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Fox to Crowdsource Its Fringe App

Ryan Lawler — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 17:00:50 +0000

Fox has teamed up with the Appnation conference to crowdsource its next mobile application for the hit TV show Fringe, allowing anyone to submit an app and compete for a $10,000 prize.

Together, Fox and Appnation are launching the first-ever “Pimp My App!” contest to call on the developer community to create the most compelling iPhone, iPad or Android app they can for the show. Once registered, developers get a set of technical guidelines and multimedia assets to work with. The developer of the winning entry will also get a chance to meet with Fox’s digital team to work on having his or her app put into production.

The contest is a relatively cheap and easy way for Fox to go to market with a compelling mobile app, without having to spend a lot of time developing it in-house. Bill Bradford, Fox’s SVP of Digital Media, said in a phone interview that the contest will also give Fox’s digital team exposure to new ideas that, even if they’re not chosen for the final Fringe app, could be applied to other mobile apps the team might develop in the future.

“We acknowledged that there’s an incredible amount of innovation in the development community, so we decided to crowdsource this app and see if there are new ways to innovate [on mobile platforms],” Bradford said.

Fox also decided to open this type of contest with Fringe, Bradford said, in part because the show would appeal to the development community, and in part because the show lends itself to innovative ideas. “There are some shows that wouldn’t invite as much creativity, but the storyline of Fringe and some of the mythology in it… opens up a lot of creativity,” he said.

The crowdsourcing of Fox’s Fringe app is just one way that the broadcaster has worked to increase engagement for its shows through social media and other means. Last year Fox launched a contest to determine the biggest fan of hit show Glee, and also integrated Twitter streams into repeats of some of its more popular shows. More recently, Fox has rolled out “Superfan” video players for some of its properties, hoping to capitalize on new social elements to increase engagement with the shows.

The Fringe app contest starts today, with submissions due no later than Friday, September 3. Apps will be judged on their ease of use, general look and feel, innovative features and ability to deepen consumer engagement with the Fringe brand. The winner of the contest will be announced at the inaugural Appnation conference, which will be held September 13-4 in San Francisco. In addition to the $10,000 first prize, a second place winner will also be chosen and awarded a $1,000 prize.

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Fox to Launch “Tweet-Peat” TV

Chris Albrecht — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:12:51 +0000

FOX will be adding a social media spin to repeats of Glee and Fringe, integrating Twitter alongside the shows. These so-called tweet-peats will feature Twitter messages from show cast members and from viewers watching at home.

During the episodes, audiences can follow the tweets from Twitter.com/FRINGEonFOX and Twitter.com/GLEEonFOX either online or via a scroll of messages that will appear on the TV screen. Fringe stars Joshua Jackson and John Noble and Glee‘ers Kevin McHale and Lea Michele will Tweet with episode commentary, behind-the-scenes details, and answer select fan questions posted to Twitter.

Plans for Twitter to take over our TV screens have been happening all summer long. MTV’s What You’re Watching with Alexa Chung, E!, CNN, and the forthcoming Aisha Tyler Show all incorporate Twitter messaging. Not to mention Verizon FiOS launching its TV-based Twitter app.

Thankfully, IBM is working on that special remote control that lets users tweet from their seats.

The Fringe tweet-peat airs Thursday at 9 p.m., and the Glee-peat airs Friday at 9 p.m..

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Leaked Pilots Help Predict Fall Season Cancellations

Janko Roettgers — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:29:21 +0000

If only Fox had listened to us. Back in June, we looked at the popularity of leaked TV show pilots to get a sense of what we have to expect this fall season. One of the shows we wrote about was Do Not Disturb, a sitcom about a hotel in New York that was directed by Jason Bateman. File sharers responded to the leaked pilot with the verdict “early cancellation.” And guess what? Do Not Disturb was canceled after only three episodes as the first show of the fall season.

Do Not Disturb wasn’t the only show that saw its pilot leak early. It’s safe to assume that at least some of these leaks were intentional, and they’ve shown to be pretty good indicators of the popularity of a show once it reaches the airwaves. Of course, online hits don’t always get great ratings on TV and vice versa. Episodes of Arrested Development are still doing pretty well on torrent sites, and it probably wasn’t just the DVD sales that compelled Fox to give Family Guy another chance. So how are this falls hits and misses doing on file sharing networks?

Fringe, JJ Abram’s new Sci-Fi drama, did really well with file sharers when its pilot leaked back in June, and P2P users continue to flock to show. It made TorrentFreak’s Top 10 as the only new show for three weeks in a row, and the TV torrent community EZTV gave it a collective rating of 8.18 points. It also did pretty well on TV, becoming the top-rated new show in the for 18 to 49 year olds. Fox responded by ordering a whole season from Abrams.

Life On Mars premieres this week on ABC. The pilot pretty much tanked this summer on P2P networks, and it hasn’t seen much more excitement in light of the upcoming premiere, despite ABC’s promotion efforts. EZTV’s users give it a meager 5.4 rating. There are just about 100 people sharing it on the Pirate Bay, and one Mininova user commented: “Oh my God, how bad is this! They should rename it ‘Dead on Arrival’ rather than ‘Life on Mars’.”

Raising the Bar is one of those exceptions that may just prove the rule: The show got mixed reactions from file swappers when its pilot leaked this summer, and it hasn’t really been a big hit on torrent sites ever since. However, the legal drama has been a ratings boon for cable network TNT, averaging about 5.5 million viewers per week. Maybe legal drama fans just don’t do illegal file sharing?

True Blood tanked with file sharers back in June, and it hasn’t done very well when it premiered on HBO last month either, attracting just 1.44 million viewers. It picked up a little on TV, netting HBO 2 million viewers for its second episode, prompting the cable network to renew the title. File sharers seem to give the show a second chance as well: EZTV’s ratings are now at a solid 7.8.

Life is one of those shows that got P2P users excited, but doesn’t seem to hit a nerve with the TV audience. TV by the Numbers lists it as one of the three shows most likely to be canceled, but the EZTV community rates it a solid 7.54, and new episodes consistently make it into the Pirate Bay’s TV Show Top 100. Maybe this will be the next network TV flop to become a DVD sales hit?

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