TV startup BeeTV shuts down
Social TV service BeeTV has closed shop, selling off its assets, it’s been reported. The Italian start-up originally began as a way to to create personalized TV recommendations for their subscribers, but then it spun off to become an iPad app.
As an app, “once a user has logged in with Facebook and chosen his TV provider, BeeTV makes recommendations based on his or her favorites, also providing a list of live and upcoming shows that a user might be interested in,” GigaOM reported in May.
Now, BeeTV has fallen on hard times. CEO Yaniv Solnik told TechCrunch they’ve failed to gain significant traction with the new strategy, and that they’ve subsequently ran out of cash. They plan on ceasing all operations soon.
The company has secured just under $10 million in funding in its four years of existence.
TechCrunch also writes BeeTV’s assets are up for sale, including “a patented recommendation engine for TV and a consumer-focused social TV service that encompasses iPad, iPhone and Web clients.”
Fox News leaves viewers knowing less, new survey shows
by Lynn Herrmann (Guest contributor/Digital Journalist)
The latest results from a new Fairleigh Dickinson University survey show some news sources, such as Fox News, leave their viewers less informed than those who watch no news at all.
The latest PublicMind Poll reveals some news sources leave us less likely to stay on top of current events than people who watch no news at all. According to the study, some news outlets, especially Fox News, lead people to be even less informed than those who say they don’t watch any news at all.
Dan Cassino, political science professor at Fairleigh Dickinson and an analyst for the PublicMind Poll, said: “Because of the controls for partisanship, we know these results are not just driven by Republicans or other groups being more likely to watch Fox News,” in a news release. “Rather, the results show us that there is something about watching Fox News that leads people to do worse on these questions than those who don’t watch any news at all,” he added.
Fox News is the most popular 24-hour cable news network in the U.S., but its viewers are 18-points less likely to know that demonstrators in Egypt overthrew their government than those watching no news at all, according to the survey. Those same viewers are also six points less likely to know Syrians have yet to overthrow their government than those who do not watch news.
The poll concerns how New Jersey residents conduct new viewing habits and found 53 percent know about the successfully overthrown government in Egypt. However, 21 percent said the uprisings were unsuccessful while 26 percent admitted they don’t know.
The PublicMind poll went on to note viewers of any “ideological media” didn’t fare as well as NPR listeners, New York Times or USA Today readers, or Sunday morning news show viewers did. Even those obtaining their news from Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show fared better than Fox News viewers.
This article originally appeared on Digital Journal [Link]
MTV to air reality TV show on Occupy Wall Street protests
MTV plans to broadcast a reality TV episode on youth taking part in the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York. ”True Life: I’m Occupying Wall Street” will premiere on Saturday, November 5, at 6 p.m. ET.
An MTV release describes the show: “The special episode will take you to the front lines as MTV cameras follow three young people who get swept up in the political movement that has quickly grown into a global phenomenon.”
The release also cited a recent MTV-sponsored study finding that 93 percent of young adults “feel that the current economic situation is having a personal effect on them; and 72 percent don’t trust the government to take care of their well-being.”
It is unclear if MTV affiliates in other countries, such as Canada, will air the True Life episode on the same night as the American network.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user Bogie Harmond
New TV show about apps, mobile industry coming to Canada
In what appears to be a TV first, a 30-minute weekly show about smartphone and tablet PC applications is debuting in Canada this week. App Central is a co-production between BNN and CP24, and will be broadcast on BNN on March 29 at 8 p.m. ET, and later on CP24 on April 3 at 10:30 a.m ET.
Available only in Canada and online, App Central will cover “some of the hottest apps, including where you can get them and how they can be used in everyday life,” the show’s website states.
For instance, the show will look at unique apps that scan bar codes or boost video viewing. Celebrities and everyday Canadians will also discuss what kind of apps they enjoy. Several segments will interview developers and major players in the mobile industry.
Co-host Michael Hainsworth says Canada needs this kind of tech show. “Wading through world of apps can be a daunting task and the idea here is to talk about the best of best,” he notes in an interview. “We want this show to appeal to many kinds of viewers, not just nerds.”
Hainsworth says the show has “wiggle room” to expand its scope. If viewers get bored of all the apps talk, they can review more gadgets, something reporter Kris Abel does in each show. Expect a segment on a voice-activated alarm clock, Hainsworth says.
Co-host Amber MacArthur, well-known for her Webnation program on CP24, sat down with author Margaret Atwood to play Angry Birds with her, and she attended the Juno Awards to learn what musicians had on their smartphones. It’s all part of making a show that tries to be informative and entertaining, she says.
“It’s important to have that focus on personalities, so we don’t just talk about the tech side of apps,” MacArthur says.
She plans on monitoring what fans say about the show via its Twitter feed and Facebook page, in order to learn about the show’s future direction. If tablet PCs become more popular among Canadians, she says, then App Central may look at more tablet apps.
MacArthur says the mobile space is maturing rapidly, so much so her next book might focus on leveraging mobile media.
To check out episodes of App Central after they air, watch them online.
Study: 86% of people use mobile devices while watching TV
By Chris Hogg
According to a study published by Yahoo’s advertising division, TV fans are very active on the mobile front. The report indicates nearly 90 percent of boob tube watchers are using a mobile device at the same time.
It began as a passive past-time meant to escape from the everyday, but television today is turning into an engaging experience thanks to that smartphone in your pocket. Be it Twitter, Facebook, email or instant messaging, TV watchers are doing more than watching what’s on screen.
According to stats released by Yahoo/Nielsen, 86 percent of mobile Web users (and 92 percent of people aged 13 to 24) are using a mobile device while watching TV and one quarter of them are looking at related content to what they’re watching on screen. For this study, Yahoo interviewed 8,384 Americans aged 13 to 64. Of those, 5,313 were mobile Internet users.
The study (PDF) says TV watchers use their mobile to simultaneously text family and friends (56 percent); visit social networking sites (40 percent); browse content unrelated to the program on screen (37 percent); email friends and family (33 percent); use mobile apps (33 percent); browse for content related to the show on screen (24 percent); search for info based on a commercial that aired (23 percent); and instant message with friends or family (12 percent).
“This data mirrors Yahoo research on PC users, as we see that mobile users often scan content unrelated to TV programming, participate on social networks and send email,” the study reports. “Mobile allows ample opportunity for brands to continue the conversation after the TV ad is flighted.”
In addition to post-program interaction, the real-time Web and mobile apps are changing how people consume content on television. Evidence can be found with shows like Glee or Obama’s State of the Union address where people took to social networks like Twitter to discuss what they were seeing in real-time.
Twitter CEO, Dick Costolo, recently spoke about Glee’s use of social media with Kara Swisher, showing how mobile devices have changed the TV-watching experience.
“The characters on Glee actually tweet and they tweet during the show,” Costolo said. “When Glee starts, the moment it airs for the first time on the East Coast, the tweets per second for Glee shoot up. They stay up there at a super high level at hundreds of [times] what they are before the show comes on until the moment the show ends and then they drop. [...] People feel like they have to watch the show while it’s going on because the community is tweeting about the show and the characters are tweeting as the show’s happening so [they have to] watch it in real time.”
ReadWriteWeb notes the Glee phenomonenon has caused viewers to tune into the show in real-time rather than time-shifting or recording it on DVR.
For marketers who want to connect with today’s modern TV-watcher, Yahoo says mobile usage presents “a compelling opportunity for content providers and advertisers alike to complement the viewing experience on the mobile platform.”