We’d like to thank this week’s NewTeeVee sponsors:

• thePlatform: What’s Your TV Everywhere Strategy?
• Server Beach: Save 30% by switching to dedicated hosting by Server Beach

While it won’t move the needle much on its content library, IFC Entertainment announced yesterday that it will offer 53 films through Netflix’s Watch Instantly streaming service, reports Variety.

True, that’s not a very large number, but it marks the first time IFC is providing its content to a subscription streaming service. Up until now, the company has placed films from its 300-title library on EST destinations like Amazon, iTunes and Blockbuster.

IFC titles heading to Netflix’s streaming service include Errol Morris’ The Thin Blue Line and John Sayles’ Return of the Secaucus Seven.

As we’ve written before, Netflix’s Achilles’ heel is its streaming content library. Though it has over 17,000 titles, it needs to make sure that service is robust enough so that the number of subscribers using the service keeps growing. Check out Om’s recent talk with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings at our recent NewTeeVee Live Conference for more on his company’s streaming efforts.

Separately, though we didn’t see anything official announced, it looks like Netflix also just got a whole boatload of Saturday Night Live content in this week, including seasons 1 – 5.

To learn more about streaming directly to TVs, check out the report on The Evolution of Over-the-Top Video over at our subscription research service, GigaOM Pro.

For once, everyone getting on board with an online video trend is a good thing. Following on the heels of Google’s announcement yesterday that it will add automatic captioning to YouTube videos, PLYmedia today said that it will be providing live captioning to video platforms Ooyala, Ustream, Livestream, Brightcove, Kaltura, KIT digital and Kyte.

Unlike Google’s captioning system, which automatically creates captions using speech recognition technology, PLYmedia’s SubPLY offering does live captioning with national court reporter-certified transcribers. Using this human approach, PLYmedia says it can deliver more accurate results (Google even admitted that its system can make mistakes and is rolling the service out slowly.)

PLYmedia’s SubPLY also offers automatic translation into “multiple” languages, transcript generation, real-time keyword tag generation as well as Twitter and Facebook integration. The social media hooks allow Twitter and Facebook users to follow a live event through text updates to their news feeds.

In addition to making live video more accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing, the addition of captions will help make video more searchable.

We’re big fans of the way the Microsoft Xbox LIVE game show 1 vs. 100 blurs the lines between TV and gaming. As the second season of 1 vs. 100 starts today (at 5 p.m. PT! Rush home and get in the mob!), it will have an added twist that makes this endeavor even more unique — measurement.

The folks in Redmond are teaming up with Nielsen to track how many people are playing (and checking out the ads). From a post on the Microsoft Advertising Community blog post:

The Xbox LIVE advertising group has teamed up with the Nielsen Company to launch a pilot test, beginning with Season 2 of 1 vs. 100, to obtain content, channel and ad specific metrics and identify who was playing the game and saw a particular advertisement. This is the first time content delivered through a video game console network will be capable of being measured by Nielsen’s television, online and video game metering technologies, such as the Nielsen people meter. Our goal is to ultimately provide advertisers with concrete Gross Rating Points (GRPs) and Targeted Rating Points (TRPs) to maximize their media spend.

Given that Microsoft said that it got up to 200,000 players each of the two nights the show aired per week during season one, it’ll be interesting how that number a.) does in season two and b.) compares with what a third-party research firm like Nielsen says. Of course, if Nielsen reports big numbers, Microsoft can charge more for in-game ads.

For more on why we think 1 vs. 100 is a good indicator of where hybrid media is heading, check out Liz’s Long View article on the topic over at our subscription research service, GigaOM Pro.

Twistage has re-imagined workflow for video platforms. Gone is the monolithic, player-centric video experience. The Twistage solution is both modular and flexible, giving you the freedom to define and build upon your own workflow.

As the world’s most customizable video platform, Twistage brings unmatched flexibility to video workflow. Already the platform of choice for many leading video publishers, Twistage liberates media companies and enterprise clients from the constraints of the video 1.0 ecosystem.

The Twistage difference? Our open architecture. We offer robust solutions for content ingestion, content management, video delivery, monetization, syndication and reporting through a simple point-and-click console. There’s no need to replace your player. You can keep your custom built and third-party solutions. Keep your transcoding, reporting, digital asset management, content access control, and other components that you’ve already invested in and trust. The Twistage platform is the glue for a cohesive workflow, adapting to your demands and the demands of a constantly evolving marketplace — not the other way around.

Twistage. Video Workflow Solved.

Google is making it easier for deaf, hard-of-hearing and global audiences to enjoy YouTube today, by announcing features that make adding captions to videos much easier.

The first feature uses the same voice-recognition algorithms found in Google Voice along with the YouTube caption system to create auto-captions for videos. A Google blog post announcing the feature warns, “The captions will not always be perfect,” but it’s definitely a good first step.

Additionally, you can automatically translate captions into one of 51 languages, making videos more accessible to a global audience.

The second caption feature is automatic caption timing. This is a slightly more manual process for adding captions to videos, but it’s still very cool. Creators just upload a text file with all the words in a video, and Google figures out when the words are spoken to create the appropriate captions.

