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Friday, September 10, 2010
[itvt] has just published in-depth audio interviews with 
Procter & Gamble has revealed plans to use augmented reality technology to make print ads for its Always Infinity brand of feminine pads interactive. What appears to be a prototype of the new ads (unless P&G has significantly scaled back its stated technological ambitions for the campaign--see the quote from the company below; [itvt] was unable to reach P&G to resolve the issue before we went to press) is available as a .PDF file at 
Over-the-top-TV specialist, Vudu (note: the company claims to have relationships in place with every major US movie studio and over 50 independent studios, enabling its OTT service to offer over 15,000 on-demand movies and TV episodes, of which around 2,000 are available in HD; the service has until now been delivered via the company's 1080p-enabled Vudu BX100, Vudu XL and Vudu XL2 set-tops), on Wednesday launched the second generation of its service, which it says has been specifically optimized for Internet-connected smart TV's.
Sonic Solutions, the digital media company that last year acquired the pioneering broadband VOD service, CinemaNow (it subsequently added "Roxio" to the service's name in order to make its branding consistent with its other products), announced Wednesday that it has developed a solution called CineVision Adaptive HD, which it bills as a "next-generation encoding, multiplexing, streaming and decoding system designed specifically to deliver the highest quality HD video possible to Internet-connected CE devices." 
US broadcast network, ABC, has developed a Twitter-based interactive mystery to maintain viewer interest in its comedy-drama series, "Castle," while the show is on hiatus (note: the show's second season premieres September 21st). The mystery's premise is explained by ABC as follows: "It's summertime, and New York City is hot and humid.
PBS Kids Sprout--a linear-TV, VOD and online children's programming service that is a joint venture between the eponymous pubcaster, Comcast, HIT Entertainment and Sesame Workshop (it claims that its VOD service has generated over half a billion views since its April, 2005 launch, and is the most popular service of its kind)--has announced plans to launch a three-hour interactive TV morning show called "Sprout's Wiggly Waffle," August 24th.
In a posting on his company's blog, Wednesday, Boxee founder and CEO, Avner Ronen, announced the availability of a Boxee application for Howcast, a broadband video service that offers short-form instructional/how-to videos. The service, which features over 100,000 videos in 25 categories, operates an Emerging Filmmakers Program that sees it working with filmmakers looking to create videos for it: it pays them a basic fee of $50 per video, and, if their video generates over 40,000 views, provides them with a 50% split of any advertising revenues the video generates. It also produces videos in-house and through partnerships with other media companies.
According to reports from the UK that were breaking just as [itvt] went to press, Microsoft is set to launch a new MSN Video Player service in that country that will feature free, full-length programming. At launch, around 60 titles--including "Hustle," "League of Gentlemen," "Peep Show," "Shameless" and "The Young Ones"--totaling around 300 hours of programming will be available on the browser-based service, thanks to new deals that Microsoft has signed with BBC Worldwide and All3Media.
The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project released a report Wednesday that details how rapidly usage of online video services has grown over the past few years. According to the report:
The BBC announced Tuesday that it has launched a program under which it is sharing its broadband video news content with UK newspaper Web sites free-of-charge. The corporation says that The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, and The Daily Mail will be the first newspapers to embed the content in their sites. It is making the content available under an initiative called Project Marquee, which calls for it--as a publicly funded public-service entity--to share its content, technology and knowledge with other UK entities.
SureWest Communications, an independent triple-play provider that offers service in and around Sacramento, Calif. and Kansas City, MO, announced Tuesday that it will deploy the Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV platform to power an advanced TV service over its IP-based fiber-to-the-home and copper networks in the greater Sacramento region. The company, which previously used Minerva's IPTV middleware platform for its Sacramento-area TV offering, anticipates that the new Mediaroom-powered service will be available to new customers by the end of the year.
Epix--a multiplatform subscription-based premium programming service which is a joint venture between Viacom, its Paramount Pictures arm, MGM and Lionsgate and which will have exclusive access to Paramount, Paramount Vantage MTV and Nickelodeon movies released theatrically on or after January 1st, 2008, and to MGM, United Artists and Lionsgate titles released theatrically on or after January 1st, 2009 (note: the venture, which says that it will offer "interactivity that will significantly enhance the entertainment experience," claims that it will have access to over 15,000 movies, as well as new, original TV series and live event programming)--announced i
