The company wants to eventually take Vevo TV to cable distributors to compete heads-on with MTV, according to an Adweek report, and it is also thinking about launching genre-specific live streams. Think Vevo Hip Hop, for example. But ultimately, going live is all about devices and the way they’re changing how we watch TV.

Vevo has put a lot of work into apps for mobile and connected devices, which it built in-house with the help of a small team of San Francisco-based developers. Mobile was a big success for the company early on, and the launch of the Xbox app a year ago “turned out to be wildly successful,” as Vevo’s product and tech SVP Michael Cerda put it when we talked about the subject a few months ago.

Vevo followed up with a Roku app in December, and Cerda told me that he wants to tackle additional connected TV platforms as soon as possible. “There is a huge opportunity for us there,” Cerda said.

Continuous playback combined with curation makes a whole lot of sense for something like music videos on connected TVs. Users don’t want to pick up their remote control to pick and choose every single video, but instead want something up and running in the background without interruption. And if a viewer is ever bored by what’s playing on Vevo TV’s live stream, then there’s always tons of on-demand content available right within the same app. It’s the best of both worlds.

So how do Vevo’s cable plans fit into this? Cable obviously has a much wider reach than a device like Roku, but the real lure are cable-sized ad-budgets. One could argue that Vevo might compete with itself if the same programming is available on cable set-top boxes and connected devices. But ultimately, those set-top-boxes are changing, and the distinctions between streaming and cable distribution are going to become less and less visible to consumers (to hear more about the future of TV, check out our paidContent conference in New York next month).

In that world, a live TV channel – distributed on as many platforms as possible – will guarantee that consumers will always access to Vevo, no matter whether they’re streaming or viewing plain old TV. And that’s a smart move.

A recent blog post from the Knight Center for Journalism at the University of Texas does a pretty good job of summarizing why some journalists and media executives might be uneasy about their relationship with Twitter and how they have come to rely on the network. Among other things, the post mentions the restrictions that the company recently announced on its API, which primarily affect third-party developers and apps — but could also wind up penalizing newspapers and other media outlets that have built their own features or services around Twitter using the same API. As the Knight Center post describes it:

“Recent changes to Twitter’s application programming interface (API) rattled some critics concerned about how journalists will use the popular social media platform to cover news in the future [and] beyond the recent API announcement, Twitter has seen a progression of censorship as the company matures that may threaten its credibility as a news source.”

Will media be treated the same as third-party apps?

One of the things that Twitter’s new API restrictions specifically prohibit (without special permission from the company) is mixing tweets from its network with content from other social networks or sources. But as University of British Columbia journalism professor and former BBC staffer Alfred Hermida notes in a recent post about the changes, these rules could also hit newspapers and other outlets that either generate their own curated feeds of content from Twitter and other sources, as the New York Times has done for the Republican National Convention and other events, or use tools such as ScribbleLive and Storify to do so.

So far, Twitter has said that Storify is safe from any repercussions due to the changes — despite the fact that the service (which was founded by former foreign correspondent Burt Herman) appears to be offering features that are frowned on by Twitter, according to the company’s somewhat confusing chart of good vs. bad apps. But given the way that the network has changed its modus operandi recently, by closing off external services such as Tumblr and Instagram and removing referrer links, it’s difficult to know how long that stay of execution might last for something like Storify. If a newspaper or media outlet has made that a key part of their journalistic process, they could be in for a rude awakening.

In a sense, media companies are suffering the same kind of angst that many developers and startups are feeling as Twitter evolves from being an open real-time information utility into a media entity driven by the need for advertising revenue to justify its market valuation. Just as those third-party services have built businesses on top of Twitter’s API because it was free, newspapers and other media outlets have come to rely on the network for the same reason — and could wind up regretting it in much the same way.

Twitter seems happy to have relationships with certain specific media entities, but for the most part they are television networks like NBC — which the company worked closely with during the recent Summer Olympics — and MTV, which is going to be making use of Twitter in a number of ways during its big Video Music Awards event later this month. Although many users seemed irritated by NBC’s delaying tactics during the Olympics, the head of Twitter’s media team, Chloe Sladden, told the New York Times that the network viewed the partnership as a huge success because it acted as “an amazing daytime teaser trailer driving people into prime time.”

Twitter wants to partner with some, compete with others

If you are a prominent media player such as the New York Times or the Washington Post, you can also get access to the “expanded tweets” or “Twitter cards” feature that the information network recently launched, which is the basis for much of its planned expansion. That allows more of your content to be shown inside a frame on the company’s website or inside its mobile apps — but as we’ve explained, this seems to be almost as much of a competitive move by Twitter as it does a helpful one for media companies, since Twitter is the one who gets the benefit of that content.

