Social Entertainment

LVISO, CA — (MARKET WIRE) — 03/03/2010 — TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), a leader in advanced television services, including digital video recorders (DVRs), announced today the launch of TiVo® Premiere and TiVo® Premiere XL boxes. TiVo Premiere elegantly combines access to cable programming, movies, web videos, and music all in one box at a truly affordable price. TiVo Premiere is now the only way to unlock the real value of the HD television set, a box that is more powerful, compact, and energy efficient than previous generations. If the DVR changed your life, TiVo Premiere will change it again.

“It has never been this easy to get all your entertainment in one place, on the big screen, in HD, right at your fingertips. And the beauty of TiVo Premiere is that finding what to watch is just as fun as the watching the TV shows themselves. We accomplished it by using pictures and graphics to make the whole television guide experience come alive in a way that it never has before,” said TiVo’s President and CEO Tom Rogers. “TiVo Premiere is your new cable box, it’s your movie box, it’s your web box, and music box; it’s the one box that can give you access to almost anything you want, whenever you want it. We’ve taken millions of pieces of content and organized it for you in a way that makes so much sense you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.”

Why Premiere Is Revolutionary:

It’s the One Box: TiVo Premiere is your new cable box, movie box, web box, and music box; it’s the one box that gives you access to everything you want to get on your television and all with one remote. It’s a true one stop shop for entertainment.*

Broadband and Broadcast Integration: Premiere’s search functionality offers users the ability to find programs from many sources — whether it’s a digital premium channel from cable, a funny outtake from YouTube or a movie from broadband sources such as Netflix, Amazon Video On Demand, or Blockbuster On Demand, plus options from the Web all brought together into one unified and simple experience.*

Browse Baby Browse: Premiere is at its best when you want to browse, discover and explore the almost infinite array of TV options. Every show, from every source, is organized by category or topic. With a full-screen menu that includes a rich display of movie posters & TV show logos for exploring, it’s simple to stumble upon interesting things to watch or record. Plus, consumers have never before had the option to browse by specific movie collections on their TV. For example, browse thru Oscar® Award winning movies or Emmy® Award winning television shows with one simple click of the remote.

Six-Degrees of Separation: Premiere will settle debates over “where have I seen that actor before?” far faster than a trip to the laptop ever could. Just click on a show or an actor and consumers will be able to view entire entertainment resumes and cast lists, quickly and easily. Before you know it you’ll find associations from one favorite actor to another that you never dreamed existed, fueling the discovery process even more and likely getting you hooked in the process.

Easy to Use HD Layout: We’ve kept the easy navigation, but significantly cut the number of screens you have to visit by utilizing the extra room high-definition affords. The experience was built for HD television sets and by creating a two-column and three-column layouts we reduce the number of screens, helping you to get to what you want more quickly.

Set-top box built on Adobe® Flash® Platform for the Digital Home: Premiere is built on Adobe Flash software, a pathway to future user-generated experiences and development opportunities, which have not been available before on a set-top box. Premiere is built on multi-core architecture that greatly facilitates future development of third party provided applications.

We Listened: By popular demand Premiere includes an on-screen disk space meter that shows how much room is left to record, a built in 30 second scan, and a new video window that lets you watch your favorite show while navigating the TiVo menus.

Room to Record: The TiVo Premiere box has up to 45 hours of HD storage space or up to 400 hours of standard definition programming capacity. And for those who want even more options the TiVo Premiere XL box holds up to 150 hours of high-definition or up to 1350 hours of standard definition programming.

Even More Content: A brand new relationship with Pandora means in the coming months, Premiere as well as TiVo Series3™, HD DVR, and Series2 customers will be able to listen to their personalized Pandora radio stations on the best speakers in the house. A new relationship with FrameChannel brings the best of the web directly to the TV offering users access to nearly 1,000 content widgets of personal and commercial content, ranging from Tweets, photos and status updates to news, weather, sports scores and stock quotes. FrameChannel acts as a personalized channel on your television, transforming your TV into a constant stream of real-time news and information with the content that matters to you most.

Speaking about its strategic marketing alliance with TiVo that was announced last year, Mike Vitelli, President of the Americas for Best Buy, said, “This is an important step toward achieving our shared vision to transform the digital home entertainment experience and redefine customer service. Through TiVo we can continue to strengthen relationships and interact with our valued customers even after they leave our stores, which is invaluable in a rapidly evolving digital media environment. Cable companies do a great job of connecting customers to content, but TiVo takes the complete digital experience to the next level.”

