SetJam, Yidio and Clicker Emerge to Tackle Problem of Online Programming Discovery

Three different companies--SetJam, Yidio and Clicker--contacted [itvt] last week to let us know about solutions they have developed to make it easier for consumers to discover the programs they want to watch from the increasing amount of programming now available online. All three solutions are designed to facilitate online access to full-length, professionally produced and legally available programming.

SetJam is offering what it bills as "an easy-to-use, specialized search engine that for the first time makes what is collectively the largest library of full-length TV shows and movies in the world as easy to watch as traditional TV." Its CEO, Ryan Janssen (who was formerly COO of online financial tool builder, Angelsoft.net), concedes that the company is entering a "crowded market," but claims that it can compete "by doing less, better. A lot of our competitors are trying to position themselves as giant media portals," he continued in a prepared statement, "where they hope to have anything and everything video available in one place. That's not what our customers tell us they want. In today's seamless Web, people want a simple tool to take them quickly and efficiently to the premium content they actually care about. That's exactly the tool we've built at SetJam."

According to the company, its Web site's homepage presents users with a simple search box. After entering the name of the show they are looking for, the company says, they are taken to a page that "lists every episode from first to last with links to view each episode laid out in a grid based on the business model of the destination site (free, pay-per-view, or as part of an existing subscription, like Netflix)." The service does not frame the content on its own site, instead directing users to the content provider's site where the show they have selected starts to play immediately. "Besides a simple save button next to the search results that enables users to quickly build a queue of their favorite shows, there is no indication that SetJam wants users to stay on their site at all," the company boasts in its promotional materials. According to CEO, Janssen, this is because "our competition is relying on advertising to support their sites, so they have to find a way to capture you," whereas SetJam has "built our business around the affiliate model. Like Google," he added, "we get paid to take you where you want to go faster." In order to ensure that users can get the content they are looking for more quickly, the company says it has also intentionally filtered out all short-form user-generated content from its index, focusing purely on full-length TV shows and movies.

SetJam says that it will launch its service this Wednesday. However, prior to that, it is providing access to its private beta to the first 500 [itvt] readers who sign up at http://www.setjam.com/invites/itvt

Yidio, meanwhile, offers a site that features episode guides and social networking features, as well as a discovery engine. According to the company--which bills the site as "the Web's best, yet still under-the-radar, destination for discovering, sharing and viewing television shows and movies" and which claims to be profitable (note: the site is designed to make money from affiliate fees generated by its users' purchases of third-party content and programming subscriptions)--the site received four million unique visitors and 31 million page views last month. At the NewTeeVee Live conference last week, the company announced that it has secured a private equity investment--believed to be in the range of a half million dollars--from a group led by Alan Warms and including James Crouthamel, founder of Performics. "[Yidio co-founders, brothers] Brandon and Adam Eatros are two remarkable entrepreneurs," Warms, who has joined the company's board, said in a prepared statement. "We are thrilled to be investors in this fast-growing, profitable company. The hardest thing to do in online media is attract an audience, and Yidio has clearly provided a meaningful, satisfying experience for its consumers, as measured not only by reach, but in user loyalty. 40% of Yidio's audience returns to the site nine times a month."

Finally, Clicker Media--the company that recently announced that Sling Media co-founder, Blake Krikorian, had invested in it and joined its board (see the article published on itvt.com, November 9th)--last week announced the public launch of Clicker.com, which it bills as "the first complete programming guide to Internet television" and as "the first truly comprehensive, structured and unbiased resource for navigating all broadcast- and broadcast-quality programming online." According to the company, the public launch of the service, which has been in private beta since mid-September, sees it offering various new features, including:

• A 33% increase in content coverage, bringing its index to over 400,000 full episodes from over 1,200 sources in more than 1,200 categories; and the addition of over 30,000 Netflix and Amazon VOD movies (note: the company also claims to catalog over 50,000 music videos from over 20,000 artists).
• Enhancements to its Clicker Playlist "DVR" feature, including the ability to set full "season passes" for high-priority content and receive alerts when new episodes of a favorite show become available.
• Facebook Connect integration, allowing users to create a Clicker account with their Facebook ID and tie their Clicker account to their Facebook profile.
• The ability for users to contribute their own thoughts, observations and facts about any show or episode via wiki functionality.
• "Search Within," i.e. the ability to restrict a search to topics within a specific program. Thus, for example, the company says, if a user searched on "Warren Buffett" within the show, "Charlie Rose," episodes featuring Buffett would be brought up.
• "Related Search," i.e. machine learning-based suggestions for related programs. Thus, for example, the company says, "30 Rock," "The Office" and "The Larry Sanders Show" might be offered as related suggestions for "Seinfeld."

Other key features of Clicker.com include a browsable taxonomy of all its indexed programs by title, category, popularity, airdate and network, that is organized in what the company describes as a "simple tree structure"; and its editorial entertainment guidance, which features among other things charts of the most popular shows and episodes by category, and write-ups by Clicker Staff highlighting various programs. "The last era of television was simple to navigate in retrospect," Clicker Media founder and CEO, Jim Lanzone, said in a prepared statement (note: Lanzone was previously CEO of Ask.com). "Shows came on at specific times, and we had a schedule laid out in a neat grid. But even the growth from three TV networks to 150+ cable channels was nowhere near as dramatic as today's changes toward a world of nearly infinite video-on-demand, scattered amongst thousands of online destinations. Helping viewers navigate this new landscape, to discover what's on online and where to find it, is the singular need Clicker was built to fulfill." According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, Clicker is currently developing a version of its service for the Boxee platform.