Digital Media News (week 27)
Date:
25 June 2012
Weekly bulletin collating public sector, industry and company news for creative industries by David Hartley.
Public sector
From Develop
"The UK Treasury has today opened a new consultation period for the recently proposed tax relief for the games development, animation and television industries. The consultation seeks input from UK developers on the make-up of each sector's tax breaks system."
Local industry news
From the BBC
"Scottish experts have produced the first fly-through 3D animations of Mount Rushmore - America's iconic monument of four former presidents. The recording allows digital visitors to sweep up the granite cliff in South Dakota and across the sculpted faces.
It also shows the valley behind the heads, known as The Hall of Records, which is inaccessible to the public. The work was carried out by the Scottish 10 project, led by Historic Scotland and Glasgow School of Art."
From Broadcast
"Channel 4 made a clean sweep of the multiplatform categories at the Broadcast Digital Awards on Wednesday, with four wins including best game for The Bank Job developed by Glasgow based Chunk Games. Another Scottish winner was Brightsolid with UKTV for Best Content Partnership for Find My Past."
From The Scotsman
"A new technology strip, dubbed the “Silicon bridges”, is emerging in the centre of Edinburgh as the city becomes a hotspot for internet start-ups.
A group of companies have set up operations along a central spine between Amazon’s development centre on North Bridge and the former Royal Dick Vet building near the Meadows."
From the Venture Beat
"The company logos that stick in your brain often sound as good as they look. Think of the original PlayStation start-up sound, Intel’s 'plink, plunk, plink, plunk,' or the choral Sega chant forever associated with Sonic the Hedgehog.
Scottish audio specialist Euphonious is now making memorable sound logos affordable for any company - even those without budgets like the big boys."
From the Herald
"Fast-growing Edinburgh-based internet dating company Cupid is lining up more deals as increased use of smartphones and social networking boosts the market.
Cupid chairman George Elliott told its annual investor meeting in the capital: 'We are currently investigating several acquisition opportunities which are within our normal pricing and performance parameters.' "
From Venture Beat
"The guys at Reloaded Productions - general manager Michael Boniface, lead producer Scott Stevenson, and lead designer Zak Litwin - talked to GamesBeat via e-mail about how APBR is managing to build and maintain a strong user-base despite poor reviews and what they see as a general lack of interest from the gaming press"
From NDTV
"Sony on Wednesday launched a shooter title PlayStation 3 (PS3) users can play in an unprecedented blend of hard-core console and free casual gaming… Veteran developer VEEMEE tailored the game to capitalize on strengths of PS3 consoles and the Home network that is an online arena for players.
'VEEMEE saw a unique opportunity with PlayStation Home to evolve gaming by blending the immersive game play endemic to AAA games with the social and 'freemium' aspects of casual games' Sony said in a blog post"
From Scotland IS
"The stars of the Scottish digital technology industry were recognised last night (Thursday 21 June) at the annual Digital Technology Awards, run by software and IT trade body, ScotlandIS at The Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow.
With over 250 guests, the event celebrated the very best in Scotland’s digital technology industries. Winners included Brightsolid, Skyscanner and FanDuel."
Fromscottishgames.net
"An app for mobile devices produced by STV - that allows users to catch up on TV programmes they might have recently missed - has been shortlisted in a competition comprising customers of a global company describing itself as a 'leading online video hosting platform and online video player solution'.
The STV Player app has been shortlisted in the 'Best Connected TV App’ category at the Brightcove PLAY 2012 Awards taking place in Boston, USA, on Wednesday"
General industry
From Televisual
"A lung functionality app; live online footage from a foxes den; a digital storybook adaptation of The 39 Steps; a social network for allotment seekers. These are just some of the digital projects created by independent TV production companies in the past year.
Indeed, TV producers are creating more projects that straddle TV, online and mobile than ever before. What’s different compared to previous years is that the incessant hype around digital has dissipated."
From gamesindustry.biz
"The BBC is looking for five companies to take part in its new BBC Worldwide Labs programme, which aims to help digital start ups with mentoring, support and a commercial partnership with BBC Worldwide.
'Labs participants are given the chance to work in close contact with experts at BBC Worldwide across all divisions: from technology and content to marketing, sales, advertising and legal' said the BBC."
From the Guardian
"Media buying network ZenithOptimedia has halved its TV ad revenue growth forecast for the UK in 2012, while predicting digital spend will rise by £200m… The big winner is internet advertising ... Internet advertising continues to drive most of the growth in the UK ad market, and we expect it to attract 35% of expenditure this year, more than anywhere else in the world."
From the Guardian
"Google is making its long-expected assault on the UK television market with the launch in July of its first product - made by Sony - to let Britons surf the internet, play games and watch videos on TV. The move comes amid predictions that Apple too will move into the 'smart TV' market, to compete not only with Google, but with Samsung, Sony and LG.
All have been aiming to catch a nascent market that analysts say will become very important because it is one of the few bastions of entertainment not yet revolutionised by the internet."
From The Next Web
"Amazon Studios ... announced today that it has selected its first four projects, choosing three comedies and one children’s show.
They become the first submitted scripts to be selected for the Amazon Studios Series Development Slate, extending their option on the projects and awarding their creators $10,000 in options as a result of their intention to turn them into a TV series that will be distributed through the company’s digital video streaming service, Amazon Instant Video."
Events
From Interactive Tayside
"Chancellor George Osborne promised a games industry tax break during his Budget 2012 speech. But where do we go from here? How will it work? Who will benefit?
TIGA will be holding a series of events with partners across the UK to continue conversations with game development studios to discuss where we go from here.
One event will be on July 18 at Scottish Enterprise, 3 Greenmarket, Dundee."
Compiled by David Hartley