Visual SyncAR, under development by NTT, uses digital watermarking technology to display companion content on a second screen, in sync with the content being viewed on the TV.
Source: DigInfo TV
Gracenote is about to introduce its very own second-screen content recognition platform at CES. The company, which became a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony three years ago, aims to compete with similar solutions from Yahoo’s IntoNow and social check-in services like Miso and GetGlue.
Gracenote’s advanced content recognition technology makes it possible to identify both on-demand movies as well as live TV content. Gracenote President Stephen White gave me a quick demo of the technology last week in San Francisco.
On the march to Microsoft’s transition of X-box from simple game console device to living room entertainment hub, the company announced the acquisition of yet another piece of the total solution to entertainment nirvana-video search technology. VideoSurf, whose technology "sees" frames inside videos to make discovering content fast, easy and accurate, will now be integrated into the X-box.
Video content analytics is a keystone addition to the mix of services Microsoft plans to provide. It should do for video and the literal ocean of voice and image data locked in its frames, what text-based search did for the written word online. With this technology, it’s now possible to do both visual and audio searches from web sites, as well as premium content providers like Bravo and HBO, to find specific videos in real-time. There’s even a mobile app available from VideoSurf as well.
You can see a cool VideoSurf video that covers the four critical components of the technology; identify, surf, watch, and share. For example, there is a social component to the technology that offers personal profile, my search, and also allows user to "like" a show and actually post a specific video scene along with the comments. That’s sure to get interaction flowing in the social space.
US local TV station groups covering 76 million American homes are partnering with ConnecTV to launch a free second screen application in early 2012 that will offer viewers additional content and social media features tied to live TV. As part of the agreement, a number of the broadcasters have also made an undisclosed investment in the Silicon Valley start-up.
Many national broadcasters, cable channels and programmes have launched second screen apps as a way of enhancing live TV viewing and to capitalise on the growing usage of mobile devices and social media. But the deal between the broadcast groups and ConnecTV marks the largest attempt by local broadcasters – a number of whom compete with each other – to work together on social media and second screen applications.
The ConnecTV platform automatically synchronises with whatever channel a viewer is watching. Users who have signed up for the service at its web site or have downloaded an app for smart phones or tablets can interact with others who are watching the same show and access a wide array of related content.
If a viewer is watching a local newscast, for example, the application might show related news stories, which the user could access or share with friends. Alternatively, the application might offer polls or stats related to a sporting event. Local ads and promotions are also synched to the programs being viewed, opening up new revenue opportunities the companies hope.
The ten television broadcast groups involved in the ConnecTV partnership are active in 45 of the top 50 markets and own 201 stations in markets covering 76 million US households. Those groups include Barrington Broadcasting Group as well as the nine broadcast groups that make up the Pearl Group (Belo Corp., Cox Media Group, E.W. Scripps Co., Gannett Broadcasting, Hearst Television Inc., Media General Inc., Meredith Corp., Post-Newsweek Stations Inc. and Raycom Media.)
Speaking on behalf of the Pearl Group, Alan Frank, president and CEO of Post-Newsweek Stations noted that a growing portion of their audiences are active social media users and that many of them were using laptops, smartphones and tablets while watching TV.
“There is more TV viewing than ever but people are doing it differently,” said Frank. He cited a 2010 Nielsen study concluding that two thirds of people aged 18 to 54 reported watching TV while they accessed the web and that 70 per cent of tablet owners used their tablets while watching TV.
The Pearl Group was originally set up by nine broadcast groups to coordinate the launch of mobile DTV services but the growing importance of social media and the increasingly widespread usage of tablets, smart phones and laptops to access video, convinced members to explore way that they might be able to capitalize on those trends.
Source: Advanced Television
With tablet and smartphone use seemingly on a vertical trajectory with no end, Technicolor has decided to roll out a 'second-screen' app that pay-TV operators can offer to enrich their linear and/or video on demand (VOD) offerings.
Analysts say that up to 70% of consumers use a laptop, tablet or mobile device to supplement their home viewing experience, whether engaging in social media or browsing for more information about the program they are viewing. Technicolor MediaEcho makes that easier, by automatically synchronising that secondary content with whatever the consumer is watching.
Information offered at consumer fingertips include cast, crew and production information, historical facts, and ancillary audio and video for tablets that allow viewers to deepen their engagement with the program without cluttering the main screen.
The app can also enable integration of social media, so users can post comments, share content and connect during their viewing experience. MediaEcho can also help with top-line revenue generation, because it can enable e-commerce within the app, allowing fans to purchase items related to the program right from their tablet.
The synching is accomplished via Technicolor’s own audio watermarking technology, which inserts an inaudible high-frequency sound that allows the app to synchronise even in the presence of ambient noise.