“We are proud to be leading the cable industry in the adoption of this groundbreaking approach to advanced television. TiVo will bring a whole new way for our subscribers to experience television with TiVo’s DVR and broadband television offerings,” said RCN President & CEO Peter Aquino. “I’m very pleased to report that based on our field test results, we will begin to roll out TiVo as our primary advanced box in all of our markets, one by one, in the second quarter of this year.”

Coming in May, a new TiVo Wireless N adapter, that allows for faster downloads and faster streaming of content, at speeds that are especially helpful for multi-room viewing (MRV) transfers. Coming later this year, consumers will also have access to a groundbreaking, slide-out QWERTY TiVo remote. The compact peanut shaped remote gives a faster experience, especially when utilizing text entry. With Easy plug n’ play installation, extended range utilizing Bluetooth and backlit programmable buttons the remote will quickly become a must have accessory.

TiVo Premiere Box Specifications:

• TiVo Series4™ architecture
• Supports digital cable, high-definition digital cable, antenna (ATSC) and Verizon FiOS
• Outputs: HDMI, Component video, Composite video, Optical audio, Analog audio
• Video output modes include: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
• Inputs: CableCARD™ support, Cable coax, Antenna coax, Ethernet
• Ethernet connection, USB 2.0 ports (2), E-SATA support for external storage
• TiVo Wireless N and G Network Adapter support
• ENERGY STAR® certified
• 320 Gigabytes
• Records up to 45 hours of HD programming or up to 400 hours of standard-definition

TiVo Premiere XL Box Specifications (all specs not listed are the same as above unless noted)

• One Terabyte storage
• Records up to 150 hours of HD programming or up to 1350 hours of standard-definition
• Backlit, programmable, and learning remote
• THX®certified, ensuring optimal audio and video reproduction and enables seamless integration with other THX components
• TiVo Premiere XL box is the first HD product to feature THX® Optimizer™, a video calibration tool that lets users fine tune color, black levels and other settings to improve picture quality. Hailed by critics for its ease-of-use, the exclusive THX Optimizer for TiVo Premiere XL box is found in the My Shows menu of the TiVo service. A pair of THX Optimizer Blue Glasses, designed for adjusting Color and Tint settings, is included with the owner’s manual.

TiVo Premiere and TiVo Premiere XL boxes will be available in retail nationwide in early April. They are also available for pre-order today at tivo.com for $299.99 and $499.99 respectively.

*TiVo service is required and sold separately. Cable and Netflix subscriptions required for cable and Netflix programming, respectively and are not included in TiVo service subscription. Additional fees may apply for other broadband content. Broadband programming sources subject to availability and may change without notice.

BETHPAGE, N.Y., 05/20/2004 — Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC) today announced that it has successfully deployed five advanced interactive television (ITV) applications to iO: Interactive Optimum digital cable customers across its entire service area. The company also announced that it has more than doubled the size of the innovative subscription games service it introduced for all iO customers earlier this month, with the addition of a “Casino” games package featuring unlimited access to seven gaming favorites.

“This is a watershed moment in the development of our iO digital cable service, because it represents the extension of innovative interactive applications, which had formerly been available only in select areas, across our entire customer base,” said Patrick Donoghue, Cablevision’s vice president of interactive television development and operations. “All of our nearly 1.1 million iO customers now have access to this groundbreaking functionality and compelling content, further leveraging the enormous capacity of our network and giving our digital cable service an even greater competitive advantage over conventional satellite providers.”

With the launch of ITV applications across its entire service area, all of Cablevision’s iO digital cable customers have access to the following services at no additional cost:

Metro Weather Interactive, featuring intensely localized weather information and forecasts, in addition to comprehensive reports on the region, nation and world. The fully-interactive service also includes detailed marine forecasts and advisories.

Metro Traffic Interactive, featuring local and regional traffic information including delay advisories, specific reports on area bridges and tunnels, road conditions and – in select areas – live camera shots of frequently traversed roadways.

iO Dashboard, an interactive information portal, with embedded video, that enables viewers to scan current news, sports and entertainment headlines, in addition to viewing personally-relevant traffic, weather, lottery and horoscope information.

iO Showcase, the innovative promotional channel designed by Cablevision to help iO customers identify unique and interesting elements of its digital cable service, including new on demand titles, subscription video on demand services, high-definition programming and other benefits.

