SnagFilms confirms $7 million in equity, debt financing

January 30, 2012

SnagFilms, the independent film service founded and chaired by Wizards and Capitals owner Ted Leonsis, on Monday officially announced it has raised $7 million in new equity and debt financing. The dollar figures flesh out last week’s news that Terry Semel had joined the company’s board of directors.

All current investors participated, including Leonsis, Steve and Jean Case’s Case Foundation Ventures LLC., the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Comcast Interactive Capital (CIC), along with new investors Semel and David Fialkow, co-founder and managing director of General Catalyst Partners. The debt facility is with Silicon Valley Bank.

The new funding will be used by SnagFilms to extend its library, continue its technology development to provide films across all digital platforms and devices, and to market its films in all channels.

Semel (pictured), who is best known to the entertainment industry as the former chairman and CEO of Yahoo and former co-chairman and co-CEO of Warner Bros., said, “I have spent a long time at the intersection of films and new media. Movie studios don’t have a monopoly on great stories, yet small distribution companies struggle to assemble the footprint necessary to reach a scale audience.”

He added that SnagFilms has the necessary contracts, relationships and capital required to lead its field of companies who see the potential to change that paradigm.

Leonsis: “After a phenomenal year of growth in 2011, SnagFilms is poised for even greater success in 2012. This new investment by all our current investors, along with new funding from two tech and media-savvy newcomers, are true testaments to our strong belief in SnagFilms’ tremendous potential for long term success. Digital delivery isn’t just the wave of the future – it is the driving force now for filmmakers to reach large audiences and spread their passion, and to create new revenue streams that make their next film possible.”

Rick Allen, SnagFilms CEO: “This new capital will enable SnagFilms to stay at the forefront of changing consumer behavior and technological innovation, while expanding the breadth and depth of our content.We are now extremely well positioned for accelerated growth, as we further our mission of bringing outstanding independent films to digital audiences, on demand, wherever and whenever they want to watch great entertainment.”

SnagFilms, which also is affiliated with news site IndieWire, features free, sponsor-supported, on demand viewing on its own site and a digital network of more than 110,000 affiliated sites and webpages worldwide, including partners such as Comcast’s XfinityTV.com, Hulu, the Starbucks Digital Network, IMDb and AOL/Huffington Post. It also offers selected titles via pay video on demand with Comcast and FiOS, as well as on iTunes, Hulu Plus, Amazon, YouTube Movies, and will soon be launching on DirecTV and digital streaming providers Vudu, Samsung Media Hub and Xbox Live.

Related links:

http://www.SnagFilms.com

SnagFilms blog post – http://tinyurl.com/83wh2rj

http://www.indiewire.com

Photo of Terry Semel courtesy of Yahoo, 2007

Obama chats to the nation on Google+

digitalmediawi

January 30, 2012

Washington, DC – President Obama on Monday afternoon was scheduled to take part in a virtual interview through social network Google+, answering questions submitted from the public as part of a live video chat.

As of Monday morning, more than 227,000 people had submitted 133,000 questions and cast 1.6 million votes on the issues they’d like to see addressed.

The Google+ “Hangout” event is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. EST, streamed live on the social network, as well as WhiteHouse.gov and YouTube.com/WhiteHouse.

This article was also published in Potomac Tech Wire.

Related links:

White House blog post – http://tinyurl.com/7dwtvgc

White House on Google+ – https://plus.google.com/u/0/105479712798762608629/posts

Electus cooks up foodie YouTube channel

digitalmediawi

January 30, 2012

Further demonstrating belief in the platform’s potential, Ben Silverman’s Electus today confirmed that Bruce Seidel has been named CEO of the multimedia entertainment studio’s upcoming food-centric YouTube channel.

Seidel reports directly to Electus chief operating officer and head of Digital, Drew Buckley, and is responsible for interfacing with advertising clients in addition to leading all creative, programming, scheduling, production and marketing. The new venture is scheduled to officially launch in July.

The as-yet unnamed foodie channel was conceptualized in partnership with Creative Artists Agency and will incorporate the online and mobile audience of Urbanspoon.

