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K2B, the inventors of placeshifted TV  have announced the release of TV2Me-SD, a new server capable of encoding and delivering full broadcast quality TV resolution and producing a picture that is virtually indistinguishable from the picture displayed from a cable box or satellite receiver. 

 

Tags: K2B

Steak Media has appointed Chrysi Philalithes as its launch Managing Director for the opening phase of its launch in New York.

The former Vice President of Global Marketing and Communications at MIVA, Philalithes has sat on the board of Steak Media for the past two years as a Non-Executive Board Director and will join Steak New York at the end of the month.

Chrysi was one of the founding members of Espotting, the company that pioneered search marketing in Europe.

After launching Espotting in 8 European markets, she was part of the team that merged the company with FindWhat.com in a deal that valued Espotting at $186m in 2004.  She led and developed the $1m high profile global rebranding campaign that re-branded Espotting and FindWhat to MIVA.

 “Over the last three years Steak has grown from strength to strength in the UK, winning accounts such as British Gas and John Lewis and being recognised as Media Agency of the Year in 2007” commented Chrysi.

 “I believe in Steak – in the people and in its philosophy that a brand’s marketing, both online and offline, should be centred around how people are searching for it. It’s now time to bring the Steak way to the US.”  

Prior to setting up Espotting, Chrysi was New Business Manager at WCRS, one of the UK’s leading ad agencies. While she was at WCRS, the agency grew by 40% with new business wins such as Sega, Camelot and BUPA. She has also been recognised by The Guardian as one of its “50 Women to Watch”,  Management Today as one of its“35 Women under 35” and Campaign Magazine’s “Faces to Watch.”

Launched in 2005, Steak Media is one of the fastest growing digital agencies in the UK, with a team of over 50 employees. It was recently named “Media Agency of the Year” at the prestigious Interactive Marketing Advertising Awards in London, and is the second largest independent search agency in the UK (NMA Marketing Services Guide 2007).

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Tags: Camelot, Espotting, SEGA, Steal Media, UPA, WCRS

C21Media are reporting that CBS Studio’s Entertainment Tonight and A&E Television Networks (AETN) are stepping up the amount of mobile entertainment content available around their properties following a tie-up with US specialist Thumbplay.

A range of ringtones, wallpaper, games and video clips for mobile phones are being added to the Entertainment Tonight website and those of AETN’s A&E, History and Biography channels.Both Entertainment Tonight and AETN have implemented new tools from Thumbplay aimed specifically at TV content creators, enabling them to roll out mobile entertainment storefronts on programme or channel websites.

The toolkit allows broadcasters to manage their own mobile entertainment stores while also creating new sponsorship inventory on their websites, according to Thumbplay.

“Thumbplay makes it simple for broadcast and cable television content creators to execute profitable mobile strategies with no up-front investment,” said company CEO Are Traasdahl.

“By partnering with Thumbplay, we’ve been able to quickly and easily create and sell relevant show and genre-based mobile content to the fans of our brands and programmes, so they can access our content on the go, wherever they are,” added AETN senior VP of digital media Paul Jelinek.

Thumbplay aggregates, promotes and delivers mobile content directly to members via Thumbplay.com. The site offers ringtones, wallpapers, games and text-based services through a membership-based, community experience. Thumbplay, headquartered in New York, was founded by CEO Are Traasdahl and Executive Vice President, Marketing Evan Schwartz.

Investors include SoftBank Capital, i-HatchVentures, Bain Capital Venture Partners, Silicon Valley Bank.

Tags: A&E Television Networks, Bain Capital Venture Partners, CBS, i-HatchVentures, Silicon Valley Bank, SoftBank Capital, Thumbplay

TVU Networks, a global service for live Internet TV, announced today the signing of eight new Broadcast Partners and the availability of the new live TV channels.

The free TVU service, available at www.tvunetworks.com and through its downloadable application TVUPlayer, today offers some 300 live Internet TV channels, with over 3,000 new shows daily.   TVU Viewers watch live TV programs from around the world, including mainstream programs not broadcast on current cable and satellite services, as well as niche programming content currently available only by subscription or on private networks.

Joining veteran broadcasters such as Black Belt TV, The Auto Channel, Blue Highways TV, and the Nostalgia series of classic programming, announced today were a line-up of U.S. and international channels spanning entertainment, news, movies and lifestyle:

Channel 525
Mav TV, www.mavtv.com
• TV created by men for men:  women, sports, gadgets, fitness, laughs

Channel 4000
TV5 Telugu (India), www.tv5news.in
• Telugu news, politics, movies, reviews

Channel 5410
CRTV, www.crtv.ca
• Vintage TV:  the best of the 50’s through the 70’s

Channel 5420
PDTV, www.nostalgiafamilyvideo.com
• Specializing in hard-to-find, classic motion pictures

Channel 5460
Imagine TV. www.imaginetv.biz
• The best in news and entertainment

Channel 5933
WGAY-TV, www.wgaytv.com
• Proud TV from WGAY-TV, Florida

Channel 6888
Health & Lifestyle Channel (China), www.tictv.com
• Live interactive programs via WebCAM, 3G, Vphone

Channel 8670
IURD TV (Brazil), www.arcauniversal.com.br
• Lifestyle programming from Brazil

According to Rob Stevens, VP of Programming, MavTV, “MavTV is greatly impressed with the user-friendly TVU platform.  We’re excited to add TVU’s global reach to the growing list of MavTV distribution platforms.   MavTV’s irreverent, male demo programming is a perfect fit for TVU’s audience.  Their integrated geo-targeting feature enables us to block access where we already have distribution (US and UK) and introduce our brand to all the other countries in the world.”

Paul Shen, CEO of TVU Networks states, “We are happy to have been selected by these broadcasters as their content distribution medium of choice.  It’s a true win-win:  TVU’s global distribution capabilities expand the broadcasters’ reach exponentially, and the rich diversity of the programming offered by these eight new partners will surely be embraced by our 12 million viewers worldwide.”

Tags: Black Belt TV, Blue Highways TV, CRTV, Health & Lifestyle Channel, Imagine TV, IURD TV, May TV, PDTV, The Auto Channel, TV5 Telugu, TVU Networks, WGAY-TV

“Deal or No Deal” producer Endemol USA has pacted with online video site Metacafe to launch what the two companies are touting as the first TV-style gameshow produced directly for the ‘Net.

Dubbed “Buzzed,” the show will use bar and club patrons as contestants in a game of trivia in which they’ll collect coin for each right answer. In a twist on the “lifelines” offered by “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” contestants will be able to “drunk dial” a friend for help.

Metacafe is expected to show one or two new episodes per week, starting in the spring. Segs will run just a couple minutes in length, keeping with the short-form nature of most Metacafe videos; there will be some interactive elements as well.

Endemol and Metacafe did not release financial details, but it’s expected Endemol will produce between 20 and 30 episodes of the show for the initial batch of segs.

www.endemoluk.com

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Tags: Endemol, Metacafe