An example of both in action is embedded in the video above.

Google says both features will be available in English by the end of this week. Automatic captions will only be visible on select partner channels to start as the company works out the kinks. The auto-timing feature will roll out globally for all English-language vids on YouTube.

DirecTV and EchoStar Get New CEOs; Michael Dugan to come out of retirement to run EchoStar, while Michael White is leaving Pepsi to head up DirecTV. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Spot Runner Intros a Web Platform; company says the Malibu Media Platform helps to algorithmically match ad buyers and sellers. (MediaWeek)

Report: Vivendi Wants More Cash from GE; company wants a bigger portion in cash for its 20 percent stake in NBC in regards to the Comcast deal. (Bloomberg)

Lawyers Launch Class-Action Redbox Site; RedboxLateFees.com let’s people figure out if they are eligible to join the lawsuit. (Video Business)

GlideTV Intros On-Screen Keyboard App for Macs; the GlideTV OSK links the living room to popular application and web sites when used with the GlideTV Navigator. (GlideTV)

CoolIris Now on TV.com; TV portal now using the 3-D visual interface in its “Shows” section. (TechCrunch)

Which HD TV is Right for You? HDGuru provides a walk-through when picking a new set. (HDGuru)

UPDATED: The next iteration of Flip video cameras will reportedly be WiFi-enabled, allowing users to wirelessly upload their videos. Pocket Lint first broke the news, and CrunchGear claims to have confirmed it. This next-gen Flip will also reportedly have a slide-out screen that reveals the record and menu buttons underneath — the screen will not, however, be a touchscreen. Update: We had a chance to speak with a few Cisco/Flip reps this morning who said they had not confirmed this news and would not comment on any upcoming products.

The addition of Wi-Fi will would be a nice touch for the video camera, and an appropriate marriage with parent company Cisco’s networking tech. (Perhaps the Wi-Fi will even tie into the mysterious forthcoming Flip set-top box.) But the bigger question plaguing the entire Flip line is just how much life is left in a standalone product. Decent video-recording capabilities are being embedded in phones like the Droid, iPhone and iPod Nano. As we learned earlier this year, the video quality of the Nano doesn’t quite match up to the Flip cam yet, but that’s a big yet. Will people want to carry around a dedicated video camera when their phone will do just fine for capturing spontaneous moments?

When we’ve spoken with Flip reps in the past they’ve put on a brave face and said that there is enough room for lots of players in the space, but it’s hard to believe that. With multipurpose devices getting better at shooting video and the high-end HD cameras dropping in price, the better-than-good-but-not-great Flips are getting squeezed out.

Vevo, the forthcoming music video site from Universal and Sony Music and powered by YouTube, announced via Twitter this afternoon that it is officially launching on Tues. Dec. 8th. Here’s a screen grab of the Tweet:

The only thing missing from Vevo’s Twitter post was a “suck it, Hulu!” (it still would have still been under 140 characters). Last night Hulu announced it was getting into the music video game in a very minimal way with a limited distribution deal with EMI, kicking off with a Norah Jones music video section.

Looks like the sleeping online video giant that is Facebook may finally have awoken. According to Nielsen’s latest VideoCensus numbers, Facebook jumped to No. 3 behind established video powerhouses YouTube and Hulu in terms of total streams. That’s up from No. 10 just last month. Facebook generated more than 217 million streams in October to more than 31.5 million unique viewers, up from 110 million streams to 23 million viewers in September.

Source: Nielsen VideoCensus
Note: Includes progressive downloads and excludes video advertising

Facebook actually had more than double the number of unique viewers than Hulu had for October, though this isn’t too shocking given the nature of short, personal video sharing that goes on on Facebook versus the longer-form viewing that happens on Hulu. But the social network’s ascendancy should have the Hulu folks on alert. Facebook already got the early premiere of the NBC (and Hulu owner) show Community earlier this year, and Zuckerberg and Co. could flex their newfound video muscles to snatch even more premium content from the Hulu-gurus.

Overall, the number of total U.S. video watchers dipped slightly to 138.6 million unique viewers from 139.3 million in Sept., but the number of total streams was up to 11.2 billion in Oct. vs. 11.02 billion in Sept. The number of streams per person was up to 81 in Oct. vs. 79.1 in Sept., and the time spent per viewer was up to 212.5 minutes vs. 195.2 in Sept.

Source: Nielsen VideoCensus
Note: Includes progressive downloads and excludes video advertising

Notional, IAC’s new video production company headed by former CollegeHumor-er, Ricky Van Veen, introduced its initial lineup of programming yesterday (via Variety). In addition to the shows Chopped and Don’t Sweat It, which are already on-air and were inherited when Notional absorbed the City Lights TV crew; Notional is also working on:

-Ready, Set, Dance: people who post dance moves online are forced to dance on the spot for a cash prize.

-You vs. America: a web-based game show.

-Chase the Money: reality game show combing pratfalls and tag.

-Love Taxi: a dating show that takes place in a cab.