Meanwhile, as the Knight Center post noted, some media outlets are concerned about where Twitter’s desire to partner with TV networks and brands like NBC and MTV might take it, since the company was criticized fairly heavily for suspending the account of a British journalist who took potshots at its corporate partner during the Olympics. A Twitter spokesman said this was a misunderstanding related to the journalist’s posting of an NBC executive’s email address, but for many the incident was a critical breach of trust — and a sign that Twitter can and will control or even censor the content on its network as it sees fit.

And so, media outlets are left with a dilemma: Twitter is hugely useful in a whole variety of ways, and it has become a crucial part of much political and social news coverage. But at the same time, relying on a proprietary and increasingly competitive service for a key part of your business can be unwise, whether it’s Twitter or Facebook, and sooner or later media companies are going to have to confront that reality and figure out how to deal with it.

Post and thumbnail images courtesy of Flickr users Mathias and Abysim

The app allows those to check out what’s happening in the world of music during the commercial breaks for Jersey Shore by ranking a top 100 list of artists and providing biographical information, song samples, and information about touring dates. Shannon Connolly, vice president of digital music strategy for MTV, says the app was downloaded 1 million times after it launched last year, “introduced millions of viewers to music they may not know they love yet.”

Like trending lists on Google (NSDQ: GOOG) or Twitter, MTV’s app merely measures which artists are enjoying a surge in interest over a given day, as to not permanently ensconce Justin Bieber at the top of the list. It is available for both iOS and Android and the latest version features the ability to sort artists by genre.

A publisher like MTV that has to operate at scale might be a prime candidate for a mobile Web strategy, but MTV is still focused on app development for now, said Mark Mezrich, senior director of product development. That being said, MTV’s mobile Web site incorporates some HTML5 technology and the apps are just the first installment in creating “a mobile experience around the artist experience,” he said.

The deal brings “thousands” of Viacom episodes to Prime Instant “over the next several months,” including MTV’s The Hills, Jersey Shore, The Hard Times of RJ Berger and several Real World episodes (what, no Teen Mom?); Comedy Central shows like Chappelle’s Show and The Sarah Silverman Program; and Nickelodeon episodes of iCarly, Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants and Yo Gabba Gabba.

In Amazon’s Q4 earnings report, the company said it had 13,000 episodes available through Prime Instant Video, so the Viacom deal appears to add around 2,000 episodes.

The company also said that that in Q4 of 2011, “the number of Prime Instant Video streams increased nearly 300 percent” compared to Q3.

Since launching Prime Instant Video about a year ago, Amazon has added content from Disney-ABC, PBS, NBC, CBS, Sony (NYSE: SNE), Warner Bros. (NYSE: TWX) and Fox.

release

The network says there was more to this than a line-up of big stars, though. The televised awards were complemented by activity online – EMA-related page views on MTV’s UK website were up 530% year-on-year to nearly 500,000 – and in MTV’s mobile and tablet apps, with downloads up 159% year-on-year, although Viacom hasn’t said how many that is.

Gary Ellis, vice president of international digital media at Viacom International Media Networks, says that this year’s event aimed to make more of an impact globally, through its use of social media and apps, and new categories like Best Worldwide Act and Biggest Fans.

“We wanted to tap into the global nature of digital media and expand the remit of the awards, and that worked out very well,” he says. “We had 158 million votes this year, up 236% compared to last year, and a lot of that was driven by those new categories, although we saw increases across the board.”

One important change this year was the launch of mobile websites for the EMAs optimised for iPhone, Android and tablets, sitting alongside native apps. Ellis says that 141% year-on-year growth in the number of unique visitors to the website globally shows the value of this two-pronged app strategy.

“In the past we’ve had a WAP site, which was pretty strong, but we wanted to up the game and go for richer mobile web versions of the site. People are expecting a full website experience now, no matter what device they’re accessing it from,” says Ellis.

“We have also been watching closely the huge sales of tablet computers, and know that people are accessing websites from those devices. [Native] apps are still a priority for us – we had another app this year with more content and video integrated into it – but if you don’t want to download the app, we want to make sure people get the best experience they can.”

Viacom also made everything more social this year, enabling fans to log in to the EMAs website using their Facebook or Twitter accounts, to make it easier to share articles and content from the site to those social networks. The site also sported some gamification features thanks to a partnership between Viacom and startup Bunchball.