Synchronisation of content also works with Blu-ray disc, a feature made possible through BD-Live technology to enable a two-way communication between any Internet-connected Blu-ray Disc player and tablet device.
The intial MediaEcho launch is for Apple iOS and Android.
Technicolor is not the first mover in the market: Miso recently launched the same type of app, inking deals with DirecTV and AT&T.
By Michelle Clancy, Rapid TV News
New York-based startup Umami will jump into the "second screen" fray with the expected release in the next few weeks of an iPad app, free to consumers, that will serve up contextually relevant content for shows on 40 broadcast and cable networks.
Umami fingerprints the audio in TV content across the 40 networks using a large-scale digital video recorder system. When a user fires up the app, it "listens" for which channel is currently on by comparing it to the Umami fingerprint database, then pulls up news, cast pages, episode guides and social media feeds from various sources in a flipbook-like format. The system works on DVR recordings, too.
The business model for the year-old firm is to land deals with TV networks and producers, to deliver ads and show-related material to avid fans.
"We wanted to make publishing to our platform dirt simple," Umami CEO Scott Rosenberg said. He claimed Umami already has several media partners lined up, though he declined to identify them.
Umami (pronounced "ooh-MA-mee") is a Japanese word that refers to a fifth taste of "savoriness." The idea: the app is like a flavor-enhancer for TV.
The company faces a slew of competitors, ranging from Nielsen -- whose MediaSync product uses audio watermarks for second-screen apps with live TV -- to Shazam Entertainment, Yahoo's IntoNow, Invidi Technologies and Spot411 Technologies. There's even another New York-based startup called SecondScreen Networks.
Rosenberg sees his primary competitor as networks trying to build apps themselves, a proposition he notes is time-consuming and results in a show- or network-specific app that's a narrow slice of the entire TV viewing experience.
On the other hand, an app like MTV's WatchWith, which provides content synchronized with the networks' top primetime shows, could coexist with Umami. "We don't think those activities are mutually exclusive," he said.
The founders tout their experience in TV and new media. Rosenberg most recently served as vice president of advanced advertising at Rovi, and has worked at BlackArrow, Intel and ReplayTV. Umami chief technology officer Bryan Slavin has worked at broadband video ad firm Lightningcast (acquired by AOL), Leap Wireless and BroadSoft.
The startup formed in the summer of 2010 and this spring raised $1.65 million in seed funding from Battery Ventures, New Enterprise Associates and independent investors.
By Todd Spangler, Multichannel News
DirecTV has enabled its HD set-top boxes to communicate with Miso's social TV app for the iPhone, to let the satellite operator's subs more easily share what they're currently watching on TV.
The Miso "second-screen" iPhone app, when connected to the same Wi-Fi network as a DirecTV HD set-top, shows what's on TV and automatically updates whenever the channel changed. Ordinarily, Miso forces a user to manually search for the show they're watching to share it on Twitter or Facebook, as well as rate the show and access related info.
Miso's iPhone app for DirecTV is available free to download at Apple's iTunes App Store.
TvTak is the fastest way to tell your friends what you’re watching on Facebook, Twitter or Email. All you need is an iPhone and regular TV. The TvTak advanced recognition technology does the rest.
When you’re watching TV and see something interesting, just point your iPhone to the screen. TvTak instantly detects what show or commercial you’re watching. It only takes one second. No need for typing the name of the show, or for cumbersome check-ins among long lists of programs.
I have seen the future of TV and it is called Zeebox. The next project from Anthony Rose, the technologist who built KaZaA and BBC iPlayer in to some of the most disruptive digital media plays, is due to go live in October. Topped by Peoplesound founder and ex EMI SVP Ernesto Schmitt as CEO, the pair’s startup raised $5 million in seed funds from unidentified investors in June and has been operating in stealth as “tBone”. But it has been renamed and has just located at offices at London’s Covent Garden, where it has a staff of almost 30 (including former iPlayer engineers) and where the pair showed me an exclusive demo…
What is Zeebox?
Attempting to ride both the multi-screen TV engagement trend and the increasing adoption of internet TVs, Zeebox is a real-time system for social TV viewing and for engaging deeply around those shows that depends on recognising sofa-based second screens as the place for innovation.
The free Zeebox app for iPad (and, later, iPhone and Android) is a TV guide that displays what shows Facebook and Twitter friends are watching. Owners of compatible connected TVs can flip channel straight from the app, as though it were a remote control. Although the command takes place over the internet, the change happens as quick as or quicker than some standard infrared remotes.
Viewing Together
Notifications appear on-screen to indicate friends’ presence in channels. Users can chat in the iPad app and send invites to join one another for simultaneous viewing - accepting an invite results in the channel changing. “Jack, come and watch The Apprentice with me,” Schmitt tells me, by means of example.
