New Scaratings

Sadly, I believe they are going to push Facebook and possibly other social outlets. They
used Facebook as a platform for the useless badges program and then added it to their
site based games. If Buzztime survives, I can see the focus on Facebook or possibly another
platform like Hulu Plus and the days of playing at a bar going away. Another big change is coming and I doubt the long time players are going to like it.

This quote caught my eye the 2nd time I read the press release.

"enabling additional participation in Buzztime games via smartphones and consumer tablets for play in and out of venues."

For play out of venue???

Are they just talking about Facebook play? Or is there something else to this? BT isn't going to start putting the questions in addition to the answers on the phones are they? And start charging the micro fees they've been talking about?

I think there is going to be a lot more to this product transformation than we expect. I'll bet very little of which will be well received by us "Legacy Players".

No one has mentioned it but Buzztime has not added any new sites since some time in May. Usually they add 80 to 100 new sites each month. Could be connected to the Facebook or the layoffs, maybe they
laid off the sales force to save!

Strange, 91 new sites showed up today. Coincidence??

Several interesting things in today's press release from Buzztime.
1. A new product transformation around marketing, all about mobile devices and messaging.
2. Focus on retention while transforming product over the next year. (again sounds ominous)
3. Bringing in a new guy, Paul Yanover, from Disney Online to monetize digital media. (great ) Get ready for plenty of princess, pirate, penguin and Toontown questions.

Plus some other stuff like staff reductions (we could see that from the recent quality problems) and executive salary reductions. Let's hope the transformation includes quality control of both the network operations and game content.

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CARLSBAD, Calif. , July 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- NTN Buzztime, Inc. (NYSE MKT: NTN) today announced that it has realigned its operating and cost structure to sharpen its focus on product development and customer retention, made an important addition to its Board, appointed Vladimir Edelman to role of Chief Product Officer and that Chairman Jeff Berg has assumed the interim CEO role.

The Company has realigned staffing and costs in order to create savings necessary to invest in a product transformation that is expected to include a more robust marketing services platform designed to acquire, activate and retain customers for our subscribers using loyalty and messaging programs while also enabling additional participation in Buzztime games via smartphones and consumer tablets for play in and out of venues. Nineteen staff positions have been eliminated and the top three executives have taken voluntary salary reductions. In all, the Company estimates these changes will reduce costs by $2.3 million on an annualized basis once fully implemented and excluding any severance costs.

"We are intent upon reinvesting these cost savings in ways that are designed to significantly improve the return on investment of Buzztime to our venues and increase the engagement of Buzztime by their patrons. We intend to invest more aggressively in product, marketing services and mobile devices and to also focus more on retention while we're in the midst of transforming our product," said Jeff Berg , Chairman of the Board of Directors. "We need to focus more aggressively on product transformation, both near-term and long term, to provide clients more ROI and to attract more consumers. Once we have that more fully developed, we can focus on growing the network, but until then we need to develop a more robust, engaging product and that's going to be our focus over the next year."

The Company also announced that Jeff Berg has assumed the interim CEO role and that Paul Yanover has been appointed to its Board of Directors effective July 2, 2012 . Additionally, in recognition of his growing strategic role, Vladimir Edelman has been appointed as Chief Product Officer. Mr. Edelman previously served as the Company's Chief Content Officer.

"The Board of Directors and the Company welcome Paul's help to affect a more rapid transformation of the product and the business," said Jeff Berg . "Paul is all about product and engaging consumers and his experience in the development and monetization of digital media, marketing and game environments will be of tremendous help to us as we transform our product and expand the marketing services platform of Buzztime."

Mr. Yanover leads Lookout Interactive Media, a consulting practice focused on strategy, product development, marketing and monetization for digital media, technology and entertainment companies. He was most recently executive vice president and managing director of Disney Online, where he oversaw all Disney -branded strategic, creative, technical, and marketing initiatives on the Internet and mobile web, including Disney.com, Disney on line's suite of premium products including online worlds Club Penguin, Pixie Hollow and Toontown, and a network of family-targeted sites. Earlier he was senior vice president in charge of Disney 's Parks and Resorts Online, and was founding executive of the Buena Vista Game Entertainment Studio , a new startup within Disney created to develop online and mobile games across connected and emerging platforms.

He was also co-founder and CEO of Ceiva Logic, a consumer electronics company featuring the world's first Internet-connected digital picture frame and digital picture-sharing network. Mr. Yanover holds a double honors Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and economics from the University of Western Ontario , and a Master of Computer Science from the University of Southern California .

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