nbc

Because the [itvt] editorial team is busy working on The TV of Tomorrow Show (March 3rd-4th in San Francisco) and on our new EBIF Intensive event (March 5th in San Francisco), we will be covering most stories in summary/round-up form over the next few weeks. Here is a round-up of regulatory/government news for the past few days:

Because the [itvt] editorial team is busy working on The TV of Tomorrow Show (March 3rd-4th in San Francisco) and on our new, post-TVOT EBIF Intensive event (March 5th in San Francisco), we are covering a number of stories in this issue in summary form:

A number of items of broadband-video and live-streaming news have come across [itvt]'s desk over the past few days. Here is a brief round-up:

NBC last week announced the launch of a new social media game, called "Mission: Chuck Me Out" (http://www.chuckmeout.com), that is designed to reward viewers who use popular social networking sites to promote the network's returning action-comedy series, "Chuck" (note: the series' third season premieres at 9:00PM Eastern, January 10th, before the series moves to its regular day and time--Mondays at 8:00PM Eastern--on January 11th).

[itvt] has just published the latest edition of Rick Howe's regular column, The iTV Doctor Is In! This week, in the second part of a three-part series, Arthur Orduna, CTO of Canoe Ventures; Bill Seely, principal of Practical Marketing Analytics; and Ellen Dudar, chief product officer of FourthWall Media, project themselves into the future and attempt to answer the question: What was the single most significant factor

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has revealed the winners of the Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media.

NBC and the NFL announced Thursday that, for the second straight season, NBC will stream the 17-game Sunday Night Football schedule live on NBCSports.com and NFL.com. The coverage, which is the result of a new one-year deal between the broadcaster and the sports organization that will see them sharing the revenues from advertising that NBC sells around the coverage, will be comprised of NBC Sports' "Sunday Night Football" broadcast, enhanced with four additional camera angles and several other new interactive features, NBC says.

Broadcast network, NBC, has launched a Web site--ChuckMeOut.com--with a range of broadband video, and interactive and social enhancements to maintain interest in its comedy show, "Chuck," during its hiatus (note: the show, which was renewed for a third season after a two-month "Save Chuck" campaign organized by its fans, is set to return to the air following the 2010 Winter Olympics).

IAC/InterActiveCorp has tapped Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, to head up a new multiplatform production and distribution company, which it says "will be the industry's first global platform that connects advertisers, distributors and content creators early on in the development process, enabling advertisers to be a partner in campaigns and content creation." Silverman--whose departure from NBC has resulted in Jeff Gaspin, who was previously COO of Universal Television Group, taking over his responsibilities and the new title, chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment (Silverman's co-chairman, Marc Graboff, will become a full chairman and will repo

Broadcast network, NBC, has launched a Web site with a range of broadband video, UGC and social enhancements to build interest in its new comedy/talk show, "The Jay Leno Show," which is set to debut September 14th. The new site and its various multimedia and social features are representative of a long-established NBC strategy called TV 360 that has seen the broadcaster supplementing many of its programs with interactive and multiplatform elements (note: for more on the strategy, see [itvt]'s interview with NBC Universal's Jonathan Dakss, in Issue 6.71). 

NBC is offering a range of supplemental content and interactive enhancements online to maintain viewer interest in its mockumentary series, "The Office," while the show is on summer hiatus. The enhancements are part of a long-established NBC strategy called TV 360 that has seen the broadcaster supplementing many of its programs with interactive and multiplatform elements (note: for more on the strategy, see [itvt]'s interview with NBC Universal's Jonathan Dakss, in Issue 6.71).

NBC Universal-owned cable channel, Bravo, on Monday announced plans to launch an interactive TV series, entitled "Watch What Happens: Live." The show, which will be hosted by Bravo's SVP of original programming and development, Andy Cohen, and which is slated to premiere July 16th at midnight (ET/PT), is based on a live broadband TV show that has aired for some years now on Bravotv.com and that focuses on eliminated contestants and other personalities from Bravo's stable of reality-TV series.

Webcasting specialist, iStreamPlanet, said Monday that it has been tapped by Microsoft to help deliver live streaming and on-demand coverage of the Wimbledon Championships for NBC Sports' Wimbledon Live service on NBCSports.com. According to the company, it will manage the encoding of live coverage of the tennis championship, as well as design and deploy a custom Microsoft Silverlight-based "media experience" that will leverage Microsoft Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS) Smooth Streaming adaptive bit rate technology (adapts the video stream in accordance with the limitations of the end-user's broadband connection).

Hulu, the broadband video venture co-owned by NBC, Fox, and ABC/Disney (note: for more on Disney's recent acquisition of an equity stake in the venture, see the article posted on itvt.com April 30th), has signed deals with three non-US content providers: Digital Rights Group (which will provide it with a line-up of British comedies, including "Doc Martin," "Green Wing" and "Peep Show"), Endemol (which will provide it with reality series such as "I want to be a Hilton") and Saavn (which will provide it with a range of Bollywood movies).

Broadcast network NBC's broadband video-enabled NBC.com Web site unveiled several new advertising capabilities and a new full-episode widget Tuesday (note: NBC recently announced that NBC.com's Rewind player had generated over a billion full episode streams over the past 18 months--see the story posted on itvt.com on April 16th). The company bills the new advertising capabilities as allowing brands to "stay front and center as users interact with the content around their favorite shows." They include: