Apple shares were up 8% in early trading today to $454.45. At its highest, the rise in shares added nearly $32 billion to Apple’s market value, helping to push it to become the world’s most valuable company with a market capitalisation of $430 billion.

Social-TV start-up Bluefin Labs has signed a $12 million investment deal from a group led by Time Warner Investments.

Over 60% of viewing on TiVo is now delayed or on-demand video via broadband (OTT), while 38% is live TV viewing.

US digital agency Circ.us is launching a new social TV platform that will enable viewers to experience their favourite programmes as if they were live events.

MAGNAGLOBAL predicts that the quadrennial boost of 2012 (political advertising and to a lesser extent the Summer Olympic broadcasts) will help generate US year on year revenue growth of 3.7% in 2012.

A YouGov survey in November 2011 revealed that one in 10 people in the UK owned a Smart TV – with 15% of UK consumers saying they would own one within the next 12 months.

Planet Rock MD Jonathan Arendt has announced he is leaving the company to set up a new digital media company, 7West Ltd.

UK linear TV viewing figures for 2011 equaled the record high set in 2010, according to Thinkbox. The average viewer watched four hours, two minutes of linear TV a day in 2011 (28 hours, 14 minutes a week), new figures from the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB) show.

The Royal Wedding was the most popular TV programme in 2011 with an average of 13.59 million viewers on BBC One and BBC HD alone, according to Barb’s TV ratings.

Streamed TV is becoming more mainstream in the UK with the use of online streaming services such as BBC iplayer, ITV iplayer or 4oD on the rise, particularly among younger people, according to the latest KPMG Media & Entertainment Barometer.