Rovi Acquires Video Search firm Veveo

Video-search firm Veveo, in a deal valued at up to $69 million, is being acquired by top interactive program guide vendor Rovi. Veveo's personalized natural language processing platform will "complement and leapfrog" Rovi's analytics and metadata systems, said John Moakley, Rovi's executive vice president of data solutions.  In addition to developing technology that allows viewers to use search for content using apps on smartphones, Veveo has said previously that it would license its technology to set-top and smart TV manufacturers.

The deal is expected to juice the bottom line for Rovi and they have stated that the Veveo deal will contribute to "double digit revenue growth and be accretive in fiscal year 2015". But the company said that the acquisition would also "likely lower" its adjusted pro forma income per common share this year by 3 cents to 6 cents.

Bottom line, the Veveo acquisition will deepen Rovi's cloud-based search and recommendation capabilities, enhance their entertainment metadata and guide solutions with next-generation semantic capabilities, and help them grow their advertising and analytics offerings. More: 02/24/14 Bloomburg.com - Rovi to Buy Veveo to Bolster Television Analytics

CHCH Ontario & Cogeco Cable Canada First to Offer Geolocated TV Ads

CHCH TV and Cogeco Cable Canada ("Cogeco") are pleased to announce that CHCH made Canadian television history last week by being the first television broadcaster to offer its advertisers the ability to customize their message to their potential customers, according to their geolocation. Cogeco subscribers viewing CHCH will see the content of ads evolve to become more pertinent with regards to subscribers' market locations.

The new service is thanks to the leading edge INVIDI Advatar® addressable advertising platform that supports geo-specific content delivery. The development of this platform is the result of collaborative efforts among Invidi Technologies Corporation, cable distributor Cogeco, CHCH Television and software distributor Capital Networks Limited, who is managing the ad insertion operation for the Advatar® platform.

"Cogeco is proud to be the first Canadian cable distributor to support television advertising by geolocation," stated Jean-Pierre Caveen, Vice President, Affiliate, Partner and Carrier Relations at Cogeco Cable Canada. "This new and more efficient advertising opportunity brings the print direct marketing model to television," concluded Mr. Caveen.

Through the INVIDI Advatar® addressable advertising system, CHCH's advertising clients can deliver tailored messaging during a commercial break to households of a specific geographical area within Cogeco's footprint in the Golden Horseshoe area of Southern Ontario. "The first advertiser to take advantage of this leading edge technology is the New Democratic Party of Ontario," said Geoff Thrasher, General Sales Manager, Channel Zero Inc. "Their ads will only be seen in households within the Niagara Falls by-election riding boundaries, and with no spill outside of this area, the targeting ability of the Advatar® platform allows clients to include television in their media plan - affordably," concluded Geoff.

Advertisers can utilize this technology during CHCH's key 6 & 11 Evening Newscasts, as well as throughout the channel's popular primetime movies and programs including U.S. simulcasts 20/20, 48 Hours and 60 Minutes.

Mobile posts Dominate TV chatter on Facebook

As the battle for control of social media in and around the television between Facebook and Twitter continues, a report released today by Facebook in partnership with SecondSync, a social TV analytics provider shows that up to a 25% of television viewers post (on Facebook) about programs that are watching. Up until now the assumption was that most activity took place pre or post the shows airing and not in real time. Additionally the survey uncovered that 80% of TV-related chatter on the social network comes from a mobile device.

Other relevant findings from the analysis of real-time patterns and types of engagement included:

Real-time interactions: TV-related Facebook interactions happen during the show airing.

• Widespread reach: The scale of TV-related chatter seen on Facebook corresponds to the broad reach of the social network. Shows such as the Sound of Music Live and Breaking Bad generate 7.34 million and 4.47 million audience interactions respectively.
• Mobile engagement: 80 per cent of TV-related chatter on Facebook is generated from mobile devices.
• Multiple interaction opportunities. Posts are most closely aligned to real-time TV ‘events’; the bulk of TV conversations are contained in Comments; Likes have a long tail of engagement.

Accounding to SecondSync, they plan to continue to work closely with Facebook. Areas of future research will include investigating the extent to which Facebook drives TV tune-in, measuring the reach of TV-related interactions, and looking at the effectiveness of Facebook calls to action in TV advertising.

are contained in Comments; Likes have a long tail of engagement. MORE: Secondsync.com Feburary 2014 Whitepaper - "Watching with Friends"