Move ‘n Match Puzzles, an entertaining and educational puzzle game for young children.

The iO Games play-for-fun “Casino” package includes seven captivating interactive gaming favorites developed by Zone4Play, the leading developer and provider of betting and gambling applications for interactive television subscribers. As with all iO Games, free demos are available on a trial basis. Players draw iO-branded cards, throw dice and drop coins with a touch of the remote control. Top players are able to post their scores on leader boards that are visible across Cablevision’s service area.

“The addition of these popular casino games will create additional momentum for a service that is already becoming popular with our customers,” Donoghue said. “We’ve developed a compelling interface and intuitive controls enhanced with incredible graphics that are as real to a casino floor as you can get on television. As we’ve seen with the success of iO Games’ Variety Pak, which we launched earlier this month, there is a lot of excitement and interest in this type of interactive entertainment.”

The iO Games “Casino” package includes Blackjack, Caribbean Poker, Roulette, Video Poker, Battle Royal, Slots and Keno. The iO Games “Variety Pak” and “Casino” are each available for unlimited play for the monthly subscription price of $4.95. In the coming weeks, Cablevision will make it even more convenient for iO customers to subscribe to interactive games services by adding the ability to upgrade using only a television remote control and on-screen prompts.

Nearly 700,000 iO customers were added in 2003, for a current total of nearly 1.1 million. Today more than 36 percent of Cablevision’s cable customers are iO customers, up from just 13.6 percent one year ago, reflecting the breakaway success of a service that was first offered on a limited basis in late 2001 and did not become available across Cablevision’s entire service area until late last year.

This dramatic consumer adoption of iO in 2003 was complemented by strong industry recognition, including Emmy Awards in two categories: “Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Television for an Interactive Television Service,” and “Outstanding Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for the Creation of Non-Traditional Programs or Platforms.”

iO offers customers access to more than 200 channels, including 50 premium movie channels, 45 channels of commercial-free digital music, more than 700 titles available on demand, an interactive programming guide, 14 high-definition programming services and groundbreaking interactive television applications. No other cable or satellite provider exceeds the breadth and depth of the iO service or gives customers more control over their television experience.

LAS VEGAS, Jan 07, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — As the center of people’s online lives, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) today furthered the company’s Connected TV leadership by globally expanding the availability of the Yahoo! Widget Engine. New partnerships with Hisense, ViewSonic, MIPS Technologies, and Sigma Designs will dramatically increase the availability of the Yahoo! Widget Engine, delivering compelling TV Widget experiences to more televisions and other consumer electronic devices which will begin shipping as soon as Q1 2010. Yahoo! TV Widgets now work on all major consumer electronic device chip architectures worldwide.

Reinforcing the company’s open strategy in this space, Yahoo! also broadly released its Widget Development Kit (WDK) today, enabling developers to create TV Widgets and effectively reach millions of consumers. ”Consumers are in love with their televisions, watching more TV, and demanding Internet connectivity to further enhance their viewing experience,” said Arlo Rose, senior director of Yahoo! Connected TV. “Yahoo! is leading the connected TV market by bringing a rich variety of Internet content and services to the living room — incorporating video on demand, social networks, games, online shopping, and more — making it easy for consumers to personalize their TV viewing experience.”

New Partnerships To Expand Distribution for the Yahoo! Widget Engine

Building on the company’s existing distribution partnerships with Sony®, LG Electronics®, VIZIO® and Samsung® across North America and Europe, Yahoo! is expanding the availability of the TV Widget experience globally by embedding the Yahoo! Widget Engine in an even greater number of television models and a variety of new consumer electronics devices. New partnerships and noteworthy developments include:

● VIZIO’s XVT Series Connected HDTVs with VIZIO Internet Apps incorporate the Yahoo! Widget Engine and will be available at retailers throughout the U.S. in Q1. Taking unique advantage of the Yahoo! Widget Engine, VIZIO’s Connected HDTVs provide consumers with unprecedented choice, convenience, and control of an ever-increasing array of Internet content and services, as well as intuitive and simple access to the TVs’ settings through the Widget dock.

● Hisense International Co, Ltd., a world leading provider of flat panel TVs, household appliances, and mobile communications, announced a partnership with global Internet brand Yahoo!® Inc. to integrate the Yahoo! Widget Engine into Hisense Internet-Connected TVs that will ship across the U.S. and Europe.

