personalized favorites: TV shows, sports teams and actors. 3) Social integrations: TVGuide.com's 'I'll Watch' check-in functionality, Twitter feed from users' favorites' official accounts, and ability to see Facebook friends' favorite shows. 4) Original editorial content: curated editorial content, recommendations and celebrity Watchlists."
• Live streaming video specialist, Ustream, has announced a partnership with Mobile Roadie which it says will enable users of its service to incorporate their Ustream channels into customized branded mobile applications for iOS and Android devices. The launch of the partnership sees Ustream abandoning its own Ustream Live Mobilizer offering, which also allowed its customers to develop their own customized apps for their Ustream channels. "Mobile Roadie is a leading mobile app platform provider and their easy-to-use solution powers some of the top artists, personalities and brands around," Ustream states on its corporate blog. "Check out some of the cool things you will be able to do with the Mobile Roadie platform: 1) Send push messages automatically when you go live. 2) 'Check in' to a stream and share to Facebook/Twitter. 3) Collect real-time analytics and location data on your live streams. 4) Charge a one-time or monthly fee for users to view your Ustream content (pay-per-view). 5) Allow users to interact with you and each other as they view your live stream."
• Media server software company, Wowza Media Systems, and video encoding service provider, Encoding.com, contacted [itvt] Tuesday to let us know that they have formed a partnership which they say will provide Wowza customers with custom Encoding.com presets, in order to simplify the preparation and transcoding of videos into the optimal formats for adaptive bitrate delivery by the Wowza Media Server. " The award-winning Wowza Media Server supports both live and VOD adaptive bitrate streaming," the companies explain in their press materials. "However, encoding file content for adaptive bitrate delivery to popular playback clients, such as Flash, Silverlight, and Apple iPhone/iPad, can be challenging for many enterprises. Utilizing Encoding.com's cloud-based encoding solution and proprietary Encoding Intelligence, Wowza customers can take advantage of a new set of Wowza encoding presets to easily produce common adaptive bitrate files from the plethora of source file formats for any-screen delivery by Wowza Media Server." Said Encoding.com president, Jeff Malkin: "Wowza has done an amazing job simplifying the very complex process of streaming video to a plethora of devices and platforms. This partnership expands that notion by leveraging Encoding.com's custom Wowza transcoding presets, so Wowza customers can remove yet another complicated component in their video workflow."