As well as these personal connections, Zeebox users’ collective actions can shape the experience. The app displays real-time data for which shows are “trending” up or down. In a scenario Rose presents, a notification appears to say Top Gear is currently “hot” (perhaps Jeremy Clarkson has said something particularly egregious). The opportunity to surface breaking news in this serendipitous way is clear, along with the prospect of improving TV ratings measurement with actual real-time data.
Making TV Hyperlinked
But this “second-by-second” approach is the fabric of more than just Zeebox’s social interaction. Using both commercially licensable broadcast metadata and frame-by-frame analysis of live TV pictures and audio, Zeebox will apparently understand exactly what is on the TV screen at any given moment (“just as Google spiders the web”), in order to serve up all manner of related material on the handheld app.
As example, Schmitt shows how, whilst Tom Cruise is interviewed on Top Gear, the app will auto-display “infotags” for spoken topics (say, “Ferrari 458”, “Abu Dhabi”, “Sebastian Vettel” and “Tom Cruise” himself), as Cruise is speaking. Each topic becomes an in-app link to a corresponding piece of online content, on Wikipedia, IMDB, iTunes Store or whatever.
The method involved is Zeebox’s “secret sauce”, the subject of a pending patent application, but it’s called automated content recognition (ACR), a field with several vendors including Civolution.
“As context emerges on TV, these infotags just keep ticking up,” Schmitt says. “I find this so unbelievably exciting. Anything being discussed on TV is right there for you.” Or, as Rose puts it: “It’s like crack - you just keep wanting stuff, and getting it second-by-second. TV just becomes better.”
One of the intended uses of “infotags” is commerce. Schmitt wants viewers to be able to buy things relating to what they see on screen. As I flip channel to QVC, he assures me Zeebox will know what’s on-screen is a cubic zirconia ring - and offer me more information, as well as ways to buy that ring.
Programme Context
Rose wants in-app TV show pages to display live tweet streams as well as broadcaster-owned HTML “widgets” for custom show engagement. “BBC Red Button’s non-interactive, a bugger to author for and a bugger to use,” he says. “Imagine a next-generation Red Button toolset that allows people to author things for an IP age.”
From these show pages, Zeebox will also offer links to available on-demand episodes. They could be played on the tablet or smartphone, but Rose tells me users may eventually be able to use those handhelds to invoke playback on the TV. “I don’t have a full answer to these things yet, but we’ll experiment with the full infrastructure,” he says.
How it Works
At its most basic, an iPad user can “check-in” to shows manually (though Rose and Schmitt hate the GetGlue- and Foursquare-style gamification concept). To automate that process, the app can listen for shows’ audio fingerprints, Shazam-style. Connected TV owners get the full automatic experience because those TVs already know what shows are on.
“The browser in connected TVs lets you create HTML overlays and widgets,” Rose says. “We’ve created a lightweight, Javascript-based plugin that, on many 2011 and 2010 TVs, can be software-updated and user-installed.”
Zeebox is currently in demo on Samsung Smart TV and Rose, the former CTO of the YouView connected TV consortium, says: “YouView’s got a nice underlying architecture that will allow the Zeebox plugin to run on it, so we look forward to those discussions in the fullness of time.”
A Zeebox open API is also proposed to empower developers to build similar functionality in to their own apps. “There’s a shitload of technical work that needs to be done,” Rose says. “Getting there is non-trivial. We want to go to the moon.”
By By Robert Andrews, PaidContent
Thirty per cent of tablet use and 33 per cent of Internet use happens in front of the TV. And if not curated carefully, this could start to negatively impact TV’s influence. The next billion televisions will be Internet connected. That's going to turn TV viewing into a much more social experience – and provides the perfect platform for second screen integration.
In fact, a growing body of research is predicting that second screen apps – and especially social integration – could have a serious impact on the TV industry. Research by the mobile and digital technology researcher Mobile Interactive Group (MIG) has predicted that smartphone adoption will drive TV and mobile multi-tasking in UK and US. If handled right, this could result in a more engaged audience, significantly increasing programme interaction.
Rather than distracting viewers, one of the key ways that the second screen can draw viewer engagement is with personalisation and interactivity. In the future, apps could connect viewers to the social graph, aid content discovery, encourage interactivity, most important of all - serve real-time related content based on what the TV is showing.
But of course the key to success is being able to synch the app to the TV – without this the second screen experience can easily slip from enhancing the TV experience to pulling viewers away from the main screen.
The Problem with Syncing
To create a compelling real-time user experience, any second screen app needs to synch with the main TV – and finding out what’s playing on the TV is not easy. The most basic solution to this problem is to create a second screen app for one TV show in particular – e.g. encourage viewers to download the “Mad Men” app to use while watching a show. However, this doesn’t completely solve the problem, because showings differ depending on timezone, pay TV provider, and region. In the USA this problem is especially important to solve because many TV programmes premiere at different times on the East and West coast.
