At the NAB show in Las Vegas, Tuesday, mobile video and in-stream ad management company, mDialog, launched in-stream interactive overlay ads for the new Apple iPad. According to the company, which says it delivers video across Akamai's HD Network, advertisers can now offer "perfectly targeted" interactive overlay advertising on live events and pre-recorded video streamed on the iPad. The overlays also allow viewers to choose on the fly which ad they would prefer to view, the company says.
 Interactive video commerce company, WatchNBuy.com, announced Wednesday that it is offering its interactive video player on a white-label basis to other Web site operators. The player, which is powered by technologies from Jivox, allows viewers to click on items for sale in a video, in order to launch supplemental product information that appears to the right of the screen, and lets them make purchases without stopping the video or leaving the video page. According to WatchNBuy.com, the player will work on any third-party Web site: Web site operators simply insert a line of code in the page in which they want the player to operate, the company says.
--BT Vision Plans to Undercut Sky's Pricing of Premium Sports Programming
--CBS to Air Interactive Show Featuring Super Bowl Commercials
--DVPRemote v. 1.4 Released
--Google Seeks Patent for System that Would Enable Advertisers to Create Own Interactive Overlay Ads
--ITU Releases Three-Stage Roadmap for 3D TV, Sky Taps 3ality for its New 3D TV Service
--Kaltura Launches Video Extensions for Joomla
--Microsoft Said to Be in Talks to Offer ESPN on Xbox
--NBC Unveils Broadband Video Plans for Winter Olympics
--never.no to Showcase Enhancements to its Interactive TV Product Line at BVE 2010
Because the [itvt] editorial team is busy working on The TV of Tomorrow Show (March 3rd-4th in San Francisco) and on our new, post-TVOT EBIF Intensive event (March 5th in San Francisco), we are covering a number of stories in this issue in summary form:
Online video advertising network operator, Tremor Media, on Wednesday announced a new series of broadband video advertising formats for its flagship Acudeo platform. "With our Acudeo technology tightly integrated within the player-environment across all of the sites in our in-stream network, Tremor Media is able to continually introduce new and innovative ad formats that can be reliably delivered at scale," Tremor Media CEO, Jason Glickman, said in a prepared statement. "These new formats benefit the entire video value chain--from advertisers to publishers to the end-consumer--by putting the viewer in control, enhancing engagement, and making video advertising more effective for brands."
According to Tremor Media, the new ad formats are:
Veeple, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based company that specializes in interactive online video solutions for marketers (note: for an in-depth overview of the company's products and strategy, see the interview with its co-founder and CEO, Scott Broomfield, that was published on itvt.com, April 22nd), has developed an interactive API and plug-in, called interPlay, which it says will allow users to add Veeple interactive functionality to their existing, third-party online video player.
--Company Has Raised $20 Million to Date
Broadband video platform provider, Ooyala, announced late Monday that it has closed a $10 million Series C funding round. The round--which brings the total raised by the company to date to $20 million--was led by new investor, Rembrandt Venture Partners, and saw the participation of current investors, including Sierra Ventures. As part of the investment, Rembrandt general partner, Sik Rhee, will join Ooyala's board.
--Company Launched Overlay.TV for Retail in June
 In a posting on its corporate blog, Monday, Overlay.TV, an Ottawa, Canada-based start-up that offers a platform which, among other things, allows users to add a layer of custom-designed, clickable content over broadband videos (note: for a detailed overview of Overlay.TV's platform, see the article published on itvt.com, October 2nd, 2008), announced that it has decided to focus its efforts on Overlay.TV for Retail, the interactive video commerce platform that it launched in June (
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--In Year Since Launch, Service Has Been Used to Create Interactive Narratives, Games, Menus and More
In a posting on its corporate blog, Monday, YouTube noted that its Interactive Video Annotations service--a set of tools that allow users to add text and hyperlinks directly onto their videos--is now one year old. According to the company, the service has since its summer, 2008 launch been "put to use with increasing sophistication" in order to, among other things:
--Other New Hires Announced Monday by National Geographic, NDS, BigBand, Red Bee Media
Broadband video platform provider, Ooyala, announced Monday night that it has appointed Jay Fulcher as president and CEO, effective immediately. Fulcher, who will also join the company's board, replaces Ooyala co-founder and CEO, Bismarck Lepe, who will now take on the position, president of product strategy, and report to Fulcher. Fulcher most recently served as president and CEO of publicly held Agile Software, a provider of product lifecycle management solutions, and led its sale to Oracle in late 2007. Prior to that, he spent five years at PeopleSoft, where, according to Ooyala, he led the transformation of that company's $1 billion+ global services organization after being president of its $400 million products division.
--Featured Artists Include Michael Jackson, Eminem, Britney Spears, Lady GaGa
 San Francisco-based privately funded interactive video and video analytics company, Clikthrough, announced last week that it has 1) debuted 35 new interactive music videos on its Web site as a result of new partnerships with Universal Music and Slip N Side Records (note: it already has a relationship in place with Sony Music/Photogenic Records); 2) launched a new version of its proprietary video analytics product, Traffic Jam; 3) made its Clikthrough Theater online showcase of interactive videos compatible with the iPhone and other mobile browsers; and 4) raised $1 million from what it calls "influential figures in the music business," bringing the total it ha
 Ooyala, a Silicon Valley-based company that offers solutions for broadband video management, delivery, syndication, and monetization (note: those solutions include an interactive video platform which the company claims automates video object recognition and tracking, and allows the creation of clickable objects within a video, enabling viewers, for example, to access more information on products featured in a commercial or show), will announce today that Akarag, a Japanese company that specializes in helping companies integrate digital media into their business, has joined its Technology Partnership program.
 New York-based interactive video specialist, KlickableTV, announced Tuesday that it has formed a strategic partnership with IMG Publishing, a division of the sports and entertainment company, IMG. The first IMG Publishing property to deploy KlickableTV's technology as a result of the partnership is TennisWeek.com, some of whose merchandise videos now allow viewers to click within them in order to access additional information on showcased products and links to ecommerce opportunities.
--Company Also Inviting Users to Upload Instructional Videos about its Service's Features
 In a posting on its business blog, Tuesday, YouTube announced the launch of an interactive "call-to-action overlay" service that it is offering at no extra charge to customers of its CPC Promoted Videos program. The service allows those customers to place semi-transparent overlays on top of their videos, containing clickable links to their Web sites or any other online location where supplemental information or ecommerce opportunities might be located (previously such links could only be located next to the video). "Adding a call-to-action overlay to your video is easy," the blog posting by YouTube product manager, Thai Tran, stated.
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 Our [itvt] free industry database called The [i]Database contains many listings of operators, broadcasters, software developers, design firms, manufacturers, Web sites, consultancies and many more organizations and people working in the interactive multiplatform TV industry. Upload your company or yourself!
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