Looks like Notional is sticking true to its promise of bridging the TV and Internet worlds with this mix of online and on-air concepts, though the ideas seem decidedly low-budge and low-brow. Probably why they called the company Notional and not “Innovational” (bah-dum-bum). Notional is also looking to partner with Ben Silverman’s branded entertainment company (and IAC sibling), Electus.

Pardon the dated reference, but EveryZing is the P. Diddy of the online video world, as the company announced today that it is changing its name to RAMP. The company was originally known as Podzinger, but changed its moniker to EveryZing, and then must have realized what a horrible, horrible name that was and changed it to RAMP today to align itself with its RAMP content optimization product.

RAMP was initially spun out of military research firm BBN Technologies as a speech-to-text podcast search engine. The company has since expanded its product to enable media publishers to make content discoverable and optimized through parsing of data from video, text, audio and images.

RAMP (the company) has raised $22 million in funding from investors like NBC, which is also a customer. Other clients include FOX properties FOXNews.com, FOXBusiness.com and FOXSports.com.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 seems to be continually a day late and a dollar short compared with Microsoft’s Xbox. As we learned at NewTeeVee Live last week, today is the day that social features like Facebook and Twitter integration landed on Xbox LIVE. And the PS3? Well, in a corporate blog post yesterday [via PC World], Sony announced that it too is getting Facebook and Twitter. Kinda. From that post:

The latest update incorporates Facebook into the PS3 experience. By linking your PlayStation Network account to your Facebook account, you will have the option for the PS3 to automatically update your Facebook News Feed with Trophy and PlayStation Store activity. This update also enables developers to set specific criteria in their titles to publish additional game information to your News Feed. You can then check out your updates, and those of your friends, on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media favorites through the PS3’s built-in web browser.

Like the PS3’s Netflix solution, which requires a disc to be played in order to connect to the Netflix streaming, Sony’s foray into social media doesn’t seem fully baked. While I’m still unsure about the current role of social media on game consoles, at least Microsoft included Facebook photo sharing on the TV and created a slick user interface for Twitter.

Sony’s social update will be here “soon.”

Chipmaker Amimon today announced the availability of its WHDI modules that can be used in both note-and-netbook PCs. WHDI-enabled PCs will be able to wirelessly transmit uncompressed 1080p/60GHz HD content to television sets with the WHDI chipsets. According to Amimon, together, the new solution enables users to view all of the content on their notebook on their TVs including web video, flash media, photos and PC games.

Of course, this blissful wireless pairing is heavily dependent on having a WHDI-based TV (though Amimon says that the new modules will work with non-WHDI TVs through an HDMI adapter). WHDI is one of many standards including Wireless HD, WiFi and WiGig that are all competing to be the dominant wireless HD standard.

Amimon has raised $50 million in funding to date and says that notebooks with the new WHDI modules will be in the market in 2010.

Newspapers and magazines may not be faring so well in this economic climate, but consumers are holding onto their entertainment subscriptions, according to a new survey from The NPD Group. The research firm says that monthly per-capita entertainment-content subscription spending rose to $115, which is up roughly 7 percent since last year.

As of August 2009, 81 percent of U.S. households subscribe to a TV service (cable, satellite, etc.), NPD found. The company also discovered that 14 percent of consumers subscribed to a home video subscription service like Netflix, up two percentage points from last year. Additionally,  the increased smartphone adoption has bumped up the number of mobile data subscribers to 9 percent of U.S. consumers, up from 6 percent last year, NPD said.

Subscriptions have been a hot topic this year as networks and studios look for additional means to monetize their content. TV Everywhere plans from multi-service operators will require a subscription to access premium video online; there’s talk of Hulu moving some of its content behind a subscription wall; and Disney is supposedly working on its own subscription service.

Based on these NPD numbers, the good news for those companies is that consumers are still valuing the entertainment they’re getting from their subscriptions. But the less-than-good news is that there are only so many entertainment subscriptions one house needs or can afford. Content companies shouldn’t go overboard and each offer their own subscription service — they’ll need to consolidate to deliver the best value to consumers.

Old people do the darndest things — especially when they own a football team. Bud Adams, the 86-year-old owner of the Tennessee Titans, decided to express his excitement over his team beating the Buffalo Bills over the weekend by giving his opponents and their fans the finger… in a couple creative ways. And as with anything slightly embarrassing done by anyone with any sort of notoriety, there’s video of it now on YouTube. Sheesh, what does Adams do when his team loses?

If we knew football was packed with this much petty geriatric action, we’d have watched more games this season (did anyone get any points in their fantasy football league for this?). Adams has since apologized and said he would accept any discipline handed down by the NFL.

By now it’s old hat that we live in a crowd-sourced surveillance society, and it will only accelerate as more live video-casting services proliferate and our actions are broadcast immediately. As if to drive the point home, last night’s episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, which is featuring a Seinfeld reunion this season, used the Michael Richards n-word tantrum as comedic fodder. In an askew recreation of that career-killing moment for Richards, he looks over to see that a crowd of people are capturing it all on a host of video-enabled cell phones [via Huffington Post].