NBCUniversal, Comcast and HBO announced partnerships with Zeebox yesterday, a second screen app designed to augment the TV viewing experience.
NBC and Comcast join British Sky Broadcasting as investors in the startup, which launched in the UK last January and is now available as an Android, iOS and Web app here in the States.
The free app acts as a program guide that lets users know which shows are being viewed or discussed by friends. It also features Facebook and Twitter integration. Broadcasters can create a digital hub for programs that includes videos, games, polls, chatrooms and more.
“Like Shazam, it will extend its second screen experience to advertisements. Unlike Shazam, it will share revenue from enhanced commercials with all broadcasters,” reports Fast Company. “Adding a mobile component to a commercial can nudge consumers toward action (think ‘buy this now’ buttons) in a way that television ads can’t.”
For consumers, Zeebox replaces GetGlue as a means of sharing what you’re watching with friends — and replaces Google when you are searching for info about celebrities.
“Zeebox isn’t the most appealing second-screen product we’ve seen — it seems more like a mishmash of everything anyone could ever want to do in front of a television rather than a solution to a specific problem or desire — but by appeasing broadcasters, it has set itself up to be among the most popular,” notes the article.
Dish Network is in discussions with Viacom, Univision and Scripps regarding an over-the-top service that would deliver live cable TV via the Internet.
“Dish Network’s service would change the dynamics of the pay television business, breaking up the bundles that force customers to pay for channels they don’t watch,” reports Businessweek.
With a smaller bundle, the service would be priced lower than what consumers pay for cable TV. Dish would also be able to bypass sports, its biggest programming expense.
Sources suggest that Viacom might be willing to sell a smaller bundle of channels at a higher rate-per-channel than it does for full packages it offers to cable and satellite operators. The bundle would include Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.
“The effort would mark the biggest attempt to create an online service with live cable channels, a break from the approach taken by Netflix Inc. and Hulu LLC,” notes the article.
“For Dish, the move would decrease its reliance on its satellite-TV service, which ranks second to DirecTV in U.S. customers. It also gives it a way to undercut pay TV competitors on price.”
It’s worth noting that pay TV operators including Dish and Time Warner Cable currently offer cheaper packages without sports, but they are not typically popular with consumers.
U.S. banks including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, PNC and Wells Fargo have been the target of cyber attacks this week from what is believed to be a group outside the country, says an unidentified U.S. official.
The attacks have flooded the bank websites with traffic, making them unavailable at times and disrupting transactions. The group is reportedly using a method known as distributed denial-of-service and has taken control of commercial servers.
“Such a sustained network attack ranks among the worst-case scenarios envisioned by the National Security Agency, according to the U.S. official, who asked not to be identified because he isn’t authorized to speak publicly,” reports Businessweek. “The extent of the damage may not be known for weeks or months, said the official, who has access to classified information.”
“The nature of this attack is sophisticated enough or large enough that even the largest of the financial institutions would find it difficult to defend against,” suggests Rodney Joffe, senior VP at security firm Neustar Inc.
“The notable thing is the volume and the scale of the traffic that’s been directed at these sites, and that’s very rare,” adds Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder and CTO of security firm CrowdStrike Inc.
Cybersecurity specialists who have been tracking the assaults say that by breaching some of the nation’s most advanced computer systems, the attacks have exposed the vulnerability of its infrastructure.
“If the financial industry, which spends more on Internet security than any other industry and has its largest and most extensive defenses, can’t handle this, it’s not clear whether any critical-infrastructure industry can,” notes the article.
Since the questionable call by replacement referees in the final moments of Monday night’s Seahawks-Packers game, the National Football League has been taking a beating on Twitter.
“According to social media firm NetBase, the NFL’s negative sentiment rating during the last 24 hours has come in at 76 percent,” reported Adweek at 2:30 PM ET on Tuesday, “compared to 27 percent it averaged this month through September 23. The data-point entails millions of messages on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other sites.”
Despite increasing negative sentiment noted around terms such as “NFL” and “refs,” league officials suggest they are more concerned about TV ratings than social media chatter.
But with everyone from players to President Obama posting frustrated tweets in response, experts are divided as to whether the NFL will be able to keep ignoring angry Twitter users.
