The BBC released the latest version of its iPlayer, with more social capabilities and integration with more connected TVs and other devices. The new design is aimed at making the player more personalized and driving engagement by allowing users to more easily interact with friends. Read more »
Bazaar Labs, maker of the Miso TV check-in app, has rolled out new features that will allow users to interact with friends and engage more with the programming they watch. The app maker has also announced a partnership with WE TV to drive interest in Bridezillas. Read more »
Google unveiled Google TV at its I/O conference on May 20, promising to revolutionize the TV ecosystem by giving people “the power to experience what they love on TV and on the web on a single screen,” while turning the living room “into a new platform for innovation.”
It’s a promise made by others (including no-less formidable innovators such as Microsoft and Apple) but never delivered on. Much has changed since Microsoft failed with Web TV, however, and even since Apple introduced (and has since largely ignored) its Apple TV. The amount of premium video content available on the Internet has grown exponentially, while faster broadband connections have made delivering high-quality video over IP networks feasible. In this research note, we look at why the time is ripe for Google’s offering to succeed, what it si, and its potential impacts on the TV ecosystem, including users, hardware providers, app stores, content providers, distributors, and competitors (including Apple, Microsoft, and independent IP video platforms). Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The MIT Technology Review has discovered social TV in its new May/June issue, noting how Twitter and Facebook have been driving audience numbers for live events like the Olympics. That’s not really news to readers of this blog, but I’m glad to see that the Technology […] Read more »
A single, well-placed TV spot can rapidly direct millions of visitors to a site, creating traffic spikes most advertisers and broadcasters would struggle to cope with — and a potential headache for those tasked with keeping those sites online and responsive. But that’s a near-perfect use case for the ‘elastic’ nature of cloud computing. Read more »
We wrote in October: “Watch television and talk about it with your friends: Social TV is a simple concept. But trying early implementations of such projects makes it clear that this is more complicated than we might have thought.” Ridealong-style social TV products are just emerging […] Read more »
Well, this one slipped past our radar last week (we were busy re-programming our TiVos for the fall TV season), but Hulu made good on its promise from earlier this year to get more into the social viewing game. The premium content site released its Hulu: […] Read more »
