Monday’s Social TV Must-Reads (April 29)
Our top story today is Viggle’s announcement of a contest for developers to compete to create apps for the Viggle platform.
We start our midday roundup of Social TV must-reads with the latest ratings news from Sunday night. Lots of news about online video as ad views pass 13 billion in March, attracting the attention of Twitter and Facebook, of course. Check out these stories and more.
Top Story
Viggle Announces AppJam Challenge for TV Companion Apps Call for Submissions
Viggle (Symbol: VGGL), a free cutting-edge mobile app that operates an intelligent “second screen” for television, today announced that AppJam, a competition to create TV companion apps for the Viggle platform, is officially inviting software developers to submit their entries now through June 27, 2013.
Ratings
TV ratings: ‘The Good Wife’ finale helps CBS lead Sunday, ‘Family Guy’ tops demo
Fast National ratings for Sunday, April 28, 2013 Per usual of late, the broadcast networks didn’t do a whole lot in the ratings Sunday night. Only one show, FOX’s “Family Guy,” scored so much as a 2.5 rating among adults 18-49, while almost everything else fell below the 2.0 mark.
Video
Twitter and Facebook Are Poised to Challenge YouTube
U.S. advertisers will spend $4.14 billion on digital video this year, according to eMarketer estimates. Yet while Twitter and Facebook are among the most popular ways to find and watch videos, they’ll only see a tiny sliver of those dollars since they don’t house the content.
Online Video: 39B Watched, Ad Views Surpass 13B for First Time
Some 182.5 million Americans watched 39.3 billion online content videos in March 2013, and the number of video ad views reached an all-time high of 13.2 billion, according to comScore Video Metrix data released this week.
Research
Top Tweet Costs Just $150
Damien Meyer | AFP | Getty Images While Twitter may not sell interactions, there’s a thriving black market around the sale of Twitter followers, retweets and favorites. Recently, the multi-million dollar underground economy surrounding fake Twitter followers was the subject of a New York Times story.
Facebook deserted by millions of users in biggest markets
Facebook has lost millions of users per month in its biggest markets, independent data suggests, as alternative social networks attract the attention of those looking for fresh online playgrounds. As Facebook prepares to update investors on its performance in the first three months of the year, with analysts forecasting revenues up 36% on last year, studies suggest that its expansion in the US, UK and other major European countries has peaked.
Social Media News
Starbucks presses social media onward
Back in the social-media stone age, about 2005, customers who yearned to interact with Starbucks could talk to a barista or read quotes on its coffee cups.
YouTube to step up the funny in May with launch of Comedy Week
Daniel Tosh, watch your back. Internet comedy fans won’t need Tosh or his Comedy Central show “Tosh.0″ to filter through millions of hours of video to find the funniest content during the week of May 19-25.
Sports
Irrelevant Justice
After countless of hours on TV, the NFL Draft ended as it usually does with the last pick, Mr. Irrelevant. During the three-day event, draft pundits talked about 253 players, their size, their skills and their potential impact. When it came to the 254th player, the experts didn’t have to say much.
Content
New reality show to skip TV and be viewable through social media
The Chernin Group, headed by media heavyweight Peter Chernin, is producing a new series that will be distributed completely through social media, skipping TV. Titled “@Summerbreak,” the show will “air” through Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube and Instagram. AT&T is the sole sponsor of the show, which will launch this summer.
Spicier ‘All My Children,’ ‘One Live to Live’ debut online
For years, Patti Werynski has kept the flame alive for soap opera fans from her Largo home, organizing meet-ups with stars, even as TV networks canceled several of the daytime programs and critics proclaimed the genre all but dead.That’s why Monday should be a time of triumph for fans like her.
Facebook usage data reveals just how ‘depressingly stereotypical’ your life probably is
Social networks offer unparalleled insights into how humans interact with each other- assuming you know how to look at the data. This is clear judging by the latest analysis from answer engine Wolfram Alpha, which examined the usage habits its Facebook Personal Analytics users and found that…well, ya’ll are pretty boring.
Hardware
LG’s curved 55-inch OLED TV now open for preorders
The 55EA9800, priced at roughly $13,500, will be available starting next month, but for starters will be limited to the Korean market. (Credit: LG Electronics) After being the first TV manufacturer to launch an OLED TV, LG is now taking preorders for a new model featuring a curved screen.
Release
Vidicom Produces Social TV That Talks Back with AARP and Jane Pauley
(RELEASE) NEW YORK–Emmy award winning broadcast journalist Jane Pauley is back and interacting with audiences through a live interactive webcast. After her monthly TODAY show broadcast, “Life Reimagined” continues as an interactive live video conversation from the studios of Vidicom, which created the award-winning tactic InteracTV.
Latin Market
Univision Takes Its Bilingual Video Platform to Mobile
Marketers have long preached about speaking to people “in their own language,” but normally only as a metaphor. Univision’s nascent UVideos, a Spanish-English digital video network, suggests brands should take that advice literally. UVideos will go live via Xbox’s SmartGlass feature in May and for BlackBerry users during June-promising to further bolster what’s been an auspicious beginning for the six-month-old platform.
Social TV Daily publishes a daily roundup of news articles across the Internet. Excerpts are drawn from the content and full URLs are included.