Seidel most recently was senior vice president of Programming for Scripps Networks Interactive’s Cooking Channel. Before that he was senior vice president of Program Planning and Special Productions at The Food Network, where he developed and oversaw Iron Chef America along with other top-rated programs including The Next Food Network Star and Worst Cooks in America. In addition to localizing Japan’s hit Iron Chef, Seidel also imported British culinary programs like those featuring Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson. His previous work includes development roles at Animal Planet, where he built co-productions with the BBC, and Discovery Communications.

Ben Silverman, chairman and founder of Electus: “Bruce Seidel’s life-long talent and passion for food, cooking and entertainment, combined with his outstanding work rebranding the Food Network and launching Cooking Channel, both online and offline, was a driving force behind our decision to ask him to lead this charge. Bruce is uniquely qualified to build and popularize our slate of food programming in a way that hasn’t been done on the Web.”

Robert Kyncl, global head of Content for YouTube: “Great talent moves like this exemplify the relentless commitment by our partners and the overall velocity of the online video space. We look forward to collaborating with Bruce and the entire Electus team in the months ahead.”

Seidel: “Electus is at the forefront of creating cutting-edge programming for all platforms including the web, and I am so pleased to join their team and lead this exciting new initiative. It is thrilling to invent a new digital television food model for a new generation, using the tried and true lessons of mainstream networks, while also being able to really push the boundaries.”

Related links:

http://www.electus.com

http://www.urbanspoon.com

Photo by Flickr user La Grande Farmers’ Market, used under Creative Commons license

TechStars offers free cloud services via Microsoft's BizSpark Plus

digitalmediawi

January 30, 2012

Microsoft today unveiled its new BizSpark Plus program, designed to assist select accelerators and incubators, and TechStars announced the first benefit-related news to come out of it. TechStars will be offering each of its startups up to $60,000 of Windows Azure cloud computing and storage services at no cost.

The offer is for a 24-month period and is being extended to TechStars accelerators in Boston, New York, Seattle, Texas, and Boulder, Colorado. Other BizSpark Plus participants are expected to extend similar offers to the startups they’re working with.

“This is the first offer from our new BizSpark Plus program, and we look forward to supporting TechStars members across a number of markets and technology offerings,” said Dan’l Lewin, corporate vice president, Strategic and Emerging Business Development, Microsoft.

Nine additional BizSpark Plus members were named in today’s announcement: global accelerators Startup Weekend, SeedCamp, Founders Institute and Fumec; Springboard and TechCity in the U.K.; Eura Technologies and DojoBoost in France; and Cietec in Brazil. Microsoft said these were chosen based on their track record of attracting and nurturing world-class startups.

Founded in 2006, the TechStars community currently includes more than 300 mentors, more than 1,500 investors and over 120 alumni TechStars companies. It is funded by more than 50 venture capital firms and 25 angel investors.

TechStars also led the effort to form the Global Accelerator Network in 2010, a group of almost 40 independently owned and operated organizations from around the world that utilize a mentorship-based startup accelerator model. Its mission is to ensure that 5,000 successful and experienced entrepreneurs and investors will mentor and support 6,000 promising young entrepreneurs. The goal is to increase their success rate tenfold and create 25,000 new jobs by 2015 as well as a sustained engine for growing these figures over time.

David Cohen, founder and CEO of TechStars, said: “Our passion is helping startups succeed around the world by providing funding and mentorship from the best and brightest Internet entrepreneurs and investors on the planet. The enhanced relationship with Microsoft will allow us to provide our founders with even more valuable support and services. Access to technologies such as Windows Azure and other software and services from Microsoft through the BizSpark Plus program gives our companies a leg up in the all-encompassing race to scale and succeed.”

Lewin said: “TechStars is a great partner with a proven track record of attracting world-class startups. We are excited at the opportunity to work together to help startups when they need it most, with the products, resources and connections they need the most. Working with entrepreneurs on the forefront of the cloud revolution is especially rewarding. Windows Azure is a powerful, integrated platform, making it easy for startups to get their services up and running quickly with minimal overhead.”

Related links:

BizSpark blog post – http://tinyurl.com/89aanyf

Press release – http://tinyurl.com/7tr2ccj

http://www.microsoft.com/BizSpark/Plus

http://www.techstars.com

http://globalacceleratornetwork.com

Shazam for TV expands to new shows

digitalmediawi

January 30, 2012

Shazam for TV announced a new sponsorship through which it will make three NBCUniversal TV series Shazamable, beginning with a continuation of the platform’s relationship with Being Human on SyFy and adding E!’s The Soup and USA’s Psych.