Approaches to Synching
1. Listening
Many companies are looking at the problem of syncing from different angles. ABC is using audio fingerprinting on the iPad to hear what the TV is playing. Similarly, Shazaam has just raised $32 million to “listen” to the TV, identify commercials, and provide related advertising content. And 12 week old startup IntoNow was recently acquired by Yahoo for 20 million used the technology to provide second screen interaction that travels with you as you move between programmes.
However audio fingerprinting or “listening” can require advanced technology and infrastructure and there are inherent problems with lag time between identifying the show (it clips ten seconds of audio, sends to servers, identifies, then sends back), background noise interference and the fact it works with native applications only, not generic web applications. And it needs a microphone or it won’t work.
2. TV Checkin
TV checkin, pioneered by the likes of GetGlue and Miso, requires minimal infrastructure to roll out. TV checkin encourages viewers to sign into a particular show, and chat about it as they watch. The major downside of this approach is that checking in makes an extra step – only the most highly engaged consumers participate.
3. Automated Systems
Anthony Rose has forecast the rise of automated systems that know the content we are watching now on the main TV, matching content on companion apps, with companies like Flingo coming out of stealth mode. The cleanest way to synch the second screen is to interface with the set top box software according to Rose. This requires intelligence in set top boxes, but connected and smart TVs are steadily gaining a foothold in the market. The advantage of this approach is that the consumer doesn’t have to do anything – their tablet or smartphone “just knows” what they’re watching. This perfectly complements the lean back attitude of TV, helping consumers embrace the second screen.
4. Curated Systems
Another method of triggering second screen interaction is offered up by companies such as The Application Store (TAS), Ex Machina, Screach, MIG’s mVoy and others who offer up white-label customer management systems. The systems give a framework that is tied to playout timelines in the studios and allow for creating interactivity and engagement such as quizzes, voting, predictions, social media, chat etc. on second screen devices via apps and web pages. And does not necessarily need audio fingerprinting to synchronise.
For instance, the TAS Screentoo application framework from is integrated into UK-based, global broadcast playout system provider Snell's broadcast automation system called Morpheus, used by over 700 broadcasters worldwide. The broadcasters can create, with real-time data essential to maintaining synchronicity between the primary broadcast and second screen devices.
Netherlands-based Ex Machina, Social TV veterans, work closely with a number of major production companies to create real time engagement around reality and game shows in particular, offering up their strong background in gaming and game mechanics to their clients in this emerging space with their PlayToTv platform.
As synchronising the second screen becomes easier, expect to see TV becoming more interactive, engaging and personalised. This is a trend that enables a lot of other changes that are happening in the TV industry- namely targeted advertising, social TV, and personalisation.
By Emma Wells, Appmarket.tv
With TV Check, its new social TV app, Orange is looking forward to “revolutionising the social TV experience”. Available free, the TVcheck community app automatically recognises programmes users are watching on the 19 French DTT channels based on visual recognition technology. It is now available to all iPhone users whatever internet supplier is and soon for other mobile operating systems.
TVcheck provides a multi-screen and game experience for discussing about TV content. The application allows users to share their thoughts on the show they are watching thanks to a number of social features such as status updates, comments and program recommendations. Users will be able to log in using their Facebook credentials, making it easy for them to add friends from their Facebook account.
Each user has his or her own profile, which gives him access to an activity log, messages and friends and enables to display the favourite programs using the "I like" function on each program’s page.
"We are all looking for shared digital experiences to stay connected with others. With TVcheck, there's no need to wait until the next day to talk about a good show seen the evening before. One can immediately do it when sitting in front of the TV in the living room", said Patrice Slupowski, VP Digital Innovation & Communities at Orange.
More information in this video.
By Pascale Paoli-Lebailly, RapidTV News
Targeted-ad solutions vendor Invidi Technologies has spent two years quietly developing a tagging system, dubbed SnapPing, that promises to let TV advertisers and networks deliver interactive experiences -- without having to go through a set-top box.
Invidi's SnapPing uses an on-screen "SnapTag" to indicate that there is interactive content associated with the TV show or ad. Then, using a phone or tablet device with the SnapPing app, a user identifies the tag using audio, text, voice or image recognition to link to the desired information.
For example, during an NFL game, the network might put up SnapTags to deliver additional player stats to viewers, while a Hollywood studio could embed a tag in an 30-second spot that kicks users to a longer-form version of a movie trailer.
"We're making television interactive without using the cable infrastructure," Invidi president and CEO Dave Downey said. "We wanted to create a companion app not for a show, or a network, but for all of TV -- the whole megillah."
The system hasn't launched yet, but will eventually be accessible through iPads, iPhones, Android devices and at SnapPing.com, according to the company. The second-screen approach addresses several things programmers and marketers hate about conventional interactive TV, Downey said. A smartphone or tablet doesn't obscure the TV screen real estate and provides an environment for richer interactive experiences.