● ViewSonic will provide customers with an interactive, connected TV experience via the ViewSonic VMP80 media player. Powered by the Yahoo! Widget Engine, the ViewSonic VMP80 media player will enable current HDTV owners to view movies, TV shows, Web videos, and photos; and to go shopping, play games, and more with TV Widgets. The VMP80 media player will ship in Q1 2010 for an estimated MSRP of US$159.

● MIPS Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for digital consumer, home networking, wireless, communications, and business applications, today announced plans to develop an optimized Yahoo! Widget Engine for MIPS-Based™ digital home devices. MIPS will develop an optimized reference platform running the Yahoo! Widget Engine for digital TV and set-top box applications. Leveraging this reference implementation, MIPS® licensees will be able to quickly develop devices incorporating Yahoo! TV Widgets.

● Sigma Designs announced plans to support the Yahoo! Widget Engine on its media processors, which will enable manufacturers to easily support Yahoo! Connected TV in a wide array of consumer electronic devices, including Blu-ray players, network players, AV receivers, and cable/IPTV set-top boxes.

WDK Now Widely Available for Developers and Publishers; Offering Instant Scalability

With thousands of developers in the process of creating TV Widgets, and to further the company’s open strategy in this space, Yahoo! is making its Widget Developer Kit (WDK) broadly available for developers and publishers who want to extend their brand, services, and content to a mass market. Beginning today, anyone can download the WDK and quickly create, deploy and monetize exciting and engaging TV Widget experiences. Leveraging a rich set of application programming interfaces (APIs), developers can write widgets using simple JavaScript and XML, producing rich Internet applications to deliver dynamic content to millions of television sets and other consumer electronic devices globally.

For more information on the WDK and to begin developing TV Widgets, visit: http://connectedtv.yahoo.com/developer

Slate of New TV Widget Providers Bring Thousands of Content Sources to Consumers

The Yahoo! Widget Gallery continues to expand, enabling consumers to access their favorite TV shows on Amazon® Video on Demand, play music on Pandora®, check sports scores on USA Today®, shop on eBay®, play games, or catch up with friends on Twitter™ and Facebook®, all while watching TV. Joining leading consumer brands like CBS®, Showtime® and Blockbuster®, a sample of recently introduced Widgets will provide consumers access to a personalized selection of music, video, news and information.

● CNBC: The CNBC widget allows viewers to interact with CNBC’s real-time stock quotes direct from the NYSE and NASDAQ, real-time watchlists to track favorite stocks, and other key analytics.

● NBC: View NBC’s show schedule, view full screen photo galleries and catch up on your favorite shows with up-to-date quick text recaps, cast bios, and more.

● Napster: Subscribers can browse, search, preview, and listen to Napster’s entire catalog of music on-demand, as well as enjoy custom radio stations, playlists, and Billboard charts.

● RadioTime: Create your personal selection of music from up to 100,000 radio stations.

● Sky News TV: Delivers breaking news by text and images to users’ TV sets. It includes seven categories of news: top stories, U.K. news, sports, business, world news, showbiz news, and politics.

● Dailymotion: Access one of largest Web video sites in the world through your TV.

● The Weather Channel: Enables consumers to stay up to date with the current conditions, the five-day forecast, and access regional radar, all accessible in a simple interface with the ability to look up and save multiple locations.

● Betfair: The world’s biggest betting community provides sports enthusiasts with an online entertainment experience to enhance their sports television watching in the U.K.

● My-Cast Weather: Provides animated Nexrad radar, hourly to seven-day forecasts, StormWatch, cloud information and more across the United States. Yahoo! has also worked with leading video, data and photo aggregators to provide consumers access to their vast libraries of thousands of content sources.

● FrameChannel: Provides consumers with over 1,000 content channels from FrameChannel’s collection of leading photosharing, social networking and content partners, including BBC News, People.com, EW Picks, Deutsche Welle, Crave, Digg.com, Facebook, Twitter and much more. Browse and configure hundreds of channels to create your personalized TV Widget.

● Brightcove: The Leading online video platform for publishing and distributing video on the Web now makes it easy for media companies and marketers to create immersive, branded video experiences for Internet-connected televisions. Some of the TV Widgets that consumers can expect shortly include: Slate V, This Old House, AllYou.com, My Home Ideas, My Recipes, Southern Living, Real Simple, Coastal Living, Sunset, Cooking Light, Wine Spectator, TheStreet.com, The Hollywood Reporter and Cars.com.

