Digital Media News (week 25)
Date:
13 June 2011
Weekly bulletin collating public sector, industry and company news for creative industries by David Hartley
Public sector news
From the Technology Strategy Board.
The Technology Strategy Board is to provide funding totalling £182,000 to short-term collaborative projects that will research and develop new metadata production tools.
Four consortia have been awarded funding, led by Festival Productions Ltd, the Royal Institute of British Architects, Support Partners and wireWAX Ltd.
The second strand of the competition, opens 13 June 2011 and closes on 21 July 2011.
From IC Tomorrow.
The Pathways 2050 online serious game developed by the Department of Energy and Climate Change is a novel way to engage consumers of energy.
They will shortly be announcing the commission of a competition to develop a new version of the Pathways 2050 application as a pervasive Serious Game.
There will be a cross KTN Summer workshop event hosted by Bloomberg New Energy Finance to seek input from software developers and other members of the creative, digital and energy communities to broker partnerships and bid for a contract to develop the 2012 Pathways 2050 Calculator.
Company news
From the Guardian.
UKTV, owner of channels including Gold and Dave, is to make its first foray into product placement in a multi-layered deal with the owner of Friends Reunited that includes co-funding a new TV show and programme naming rights. The pay-TV broadcaster has struck the product placement deal with Brightsolid, the DC Thomson-owned company that is home to online genealogy tools including Find My Past and Genes Reunited, to launch a show on factual channel Yesterday.
From Develop.
Scottish studio overcoming past troubles as title’s platforms confirmed. UTV Ignition has announced that it will be publishing Denki’s casual word game title Quarrel for iOS and console download platforms over the remainder of 2011. The announcement, which was made at the ongoing E3 event in L.A., marks the conclusion of a difficult development for the game.
From the BBC.
The E3 video game show in Los Angeles features an array of immersive video games. The genre enables players to forget their surroundings and feel as though they are a part of the gaming fantasy.
From Mobile Acuity.
Mobile Acuity announced its partnership with leading Australian mobile services provider, Mocom, to deliver image Search services to key retailers and brands in Australia initially and other countries to follow. Mocom was seeking the best possible Image Search (IS) provider to fulfil the increasing demand for IS services from their clients. After evaluating the available providers, Mobile Acuity was selected based on the company’s superior technology and ongoing technology roadmap.
Industry news
From Publishing Scotland.
Publishing Scotland, the trade and development body for the book publishing industry are launching their new Company Development Project today with a call for applications.
The initiative aims to support the ambition, capacity and performance of 12-15 small and medium-size publishing companies through the creation of a customised development plan for each company, putting in expert advisors, and a series of workshops, starting in September 2011. Deadline for applications is 30 June 2011.
From the Guardian.
BSkyB's chief executive promised to raise the satellite broadcaster's spending on original UK programming by more than 50% in the next three years. Jeremy Darroch revealed Sky expects to spend £380 million this year on in-house production and outside commissions, including its £40 million investment in Sky News and the production element of Premier League football and other domestic sports - a figure that the company intends to increase to £600 million by 2014.
From Adweek.
Executives from Disney, Turner, and Comcast were in unanimous agreement that we are only two years away from 75 percent of TV content being available online and on mobile devices. At the Elevate Video Advertising Summit in New York, Matt Strauss from Comcast Interactive Media, Jeremy Legg from Turner, and David Preshlack of Disney and ESPN predicted that TV "everywhere" was imminent, and that in the same time frame the networks will be almost completely agnostic about where and when their video content is being viewed.
Reports
From Mashable.
Global Internet traffic is expected to quadruple between 2010 and 2015, according to data provided to Mashable by Cisco. By that time, nearly 3 billion people will be using the Internet - more than 40% of the world’s projected population.
Somewhat surprisingly, it is neither mobile phones nor tablets that are expected to grow the most in the next four years. Rather, flat panel televisions will experience the greatest production increase globally, up 1,063% from 2010, followed by tablets (750%), digital photo frames (600%) and ereaders (550%). The number of non-smartphones and smartphones is expected to increase by 17% and 194% worldwide, respectively.
From the Guardian.
Following the estimate by IDC that PC sales will barely grow in 2011, rival research company Gartner has followed suit, trimming its forecast from 10.5% growth in sales to 9.3%. It says that it now expects 385 million units to be sold worldwide, as consumers show less interest in PCs (and especially less in netbooks) and businesses become the prime engine of sales as they replace machines still running Windows XP.
And finally
From the BBC
More and more businesses are using 3D for adverts and it is also appearing on mobile devices - the first 3D advert has recently been launched for the iPad.
Companies are constantly looking for new ways to make customers relate to 3D, but some firms have more innovative solutions to engage the viewer - see how Nestle France increased its market share by 1.6% from a cereal box.
Compiled by David Hartley