"How can you have a Motorola DCT-2000 set-top compete with what you can do on an iPad? You can't," Downey said.
Unlike other approaches, such as Shazam for TV, SnapPing lets viewers identify content using a "SnapTag" not only via audio recognition but also speech, text entry and image recognition. Downey said that distinction is crucial: "Our research proves that audio detection is not enough. It is a nonstarter for adults over 35, and it is limited to situations where audio detection can work."
According to a $250,000 focus group study Invidi commissioned, consumers strongly preferred speaking or texting the SnapTag into a device, with Shazam-style audio recognition a distant third. Invidi is refining the format for the SnapTag, but Downey said it will work with both live or recorded shows.
The Invidi system also will include a "Snap an App" feature, which will let a user install an app after accessing a SnapTag, as well as autotags, which will let a user push one button to get all the interactive content associated with a show.
Still, Invidi's SnapPing will have to contend with Shazam's TV play. The Shazam apps, which originally were designed to ID songs, can now identify the audio in a TV show or ad (which has been ingested and processed ahead of time). Shazam for TV, since launching in February, has reached more than 100 million people and served 5.5 billion impressions, according to executive vice president of advertising sales Evan Krauss. "We have a huge user base," he said.
Advertisers that have aired "Shazamable" ad campaigns include Honda, Starbucks, Paramount Pictures' Transformers 3, Procter & Gamble and Progressive Insurance. Last month, Shazam raised a $32 million round of funding to be used to support Shazam for TV.
Invidi, for its part, has received $111.5 million in funding, from investors including DirecTV, Google, WPP's GroupM, Motorola Ventures, Experian, NBC, Verizon and venture capital firms Menlo Ventures, InterWest Partners, EnerTech Capital, Westbury Equity Partners and BDC Capital.
New York-based Invidi has about 80 employees. Its addressable-advertising system is under contract for 40 million homes with DirecTV, Dish Network and Verizon FiOS.
Invidi is suing addressable-ad rival Visible World and Cablevision Systems, alleging they infringe a patent Invidi owns for delivering addressable ads.
By Todd Spangler, Multichannel News
The companion screen, especially in the form of the tablet, is going to create a major disruption to the television market by providing a compelling space where consumers can interact around content in an environment that is no longer controlled by the broadcaster.
That is the view of Anthony Rose, the Co-Founder and CTO of tBone TV, who is the former Chief Technology Officer at BBC iPlayer and YouView. But Rose believes there is also a great opportunity for broadcasters to harness these devices for social TV and counter the rise of on-demand viewing by enabling people to engage around live content.
As an example of how the companion screen can change the TV landscape, Rose forecasts the rise of automated systems that know the content we are watching now on the main TV so content on the companion can be synchronized.
“If the system knows the advert that is playing on TV, the advertiser can buy companion adverts for the companion viewing device. There could be a Nike advert on TV but on the companion you get a clickable Nike advert that will provide click-through statistics, analytics and targeting. It will be interesting to see whether broadcasters themselves get into the business of selling interactive adverts on the second screens or whether the advertising bureau will do that, or whether someone else becomes the new Google in this space and sells the new kind of advertising screen.”
Broadcasters could also lose control over how their content is treated on the companion devices. While they have been working to ensure the integrity of their programming on connected TVs, fighting against app-based overlays that they do not control, Rose does not believe they can maintain control of what apps providers do on the companion screen.
“If I am an app maker and the broadcaster does not let me do something on TV, that is not a problem because it is an open world out there,” he declares, referring to the second screen.
“We are going to see the dynamics change massively in this space and it will be very disruptive,” he continues. “The question is how quickly this new space emerges and I think it is going to be incredibly rapid because unlike with set-top boxes, where you have long lead-times for development, you can write something today for a companion device and have it live tomorrow, limited only by your imagination and audience take-up.”
tBone TV is still in stealth mode but from what Rose has revealed, the company is looking to provide software that can run in televisions and connect the TV experience across different screens and TV platforms.
“We want to create a new platform around what people are watching right now and create a huge and vibrant range of experiences around that,” he says. “Broadly speaking there is a new platform service and everything talks to the platform and that lets you create experiences that work in the home and out of home.”
It looks like social TV is one of the key applications that will make use of this platform. This could make viewers aware of what their friends are watching and help them communicate with them, regardless of which TV service or device they are using. Rose believes that in a world of infinite content it will be our friends who push us towards content, leading eventually to the demise of the Electronic Programme Guide, which he thinks is a terrible way of finding content, albeit the method we are familiar with. A simple example of social discovery would be a message to say that your friend is watching programme X, so you can join them on the same channel, while meanwhile their avatar appears and a chat window opens.
This is another potential source of disruption for broadcasters, especially those with good EPG placement, but Rose thinks they need to embrace the opportunities on the second screen and use them to find new and perhaps even bigger audiences.
