Interactive TV News Round-Up (V): SocialGuide, SureWest, SeaChange International

Because the [itvt] editorial team has been working on TVOT NYC Intensive 2011, we are covering stories in this issue in round-up/summary format.

•  SocialGuide has released its social-TV ratings for the week of September 12th-18th. "The most talked about show for the week on social networks like Twitter and Facebook was the '63rd Primetime Emmy Awards,' which also won the Primetime slot; and Fox, on which the Awards aired, was the most social network of the week," a company spokesperson said in an email to [itvt].
• In other SocialGuide news: The company has launched SocialGuide Movies, which it bills as "the first real-time guide that tracks the social media activity around all theatrically released movies. SocialGuide captures the Twitter and Facebook conversations for all first-run releases from pre-release through their theatrical run, and ranks movies based on real-time social activity," the company's press materials continue. "The data SocialGuide collects presents an alternative metric to box-office numbers, gauging the social popularity of movies...With SocialGuide Movies, users can sort the ranking of films by categories including action/thriller, comedy, drama, horror, sci-fi/fantasy and kids. Users can also switch between viewing information on movies that are now in theaters to those coming soon. Through its proprietary intelligent social data collection system, SocialGuide tracks movie chatter on a 24-hour basis, four weeks prior to a movie's premiere and throughout the film's theatrical run. SocialGuide ranks a movie based on the amount of buzz it has received in the last 24 hours. It also reveals its position last week, its current peak position, and the number of weeks the movie has been in theaters. SocialGuide further analyzes the social buzz to provide the number of people who have expressed direct intention to see the movie, a user's friends' comments, the most retweeted comments, and filtered social streams of moviegoers and critics."
• SeaChange International said Monday that SureWest Communications has upgraded its SeaChange-based VOD service to VODlink 5.0, and that the upgrade, which took place at SureWest's Kansas City system, has enabled the operator to launch SeaChange's Watch & Buy tcommerce application. "SureWest will use Watch & Buy to allow subscribers to purchase, for home delivery, DVD and Blu-ray Disc versions of Warner Bros.' on-demand streamed movies directly through their VOD subscriber experience," SeaChange states in its press materials. "SeaChange has configured several first-run titles from Warner Bros. studios for disc purchase in Kansas City the same day they are released for VOD viewing, including 'Arthur,' 'Hall Pass,' 'Something Borrowed,' 'Sucker Punch,' 'Red Riding Hood' and 'Unknown.' In addition to launching Watch & Buy, SureWest is leveraging VODlink 5.0 to provide its subscribers with faster VOD navigation and program launch times along with enhanced graphics capabilities for its user experience. VODlink is integrated with SeaChange's Axiom on Demand VOD backoffice at SureWest, and can work with other third-party VOD products...Watch & Buy includes a lightweight set-top application, user interface customization, and fully managed backend order fulfillment. A DVD symbol appearing next to select titles in an operator's VOD library alerts subscribers that the title is also available for purchase as a DVD or download. Subscribers may be presented with the opportunity to order DVD's in different formats such as Blu-Ray." Said SureWest CTO, Ken Johnson: "SureWest is operating in an intensely competitive market in Kansas City, and we see our upgrade to VODlink 5.0 and the launch of Watch & Buy as a significant step in differentiating the services and experiences we can offer to current and potential subscribers. Being the first to deploy both VODlink 5.0 and Watch & Buy is indicative of SureWest's ability to continuously embrace new technologies and advanced services."