Interactive TV Headlines Round-Up (III): Comcast, Comcast Spotlight, Rubicon Project, NBCU, Starz, Turner, ConnecTV, TweetTV, CTAM, Charter, Digitalsmiths, Sharp, Tribune, Disney/ABC

July 14, 2014

As most of you are probably aware, [itvt]'s daily news reporting was on hiatus for several weeks, because our editorial team was working on TVOT 2014 and then taking a post-event break. In order to catch up with the news we missed during that period, we are covering stories in headlines/round-up format (note: we have marked older stories with the date they originally broke). We expect it will take us a few weeks to catch up with all recent developments, so if you have sent us a press release or briefed us about a piece of news, and don't yet see it covered here, please bear with us.

Reports: Comcast Trialing "Super DVR" Service that Lets Users Record 15 Programs Simultaneously
Comcast Promotes its VOD Offerings via "The People's Hot List" Vote
Comcast: "TV Everywhere" Streaming of World Cup Easily Surpasses Sochi Olympics
Comcast Unveils Interactive Enhancements for its Tour de France Coverage
Comcast Spotlight in Programmatic Ad-Buying Partnership with Rubicon Project
Comcast Launches Google Chrome Extension for Xfinity TV Go (June 20th)
Comcast's VOD Service Now Offers Access to All Nielsen's Top-100 Broadcast and Cable Shows (June 12th)
Comcast, NBCUniversal Hold Inaugural Hackathon (May 27th)
Comcast Makes Every World Cup Match Immediately Available in Spanish via New Instant On Demand Feature (June 11th)
Comcast Makes Starz "TV Everywhere" Apps Available to its Subscribers (May 19th)
Comcast-Turner Broadcasting Deal Includes VOD Stacking Rights, VOD and TVE Dynamic Ad Insertion (May 13th)
Comcast Names Ex-Cisco Exec, Ken Klaer, SVP of Premises Technology (May 12th)
Comcast Rolls Out New Social Features for its X1 Platform (May 9th)
Comcast Expands Roll-Out of X1 DVR with Cloud-Based Technology and Live In-Home Streaming (May 8th)
Comcast Unveils New X1 Features, Including Ability to Stream Video from Mobiles to TV, Talking Guide, Instant On Demand and More (April 29th)
Comcast Trumpets Success of Watchathon Week 2014 "Binge-Viewing" Promotion (April 17th)
ConnecTV Acquires Social TV Analytics/Guidance Company, TweetTV; Launches ClipADS to Enable Brands and Agencies to "Develop Bite-Sized Video Ads that Can Be Distributed Virally across Social Media Sites"
CTAM Research Study: "Awareness of TV Everywhere Features Has Reached 49% of MVPD Customers Aged 18 to 64...44% of MVPD Customers Have Verified at Least Once to View TV Content in the Past 6 Months"
CTAM Rolls Out Tactics to Increase Consumer Awareness, Understanding and Usage of "TV Everywhere"; Tactics Include "a Series of User Experience Best Practice Recommendations, Adoption of an Official Category Moniker, and a Plan for Benchmarking Members' Progress toward Aggressive Year-End Goals" (April 14th)
Charter Deploys Digitalsmiths' Seamless Discovery Platform for Cloud-Based Video Discovery (May 13th)
Sharp Taps Digitalsmiths and Tribune Media Services (TMS) to Enhance Discovery Experience on its 2014 Aquos LED Smart TV's (May 7th)
Disney Announces First 11 Media and Technology Start-Ups to Participate in its Disney Accelerator Program
Disney Junior Launches its First Spanish-Language "Appisode"; App Allows Viewers to "Touch, Tap, Swipe, Tilt, Shake and Talk their Way through Various Fun-Filled Activities Embedded into Full Episodes" of Shows (June 18th)
Disney/ABC Television Group Relaunches its WATCH "TV Everywhere" Services for Disney Channel, Disney XD and Disney Junior with New Designs and Features; also Launches Spanish TVE Service for WATCH Disney Junior (May 30th)