“Broadcasters are both content providers and aggregators and today the aggregation play is the channel, though it could also be a portal,” he notes. “Though some are embracing it and some resisting it, broadcasters greatly fear VOD because it breaks the way they package content. But there is a new future where they can take their audience share - and the beauty of live is that lots of people are watching at the same time - and turn that into a seamless, automated two-way interactive experience.
“Broadcasters are uniquely placed to embrace the second screen experience because the audience is there. They still own the HD drama and the great visuals but they need to give away some metadata and build audience in a new way. Smart broadcasters, who embrace this, will find massive new audiences, probably skewed to the young initially.
“Instead of sitting in front of the TV like couch potatoes, we will have a range of activities around live TV that the broadcasters participate in. And this is not about using keyboards. People like to ‘veg’ [vegetate] in front of the TV but this is veg 2.0. It is a new way of discovering and watching content but it is no more difficult than the current way. Instead of flipping through the EPG you could easily flip through friends. It will be even easier to find something fun to watch.”
By John Moulding, Videonet
Seemingly everyone watches TV with some sort of second screen in front of them — be it a laptop, mobile phone or tablet device. But the tools for engaging with those viewers have largely been lacking, due to the absence of a feedback loop between the TV and second screen. San Francisco–based startup Flingo hopes to change that, with a bit of technology embedded into TVs that will let web and mobile applications know what’s being watched on the big screen.
Last year Flingo founder Ashwin Navin demonstrated for us how the technology can bring online video to the TV through white-label TV apps and an open API that any publisher can download and use itself. With that technology consumers can “fling” supported content to a queue of web videos on their TVs.
But the Flingo technology has a lot more to offer than just sending online video to the TV: It will also enable broadcasters and advertisers to build mobile and web applications that are aware of what television content you are watching. By doing so, broadcasters can provide additional relevant content to on-air shows in those applications, increasing engagement with users on the second screen.
Meanwhile, advertisers will be able to create interactive advertising using the technology. Consumers won’t have to go to a related website to find out more about a product being advertised on-screen: Clickable display ads can be surfaced in whatever browser or app they’re using while watching TV. This enables advertisers to extend offers to the second screen, and it adds a direct response mechanism to TV advertising, which has typically been just about branding and reach.
In addition to web and mobile apps, Flingo technology can be used to bring contextually relevant content directly to the TV through what it calls Hovercraft apps that take up a small portion of the screen. That will enable broadcasters to embed floating Twitter clients through the TV interface, for instance, or create interactive flash polls that can be answered on a mobile device or web browser.
Flingo isn’t the only company looking to offer this type of interactivity among TV and web and mobile apps. Yahoo offers something similar, which it calls Broadcast Interactivity, through its Yahoo Connected TV platform. Audio fingerprinting app maker Shazam is betting big that consumers will use its mobile application to identify what they’re watching and that in the process they will unlock additional content from publishers or deals from advertisers. IntoNow, which had similar technology, pitched it as a way for users to “check in” to shows with the intent of later unlocking similar content and interactive adds. IntoNow was bought by Yahoo just a few months after launch.
The beauty of what Flingo is doing is that it’s already embedded in TV chipsets, so there’s no audio fingerprinting or other workaround necessary to determine what viewers are watching. Flingo has licensed its technology to consumer electronics manufacturers like LG, Samsung, Vizio, Insignia, Sanyo and Western Digital. As a result, it’s already available on more than 5.7 million TVs, Blu-ray players and IP set-top boxes, with more being sold every day.
Most consumers will never know what Flingo is, as it will operate largely behind the scenes. But its technology could enable a whole new level of interactivity and engagement that was previously unavailable to broadcasters and advertisers.
By Ryan Lawler, GigaOM
A new mobile app platform called WiO is set to revolutionize the TV watching experience by allowing customers to immediately get information about the products and services they see advertised on screen, both in TV commercials and within the shows themselves.
Through a mobile app running on customers’ phones, marketers can offer a variety of follow-up actions to the TV viewer, including coupons, reminders, contact info and more. In total, there are 10 follow-up actions offered. And the consumer is in complete control of which ones, if any, they respond to.
The company behind WiO, WiOffer, is the creation of Andrew Pakula and Matthew Greene, both of whom have experience working in and with major media, tech and digital marketing firms, including DoubleClick, Yahoo and Ogilvy. This experience, Pakula explains, has allowed them to learn a lot about what customers respond to and how.
How the WiO-Enabled TV Commercials Work
Before a customer can use the WiO app, the commercial or TV show has to first be WiO-enabled. To do this, the advertiser sends WiOffer their asset – that is, their commercial or the portion of the show where the product placement is visible and/or mentioned by the characters within the program. Using the clip as a digital ID, the mobile WiO app running on customers’ phones can then “hear” when the commercial plays and pop up a screen offering more information.