● Zinc: Enables users to enjoy high-quality Internet video, providing a simple and consistent way to browse more than 100,000 professionally produced videos from hundreds of different websites, including Amazon, Netflix, those of major networks, and more.

● 1Cast: This personalized video service delivers up-to-the-minute news video from leading programmers and broadcasters across the Web.

LAS VEGAS, NV (CES) and IRVINE, CA – January 08, 2010 — VIZIO, America’s #1 LCD HDTV Company, announced today that it has entered into a three year, North American endorsement agreement with international pop-music icon and film star, Beyoncé Knowles – Carter. Financial terms of the agreement were not released, but the contract does provide language that allows the parties to expand the relationship as VIZIO enters new markets around the world.

The agreement grants name and likeness rights to VIZIO for North American advertising, product packaging, web, promotions, public relations and point of sale materials. The partnership will also allow Knowles to participate in the design and performance characteristics of new products from VIZIO’s ever-expanding line of audio, visual and web-enabled products.

“Beyoncé is in an elite class of entertainers who are globally known and respected for their talent on stage and in front of the camera,” said Laynie Newsome, Co-Founder and VP Sales & Marketing Communications of VIZIO. “We believe both VIZIO and Beyoncé are closely aligned as American success stories who have redefined the rules in our respective industries.”

VIZIO has maintained the #1 U.S. LCD ranking though the third quarter of 2009*, and had twice the Q3 shipment volume of Sony in the U.S. VIZIO now has more than 13 million U.S. households who own VIZIO HDTVs. They have recently been named one of Advertising Age’s Hottest Brands.

“What I love about VIZIO is how committed they have been to customers and their focus on delivering tremendous performance at a great value,” said Knowles – Carter. “As a performer, I can relate to that, because my fans spend their hard-earned money to see me perform, and I give everything I can to make sure I exceed their expectations. I’m excited to be associated with such a successful company.”

Source – *iSuppli Corporation Q4 2009 U.S. TV Market Tracker

About VIZIO
VIZIO, Inc., “Where Vision Meets Value,” headquartered in Irvine, California, is America’s HDTV and Consumer Electronics Company. In 2007, VIZIO skyrocketed to the top by becoming the #1 selling brand of flat panel HDTVs in North America and became the first American brand in over a decade to lead major categories in U.S. TV sales. Since 2007 VIZIO HDTV shipments remain in the TOP ranks in the U.S. and were again #1 in Q1, 2009 with over 20% market share. VIZIO is committed to bringing feature-rich flat panel televisions to market at a value through practical innovation. VIZIO offers a broad range of award winning LCD HDTVs including the new XVT series. VIZIO’s products are found at Costco Wholesale, Sam’s Club, Sears, Walmart, Target, BJ’s Wholesale, and other retailers nationwide along with authorized online partners. VIZIO has won numerous awards including a #1 ranking in the Inc. 500 for Top Companies in Computers and Electronics, Good Housekeeping’s Best Big-Screens, CNET’s Top 10 Holiday Gifts and PC World’s Best Buy among others. For more information, please call 888-VIZIOCE or visit on the web at www.VIZIO.com.

The V, VIZIO, TruLED, Extreme VIZIO Technology XVT, VIZIO Internet Apps, 480Hz SPS, 240Hz SPS, Thin Line, Smooth Motion, Razor LED, Smart Dimming, Where Vision Meets Value names, phrase and symbols are trademarks or registered trademarks of VIZIO, Inc. All other trademarks may be the property of their respective holders.

Subway and MTV Networks have forged a partnership to bring emerging artists, comedians and musicians to a wider audience through a digital marketing program being promoted as “Subway Fresh Buzz.”

A story in Marketing Daily reveals the program, which will feature profiles, performances and exclusive content from 20 performers, will be anchored by SubwayFreshBuzz.com and MTVIggy.com, and will be promoted through the MTV Network of Web sites and digital properties, including social media platforms.

From Market Daily:

“This taps into our consumers’ passion points of music and entertainment,” Karie Ford, vice president of marketing for Subway Franchise Advertising Fund Trust, tells Marketing Daily. “Social media is a great outlet for us to push our message out, and we’re excited to use it.”

