facebook

ABC on Tuesday kicked off a promotion that will give Facebook fans of its long-running medical drama series, "Grey's Anatomy," the opportunity to select the official poster art for the show's seventh season.

[itvt] has just published an INTERVIEW with Chris Ulmer, director of application solutions at interactive TV software specialist, Alticast (note: the company's areas of expertise include DVB-MHP, OCAP/tru2way, EBIF, IPTV and mobile TV), and Anne Dirkse, Alticast's director of technical services, application solutions.

6rounds--a Tel Aviv-based company which offers a real-time interactive video chat platform that allows users to video-chat while watching video, playing games and otherwise using online media in real time (note: the company, which was founded in 2008, has so far raised $2 million in venture capital from Rhodium and Startup Factory)--said Tuesday that it has rebranded itself as Rounds and that it has launched a version of its platform, called Video Chat Rounds, for Facebook.

Interactive broadband video advertising technology provider, Jivox (note: for an overview of the interactive advertising formats offered by the company, including formats that integrate social media, see the article published on itvt.com, January 20th), said Monday that its video ad network now reaches over 110 million unique visitors--or about 51.5% of the total US Internet population--according to comScore's latest monthly Video Metrix Report, which lists Jivox's ad network as one of the top-50 video publisher/network properties.

Here are some other interactive TV-related stories we didn't have room for in this issue:

Because the [itvt] editorial team has been on the road the past few weeks, we are covering recent news stories in summary/round-up form. We anticipate that it will take a few days for us to catch up with all the recent news: so if your company has sent us a press release or briefed us on an announcement, and you don't yet see your news covered in this issue, please bear with us. We apologize for any inconvenience to our readers.

Hive Media, a San Francisco-based company that specializes in branded social games, says that it has been tapped by Discovery Communications to develop and produce a social game based on "Deadliest Catch," which is currently the highest-rated show on the Discovery Channel (note: the show, which is produced by Original Productions, is a documentary reality series that centers on the crews of crab fishing boats on the Bering Sea). The game is slated to be released in November on Facebook. The deal between the companies is for the North American market only, and was brokered on behalf of Discovery by its licensing agent, the Joester Loria Group.

In a posting on its corporate blog last week, Justin.tv, a San Francisco-based company that bills itself as "the largest online community for people to broadcast, watch and interact around live video," announced that it has rolled out deeper Facebook integration, in order to help users to discover their Facebook friends on its service and to enable them to share more easily on Facebook when they broadcast.

Ion Television, a general entertainment network that claims to reach over 98 million US households via cable, satellite and the TV stations of its parent company, Ion Media Networks, has launched an interactive microsite to accompany the primetime crime drama series, "Without a Trace" (note: the latter--which aired for seven years on CBS, ending its run on that network in 2009--premiered on Ion Television on Monday). According to Ion, the microsite (http://www.iontelevision.com/withoutatrace) provides what it bills as a "multi-tiered interactive Web experience that will invite viewers to take part in their own investigation."

The [itvt] editorial team is on the road this week, so we are covering most stories in round-up/summary form, and we anticipate that there will be some additional interruptions of our regular news publishing schedule beyond that. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

CBS Sports contacted [itvt] Wednesday to let us know that it has tapped South African-born two-time NBA MVP, Steve Nash, for a project that will see him traveling to South Africa and filing a series of video segments and reports on the 2010 World Cup, as well as interacting with viewers through social media. The reports will be produced in partnership with Nash's production company, Meathawk.

The BBC on Wednesday unveiled a new beta version of its broadband VOD/OTT service, the BBC iPlayer, that features 1) what the corporation calls a "simplified and intuitive" user experience that is intended to make it easier to find content on the service; 2) personalization options that the corporation says will allow users to "create their own iPlayer experience"; and 3) social media integration. A new mobile version of the iPlayer is expected to launch in a couple of weeks.

Broadband video platform provider, Brightcove, says that its platform will provide support for the Open Graph and new set of Social Plug-ins that were announced by social networking giant, Facebook, at its f8 Conference in San Francisco, Wednesday (note: an explanation of the Open Graph and the new plug-ins can be found here).

Paris-based video-sharing site operator, Dailymotion, contacted [itvt] Wednesday to let us know that users of its site can now share videos in their Facebook profile, using the new Facebook Social Plug-In "Like" button. With one click of the button, the company says, a video is embedded into a Facebook user's Wall, and the button will also allow users to associate a personal comment with the shared video.

Here is a round-up of some other recent interactive TV-related stories that we didn't have room for in this issue: