Some of the best TV Timelines on Facebook

Creating a Facebook Timeline isn’t that much different from producing for TV. It’s all about storytelling and visuals. So it’s no wonder that TV folks are putting out some outstanding Timelines. We’ve collected a few of our favorites. And would love to hear about other amazing TV Timelines you’ve seen! The PBS series Frontline began with an idea on the back of a napkin. And if you visit the FRONTLINE Timeline you’ll be able to scroll to 1983 and follow a link to learn more about the founding of the show…

Watch a live stream of Social TV Summit all day

If you’re unable to make it to San Francisco, you can watch a live stream of the Social TV Summit here on Lost Remote. Introductions begin at 8:30 PT in the morning with the first keynote (Reddit GM Erik Martin) kicking off at 8:45. Here are highlights from the agenda, all in Pacific time:

WWE launches new website to capture social footprint

World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. (WWE) has become a powerful social TV brand in the past year. A little over a decade ago, the organization was struggling for definition as name disputes and corporate restructuring dominated headlines. Today, with the help of social platforms, their broadcast ratings are up. Fans are more passionate than ever, flocking to Twitter, Facebook and their brand new website to discuss fights, engage with the celebrity fighters and build their own personal niche within the community. They even won six Mashable Awards in 2011 including “Digital Company of the Year.”

NBC’s ‘The Voice’ adds voting via Facebook Timelime app

When NBC’s The Voice airs tonight (Monday), viewers will be able to vote for their favorite contestants via a new Facebook Timeline app, which also works inside Facebook’s mobile apps. As they vote, their selection will be shared with their friends, adding another social angle to one of the most social shows on television. The app also lets users track their favorite artists and view additional content, such as performance video and blog posts.

Wanted: Freelance writer for Lost Remote

When we began covering social TV nearly a year and a half ago, there wasn’t much to write about. Back then, Lost Remote was the first and only industry site to dedicate coverage to the emerging space. Today, there’s an explosion of social TV activity, and television and technology sites are beginning to take notice. Lost Remote, meanwhile, has grown leaps and bounds.

Orange’s TVCheck app to roll out in the UK

The UK-only Zeebox app is about to get some European competition. Orange’s TVCheck app, which has been available only in France, is coming to the UK later this month. Using automatic content recognition, TVCheck recognizes the show you’re watching, enables you to “check in,” discuss the show with others, participate in various challenges and win badges up to the “master” of the TV show — a little like Foursquare’s mayorships.

Social TV investment not matching opportunity?

We’ve been reporting the latest social TV investment and acquisition activity (stories) as they’re announced, and Sharp TV’s Anne-Marie Roussel has compiled a table that lists them all together. While it looks like a lot of activity — and we’re seeing a lot more this year — it prompted All Things D’s Peter Kafka to proclaim, “The social TV gold rush is smaller than you think.” He writes:

ESPN.com latest to add frictionless Facebook sharing

ESPN.com is rolling out the ability for users to connect their Facebook accounts and automatically share what they’re reading with their friends. ESPN joins a handful of TV brands that have made the move to “frictionless sharing” including msnbc.com, TODAY.com, The Daily Show, MTV News and the largest CBS station sites.

The new second screen generation in a single photo

We all know that kids thrive on mobile devices and love to multitask in front of TV, but sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Scott Macklin, associate director at the awesome MCDM program at the University of Washington, shared with me this photo of his son, Case, and his friends watching the Super Bowl…

Reddit GM to speak at Social TV Summit

We’re less than a week away from the Social TV Summit in San Francisco, and Lost Remote readers can get discounted tickets right here. Newly confirmed to the lineup, Reddit GM Erik Martin will be interviewed by CNN correspondent Dan Simon about Reddit’s role in the SOPA debate. “Erik and Reddit.com led the internet’s protest against the recent attempted SOPA legislation and started the blackout on the net,” explains Social TV Summit’s Andy Batkin.