There are 10 different options a customer can choose from, some of which are subject to what the advertiser is providing. These include access to coupons, PDF brochures, app downloads, website addresses, retail locators, contact information, calendar events, reminders and even one option which will auto-dial the advertiser directly, in the case of TV commercials where a phone number is displayed. The unique thing about connecting TV to the mobile platform in this way is how many of these tasks are automated. For example, choosing the reminders, calendar event or contact info options will instantly save that information to a customer’s phone, with no manual effort required on the customer’s part.
In addition, when coupons are provided, the customer can save these “WiOffers” on their phone, where they will be accessible until the expiration date. To use a coupon, the customer just has to show their phone to the retailer.
Meanwhile, on the advertisers’ side, metrics surrounding customer response can be tracked in real-time, allowing them to adjust their advertising and offers on the fly to boost engagement, as need be.
Competition in the New TV Landscape
WiO is not the only company with this same idea. The music identification app Shazam recently raised funds to push into television. Some TV shows and ads now tell viewers to “Shazam” them in order to receive bonus content and discounts. Another company, IntoNow, uses audio recognition to encourage users to “check in” to what they’re watching on TV. GetGlue offers something similar. Even Microsoft is getting into the action with its NUads advertising platform, which uses the voice and gesture control in its Kinect for Xbox 360 to create interactive TV ads.
But unlike with Xbox, WiO is device agnostic, Greene says. He insists that WiO is different than the so-called “social apps,” too. Even though WiO allows for sharing to Facebook, Twitter, SMS and email, its goal is not to socialize the TV-watching experience. “Check-ins are a bit of distraction,” says Greene, “if not an enormous distraction.” And, referring to Shazam, he claims the idea of connecting a music app to actual transactions is a bit complicated. The Shazam ads point you to a mobile landing page, he notes. WiO aims to connect the brand directly to the customer so they can start talking immediately.
The WiO app will launch in a few weeks, first on iPhone. It will arrive on Android 60 days later. The company says it can’t comment on its advertising partners at this time, but from what we saw, there are some well-known brands in talks with the company now.
By Door Sarah Perez, 365Online
Suddenly, it seems, anyone moving into the advanced advertising and apps spaces who doesn’t have an Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) strategy in play risks being left behind in the race to facilitate efficient use of connected devices to drive new revenues.
ACR applies to a range of techniques which can employ audio and/or video fingerprinting, digital watermarking or, in at least one case, “video signaturing” to trigger a real-time implementation of an ad or app in conjunction with what any given user is viewing or listening to.
“The beauty of this technology is we can use existing devices without huge infrastructure issues,” says Alex Terpstra, CEO of Civolution, which is one of many companies bringing ACR capabilities to market.
Civolution previewed its forthcoming ACR solution, which can be used with either the firm’s fingerprinting or watermarking technologies, at the recent NAB Show in Las Vegas. “We port our software to the devices like tablets and smartphones where we can help applications developers synchronize the applications automatically to the main [TV] screen,” Terpstra says.
“If you would have a TV show, even a live show, that has an appealing app on a tablet device, a lot of things could happen in that app that are related to the actual program on TV if you were able to accurately synchronize the two,” he says. “That’s what we do with our watermarking and fingerprinting technologies.”
Civolution has its eye on the connected TV space as well, Terpstra notes. “We have our technology run on the chipsets within these Web-connected devices to provide the ability to recognize content within the TV sets,” he says.
“Especially with using watermarks, we can determine the precise location of an advertisement that is being played out, and we can recognize which advertisement it is,” he explains. “If you know the exact location and which advertisement it is, you can also replace it with another advertisement that’s a local ad or targeted ad if the user’s profile is also known to the server. We’re working with advertising companies to close the whole loop.”
ACR has been in play for awhile in a wide range of applications, such as the Nielsen Audio Video Encoding (NAVE) system, the audio watermarking element of which for the past decade or so has been used as a way to identify and track program content for TV ratings purposes. The Nielsen meter equipped with NAVE capabilities registers what the viewer is watching automatically by virtue of identifying the source of the audio watermark in the program.
Another long-standing ACR user is Shazam, the provider of fingerprinting-based music discovery apps for mobile devices, which last year extended its business with introduction of the Shazam Audio Recognition Advertising (SARA) program. First used by clothing brand Dockers in the “Wear the Pants” campaign during the 2010 Super Bowl, SARA employs Shazam’s music recognition system to let brand advertisers tag a commercial for direct interaction with the Shazam user base, now numbering over 100 million people worldwide.
The tag induces viewers to engage with the promotion by pointing their mobile device in the direction of the commercial and hitting the Shazam button on the device. Shazam’s audio technology recognizes the specific advertisement and returns a customized result to the mobile device.
