Interactive TV News Round-Up (I): ABC News, Bluefin Labs, Amino, Arris (Moxi)

Because the [itvt] editorial team has been working on The TV of Tomorrow Show 2012, we are covering stories in this issue in round-up/summary format.

•  ABC News said Tuesday that it is partnering with social-TV measurement and analytics company, Bluefin Labs, for social-TV analysis of "coverage of key nights in the 2012 presidential campaign, including on-air use of social media insights, analytics and data visualizations during ABC News broadcasts of Super Tuesday, the presidential and vice presidential debates, the Republican and Democratic conventions, Election Night and the inauguration. Since the launch of ABC News' Political Stock Market in November," the broadcaster's press materials continue, "Bluefin Labs' leading social-TV analytics technology has given ABC News viewers real-time assessment of how voters are reacting to every twist and turn in an ever-changing presidential primary. Data visualizations of social conversations and sentiment have also been used on air like never before. As these historic nights unfold, Bluefin Labs will be monitoring public reaction to televised events and providing real-time feedback to ABC News anchors, correspondents and producers, giving ABC News viewers one more way to see the whole picture. Bluefin Labs' technology, grounded in over 15 years of research at the MIT Media Lab, provides a real-time view into social media conversations about TV--volume of social buzz, topics of conversation, sentiment, and trends. This technology allows ABC News to tap into voters' reactions and bring TV viewers into the conversation like never before. Bluefin Labs representatives will also be on site for ABC News broadcasts and will have key contributions to ABC News Digital stories. Here are some examples of how ABC News has already integrated Bluefin Labs' data visualizations and analysis into broadcast coverage of events--from presidential debates to the Super Bowl: 1) 'This Week with George Stephanopoulos' discussed public reaction to key moments of the ABC News New Hampshire Republican Debate on January 8th...2) 'Good Morning America' used Bluefin findings to discuss the public reaction to the New York Giants Super Bowl win Monday, February 6th."
• Cambridge, UK-based IP set-top box company, Amino Technologies, has released financial results for its fiscal year ended November 30th. According to the company: 1) Revenue rose 18% to £51.8 million (2010: £44.0 million). 2) Gross profit rose 16% to £14.5 million (2010: £12.5 million). 3) Adjusted gross margin was 6 percentage points higher at 34.5% (2010: 28.5%). 4) Gross margin before adjustments was 28.0% (2010: 28.5%). 5) EBITDA increased by £3.8 million to £4.4 million (2010: £0.6 million). 6) Operating profit before goodwill impairment was £1.7 million (2010: loss of £0.9 million). And 7) Year-end cash significantly strengthened at £14.1 million (2010: £3.6 million). The company--which has proposed a maiden dividend of 2p--says that its adjusted gross profit for the year excludes "the first 50,000 OTT order for Telecom Italia at revenue value of £7.4 million (2010: nil) and zero margin (2010: nil) and provision for legacy stock £0.8m (2010: nil)." Said Amino's non-executive chairman, Keith Todd: "This improved financial performance has been driven by progress in two important areas. The first area is product. Last year the board made a clear commitment to simplify and strengthen Amino's product range. This involved reducing the complexity of the company's technology platform; broadening and deepening the industry partnerships that make the delivery of its product possible; and making Amino's entire product set more scalable so that it can meet the needs of more customers, more quickly than before. I am pleased to say that each of these objectives has been achieved and the company is benefiting in a number of important markets from a growing customer acceptance of this stronger, simplified product range. The second area is operational performance. Last year the company focused hard on improving Amino's management of its supply chain. Improvements were necessary to help reduce manufacturing costs, simplify component supply and secure competitive forward pricing. These improvements have taken place, enabling the company to deliver consistent quality and supply of product in a year where natural disasters in Japan and Thailand have placed enormous pressure on component availability for the entire electronics industry."
• Arris has announced that its Moxi HD DVR and Moxi Mate companion device (which it acquired via its purchase of Digeo back in 2009) are no longer available in retail, and that it will cease providing EPG data and technical support for the Moxi HD DVR on December 31st, 2013. The company is instead focusing on deploying DVR's, based on Moxi technology, with cable operators. Dave Zatz has more.