Personalized Facebook show co Social Studios raises $700,000

"Your Show" is a personalized television program, hosted by Noa Tishbi, who presents the prominent statuses, pictures, and video clips by Facebook friends.

Israeli start-up Social Studios today launched "Your Show", a personalized television program, and hired actress Noa Tishbi as the emcee.

The company also announced that it has raised $700,000 in seed funding from angels and that Joanna Drake Earl, formerly COO at ngmoco and Current TV, has joined its board of directors. According to IVC Comverse Inc. (Nasdaq: CNSI) co-founder Prof.Yechiam Yemini is an investor.

"Your Show is like 'Entertainment Tonight' meets Facebook", said Social Studios CEO Anat Amibar. "It's a show starring you and your friends, produced from your Facebook feed. There's a brewing fight for domination on the big screen in the living room and social media companies, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, have not yet delivered a compelling video experience. We aim to solve this by creating the first ever social media TV shows."

"Your Show" is a Facebook app for a Google Chrome browser to interface with the user's account. Tishbi presents the prominent statuses, pictures, and video clips by Facebook friends alongside birthdays.

Tishbi is responsible for the prerecorded links and presents the program's skits. Her parts are the only non-personalized content. The result is a seven-minute show, with the concept of creating a television program without intervention by the user, who only has to sit back and watch.

Social Studios pictured Tishbi with costumes and links to create diverse content each day, with the content changing on the basis of timeline updates on Facebook. The company plans to launch apps for iPads and smart televisions.

Tishbi, who also serves as an adviser, said, "As a producer and actress, I always try to find the next thing, and the Social Studios team succeeded in creating a completely new way of enjoying Facebook through the use of the television format. I think that this is a new kind of reality television, and I am excited to take part in it."

Social Studios was co-founded by Amibar and Yael Avneri. Amibar previously served as VP product at results-based advertising company myThings Ltd. and Avneri was the editor in chief of several television shows, including the first season of "Survivor", "Beauty and the Geek", and "24/7 The Next Generation".

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 26, 2013

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2013

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