George Winslow

The nation’s eighth-largest cable operator, Breezeline, upgraded residential internet speeds on January 14th, doubling the speeds for many customers without any additional charges in select packages. The speed increases were delivered automatically to more than 125,000 customers based on their internet package. The faster speeds are also available to new customers. As a result of the move, Breezeline has boosted the speed of tiers with 50 Mbps Internet to 100 Mbps, and 100 Mbps Internet to 200 Mbps. Breezeline’s 400 Mbps Internet is now 500 Mbps.

Facebook has just bought video ad tech startup LiveRail, which connects marketers to publishers on web and mobile to target 7 billion video ads to visitors per month.

One source said Facebook paid between $400 million and $500 million for LiveRail; and another source now reported that LiveRail sold for $500 million.

Facebook also said it will invest in keeping LiveRail running and is evaluating how to intermingle their data, but it plans to use its data to aid LiveRail with its targeting and vice-versa.

The acquisition of the 170-person company could help Facebook own a bigger chunk of video advertising, the fasting growing Internet ad medium.

Nielsen is reporting that 51% of all adults over the age of 55 in the US owned smartphones in the first quarter of 2014, up 10% in the first quarter of 2013.

The development is notable because rapid growth in smartphone usage among older Americans means that a majority of Americans in all age groups now own smart phones. Overall, seven in ten Americans owned smart phones and about 85% of the purchases for new mobile phones are now smartphones.

The broadcast groups involved in the Pearl group have announced that they will be testing interactive content and advertising services delivered to LG Smart TVs in three markets during live newscasts and that they will be demoing the idea at the 2014 National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas. The move is an effort to capitalize on the growing availability of smart TVs that are connected to the Internet and to use that connectivity to bring the interactivity of the online world to the TV set. In their Global Digital Living Forecast Workbook from March 2014, Parks Associates estimates that the number of "smart TV" households in the US will reach 42 million in 2014, representing 36% of all TV households. The tests will occur in Atlanta, Cleveland and Orlando. Stations participating in Atlanta are WSB (Cox), WGCL (Meredith) and WXIA (Gannett). In Cleveland, WOIO (Raycom), WEWS (Scripps), and WKYC (Gannett) will test the idea and in Orlando, participating stations are WKMG (Post-Newsweek), WFTV (Cox), and WESH (Hearst).