Online TV

As social TV apps continue springing up, social TV guides become more and more popular recommendation sources for television viewers, and TV commercials start utilizing the second screen to add interactivity to advertising, it’s becoming more and more clear that social TV really is the next big thing. But how big will Social TV become?

As social TV apps continue springing up, social TV guides become more and more popular recommendation sources for television viewers, and TV commercials start utilizing the second screen to add interactivity to advertising, it’s becoming more and more clear that social TV really is the next big thing. But how big will Social TV become?

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.

Google has acquired SageTV for an undisclosed amount. The tech giant has plans to take SageTV’s media management software and technology to next level, according Google’s spokeswoman. SageTV is  an Inglewood-based company that provide DVR technology and streaming-video software for systems running Microsoft Windows, Linux and Apple Mac OS X.

Samsung and Digitas launched a social technology program called Hunch that enables movie fans to interact on a microsite as a social movie experience. The catch is that you have to have a Samsung television with the program called The Smart Living Room. The program invites movie viewers to learn more about their friends’ movie interest as well as own, and ultimately create a customized, social movie watching event. The Hunch program is equipped with search, web browser and over 400 apps. That’s a lot of apps for movie watching.

According to Eric Berger of Sony Pictures Television, viewers spend about 50 minutes per visit to Crackle on connected TVs. Crackle can be found in the Channel Store on Roku, on the PlayStation 3 Internet Browser home screen and on all BRAVIA Internet Video devices. Crackle is partnered with Google TV and can be accessed via the Spotlight section.

Mui points out that Hastings built the DVD business that toppled Blockbuster. He was motivated by a big idea “that mailing people DVDs was a mere way station on the road to streaming video.”

Google will soon be launching Google TV Market, a market place for apps targeting Google TV, according to Ashish Arora, Vice President and General Manager at Logitech. In this present role at Logitech, Arora’s job is to oversee Google’s TV products for Logitech and ensure that Logitech products are compatible with Google’s offerings.

The race to catch Netflix is heating up, and now it’s Sony that is trying to put on some pressure. They have recently launched a streaming on-demand movie service with a few added quirks, and some setbacks, that hope to put a dent in the continued success of Netflix.

After PCs and mobile devices, TV will be the next consumer appliance to be connected to the web. According to research firm Park Associates, around 76 percent of all HDTVs will be connected to the internet by 2015, up from 25 percent HDTVs that are currently wired to the net.

Joost is about to have yet another birth, this time as an independent video ad platform. Joost’s parent company Adconion Media Group, an independent global audience network, has decided to spin off Joost Video Network as a separate standalone video ad business, in an attempt to capture larger share of the ever growing online video [...]

We all know that Facebook has become a social phenomenon, changing both how we interact and do business. The movie ‘The Social Network’ has introduced us to founder Mark Zuckerberg – the antithesis of a rockstar, billionaire though he might be. There’s may still a star in the equation though – Facebook itself.