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

Why TV sites and apps should turn into second screens
But with the tremendous potential of the second-screen — both for engaging viewers and opening up a tremendous new revenue stream through interactive advertising — I’ll argue that now is the time to make the second screen the home screen, not as an added feature, but as the core experience. (I’m not referring to TV news sites and apps, which clearly should focus primarily on covering news.)

Study questions impact of social buzz on TV ratings
The media buyer Optimedia US has released a study that concludes that a show’s advance buzz doesn’t predict its ratings performance. The study measured Tweets, Facebook likes, Google searches and Klout scores ahead of a show’s premiere. It found the top 5 new shows in buzz — X-Factor, Playboy Club, New Girl, Whitney and Charlie’s Angels — haven’t necessarily translated into ratings.

Yahoo’s Live Stream Of The ‘Twilight’ Premiere Attracted Nearly As Many Viewers As E!’s Red Carpet Emmys Coverage
One million people live streamed the official red carpet premiere of “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1.” Not only does that represent a new record for Yahoo — it also approaches viewership for televised red carpet coverage.

Internet TV poised to reach 60 percent of households by 2014
“The permanent media revolution continues,” said Patrick Behar, head of Bain’s Media & Entertainment Practice in Europe and lead author of the study. “But media and entertainment companies must pursue aggressive content development and diversification strategies to unlock new consumer spending.” Bain finds that the biggest shift in the connected content experience will come in video. Half of respondents in the US and UK intend to rely more on search engines to find content, while one-third plan to use their network of friends to choose their favorite “must see TV.”

The World’s Largest TV Maker Is About To Give Google TV A HUGE Boost
Today Samsung confirmed that it’s nearly finished cutting a deal with Google to use Google TV software to power its TV sets, the Wall Street Journal reports. It seems like a strange move, given that Samsung’s Smart TV apps platform has been pretty successful. The platform facilitates about 50,000 app downloads each day.

5 apps for finding your favorite TV shows
More than 60 percent of viewers watch TV with a computer in their laps or a mobile device in their hands. So why not use those devices to figure out what to watch next? A growing number of apps are being built to provide recommendations for users trying to figure out what to watch on TV and on their mobile devices. Here are five of our favorites…

Deadpool Watch: After Raising $10M, Social TV Startup BeeTV Falters
Back in early 2009, I wrote about an Italian startup called BeeTV, which showcased some impressive TV recommendation technology. The goal was to sell that technology to telcos and cable operators, but this proved to be a very difficult task for a small, scrappy upstart. This led to BeeTV changing course and trying its hand at making consumer-focused products, like an iPad app for watching and sharing TV experiences with friends. They also secured more funding, bringing its total raised to over $10 million…

Zeebox: The social TV app that gets it right?
Launched in October this year to a remarkable amount of hype for an app, and updated this week with new features, Zeebox combines a UK TV guide with social features. Tell it your TV service provider and it will display a list of all the current and upcoming shows you can watch – if you have a TV that supports the feature, you can even use the app as a remote control…

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