Tagging – known as Shazaming to the free app’s aficionados – during Being Human reveals exclusive scenes from the next episode, a tracklist of the songs featured in that night’s episode, device wallpaper, and a sweepstakes to visit the show’s location of Boston.

The first two episodes of Psych, Feb. 29 and March 7, will be Shazam-enabled. Using the app will let fans watch bloopers, browse a photo gallery, download wallpaper, shop for merchandise featured on the show, and enter a sweepstakes to visit Santa Barbara, where the show is set.

The Soup, the comedic clips show hosted by Joel McHale, also will be enabled for Shazam on those same two days. Tagging it will give access to exclusive clips from the show and a sweepstakes to visit a taping of The Soup in Los Angeles.

All three Shazam integrations are sponsored by Lexus. As is typical with Shazam, these three program sponsorships also enable the user to share their activity over social networks.

Related links:

http:www.shazam.com

http://www.syfy.com/beinghuman

http://www.usanetwork.com/series/psych

http://www.thesouptv.com

Men check NFL scores from _where?_

digitalmediawi

January 30, 2012

In yet another achievement made possible by technology, 4 percent of men have checked the score of an NFL game while at a funeral. And 18 percent of them have looked that up while on a date, according to a survey released by Yahoo Sports – although it doesn’t say how many of those guys got a subsequent date with the same person.

Those are definitely not the only places others might find inappropriate where guys have peeked at football scores. Among among men 18 to 64, 25 percent admit to checking NFL scores while in the bathroom. Other locations men admitted to include: in class (22 percent); at a wedding (12 percent), at their child’s school event (12 percent); and during a church service (8 percent).

The study commissioned from Ipsos OTX MediaCT shared these and other NFL factoids, which found 82 percent of men and 65 percent of women have checked NFL scores from somewhere they maybe shouldn’t have.

Most fans (75 percent) of fans have a favorite player, although 13 percent of female and 5 percent of male fans have chosen that player based on looks rather than on his on-field performance (41 percent) or team he plays for (33 percent). The survey doesn’t draw any correlation with those numbers and the fact that 16 percent of fans know that Tom Brady’s eyes are blue.

Related links:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl

http://yhoo.it/zNkCFD

Whedon and ‘Avengers’ stars take to Twitter [with trailer]

digitalmediawi

January 30, 2012

Marvel Studios is sponsoring a live global Twitter chat session Tuesday featuring writer/director Joss Whedon and cast members Tom Hiddleston and Clark Gregg from the upcoming tentpole release Marvel’s The Avengers.

Fans from numerous countries will be able to ask questions and receive answers in their preferred language, using a real-time global translation tool provided by Ortsbo.com. The Twitter-fest will be moderated by Marvel’s taco-loving @Agent_M, known to the HR department as Ryan Penagos, executive editorial director, Marvel Digital Media Group & Marvel.com.

Even if their question doesn’t get a personal response, participating fans will get the opportunity to see a 10-second tease of the 30-second Super Bowl spot that will air during Super Bowl XLVI (on Feb. 5 on NBC) and to answer Avengers trivia for a chance to win prize packs relevant to the movie, which opens on May 4.

The Twitter session will run for 30 minutes on January 31 at 11 a.m. PST (7 p.m. GMT) using the @Avengers handle and the #Avengers hashtag.

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Tom Hiddleston, with Stellan Skarsgård and Samuel L. Jackson, and written and directed by Joss Whedon, Marvel’s The Avengers is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series “The Avengers,” first published in 1963. It is presented by Marvel Studios in association with Paramount Pictures. The film is produced by Marvel Studios’ president Kevin Feige and executive produced by Alan Fine, Stan Lee, Jon Favreau, Louis D’Esposito, Patricia Whitcher, Victoria Alonso and Jeremy Latcham. The film is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Related links:

http://marvel.com/avengers_movie

http://agentmlovestacos.com

Virgin Gaming Hits Milestone for Cash Prize Competitors

digitalmediawi

January 27, 2012

Virgin Gaming, which hosts online competitive gaming with real cash prizes, announced today that it has surpassed a million registered users. The company also said it has disbursed over $7 million since its June 2010 launch.

