The Smart TV Weekly Digest is a curated collection of the week’s best articles about smart TVs and the future of content.

 New solutions for the new era of TV interfaces
“As I discuss in a new report at GigaOM Pro (subscription required), a new user interface for the video viewing experience is becoming inevitable. Just about every company in the video entertainment ecosystem has a stake in such a development. Content producers need to have outlets for their (often expensive) productions that can provide enough return on investment to allow them to stay in business… It is unlikely that we will reach a compelling solution quickly that will spread rapidly throughout the infrastructure. The successful approach will likely take either the cooperation or the combination of companies to assemble the assets, resources and alliances required to create an effective system that is supported by all the stakeholders in the system.”

 It’s confirmed: Skype founder’s new startup is Vdio
“We just got an official confirmation for our story on Vdio, the new Netflix competitor by the founders of Skype: The company sent us a Q&A that confirms most of the information we uncovered, while remaining vague on details like pricing and launch date…”

BuddyTV Partners With AT&T To Let You Turn Your U-verse Into A Smart TV
“For those unfamiliar, BuddyTV’s iPhone and Android apps turn your smartphones into a smart viewing guide and a remote control with enhanced social features like chat and the ability to broadcast what you’re watching to Facebook and Twitter. At the time, the app was working exclusively with Google TVs, but today BuddyTV is announcing that it has landed another big fish: AT&T.”

Miso ties up with AT&T for synchronized viewing
‘Last month the social TV app company Miso announced a partnership with DirecTV so viewers could participate on Miso’s app in sync with TV shows — both live and recorded. Now Miso has announced another partner, AT&T U-verse. “All you have to do is open up Miso, and as an AT&T U-verse enabled app, you simply select the receiver you want to connect to and it will immediately show what’s playing on your U-verse receiver,” explains Miso CEO Somrat Niyogi. “As you flip through channels, Miso changes with it to display what’s on. Users don’t have to search anymore to check-in, just tap and share.”’

Cisco acquires BNI Video for $99M
“Network tech giant Cisco has acquired video optimization software company BNI Video for $99 million in cash, the company announced today. BNI Video helps internet service providers manage their video services, such as entitlement, billing and quality control…”

Mela is like Netflix for Bollywood fans
“While the big broadcasters, cable networks and Hollywood studios are doing a good job of making their content available online in the U.S., international video fans have largely been left wanting. In particular, fans of South Asian or Bollywood content might have had a hard time finding anything but the most recognizable Bollywood movie titles…”

A Google TV 2.0 Sneak Peak
“Thanks to reader Khalid, we can even currently browse the small but growing selection of Google TV 2.0 apps via desktop web browser ahead of launch. Based on the screengrabs and marketplace browsing, I suspect  some early favorites might be Pandora, Twitter, and the WSJ…”

Hulu Plus bringing its TV treasure trove to Nintendo Wii and 3DS
“Nintendo announced Friday that its 3DS handheld and Wii console will get access to Hulu Plus‘ trove of streaming TV content before the end of 2011…”

Verizon’s FiOS TV growth slows in Q3
“Verizon said it added 138,000 new FiOS Internet subscribers, down from the 189,000 Internet customers it picked up during Q2. While AT&T (NYSE: T) saw a similar reduction in subscriber growth when it reported earnings Thursday…”

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