People earned points for watching videos, reading articles, voting and other actions on the EMAs site leading up to the event, partly to try to win tickets by topping the Bunchball-powered high score tables. The points system also tied into a group voting feature, which was the only way to vote in the Biggest Fans category.

“It was all about increasing engagement with the content,” says Ellis. “Time (NYSE: TWX) spent increased, the overall engagement increased, and whether or not the activity happened on a PC, a smartphone or a tablet, everything connected to all the social networks and with each other. We absolutely want everything to be as integrated, shareable and connected as possible.”

During the awards ceremony itself, people continued to use these various devices while watching at home. Ellis makes a point of noting that the higher ratings were driven by the digital activity around the awards: an example of these other devices supporting television rather than cannibalising it.

“Our ideal scenario is to have someone watching the show on their TV, while also having their computer open or their smartphone or tablet to hand interacting around the show, the host and other viewers,” says Ellis.

“Second-stream and co-viewing is very important to us. People want to talk about the show together and watch it together, whether virtually or physically. We want to create the opportunities for that to happen.”

This article originally appeared in MediaGuardian.

But Pittman, who also invested in Clear Channel, only planned to work part time. It didn’t work out that way.

Effective immediately, Pittman is CEO of CC Media Holdings; Mays remains chairman. Pittman will join the boards of CC Media Holdings and Clear Channel Communications, Inc.; he also will serve on the board of Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc., as executive chairman. (More details in the release.)

He’ll stay with The Pilot Group, his private investment firm. His investments include The Huffington Post (sold to AOL), DailyCandy (sold to Comcast) and Zynga. Pittman initially invested $5 million in Clear Channel.

The Clear Channel promotion puts him in charge of 850 CC stations in 150 cities with a monthly reach of 159 million; Premier Radio Networks syndication that reaches another 4,000 stations; Clear Channel Digital; media services including the Katz Media Group; and 1 million or so displays in 40 countries including airports and Times Square. The company was taken private by Thomas H. Lee and Bain Capital Partners in 2008 for $17.9 billion.

For the past 11 months, Pittman has focused on working with Clear Channel Radio CEO John Hogan to shift Clear Channel from a radio company with digital to one perceived as a media and entertainment company. They acquired cloud-based music service Thumbplay Music to integrate the technology into IHeartRadion, the digital radio service that lets listeners tune in to Clear Channel stations across the country.

The new version of IHeartRadio, designed to compete with Pandora (NYSE: P) and other music services, launched late last month with a Las Vegas music festival billed as the largest live concert event for radio. (Previous digital head Evan Harrison initiated the IHeartRadio — then known as iheartradio –streaming strategy, including the first apps.)

When I sat down with Pittman in his mid-Manhattan offices for a long chat this summer, he talked about taking one what was supposed to be a part-time job. “I’m so into this I can’t even stand it. A month in, my wife said, ‘you’re not working part time. You’re working harder than you ever did at Time Warmer.’ I said, yeah, but I’m enjoying myself.”

Why Clear Channel? “They’re three times the size of the next largest radio company. They’re bigger than the biggest TV networks. They rival the big internet players in the U.S. for reach…. and they’ve got these big brands.”

Pittman is all about matching brand and convenience. “I’ve always said I can only be in a consumer-facing business ’cause my only real skill is reading consumers. It’s amazing when you think about the consumer that’s actually the same human being whether I’m trying to sell them a house, trying to get them to subscribe to AOL, getting them to listen to MTV, getting them to listen to radio — whatever it was, it’s always the same human being.”

Those same human beings fall in love with brands. “The only time they’ll consider other brands is when their brand isn’t there.”

He added, “The second thing consumers do is they’ll always go for convenience. If you can figure out a more convenient product, you’ll win, a better product doesn’t necessarily win. That’s one of the arguments I always have with developers. ‘Is it one less click?’ ‘No, it’s one more but it’s better.’ We’re not going to do that.”

He has been CEO of MTV Networks; AOL Networks; Six Flags Theme Parks; and Century 21 Real Estate, among others, and COO of America Online and AOL Time Warner.

“Every business I’ve been in it’s all about that. That guides me and drives me, and it’s the prism I use. Knock on wood, it has not failed me yet.”

This year, in his look at satisfaction ratings of 80 online ad sales organizations, a little more than 50 percent of clients said that they’ve been pleased with their dealings with sellers. While that doesn’t sound so great, Myers said that last year, only 30 percent of survey participants expressed satisfaction with their sell-side counterparts.