Registration is free, and members can compete in a selection of head-to-head matches and tournaments without depositing any money. Participants must be at least 18 years old, however, and residents of 15 U.S. states are legally prohibited from participating in the cash games.

Virgin Gaming supports specific multiplayer PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 games, which enables the company’s platform to directly verify game statistics.

The current tournament is the Challenge Series, in which players worldwide are competing using a PlayStation 3 on EA Sports’ Madden NFL 12, NHL12 and FIFA 12 for a chance to win over $1 million in cash and prizes. The finals in the Challenge Series will be held in New York this April.

“We knew we were on to something and that our service had significant potential, we just didn’t realize it would take off as quickly as it did,” said Rob Segal, CEO of Virgin Gaming. “Our team continues to evolve the experience on a daily basis, and user feedback has been a key component in our upgrades. The responses have been resoundingly insightful and positive, so we’re very excited for our current direction and what the future holds, including the expansion of the biggest and best tournaments for mobile and social games.”

The states that prohibit gaming for cash prizes are Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Vermont.

Related link:

http://virgingaming.com

Michelle Obama, Instagram Fan [with video]

digitalmediawi

January 27, 2012

Among the 24 people invited to sit with First Lady Michelle Obama in her guest box during President Obama’s State of the Union address were Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple’s Steve Jobs and founder of Emerson Collective, and Mike Krieger, co-founder of the photo-sharing application Instagram.

At the White House reception for her guests, the First Lady agreed to have an Instagram photo of herself with Krieger (shown).

In a decades-long White House tradition, the guests are chosen to represent a cross-section of “extraordinary Americans who exemplify the themes and ideals laid out in the State of the Union Address,” as described on the White House blog. On this occasion guests included teachers, small business owners, innovators, health care reform beneficiaries and people serving in the armed forces.

Krieger, a native of São Paulo, Brazil, is currently working under an H1-B visa and has applied for permanent residency to contine running the company he co-founded with Kevin Systrom in 2010. Instagram has $7.5 million in funding, 10 employees and 15 million users, even though the app is only available for devices that use Apple’s iOS.

Related links:

Michele Obama’s full guest list – http://tinyurl.com/6uszofr

White House blog post – http://tinyurl.com/7s63wlj

Mike Krieger’s post – http://instagr.am/p/kWt5w

Kabam Acquires Fearless and Its Ex-LucasArts Talents

digitalmediawi

January 27, 2012

Hardcore social game developer Kabam today announced it has acquired independent developers Fearless Studios. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Fearless was co-founded in 2010 by Haden Blackman and Cedrick Collomb, and their talent is a primary motivator for the acquisition. Blackman (pictured, at left) is credited as a writer, producer or director for seven Star Wars titles published by LucasArts, and has been recognized with a Writers Guild of America award for his work on the popular Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. He also is an acclaimed comic book writer, most recently on Darth Vader & The Lost Command for Dark Horse and Batwoman for DC Comics, in addition to authoring several books.

Collomb (pictured, at right) was director of engineering for LucasArts, having previously been a programmer with Electronic Arts, Sony Computer Entertainment and Sega. One of his most significant below-the-line achievements was to bring together the development pipeline for LucasArts with that of its parent company LucasFilm, resulting in production efficiencies and additional cross-platform capabilities.

Hardcore social games are those designed for players seeking the type of complex, immersive experience provided by massively multiplayer titles. Recent Kabam titles include The Godfather: Five Families, Dragons of Atlantis, Edgeworld and Kingdoms of Camelot.

“The Fearless Studios team brings a wealth of talent and experience in creating outstanding, highly successful AAA titles across a range of genres,” said Kevin Chou, CEO of Kabam. “Their skills in game design, emerging technologies and proficiency in making the transition from 2D to 3D on consoles mesh perfectly with Kabam’s strategy. We’ll significantly strengthen our industry leadership as the online gaming market transitions to higher fidelity, 3D gameplay with our acquisition of Fearless Studios.”

Related links:

http://www.kabam.com

http://www.fearlessstudios.com

Press release – http://fearlessstudios.com/?p=298

http://www.hadenblackman.com

http://www.emptyloop.com