“While social media helps cultivate and expose the amount of frustration, the reality is, the NFL brand is so strong, it is unlikely we will see a negative backlash of fan support in the coming weeks,” says Ken Wisnefski, CEO of WebiMax.
“I agree that it is a major mistake to have a wrong call especially in this fashion, thus there is an opportunity for the League and [NFL commissioner] Goodell to express their support for the quality of the product and work to resolve this immediately,” he adds.
“In addition to sharing new details about its forthcoming BlackBerry 10 OS, RIM used today’s BlackBerry Jam keynote to make an announcement about App World,” reported Engadget on Tuesday.
“The company just revealed that in addition to applications and games, the store will sell music, movies and TV shows — a move that brings it more in line with rival stores like Google Play and Apple’s App Store.”
This will likely please App World’s current 80 million subscribers. According to the keynote, “there are currently 105,000 apps in the store, with 3 billion downloads logged since the store’s opening,” notes the post.
Research In Motion also said new BlackBerry 10 apps will soon increase that total number, as the company will begin accepting app submissions on October 10th.
In a related Engadget post, a video demo shows BB10 running on a new Dev Alpha B handset with 1280×768 screen.
AllThingsD reports that when the new BlackBerry phones finally launch in 2013, it will be a significant challenge to take on the iPhone 5 in addition to new Android and Windows Phone devices. “RIM is touting the ability of the phones to offer better multitasking, and constant access to email and messaging, as features that will help the phones stand out.”
There are now such things as “smart” mirrors — ones that rely on sensors, cameras and flat-panel displays to function beyond the expectations of the traditional, reflective mirror.
“These ‘smart’ mirrors are melding with digital components to act as health-monitoring devices that measure vital signs, in-shop equipment to try on clothes virtually and displays to keep track of news and information,” details the Wall Street Journal.
One such mirror is the Medical Mirror, first introduced in 2010. Among other functions, it uses a camera “to measure a person’s pulse rate based on slight variations in the brightness of the face as blood flows each time the heart pumps,” notes WSJ.
Advanced digital mirrors are also being used in some retail stores to provide customers with “virtual fittings” of clothing. It analyzes the body, then suggests sizes, fits and brands for a person’s body type.
But is there a market for such devices outside of medical and/or retail markets? Would consumers ever have interest enough to buy some sort of technologically advanced mirror? That answer is unclear, according to designers and manufacturers.
Networking giant Cisco has started up a new team to “essentially re-imagine the way that onboard [car] systems connect,” reports Wired.
“We literally have reached out to every car company in the world,” says Helder Antunes, managing director of Cisco’s smart connected vehicles division. “What we would really like to do is to help standardize on the underlying networking platform and then allow them to innovate on the top.”
Cars use computers to operate digital devices like door locks, sensors or in-car televisions, but there isn’t a standard network for connecting these computers.
“The payoff would be a more connected car — one that can switch from 4G to wireless networks while simultaneously streaming a YouTube video to kids in the back without so much as a hiccup,” the article states.
“It would be a car that could get firmware updates over the air, and it would also be a lighter vehicle — one that used wireless connections and lighter Ethernet cables. In fact, Antunes thinks that a Cisco ‘Connected Vehicle’ could easily strip 70 to 80 pounds of cabling out of the car.”
Antunes’s team of 20 has already developed anti-crash systems using the Dedicated Short Range Communications car-to-car data-sharing protocol as well as prototyped a wireless system for police and firefighters. But the group may find it challenging to make their car network ubiquitous, due to the supply-chain complexity involved in developing automobiles.
European startup Brainient looks to “boost brand engagement and recognition” through interactive elements within online advertisements.
The company, which has enabled advertisers to tailor the same video campaign for computers, smartphones and tablets, is now taking interactive to a whole new level via the gesture-based Kinect controller for Microsoft’s Xbox.
Brainient CEO Emi Gal says now is the time for connected TVs. “Even though the Kinect technology has been with us for a while there wasn’t enough consumption on connected TVs in terms of video — and finally now we’re getting to the point where people are consuming video across smartphones, across online and across connected TVs more and more,” he tells TechCrunch.
