Univision announces social video network UVideos

As the upfronts roar on, Univision (they reach 97% of Hispanic households in the US) is the latest TV brand to make major digital and social announcements. The network announced today at their upfront the launch of UVideo Digital Network and a brand new social experience with Facebook. We interviewed Kevin Conroy, president of Univision Interactive Media and Enterprise Development about the big announcements.

Local Tweetup results in ratings boost, says KOMO TV

KOMO-TV’s tweetup to promote last night’s premiere of The Bachelorette came out smelling like roses. We told you about their plans yesterday, and today the Seattle-based Fisher television station is reporting a significant increase in the ratings over the 2011 premiere. The ABC affiliate is using the hashtag #liveonkomo to generate discussion among their viewers about ABC’s entire primetime lineup. They kicked-off the campaign last night with a tweetup at the Seattle Four Seasons to promote the premier of The Bachelorette…

Twitter breaks into TV dollars with ESPN deal

At ESPN’s upfront presentation today, the sports network announced a strategic relationship with Twitter to co-produce unique social experiences around larger sports events. Advertisers will be able to buy into both ESPN’s properties and the Twitter components in a single integrated buy: the first time Twitter has cut such a deal with a network around major events. The first event gets underway shortly with the NBA Finals…

Briefs: Dish DVR, Geofeedia, Google TV, Groupon TV

A few TV industry headlines from around the web to share…

- Dish DVR draws fire – Customers may be impressed by Dish Network’s commercial-skipping feature on the Hopper DVR, but at least two networks aren’t so happy.
- But can they stop it? – How the TV industry blew its best chance to kill Dish’s ad-skipping technology. (Hint: Remember ReplayTV?)
- Social news discovery service – New geolocation service Geofeedia helps journalists locate real-time photos, tweets where news breaks.
- Live TV viewing down – Not like this is surprising, but live ratings are in decline as viewers’ attention is diverted across a new sea of on-demand opportunities.
- Google TV on LG – LG shows off the “best Google TV yet,” according to VentureBeat, with motion-controlled “magic remote,” 3D capability and dual-core CPU.
- Groupon TV show – CBS orders a new series about twentysomethings who work at Groupon, but oddly calls the show, “Friend Me.” Huh?

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Peter Rice on social TV at the Fox upfront

We’re in the midst of upfront week, and more than ever before social TV is at the focus of the rhetoric being carved out for TV advertisers. Fox President of Digital David Wertheimer told us that there wouldn’t be any big product announcements about social TV at their upfront. Instead, confidence in leadership as the number one TV network was explained through the importance of social TV. Here’s how Peter Rice, Fox Broadcasting’s Chairman of Entertainment described how…

Which new NBC shows will be a hit?

We don’t need to tell you that NBC is invested in social TV. They recently had an entire NewFront dedicated to digital and social that we covered in depth. Monday’s NBC’s traditional upfront took place where they revealed their new programming. Networked Insights (NI), who announced an upfronts partnership with IPG Mediabrands in the fall, provided Lost Remote with their predictions on what brands should and shouldn’t buy among the new content.

‘No Reservations’ airs episode sparked by Facebook fan

You may remember from our SXSW coverage, Anthony Bourdain explained that his No Reservations crew traveled to Finland after a Facebook campaign convinced him to visit. That episode is airing tonight (Monday) on the Travel Channel, and Bourdain will be live-tweeting along.

KOMO TV Tweetup designed to push local Bachelorette ratings

While the Bachelorette’s Emily Maynard is busy finding a husband, Seattle’s KOMO-TV will be using Twitter to find a new source of ratings for its prime-time programming. The ABC affiliate is all-in with an idea to get Seattleites tweeting about tonight’s reality-show premier. It’s something they hope will create buzz and in turn, ratings.

Interview with Mark Cuban on social TV and HDNet’s ‘Bikini Barbershop: Jersey’

Mark Cuban has been investing in the TV business since he began his career as a tech entrepreneur when he became a billionaire through the sale of broadcast.com to Yahoo!. Over a decade later he continues to invest in the space, most recently with Flingo one of the social TV companies we write about often.

How FOX is the most social TV network

On the eve of Fox’s annual upfront, we spoke with David Wetheimer, the president of digital for Fox, who was also featured in a recent USA Today social TV story. The past year has been a defining one for the network’s social TV efforts. Partnering with Twitter for DM-based voting for X Factor and launching “Touch,” the first ever global social launch were just among their many innovations.