A video on the site introduces several of the artists who will be profiled through the three-month program. Split in two halves, the video shows the artists working and conversing about their craft. The site has launched with profiles of Keiji Ando, a sneaker painter; Jennifer Chung, an online singing sensation; indie rock band Xylos, pop trio Pow Wow!; and online comedy team The Fine Brothers. Two new profiles will be added each week through February.

YouTube-backed video site Vevo is now live after a star-studded launch eventin New York City.

Celebrities like Lady Gaga, Adam Lambert, Bono, Pete Wentz, and Mariah Carey joined Google CEO Eric Schmidt in Manhattan to launch the new music video Web site.

Vevo.com currently has 14,675 videos from 5,191 artists in more than 20 categories: alternative, blues, children’s music, Christian and gospel, classical, comedy/humor, country, easy listening, electronic/dance, holiday, jazz, Latino, pop, R&B/soul, rap/hip-hop, reggae, rock, soundtrack, spoken word, world, and other.

Users have the option to create playlists with up to 75 videos. Almost 800 playlists have already been created.

Plans for Vevo were first announced in April with YouTube and Universal Music Group as the founding partners. YouTube described Vevo as a “premium online music video hub” that will be powered by YouTube’s video technology. Users can access the content via Vevo.com or through a new Vevo YouTube channel, which will include a Vevo-branded embedded player.

Sony Music Entertainment joined the venture in June, and AT&T signed on in October. Abu Dhabi Media Company also joined as a founding shareholder that same month, contributing a reported $300 million.

Earlier this month, Vevo announced a content deal with CBS Interactive Music Group, which will provide users with access to CBS properties like Last.fm and more than 90 CBS Radio music stations beginning next year.

On Monday, EMI Music said it would share content from its labels like Astralwerks, Blue Note, Capitol and Virgin, as well as the independent artists and labels represented by EMI Label Services and EMI’s Caroline Distribution unit.

The Web is changing before our eyes. Traffic to almost every major media and portal site has been in a free-fall since September 2008, according to Nicholas Moerman, a planning intern with Proximity in London. This begs the question: If we are spending more time on the Web, not less, just where did our attention go? The answer is, unsurprisingly, social networking sites. According to Moerman’s analysis, they buck the trend.

Social networking is on a tear. Other than Google, few sites loom larger today in brokering traffic and attention flows than Twitter and Facebook. The New York Times reported recently that Twitter will soon become one of its top 10 traffic drivers. Facebook alone grabs 25% of the entire Web’s page views, according to an analysis by Perry Drake of Drake Direct.

To date, however, social networking has largely remained a two-foot experience. We engage using our PCs or, increasingly, via mobile devices. This, as a result, means that social networking has largely siphoned time and attention away from other online media, while leaving TV relatively unscathed. That’s all about to change.

A race is underway to turn social networking into an engaging 10-foot experience–one that we interact with via TVs. The technology has been in place for years. However, the price of Internet-connected HDTVs was, until recently, out of reach for most. No longer. High-definition TVs were among the top sellers on Black Friday, according to ShopperTrak RCT Corp. And just in time, the major social networks are racing to make the entire experience more interactive via number of channels–not just cable TV, but gaming consoles too.

Television inherently has been a social experience for decades, dominating water cooler conversations worldwide. But as social networking enters the living room via embedded Twitter and Facebook streams and more, some observers see it changing the live experience, which has largely remained passive. This potentially could shake up the millions of dollars spent on TV advertising, while ushering in new ways to reach both women and men.

Robert Tercek, president of digital media for OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, a joint venture between Discovery Communications and Oprah Winfrey launching January 2011, sees social networking immediately adding value to the traditional viewing experience–with women leading the way. He believes that now is the time to act, with a flood of applications and widgets that connect directly to the Web from TVs.

By Juliana Koranteng, London

Music is playing such a critical role on fast-growing social networks that brand owners can no longer ignore it for brand-awareness strategies, says a new report by Heartbeats International, the Sweden-based international marketing agency.

Called “Social Music Revolution,” the report will be unveiled at the Eurobest advertising festival in Amsterdam today (Nov. 25). It follows “Sounds like Branding,” Heartbeats’ survey on branded music projects published early this year.

The new report examines the role of music in social media and how brand owners can adopt recorded and live music to reach young audiences that have stopped using traditional media.

It analyzes several international studies by firms like SIFO Institute, Entertainment Media Research, and Millward Brown and concludes: “The same digital technology that changed the music industry is changing advertising as we know it.”

It finds that, on average, consumers listen to music on five different platforms, including mobile handsets and PCs.