Brainient has launched its first Kinect-enabled ad, which it is using as a showcase and a case study for the new ad technique. The ad is for the upcoming film “The Hobbit,” and it incorporates photo galleries and cast biographies, accessible with the swipe of your hand.
“By adding interactive elements to connected TV ads Brainient will be able to offer advertisers the ability to track brand engagement and recognition on the largest screen most consumers own — and the one they tend to ogle for longest,” TechCrunch writes.
Advertisers have historically targeted specific audiences and then sent their ads to TV shows with that same audience. Facebook jumped on this model, offering user data — gender, age, location, marital status, “interests” — to determine targeted audiences.
“All this extra data was supposed to be a gold mine for Facebook, and Facebook built up a huge ad sales apparatus to sell ads targeted with it,” Business Insider writes. “It turns out this whole tactic may have been a big waste of everyone’s time.”
Facebook has recently switched over to re-targeting, a strategy used by ad-sellers for years, which is much more valuable to advertisers — and much more profitable for Facebook.
Re-targeting has one crucial difference: intent. While targeted ads hope to entice viewers based on their perceived interests, re-targeting actually shows ads for products that users have already shown intent to buy.
The article explains how “cookie” software is downloaded when you visit product pages on retail sites. After you leave the site, you’ll see re-targeted ads of the items you’ve already investigated online — not just products that align with your Facebook “likes.”
The social giant sells re-targeted ads on the Facebook Exchange or FBX, where companies buy Facebook ad inventory and sell it to marketers using re-targeting.
“Zach Coelius, CEO of Triggit, one of the ad-reselling companies Facebook has invited onto FBX, says that return on investment for advertisers buying through FBX is so good, that if all of Facebook’s ad inventory were sold with re-targeting, instead of user data targeting, Facebook would be able to charge 3X the price it charges for ads right now,” explains the article.
“What’s truly remarkable is that inventory sold through FBX re-targeting uses ZERO Facebook profile data, and yet it is much more valuable.”
Mobile commerce in the U.S. continues to grow, with Amazon leading the way. “But when it comes to mobile, Amazon’s ambitions are anything but limited to ecommerce,” reports Business Insider.
Amazon’s mobile ambitions include tablet and smartphone sales, software sales, media sales and mobile ads.
The company’s new Kindle Fire will compete with the Nexus and iPad mini while the Amazon Appstore continues to do well and will likely expand as more devices are released and apps are created for them.
As the Kindle Fire continues to expand its user base, media sales are likely to climb as well, with growing sales of ebooks, MP3s, movies and TV shows.
“Amazon continues to push forward with the makings of a smartphone platform… the beginnings of a platform strategy are coming together: a recent purchase of 3D mapping startup UpNext, last year’s acquisition of voice recognition software creator Yap, and the launch of a prepaid wireless service in Japan,” notes the article.
And as many companies are struggling to figure out monetizing mobile ads, Amazon is likely to be at the forefront.
According to a new study from Forrester, e-commerce businesses should consider focusing less on social media. Fewer than one percent of 77,000 online transactions could be traced back to popular social media networks like Facebook and Pinterest.
“E-commerce websites still convert more highly than any other channel, accounting for 30 percent of transactions. Thus it’s smart for retailers to promote their domain names as much as possible,” writes Mashable.
After direct visits, organic search and paid search are the two largest drivers of new customer purchases, accounting for 39 percent of such transactions.
The Web is still a useful tool for “spear fishers” — people who know exactly what they want and search for that item alone. “For repeat shoppers, e-mail is the most effective sales influencer: Nearly a third of purchases from repeat customers initiated with an e-mail,” explains the post.
“Social media’s potential as a shopping portal has yet to be realized,” suggests Mashable. “Less than 1 percent of transactions from both new and repeat shoppers could be linked to social networks, Forrester found.”
“The researcher believes social media can still be a powerful marketing tool, and that social media’s influence on purchase behavior likely can’t be measured in the 30-day attribution window the report examined.” It’s worth noting that small businesses, not included in the study, may have better results with social media as a sales driver.
As smartphone adoption expands, users are not only switching their consumption of content over to mobile, but also increasing how much they consume. A new report from BI Intelligence shows how mobile technology has enticed consumers to “access more media than they otherwise would.”
Digital consumers tend to read more than print-only readers. The report found that 41 percent of tablet owners access books on their device.