Chyron debuts platform for social TV and second screen

Get ready for more social media integration on air, especially in local TV. Chyron is a staple in the TV industry for on-screen graphics, and today the company announced “Engage,” its platform for integrating second screen, social media, and social TV data into live TV broadcasts. “By building these technologies into the TV production workflow, Engage gives artists and producers the means to take content such as Twitter feeds, polls, text messages, and other viewer-generated data to air within their live broadcasts…”

Startup TweetTV raises $750K in angel funding

More investment news on the social TV front: the real-time social TV guide TweetTV says it raised $750K in funding from angel investor Joe Kalfa. The company says it will use the funding to hire talent, create mobile apps and power its upcoming “partner and social rewards programs.”

Xbox now used more for entertainment than gaming

As promised, Xbox has rolled out three big content partners, beefing up its role as a big television player in the living room. Starting today, HBO Go (for participating providers), Xfinity and MLB (for subscribers) are debuting on Xbox Live, adding to Netflix, Hulu, ESPN and many more. And marking today’s announcement, Xbox said more people are now using the console for entertainment purposes (TV, movies and music) than gaming.

MTV, USA Network, CNN among Shorty Award winners

Television made a big showing Monday night at the 2012 Shorty Awards, hosted by Samantha Bee and Jason Jones from The Daily Show. The annual event rewards the best producers of short-form content in social media, and TV is playing a larger role every year.

Here are the TV-related winners…

Is social media distracting for shows like ‘Mad Men?’

Last night’s season premiere of Mad Men attracted a surge of social activity: 106K social comments on Bluefin Labs and an activity score of 218K on Trendrr, winning the night on cable TV. Unlike most shows that score big on the social TV charts, Mad Men is a scripted drama, not a reality TV show or live event. For example, the highly-promoted NBC premiere of Smash drew 52K social comments, compared to 106K for Mad Men, according to Bluefin stats.

New social video startup ‘Airtime’ draws big names

Two big-name entrepreneurs, Sean Parker (Napster, Facebook, Causes) and Shawn Fanning (Napster, Path) are teaming up to create Airtime, a social video company. “Our small team shares a passion for using the latest video technology to bring people together,” explains the new site, which just popped up with a graphic of a video control room and a button to apply for early access. There’s no word on when it may launch.

Matcha launches on the iPad to help TV show discovery

One of the biggest challenges in TV today is finding the content you want to watch. With the addition of Netflix, Hulu, iTunes, Amazon to the already 500-channel universe — and your DVR — discovery is most difficult than ever. Not to mention, content appears in different windows on different platforms. Last year we wrote about Matcha.tv, a TV discovery site that enables users to discover content across Netflix, Hulu, iTunes, Amazon and Xfinity.

How social media users multitask while watching TV

A new survey by the Hollywood Reporter — which talked to social network users between the ages of 13-49 — reveals some interesting data about how social media impacts the TV and film industries. More than half of the respondents said social networks are important tastemakers in determining what to watch and buy. The most interesting part of the study, as it relates to TV, is boiled down in a single slide: 79% say they always or sometimes visit Facebook while watching TV — although it’s unclear how much of that activity relates to the TV their watching at that given moment….

Do celebs read tweets about themselves? Cue the video…

To commemorate Twitter’s six-year anniversary, Jimmy Kimmel Live asked celebrities if they read tweets about themselves — and had them read a few on camera. Absolutely hilarious. While some celebs have social ghost-writers, many do read @mentions on Twitter, and the real-time feedback can be harsh.

Desperate Housewives’ James Denton launches social platform with Stand Up For Cancer

Each year we see more celebs flocking to social platforms, launching their own accounts and finding new ways to grow their fan base by leveraging the depth of the matured social web. You don’t always see an actor taking his charitable passion and combining that with an innovative way to share useful and important information via social. James Denton, who plays Mike Delfino on ABC’s Desperate Housewives, has teamed up with Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) to launch a social platform, “where patients and caregivers can share the most useful questions and answers provided by their care teams to aid their treatment.”