Myers’ full report will be released in the coming days — a preview is in this video basically suggests that even with the rise of ad exchange platforms that largely boil down the art of buying and selling media to the science of algorithms, the personal touch is what counts, especially in the area of premium ad sales. That’s an argument major publishers have been trying to make in the face of a talk about “platforms” such as DSPs, DMPs, SSPs and so on.

The company respondents say gives the best online sales satisfaction? Google (NSDQ: GOOG). Beyond the search giant, which has assiduously courted the buy side as it looked to be seen as less of a “frenemy” over the past two years, Pandora (NYSE: P), Vevo Hulu and Fox (NSDQ: NWS) Interactive Media’s video game and entertainment unit IGN are viewed as examples of good salesmanship cited by marketers and agencies in Myers report.

Myers also looked at what newspapers and TV networks have the best match in terms of satisfying advertisers on both sides of the digital and traditional sales divide and found that among 30 “legacy media brands,” MTV Network’s Nickelodeon, Wall St. Journal, NBC (NSDQ: CMCSA) Universal’s Weather Channel, New York Times and Time (NYSE: TWX) Warner’s Turner Broadcasting were regarded the highest.

In terms of the quality of customer service — such as responsiveness — Myers’ study found a diverse “pocket of strength” in a mix of web-only and traditional media businesses including LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD), Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE: MSO), The Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) Digital, Forbes, Blip.tv, BrightRoll and Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN), which is shaping up as a challenger in the display space.

In a conversation, Myers wouldn’t release the scores of the various companies, beyond saying that those companies had satisfaction rates of above 65 percent. The brands that delivered less than desired satisfaction tended to be ones associated with the ad network model or ones that didn’t have any offline presence or connection, Myers said. Two notable exceptions in the ad tech space that garnered high marks from clients were ContextWeb and Undertone.

“I was surprised that we didn’t see a surge of support for hot brands: Facebook, Twitter, Specific Media,” Myers said.

Both AOL (NYSE: AOL) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) have room for improvement, but the drop off in satisfaction wasn’t precipitous, he said. Their problem, and perhaps the problem of portals in general when compared to more narrowly-targeted sites, is that “they don’t share the same focus as Hulu, Vevo or Pandora,” Myers said.

R.E.M. mirrored the fortunes of the media business – a band that found its own audience through toil on the road, rode the MTV wave, benefitted from what major labels could offer when they had it to offer and which experimented with fan mash-ups and online releasing.

Now, in this, the week that R.E.M. hangs it up after 31 years, a just-posted clever video remix brought to our attention shines a light on the media explosion that has tracked the Athens, Ga. band’s own career these past three decades…

You might think that Bitbop sounds like just another premium internet video service — and frankly, it is — but what might give it a chance of success is that there still seems to be a lot of markets out there with very little competition: Bitbop claims that it is the first subscription service in Germany to offer streaming first wireless subscription service to deliver on-demand commercial-free television and films to personal computers, tablets and smartphones.

That’s a strategy that’s also being taken by Netflix in its launches in Latin America, which kicked off today. Hulu, which shows programming with ads in its home market of the U.S., last week launched an ad-free service in Japan, its first foray abroad.

BitBop Germany says it will give users access to 3,000 “world-class” German and American programs in an ad-free service that can be used on iOS and Android devices, as well as via the mobile Internet. It says the content can be either streamed or downloaded for offline viewing.

The commercial service follows a beta launch in Germany that started back in May. Like other streaming services, Bitbop is offering users a 14-day trial before putting them on a monthly rate of € 9.99 ($14) for unlimited access to all the content in its catalog. It first launched in the U.S. in August 2010 and has deals with companies like Verizon Wireless to preload links to Bitbop on their LTE devices (in that specific case, through the VCast store).

The announcement was timed to coincide with the IFA trade show in Berlin, which is on this week and has been the source of several other tech news breaks.

The content. Bitbop says at launch it will be aggregating content from 15 networks including several local enterprises such as ProSieben Group, HBO, ARD Video, ZDF Enterprises and MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA) Germany. Shows include “Stromberg,” “Damages,” “Breaking Bad” and “The Tudors,” as well as “Anna und die Liebe” and “Die Wochenshow” and “Sex in the City,” “The Sopranos” and “Entourage.” IT’s launching with an exclusive, which will be access to “Entourage” in the original English version — a big deal, considering how much foreign content is dubbed.

Why the move to Germany? The company-formerly-known as Fox Mobile Group has long had a presence in the country, starting with German mobile content venture Jamba, which Fox bought in 2006. Those services, though, have had peaks and troughs. Last November, mocoNews discovered that FMG laid off 15 percent of its staff in the country and in other operations.