Thursday’s Social TV Must-Reads (April 11)
The reverb from Fox’s threat to leave the broadcast airwaves continues and inspires the FT to report on the changing television business, making for the top story on our mid-day must-read news stories from around the web.
“American Idol” was last night’s most-buzzed TV show, according to Trendrr, while SocialGuide measured an NBA game on the west coast as the most-tweeted program, with Idol second. Read our look at the nightly social TV buzz here and, to find out what the critics are saying, you should read here.
The NAB show continues in Las Vegas and you can keep up by reading our roundups of Twitter sharing by show-goers right here.
While Las Vegas was filled with broadcasters, another gathering in Cannes, France, was also drawing the TV industry and you can read about new and innovative TV technologies as well as sports announcements, apps, hardware, research, cable, advertising and the Latin market.
Take a look and tell us what you think! You can like us at Facebook.com/socialtvdaily and follow us @socialtvdaily on Twitter.
- Top Story
Television Set for a Revolution – FT.com
Never underestimate the power of a large group of committed couch potatoes. About 90 per cent of Americans pay for television, giving them scores of channels to choose from, but four free-to-air networks they can pick up with a “rabbit ears” aerial but four free-to-air networks they can pick up with a “rabbit ears” aerial still account for 96 of the top 100 prime-time programs.
- TV Ratings
Viewers Don’t Feel ‘Ready for Love,’ ‘NCIS’ Dips to Season Low
The Voice (4.2 adults) was up a tenth of a point from last Tuesday’s showing on NBC, though the night’s most robust broadcast didn’t ensure a strong premiere for Ready for Love (1.6 adults).
- MIPCube Coverage
The MIPCube Innovation Show: Winners of MIPCube Lab, Content 360 & Brand of the Year 2013
Tomorrow’s talent: today’s MIPCube competition winners! This program includes demos from the winning MIPCube Lab startup, the winner of TV Hack, the winner of best branded entertainment campaign (Brand of the Year Award), and the winner of Content 360, who will explain his or her brilliant transmedia idea for our sponsoring brand.
Digital buyers boost MipTV
Digital buyers boost MipTV MIPTV: A major influx of video-on-demand (VoD) buyers changed the complexion of MipTV this week, the conference’s organiser Reed Midem said today. In its traditional conference wrap announcement, the company said more than 11,000 people from over 100 countries came to the 50th MipTV this week.
- Sports
NBC marquee TV sports events to be streamed digitally
NHL fans, like these Los Angeles Kings fans celebrating after the team won the Stanley Cup last season, will be able to follow Cup action digitally this season as the Cup finals will be streamed live for the first time.
WWE’s Promo Mania
John Cena may be the face of the WWE, but he’s more comfortable limiting his appearances to signing autographs for fans, visiting the troops or supporting the Make-A-Wish Foundation as its most popular wish-fulfiller. (From the pages of the April 9 issue of Variety.)
ESPN sends another comical memo freaking out about social media
If there’s one thing ESPN is most concerned about, it’s making sure nobody steps out of line in social media. Deadspin leaked an ESPN memo today that reminds everyone to behave themselves on Twitter and elsewhere. The rules are so stifling, I wouldn’t be surprised if EVERYONE there created fake aliases on Twitter just so they could trash each other without consequence.
- NAB
“American Idol” Inducted into NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame
(Las Vegas, 2013 NAB, April 9, 2013) FOX’s long-running television icon and a model of innovative use of social media in entertainment, American Idol was inducted into the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame at yesterday’s NAB 2013 Television Luncheon.
TVTechnology: NAB Show Focuses On Social Media
LAS VEGAS-Like so many of its technology forefathers, social media has trodden a familiar path on its road to acceptance. Trepidation at first. A little worry mixed with bemused interest. Keen acceptance. And now? Like so many technologies before it, the cocktail of social media and broadcasting has coalesced into a promising-but sometimes confusing-muddle of stops and starts.
