Interactive TV News Round-Up (II): Eyepartner, Facebook, Scripps, RealGravity, SecondScreen Networks

Due to the large volume of news generated by the recent 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and other factors, we are covering stories in this issue in round-up/summary format. We anticipate that it will take us several more days to process all the news from the show: 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.

•  Streaming video technology provider, Eyepartner, said Tuesday that its TikiLIVE Internet broadcasting service (provides various tools for producing and managing streaming video) now allows users to stream high-definition live and on-demand video to Facebook. "Facebook users click on the thumbnail of a channel or VOD's posted link that will immediately launch the player inside the Facebook page," the company states in its press materials. "This free feature is included with all TikiLIVE white-label platforms. Broadcasting on Facebook is easy to do. The TikiLIVE broadcaster only has to create a channel, load a VOD, or create a Channel Manager line-up, and then paste the URL on their Facebook page. The Facebook user clicks the link which launches the embedded player. It's that simple. With TikiLIVE, users can broadcast the highest-quality live or offer VOD in HD through their own branded channel. TikiLIVE also has the ability to charge pay-per-view without expensive or proprietary equipment, which dramatically cuts the cost of producing and sharing video content online. Some of the benefits of TikiLIVE include the ability to: 1) Easily brand-connect, manage and monetize HD content. 2) Immediately track viewer habits and click-thru statistics from every channel. 3) Produce and promote events, sponsors or products using pre-, mid-, and post-roll overlays. 4) Allow for uploading, storing and managing networks of digital video inventory. 5) Build an interactive broadcasting network community. 6) Produce live or on-demand delivery services. 7) Upload, transcode and deliver HD or SD video-on-demand. 8) Create themed channels, ingest commercials and publish to your network." In related news: last month, Eyepartner released a new WordPress module that it says "easily embeds" TikiLIVE into WordPress-managed sites.
• Scripps Networks Interactive (Scripps Networks-owned channels include Food Network, HGTV and the Travel Channel, among others) has acquired RealGravity, a provider of online video publishing technologies. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Scripps says that the acquisition is designed to "enhance the digital video capabilities of its growing lifestyle media businesses...Founded in 2009, RealGravity has developed an innovative platform that manages and publishes video content," Scripps' press materials continue. "The company's cofounders and its 10 employees in Los Angeles and San Francisco will join the Scripps Networks Interactive digital team."
• SecondScreen Networks, a company that bills itself as "the ad platform for the two-screen future," has announced its plans for the Super Bowl. "As a demonstration of our synchronization platform, we're running ads with a number of Super Bowl advertisers (including perennial game advertiser Go Daddy)," the company states on its blog. "With them, we'll be delivering digital advertising on social-TV/companion apps sync'd in real time to their TV spots during the game. Ads will run on both iPhone apps and Web sites. So, for those viewers engaged with apps like PrePlay Sports and Tapcast, when certain TV commercials run during the game, a complementary digital spot (a 'Sync Ad') will display on their smartphones, tablets or laptops. We've seen huge levels of engagement with such ads in previous tests (e.g. Ford on USA Networks' Character Chatter app) and look forward to substantive learning from this initiative. We're planning to do research around these campaigns and look forward to sharing that post-Super Bowl. This Super Bowl Sync Ad campaign is the first of a number of 'water cooler' events around which we plan to run Sync Ads. Other upcoming events include the Oscars and the Final Four."