To mark its 50th anniversary, Amnesty International TV launches AmnestyTV on Friday July 15th: a dedicated YouTube channel offering a mix of human rights news and comedy (we kid you not), a hybrid approach designed to appeal to the up and coming generation of social activists.

The 15-minute, biweekly (it will run every other Friday) magazine-style show describes itself as '50% Newsnight, 50% Modern Toss' (a tagline non-Brits may not appreciate) with a mix of hard-hitting satire, campaign stunts, short documentaries, outspoken opinion and real news.Continue reading...

HBO has won numerous awards for marketing and brand image campaigns — here's its latest.

Promoting its 2011 programming slate, it features the shortened "It's HBO" tagline and touts programming including the upcoming concert film Lady Gaga at Madison Square Garden, new series Game of Thrones, the new seasons of Boardwalk Empire, Treme, Bored to Death, Curb Your Enthusiasm and the final season of Entourage, original movie Too Big to Fail, and acquired movies Inception and The Town.Continue reading...

How times have changed. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, today released the above video urging prayers and support for Prince William and Kate Middleton. The spiritual leader of the world's 80 million Anglicans calls the couple, whose wedding he will preside over on April 29th, "deeply unpretentious" and "sensible, realistic young people."

TV check-ins, aka social TV, is the newest form of online engagement. As easy as changing channels via your remote, it’s steadily growing and predicted to be a break-out trend of 2011.

Brands emerging in the space include GetGlue, Philo and Miso. So far, according to a recent analysis by Clickz, GetGlue is the one to beat.Continue reading...

While rumors are rampant that Verizon and Motorola are developing a mobile-TV tablet that will "tie closely" with Verizon’s fiber-optic FiOS digital cable service, EchoStar’s Dish Network will bring TV to the iPad and other mobile devices by October, offering U.S. subscribers free iPhone, iPad, and Android apps for watching TV anywhere, anytime. The partnership promises to shake up the media landscape and raise the bar for consumer expectations.Continue reading...

Directors Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald, with the help of sponsor LG Electronics, are helping YouTube with a history-making experiment: Life in a Day, an effort to capture 24 hours of moments, big and small, captured on video on July 24th. Everyone is invited to capture and upload video to a special YouTube channel on that day.

As YouTube's blog notes, "You can film the ordinary — a sunrise, the commute to work, a neighborhood soccer match — or the extraordinary — a baby's first steps, your reaction to the passing of a loved one, or even a marriage."

LG Electronics is supporting the project as "a key part of its longstanding Life's Good campaign and to support the creation of quality online content that can be shared and enjoyed by all."Continue reading...

ESPN launches its 3D channel tomorrow, in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup kick-off game with Mexico vs. South Africa. At launch ESPN 3D will be available to more than 40 million U.S. homes via Comcast, DirecTV and AT&T's U-verse service.

ESPN's Pardon the Interruption debated the merits of ESPN in 3D vs. HD (above) after it was announced at CES in January. 

Launch advertisers, including Disney's Pixar, P&G's Gillette, and Sony's new 3DTV, will promote their brands in commercials that will run during the World Cup coverage. Naturally, ESPN hopes the channel will spur more marketers to think in three dimensions.Continue reading...

Buoyed by the success of MTV's Jersey Shore franchise, cable networks are gearing up for the summer shore season, Joisey style. Not only Viacom's MTV, but its reality-touting competitors at Oxygen, Style and Bravo all have their fists in the air pumping to promote their Garden State shows during the TV upfront events now taking place in New York.

At its upfront event yesterday at at a midtown Manhattan hotel, MTV touted its new shows by wooing media buyers and brand advertisers with a raucous party themed around the looming return of its now-iconic Jersey Shore, which is currently taping its next season far from Jersey on a different shore, in Miami.

Partiers filled their plates with meatballs and spaghetti, and washed it down with Ron Ron Juice (vodka and watermelon juice), named after cast member Ronnie Magro. Cast members busted out their signature dance moves and female servers “poofed” their hair in salute to Snooki, aka Nicole Polizzi.Continue reading...