More startups added to social TV company directory

We missed a few companies from our new directory of social TV companies, sponsored by GetGlue. Nearly 20 companies emailed us from around the globe (thanks everyone!) and we’ve added them to the list. We’re now listing 93 startups including a handful of larger companies with significant social TV efforts. Wow.

As always, if you see one we’re missing, please email us at tips[at]lostremote.com. And if you’re company about to launch a killer new product, please drop us an email.

An interview with Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia on social TV

A few months ago, Aereo debuted in NYC, a Barry Diller-backed technology company that allows you to access broadcast television via iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Roku for $12/month. The idea of bringing linear broadcast to your devices and surpassing an MSO is pretty big and disruptive. Like Napster, BitTorrent and other technology companies attempting to innovate and disrupt…

What kind of second screen viewer are you?

Not every TV viewer is the same, and that also goes for viewers who engage with the second screen. Miso conducted a qualitative study to profile the different kinds of second screen personas, and the results are certainly worth sharing. Here are the categories (and Miso’s blog post includes funny character photos, too):

Fox News’ Jay Wallace on how ‘America Live with Megyn Kelly’ is leveraging social media

The election season is here, and TV news channels are feeling the heat leverage social media to gain an edge in coverage and help drive ratings. This past month, the Fox News Channel (FNC) saw a tremendous increase in linear ratings. The highlight of this increase was led by “America Live with Megyn Kelly.” The show’s ratings jumped up “30% during the 1pm hour and up 35% during the 2pm hour” for the 25-54 demographic…

Sponsored: Trendrr CEO to keynote at the Social TV World Summit in London this month

Mark Ghuneim, CEO of Trendrr will be joining the leading experts on Social TV such as Facebook, Foursqaure, Shazam, MTV, BBC, Zeebox and many more in a speaker line-up of 50+ market leaders across the ecosystem. The Social TV World Summit is the premier event dedicated to the social TV revolution. You can follow updates on the key issues of social TV by following @socialtvws on twitter.

Briefs: Aereo, GetGlue, TVCheck, Xbox, Digg

A few social TV stories from around the web…

- Aereo’s local TV worries — In court documents, TV broadcasters warn of a huge industry shakeup if Barry Diller’s live streaming startup Aereo isn’t stopped.

- GetGlue’s strength with scripted series — Great piece that looks at GetGlue’s strength (even surpassing Twitter on occasion) with viewers on scripted shows.

- Orange’s TVCheck debuts in UK – As we previewed last month, Orange’s TVCheck app is now available in the UK for iPhone, with Android coming soon.

- Xbox beats iPad in video? – More people watch professional video on Xbox than on iPads, iPhones or Android devices, according to data by online ad company Freewheel.

- Digg to WaPo — Digg’s entire engineering team of 15 people joins Washington Post’s social development group, SocialCode. Digg.com still for sale.

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IntoNow teams with ABC for ‘Revenge’ sweepstakes

Yahoo’s IntoNow is working with ABC to offer a second-screen sweepstakes around the final two episodes this season of the show Revenge. Viewers who tag either show (on May 16th or 23rd) from the app can enter to win a vacation in the Hamptons “and live the life of a Grayson for a week.” While they’re there, viewers can see Revenge trivia, engage in conversations with friends and share what they’re watching to their Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Robert DeBitetto and Nancy Dubuc on social TV at the A+E Networks upfront

Last night media buyers poured into the Tent at Lincoln Center, a beautiful venue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side to witness the A+E Networks upfront. HISTORY, Lifetime and A&E were the center of the evening with highlights on both returning and new programming. Not surprisingly A+E made sure to highlight their social footprint. We spoke with Robert DeBitetto the President and General Manager of A&E Network and BIO…

Highlights from AdAge’s Social TV event in NY

After navigating through the beast that is NYC’s midtown Hilton to the third floor, the social TV industry packed into a large ballroom as AdAge put on their social TV conference with brands and networks presenting what’s working, what’s not and what the future of the social TV industry will be….

Inside look at HISTORY’s success on social media [interview]

Tonight A+E Networks (which includes A&E, BIO, HISTORY, Lifetime and more) will host an upfront in NYC to unveil “what’s next” for the coming year. We’ve recently written about HISTORY’s Top Shot game and we’ve previously written about A&E’s social game for their hit “Storage Wars”. Now as HISTORY prepares to launch Hatfields & McCoys, a Civil War era show….