- Apps
Draw Something app to be reinvented as Channel 4 quiz show
Draw Something, the hugely popular app dubbed “Pictionary for mobile” from Farmville developer Zynga, is set to make it to the big screen as a TV quiz on Channel 4. The addictive app, which Zynga acquired along with its developer for $180m (£113m) just six weeks after Draw Something launched in March last year, is the inspiration for a new Channel 4 Friday night gameshow called Draw It!
- Hardware
Shares of PC Companies and Their Suppliers Whacked on Sales Decline
By all indications it’s going to be a rough day on the stock market for any company exposed to the personal computer business. Yesterday’s reports from the market research firms IDC and Gartner showed conclusively what pretty much anyone paying attention had already suspected intuitively, that the bottom has finally fallen out of the PC business.
Roku hits 5 million sales ” Digital TV Europe
Streaming video box-maker Roku has now shipped 5 million devices in its home market of the US since launching five years ago. The firm, which announced the milestone figure in an official blog post, said that since May 2008 it has delivered 8 billion streams of video and music to Roku players.
Microsoft’s grand ambitions to take over TV rest inside the Next Xbox | Digital Trends
Microsoft’s ambitions for the Xbox have never been secret, nor have they been quiet: Microsoft wants to own living room entertainment. The Xbox 360 was never, from its inception, only a gaming machine for Microsoft. It was a device intended to grow Xbox Live, which would in turn grow its premium television offerings.
- People
Bruno Mars to Open ‘The 2013 Billboard Music Awards’ Airing Sunday May 19 on ABC
via press release: GRAMMY AWARD-WINNING ARTIST BRUNO MARS TO OPEN “THE 2013 BILLBOARD MUSIC AWARDS,” AIRING SUNDAY, MAY 19 ON ABC Atlantic recording artist and 14-time Grammy Award winner Bruno Mars, whose single, “When I Was Your Man,” has ascended to the No.
- Pervasive Mike Proulx on Social TV
Q&A: The State of Social TV Right Now | Social TV and Trending Topics: What’s Hot Right Now – Advertising Age
Last February, Mike Proulx and his co-author Stacey Shepatin published the book “Social TV: How Marketers Can Reach and Engage Audiences by Connecting Television to the Web, Social Media, and Mobile.”
- Research
Connecting with ‘Generation C’ in the fragmented media landscape
Getting in touch with today’s audience is becoming an increasingly tricky task as their attentions become fragmented over the many devices they use during the day. Kent Parmington from comScore laid out the problem in the ad:tech session “Video Evolved: YouTube, Connected TVs & Why the Digital Newfronts Matter.”
Why Monday, Thursday and Sunday Are Important and Other Digital Video Facts
Which mobile device is popular with “content snackers?” Which social media site has the most video referrals? And what is the significance of Monday, Thursday and Sunday in regard to video viewing? Lucky you, I have the answers to all these questions. Even more lucky for you, I didn’t come up with myself.
- Cable
TV’s new world: How cable companies plan to keep pace
Television distributors are tweaking their business strategies to compete against a plethora of competitors as content becomes increasingly available in the online world. Consumers are demanding more control over what they watch. There is pent-up demand for slimmer TV packages and niche content of all kinds.
- Advertising
Digital Content Newfronts Ad Deals Expected To Exceed $1 Billion
Last year’s Digital Content Newfronts helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars of ad money for the online video industry. According to , this year’s event is set to blow that already-impressive figure out of the water.
- Latin Market
Mexican heir to enter Latino media market Hemisphere Media
Hemisphere Media Group to target Latino viewers The billionaire Beverly Hills son of one of Mexico’s richest men is about to enter the Hispanic media market, hoping to become a major player in Spanish-language television. Gabriel Brener, who co-owns the Houston Dynamo professional soccer team with boxing legend Oscar de la Hoya, is behind the new company called Hemisphere Media Group.