Access to music is a primary motivation in adopting smartphones. “The percentage of all U.S. mobile users listening to music on their phones increased from 12 percent in September 2009 to 27 percent in May,” explains Business Insider. “Mobile digital music has not made up for the stagnant record sales, but it has helped fueled the rise of mobile-focused music companies. Mobile now accounts for 70 percent of Pandora’s traffic.”
Mobiles have also increased news consumption significantly, expanding the U.S. digital news audience by 17 percent last year. “Mobile readers go to news sites more often, spent more time per visit, and read more articles per visit than desktop readers,” notes the article.
Additionally, mobile users are increasingly watching long-form videos (not just YouTube clips) and using their devices as second or third screens.
Consumers are often disappointed when it comes to their favorite brands’ mobile-optimized sites, according to a study commissioned by Google.
While 72 percent expect sites to work well on their mobile devices, almost all consumers have discovered sites that are not mobile-friendly.
More than half of consumers say a bad site hurts their perception of the brand and forces them to shop elsewhere, and 67 percent say that an optimized site encourages purchases.
“While some [of the findings] seem obvious, the data provide a wake-up call,” notes Jason Spero, Google’s head of global mobile sales and strategy.
Consumer expectations seem rather simple. For example, 76 percent merely want the sites to fit the mobile screen.
“Seventy-six percent of consumers said they want to be able to find a company’s location or operating hours,” reports Adweek.
“Sixty-one percent said they’d like to click a button to call a company, and 54 percent would like the ability to send an email,” explains the article. “And while the user may be visiting a brand’s mobile site, 53 percent said they’d like to be able to download its mobile app through the site.”
Data transmission just got a whole lot faster. The record for capacity on conventional optical fiber has been defeated 10 times over.
Four organizations teamed up to test a new technology that enables 1 petabit — 1,000 terabits or the equivalent of 5,000 HDTV two-hour long videos — to be transmitted each second over a 52.4 km length of 12-core optical fiber.
The Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) along with Fujikura Ltd, Hokkaido University and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) demonstrated this new ultra-large capacity transmission.
The breakthrough could have a dramatic effect on broadband services, an area increasingly stressed by expanded smartphone traffic.
“Efforts to increase the capacity of optical networks to accommodate surging traffic demand have largely focused on driving down infrastructure costs by using more efficient optical communications equipment to support more widespread deployment of broadband services without changing the structure of optical fiber itself,” NTT’s press release states.
“With further cooperation and development of these technologies that exploit the freedom of optical fiber spatial structures, optical amplification, and spectrally-efficient transmission technologies, this will open the way to even longer distance transmission and very large capacity optical networks that support the continued rollout of broadband services in the years ahead,” suggests the release.
Free Internet advocates and privacy protectors hail Do Not Track, while advertisers claim it will destroy the Internet as all content is supposedly funded through tracking-based ads.
“But according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the online advertising industry had revenue of $31.7 billion in 2011, and only about 15 percent of that, $4.9 billion, came from online behavioral advertising (OBA), ads that target consumers through personal information-powered tracking techniques and that are causing the privacy controversy,” writes attorney and privacy advocate Sarah A. Downey for TechCrunch.
Do Not Track is even less influential when you consider not all Internet users enable the tool; websites have no obligation to respond to a Do Not Track signal and most ignore it; Do Not Track doesn’t mean advertisers aren’t collecting and selling your data — they’re just not targeting you with ads; and finally, 80 percent of the money advertising makes from targeted advertising goes to improving targeted ads, NOT to content providers.
As the ad revenue increased 530 percent since 2002, people have become increasingly concerned about tracking, with 68 percent saying they’re not okay with tracking-based targeted ads and another 71 percent saying they’re very concerned about their information being sold or shared without their permission.
“We repeatedly hear that users want to understand what data is being collected, by whom, and how these companies might ultimately use it,” explains Downey. “These questions are the real unknowns that consumers care about and that advertising companies can’t answer. What is all this data they’re collecting, and where is it all going?”
Downey suggests that most advertising “doesn’t pose any privacy threat because it’s contextual, meaning it’s based on where the ad is placed, not on who sees the ad,” and recommends starting a dialogue on the issue.
