The 2nd Screen Society — formed to address the companion screen viewing of TV and home entertainment — hosted the 2nd Screen Summit on January 5 during CES. Television network, production and creative tech execs gathered at the Encore Las Vegas to discuss this year’s theme — It’s all about the data: “Data is going to be the currency that fuels the entertainment industry in the years ahead and 2nd screen will be the way that data is collected.” The event featured a series of thought-provoking keynote discussions and panels. Continue reading CES: Broadcasters and Execs Gather at 2nd Screen Summit

Google has developed a new measurement tool to determine the number of people who are watching, ignoring or skipping video advertisements. Revenue from digital video ads, although expected to grow in the coming year, still trails far behind the money generated by TV ads. Google aims to use the measurement tool as an effective way to draw marketers to the idea of digital video ads. Neal Mohan, Google’s vice president of display and video advertising spoke about the new tool at CES. Continue reading Google Tool Measures How Consumers Interact with Video Ads

TiVo Research & Analytics has released its first “TiVo State of TV Report,” which provides insights into television viewing habits, advertising and commercial retention rates, and the top streamed and time-shifted programs. The team analyzed viewing data from multiple datasets, including TiVo and non-TiVo households, from July to September. The results point to a significant increase in time-shifted viewing and binge watching, while sports programming and primetime animation led the charge for live viewing. Continue reading Viewers Turn to Time-Shifting, Except for Sports and Animation

Google is becoming a major player in same-day package deliveries, taking on the likes of Amazon and eBay this holiday shopping season. The Google Express service — currently available in cities such as Boston, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco — handled 50 percent more toys during the two weeks after Thanksgiving, while book sales jumped more than 30 percent. Analysts estimate that up to 40 percent of Google’s core search business is tied to e-commerce. Continue reading Google Takes On Amazon with its Same-Day Delivery Service

Instagram, the photo- and video- sharing service owned by Facebook, is deleting all the accounts it has identified as “spammy.” As a result, more than 29 percent of Instagram’s own followers disappeared last week. According to software developer Zach Allia, stars such as Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian also lost millions of followers. The purge was intended to combat fake accounts, a problem that leads to hijacked hashtags, artificially inflated follower counts, and increased advertising costs. Continue reading The Instagram Rapture: Millions of Fake Accounts are Purged

With its Android Auto software arriving in 2015, Google is already focusing on its next project, one that would allow drivers to make use of Android in their cars without a smartphone. As of now, the use of smartphone auto tech, including Android Auto, requires the presence of a smartphone inside the vehicle. For Google, part of the challenge moving forward will be in convincing automakers to adopt software that would potentially be an integral part of a car’s brand identity. Continue reading Google Developing a Standalone Android System for Vehicles

YouTube has confirmed a new feature that will play suggested follow up videos at the end of a viewed video. The video autoplay is currently being tested among a small percentage of users. Autoplay could replace YouTube’s current suggested video grid that appears at the end of every video. If well received by its users, autoplay is a tool that YouTube plans to use to feed content to those casual users that do not necessarily know what they are looking for on the video site. Continue reading YouTube Autoplay Could Change How We Watch Our Videos

With the launch of a new mobile app, Shazam hopes its latest features will increase the average time people spend using the app. The new features will allow users to see what songs are being searched for the most globally. Additionally, users will now have access to a stream of content such as articles and Twitter posts about different artists and songs. Also worth noting is that Spotify users will have the option to add the music they discover on Shazam to a Spotify playlist without leaving the app. Continue reading Shazam Revamps its Mobile App with Improved Music Features

Instagram — the photo- and video-sharing app owned by Facebook — announced yesterday that it presently has 300 million monthly active users, up 50 percent in nine months (more than 70 percent of its users are now outside the United States). The new numbers suggest that the social service is more popular than Twitter today (Twitter recorded 284 million monthly active users for Q3). Instagram is looking to leverage its meteoric popularity to engage users in new ways, and draw advertisers at the same time. Continue reading Instagram Now Bigger Than Twitter, Looks to Brand Advertising

Despite revenue generated by licensing content to streaming services, some analysts and execs are concerned that the growth of subscribers to Netflix and related services may negatively impact traditional TV audiences and related advertising revenue. During the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference on Monday, research was presented that suggests a significant disruption in media consumption, as Netflix subscribers watch less broadcast TV than consumers without the service. Continue reading Research Suggests Streaming is Impacting the Business of TV

United Talent Agency and Rentrak, an entertainment data company, have teamed up to bring studio marketers a tool that tracks the hype on social media surrounding a specific film. With this data, marketers would be better armed to make the necessary tweaks to a marketing campaign that can help make a movie a hit. PreAct is the name of the new tool, and since its debut in January, the service has signed up entertainment giants such as Sony Pictures Entertainment and 20th Century Fox. Continue reading New Tool for Film Marketers Analyzes Buzz on Social Media

As Facebook’s video startup Vessel begins to take shape, the company has aggressively pursued some of YouTube’s most popular online stars. In response, Google has been structuring more lucrative deals for its stars to keep them from leaving. The company has gone as far as offering multiyear deals, performance-based bonuses and additional funding for video production. Although Vessel has yet to launch, it is reportedly looking to secure programming in advance of its debut.  Continue reading Google Offers Special Deals to Keep Top Talent on YouTube

Mobile shopping just got even easier thanks to a new app called TheTake, which enables users to find the products they have been eyeing from their favorite movies. TheTake launched last week with a database of scenes from more than 100 movie titles. The app uses audio and image recognition technology to identify the products in a scene and gives users related links to retail stores that sell the items. The app may leverage the growing trend that shows mobile shopping sales are on the rise. Continue reading TheTake: App Helps Users Identify and Buy Products in Movies

Google has confirmed that it plans to develop kid-friendly versions of some of its more popular products next year. While Google has yet to release specific details about the initiative, many predict that Chrome and YouTube will be among those products redesigned for children 12 and younger. Google understands that kids are among those most active on the Internet, so it hopes to create Web-related products and services that are deemed appropriate for their use. Continue reading Google Plans Initiative to Build Products for Ages 12 and Under

The European Parliament recently voted in favor of breaking up Google in European territories. While the nonbinding vote holds no legal power, the decision to vote in favor of such a break-up shows the resistance that Google has encountered from the European Union. The vote comes in the wake of a recent appeal by privacy advocates and the EU to extend the “right to be forgotten” policy for European citizens beyond the European Google search engine. Continue reading European Union Expresses Privacy Concerns Regarding Google