In a sign of how hot ACR has become, Yahoo! last month acquired a three-month-old startup in the field, IntoNow, for a reported $20-$30 million, winning a battle to buy the firm that included Twitter and Facebook, according to the online outlet TechCrunch. IntoNow, led by former Google and Viacom executive Adam Cahan, uses audio fingerprinting to allow users to identify and share television programs with their friends via iPhones.
Yahoo! believes the technology will help socialize the video programming offered through its platform. “Relying on social channels as a means for discovering content – whether it’s on a PC, mobile device, or TV – is rapidly on the rise,” says Bill Shaughnessy, Yahoo!’s senior vice president of product management. With a growing data base currently comprising 150 million minutes of content, IntoNow can fingerprint TV shows in real time with 99 percent accuracy, without requiring the participation of the networks.
But there’s a big advertising play as well, as revealed by IntoNow’s recent deal with Pepsi, which allows users to respond to commercials in a new campaign for Pepsi Max. The first 50,000 viewers who use IntoNow to tag a Major League Baseball-themed Pepsi MAX commercial will receive coupons for a free 20-ounce soda at retailers like Target and CVS. The company says automotive and movie advertisers are likely to be the next entities to sign on to the platform.
While the applications are similar, there’s actually a big difference between how watermarking and fingerprinting technologies get the job done. In the case of audio or video watermarking, the identification of the content is based on a digital code embedded invisibly in the audio or video stream that can be readily matched against a data base containing all such codes. Fingerprinting, on the other hand, relies on matching of marked slices of content with the same slices in a data base, which entails a search across the data base, typically in a two-step approach that first finds a set of likely matches and then drills down to get to a precise match.
Both technologies have their drawbacks and advantages. Watermarking is subject to precise placement of the identifying code where it won’t interfere with the content and with sufficient robustness to survive through all the processing steps between the content source and the end user. Fingerprinting avoids the robustness and precision placement issues but requires a processing-intensive search support infrastructure.
In general, for ACR purposes, audio fingerprinting or watermarking is preferred over video, insofar as the signals are easier to identify with companion devices using their microphones rather than their Web cams, and, in the case of fingerprinting search matches, there’s less information to process with an audio file . But audio can’t deliver a fingerprint when the track is silent, and there can be synchronization issues with use of language dubbing in foreign films. Thus, some suppliers are using video fingerprinting as a backup.
Ultimately, the business model may be the determining factor in choosing between watermarking and fingerprinting-based systems for advertising. Watermarking precisely identifies not only the content but the network it appears on, but it also requires participation of the content provider as well as the advertiser or app supplier. Fingerprinting doesn’t convey where the ad appears but can operate independently of any involvement by content providers.
Still another startup, TV Interactive Systems, has come up with another approach to ACR which it calls video signaturing. While it works somewhat like fingerprinting, VS doesn’t look for a unique file segment as required with fingerprinting. Instead, VS identifies “clues” or characteristics of a given piece of content which individually don’t make for an accurate match, but which taken together in batches of about ten per second ensure an accurate match with the data base without requiring the more costly processing used for identification in fingerprinting. Beyond the mobile device realm one of the key opportunities for ACR on the advertising front is the connected TV. TV Interactive Systems is focused exclusively on this end of the device market.
Among more recent developments in ACR is the new fingerprinting system offered by Vobile, which for several years has been supplying VideoDNA technology along with a data base of authorized video fingerprints, metadata and business rules from movie studios and programming networks to enable fully automated identification, tracking and management of content. Vobile’s integrated ACR solution will drive novel smart TV applications, such as broadcast monitoring and advanced advertising models, says CEO Yangbin Wang.
“Internet-enabled smart television brings TV entertainment to a new level,” Wang says. “With our latest ACR solution, content owners can track content distribution anywhere, anytime to any device. This opens up a world of new revenue opportunities for television programmers.”
Startup Zeitera, along with pursuing ACR TV apps for companion devices, is offering its fingerprinting cloud-based service to TV set manufacturers, providing them a means of working directly with advertisers to enable placement of targeted ads in linear programming without requiring any participation by the content suppliers.
In its latest move, Zeitera has introduced a software development kit and API development toolkit for programmers, CE manufacturers and app developers who want to implement the firm’s Vivid audio and video fingerprinting ACR solution in conjunction companion apps on tablets and smartphones. Zeitera offers its solution as a cloud-based service which is designed to eliminate a lot of the heavy lifting associated with individual users’ implementation of ACR.
“The Vvid Mobile API and SDK Development Platform for iOS and Android fills the needs of those broadcasters and content owners that would like to have smartphone and tablet applications that are able to synchronize with their TV programs, commercials and movies,” says Zeitera CEO Dan Eakins. “Zeitera is pioneering the market for white label ACR services and has several partners signed on developing applications with these APIs.”
Source: Screen Plays
