Interactive TV News Round-Up (II): BBC, Sony, BlackArrow, Bravo

Due to the large volume of news being generated by this week's 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), we are covering stories in this issue in round-up/summary format. We anticipate that it will take us several days to process all the news from the show: so if your company has sent us a press release or briefed us on an announcement, and you don't yet see your news covered in this issue, please bear with us. While the [itvt] editorial team catches up with CES news, please check out the live Twitter coverage of the show from [itvt] bloggers, Will Keller and Zachary Weiner, by following the @tswedlow Twitter feed.

•  The BBC has released the schedule of programming and interactive content that will be available via the BBC Red Button service through January 15th.
• In other BBC news: The corporation has launched its BBC News connected-TV app on Sony's connected-TV platform in the UK (note: the app debuted last June on Samsung's connected-TV platform, and subsequently launched on Panasonic's connected-TV platform). According to a posting on a BBC blog: 1) "Visits to the product in the UK increase significantly at weekends, and in the evening between 8:00PM and 11:00PM," which is "quite different to our Web site, where UK usage tends to peak in the middle of weekdays." And 2) "On average, users of the product engage with 6.2 'pages' per day, which could be a video or a text story, but the vast majority (around 97%) are videos."
• VOD dynamic advertising-insertion specialist, BlackArrow, has appointed Joe Matarese, who currently serves as VP of Arris's VOD business unit, as CTO, according to a report by Light Reading Cable's Jeff Baumgartner.
• Bravo has kicked off the new season of its interactive show, "Watch What Happens Live," which will now air Sundays through Thursdays. "I am so excited about the new strip," host, Andy Cohen, said in a prepared statement. "I am especially thrilled Sandra Bernhard has signed on as a regular contributor: she is one of a kind and always keeps it fresh. Our 'Ralph Fiennes Pajama Party' is going to be epic, and this is all just the beginning of what we're planning--which is to make the show even more spontaneous, fun and interactive." More information on the show's new season is available here.