Moreover, “two out of five social networkers have music embedded in their personal profile.” And the number of hours spent listening to music per day is growing.

“We want to open up more marketers eyes to the massive impact that music has on these networks,” the report’s author, Heartbeats’ CEO/founder Jakob Lusensky, tells Billboard.biz. “There are definitely differences depending on the market and culture. But the digitalization and increased usage of mobile phones, iPod/MP3-players and Internet (in the developed world) have created a situation where more people then ever easily have access to more music then ever before.”

As services like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Last.fm alone gain more than 500 million users, they are reaching consumers on a scale global marketers crave for.

Even the 140-character text limitation on Twitter has not stopped the service from making music sharing possible via add-on services such as imeem, Twittytunes and Blip.fm.

Heartbeats’ report advises advertisers to work with the music industry on social network platforms by adopting the new marketing principles of the four Es (emotions, experience, engagement and exclusivity) – as opposed to the traditional four Ps (price, product, placement and promotion).

Brands should also consider three types of strategies, the report continues. The ‘Association’ strategy centers on connecting artists to audiences. An example is Bacardi rum’s collaboration with dance act Groove Armada earlier this year.

The ‘Involvement’ strategy advocates co-creating to encourage fans to interact with music, such as remix competitions using legally licensed hits. Computer chip giant Intel worked with media-buying agency Universal McCann on its Intel Powers Music social-network campaign in Europe last year. The campaign resulted in 19,000 bands and performers adding Intel as a friend on their MySpace page.

The ‘Exploration’ strategy offers music discovery platforms and introduces fans to new music. Duracell, the batteries manufactured by consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble, has set up Scandinavia-based music sharing Web site Ramp Music.

• Xbox 360 Continues to deliver the Leading Games and Entertainment Experiences
• Connect to Facebook and Twitter with your Xbox 360
• Great value addition for 20 million users on Xbox Live
• Tweet and Update your status while playing your favourite game
• Compare your Xbox LIVE and Facebook friends’ lists to see which of your friends are on LIVE

For people who are addicted to Social networking and can’t seem to get enough of it, here is breaking news! Microsoft now gives its ardent Xbox 360 fans an opportunity to go Live and enjoy social networking along with games right on the gaming console! This next wave of Social Networking will be available on Xbox LIVE from the 17th November, 2009, and transform the Xbox LIVE into the most entertaining connected experience ever!

Jaspreet Bindra, Regional Director, Entertainment and Devices Division, Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd. shared the excitement around the launch by saying “Since the time of the launch of Xbox 360 and XBOX Live, we have always heard our customers and continuously worked to enhance their interactive entertainment experience. The addition of Facebook and Twitter brings an altogether different level of excitement and action for 20 million Xbox LIVE users across the globe. Only on Xbox 360 can you find the best in movies, music, games and now social networking tailor-made to suit your needs and demands.”

Keeping up with its promise of providing the best in entertainment, Xbox 360 will now become your complete source of social entertainment experience by enabling you to enjoy a lot more! So, here’s what you can do:

Facebook- Update your status to share what movie, game or entertainment you’re enjoying, connect with friends and view their Facebook stream, status updates and photos on the big screen – all seamlessly integrated and custom-built for Xbox 360. You can even compare your Xbox LIVE and Facebook friends’ lists to see which of your friends are on LIVE.

Twitter– Stay in the know by discovering, posting and replying to Tweets right on you’re Xbox 360. You can even view friend profiles, trends and conversations, or search to see who’s tweeting about your favorite game.

With these updates, Xbox 360 is bound to become the one-stop shop for everything. You can now connect with your friend’s online, show them your cool new victory in that favourite game that you play and proudly upload those pictures on your Facebook profile. All this and much more while you are still busy fighting the devils in the game. Sounds exciting? It sure is the best.

So, what are you waiting for? Make sure that you are right in front of your Xbox 360 on the 17th of November. Go LIVE and experience Social Networking like never before. Upload the picture of the cool new car you buy while playing Forza Motorsport 3 on your Facebook profile and make sure that your most recent tweet does talk about your victory on Halo 3: ODST.

There’s tons more to experience with Gold subscription as well. Play the latest game titles like “Halo 3: ODST” and “Forza Motorsport 3″ online multiplayer, participate in “1 vs. 100,” host an Xbox LIVE Party or even video chat with friends. All of these Gold-only features will be available all weekend long for anyone to try.