Prompted by TV and advertising clients, Nielsen plans to launch its mobile ratings this fall. However, the company says that factoring mobile phones and tablets into TV measurement will roll out slowly based on relatively low adoption and the common practice of time-shifting. According to Nielsen, live TV viewing has remained constant over the last three years, while time-shifting has increased 30 percent — something to consider since most mobile viewing takes place outside of the same-day ratings window. Continue reading Nielsen to Roll Out Mobile Ratings This Fall, Slowly at First

Shipments of wearables are expected to reach 112 million units by 2018 — enough momentum for advertising companies to start considering new approaches to ads for wearable devices. In order to get an idea of how smartwatches, head-mounted displays, glasses and other gadgets may serve as marketing platforms, mobile-ad tools maker InMobi is developing virtual mock-ups of ads for these devices. Millennial Media and Kiip are among those also pursuing viable wearable-ad technology. Continue reading Wearables: Companies Explore New Advertising Opportunities

Beacons, hardware devices that can be detected by mobile apps, have seen interest from fields other than just retail. According to a new report from ABI Research, retail is one of the smallest markets for iBeacon and Bluetooth Low Energy-powered devices. While stores can better communicate with customers via apps — through special offers, alerts and ads — even more interest has developed in asset tracking, personal location, and connected home markets. Continue reading Beacon Market Projected to Reach 60 Million Devices by 2019

Last week, we reported that Microsoft was joining Qualcomm and 50 other members of the AllSeen Alliance, in an effort to develop open source standards for the Internet of Things. Yesterday, a group of tech companies led by Intel announced the formation of a competing organization. The Open Interconnect Consortium — which also includes Atmel, Broadcom, Dell and Samsung — similarly plans to develop standards for wirelessly connecting devices to each other and the Internet. Continue reading Open Interconnect Consortium Plans to Develop IoT Standards

For homeowners with a variety of smart devices and appliances, operating within the Internet of Things can be complicated because many hardware makers manufacture products that do not work with devices from other companies. Wink, however, is a smartphone app that connects all of those products, from Samsung smart TVs to Philips Hue smart light bulbs. Earlier this week, Wink also launched a series of Wink-enabled devices from 15 manufacturers. Continue reading Wink App Controls Smart Devices from Different Companies

Atlantic Productions, a British production company known for its educational programs, documentaries, and Emmy-award winning visual effects, has just launched a new virtual reality studio to create content for Facebook’s Oculus Rift and Sony’s Project Morpheus VR technology. Alchemy’s first project is collaborating with Sir David Attenborough, a celebrated naturalist, to take viewers on a journey to meet the creatures that lived about 550 million years ago. Continue reading Alchemy Virtual Reality Studio Takes Viewers Back In Time

The social network Facebook is experimenting again with video in its users’ News Feeds. This time, in the iOS app, Facebook users will now see a carousel of video suggestions after watching their friends’ video creations. This new feature makes it easy for users to watch a series of videos and has the potential to eventually become an advertising tool. Currently, the suggested video player only works with user content that is directly uploaded to Facebook. Continue reading Facebook Offers Video Suggestions to Keep Users Watching

Adtile, a startup that promotes interactive mobile advertising, has raised $4.5 million in Series A funding, with plans to introduce an app-style store for mobile ads. Adtile’s Motion Ads format encourages users to play with ads by shaking and turning their phones. The result could be spilling a virtual coffee cup, for example, that then displays a list of nearby stores. Building these ads can be an extensive process, so the store plans to sell pre-designed and pre-coded Motion Ads. Continue reading Adtile Plans New App-Style Store for Interactive Mobile Ads

Digitimes Research projects that global Ultra HD television shipments will experience a compound annual growth rate of 160 percent from 2013 to 2017, jumping from 1.5 million units to 68.2 million. The report estimates that 26.6 percent of all TVs shipped in 2017 will be Ultra HD, and more than 90 percent of LCD TVs will offer UHD resolution or higher. In addition, Digitimes anticipates that Blu-ray support for UHD and increased user-generated content will help push demand. Continue reading Report: Ultra HD TV Shipments to Grow 160 Percent by 2017

According to a Piper Jaffray report, Netflix remains ahead of Amazon’s Prime Instant Video in terms of licensing content, offering more top 50 movies and top 75 TV shows in recent years. Amazon has been heavily investing in exclusives and original content to increase its offerings. Meanwhile, Hulu delivers almost three times the number of top-rated shows as Netflix. Of the top 75 TV series from the 2013-2014 season, Hulu Plus has 57 percent, Netflix offers 20 percent and Amazon 9 percent. Continue reading SVOD: Analysis Looks at Race Between Amazon, Hulu, Netflix

An estimated 160 million phones sold this year will feature 4K video-capable cameras, while only two percent of TVs shipped to North America will have 4K screens. These cameras will be available on high-end models, including the Samsung Galaxy S5, the Sony Xperia Z2 and the LG G Pro 2. Meanwhile, cable, satellite and telecommunications companies are unlikely to move to Ultra HD for a few years as they wait for more TVs to show up in American homes. Continue reading Increasing Number of Smartphones Are Capable of 4K Video

AMC, the nation’s second largest movie theater chain, has decided to swap many of its traditional theater seats with reclining models at 1,800 of its 5,000 locations. This switch will remove up to two-thirds of an auditorium’s seating capacity. In the next five years, AMC plans to spend around $600 million to make the renovations, which cost between $350,000 and $500,000 per auditorium. The swap will occur only in locations that need to attract more customers. Continue reading AMC Banks on Quality Over Quantity with New Reclining Seats

Federal regulators are beginning to look into video games that follow the freemium model to determine whether or not they mislead consumers about costs. The idea behind this model is that users can download the game for free, but they need to pay in order to get further within the game. By claiming that the game is free, vulnerable players, such as children, can get sucked in before paying more and more money without realizing the true cost. Continue reading Federal Regulators Analyze the True Cost of Freemium Games

YouTube recently started pointing at Internet service providers when it comes to problems with video playback. When a YouTube video experiences buffer or playback issues, a message that reads “Experiencing interruptions?” now appears under the video. Clicking “Find out why” takes users to a new Google page that lists video playback quality for ISPs of different countries. Last month, Netflix posted alerts blaming a crowded Verizon network when customers experienced grainy video. Continue reading YouTube Takes Cue from Netflix, Blames ISPs for Slow Video

Streaming is the new face of digital music consumption, according to Nielsen’s 2014 Mid-Year Music Industry Report. In the U.S., on-demand streaming was up 42 percent from last year with over 70 billion songs (audio and video) streamed in the first half of 2014. Digital track downloads fell 13 percent to 593.6 million, compared with 682.2 million last year. The entire music industry’s sales, including albums, streaming, and downloads, dropped 3.3 percent. Continue reading Music Streaming Up 42 Percent While Digital Downloads Fall