social media

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 interactive TV content news for the past few days:

Norwegian interactive TV software company, never.no (note: for an example of an application powered by the company's technology, see the article published on itvt.com, July 1st), announced Tuesday that it has added new functionality to its Dynamic Content Scheduler (DCS), a Microsoft Windows-based GUI for configuring, deploying and scheduling interactive automated TV graphics. According to the company, DCS 2.0, as the new version of the technology is called, is available for Vizrt, Harris RTX, Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight.

Integra5, a Massachusetts-based company that specializes in technologies for converged services, said Monday that it is changing its name to MediaFriends, which is also the brand of a suite of social media applications that it launched last summer (note: for more on the MediaFriends application suite, see the article published on itvt.com, September 29th 2008; as well as the audio interview with Integra5/MediaFriends president and CEO, Meredith Flynn-Ripley, located at http://tinyurl.com/lu3t8m).

Azuki Systems, a company which offers a mobile video and multimedia platform that incorporates interactive and social features, announced Tuesday that it has secured $6 million in additional equity financing. The additional funding was provided by original investors, Sigma Partners and Kepha Partners, as well as by a number of Azuki's own executives, the company said (it has now raised around $13 million).

--CBS Signs up as Social Syndication Platform's First Customer

--Hires Ad-Industry Vet, Nisbet, to Lead New Arm Targeting Advertisers

ActiveVideo Networks (formerly ICTV), a company which offers
technologies that bring interactive Web media to television and which
claims that those technologies are now powering such hybrid services
for over a million cable and IPTV viewers, has announced an enhanced
version of its ActiveVideo Distribution Network. According to the
company, the new version of its platform will simplify and accelerate
the availability of Web-based programming and advertising on the
television and enable consumers to experience such services as
user-generated content, social media, Web-based channels, games and