Interactive TV News Round-Up (VI): Shazam, ESPN, Telemundo, Time Warner Cable

Due to the large volume of news generated by the recent 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), we are covering stories in this issue in round-up/summary format. We anticipate that it will take us several more days to process all the news from the show: so if your company has sent us a press release or briefed us on an announcement, and you don't yet see your news covered in this issue, please bear with us.

• Audio-based automatic content recognition (ACR) specialist, Shazam (note: the London-based company is best known for offering a mobile application that consumers can use to identify music, as well as unlock supplemental content associated with TV shows--a process it calls "tagging"), announced Thursday that its platform is bringing interactivity to ESPN's coverage of the 2012 Winter X Games Aspen (January 26th-29th). "Starting today, when fans use Shazam to tag the live telecast anytime during the program, they will instantly access video highlights, photos, results, music and connect to related social media, enhancing the overall experience for sports fans watching the X Games," the company states in its press materials. "A portion of Winter X Games 2012 promos will also be Shazam-enabled...Viewers who have Shazam installed on their smartphones or tablets will be able to use the app to access exciting content like: 1) music from the event; 2) photo galleries of the action; 3) highlights from the previous day's events; 4) easily connect to related social media about the event; 5) top stories; and 6) the daily schedule. In addition to the features above, fans can download ESPN's X Games App. Because the tag lives on in people's tag lists, they can interact with them anytime, wherever they are, whatever they're doing." Said Shazam's EVP of marketing, David Jones: "This marks another exciting first for Shazam. The Winter X Games is the first live sports program to be Shazam-enabled, making it easy for fans to experience more of their favorite events. Now, action sports fans have the next best thing to a ticket to Aspen--they can see more of the action, get more of the music and learn more about the day's events--all on their mobile device."
• NBC-owned Spanish-language broadcaster, Telemundo Media, said Wednesday that its Social@Telemundo arm has developed an extensive social-media strategy for its new, original telenovela, "Relaciones Peligrosas." " The innovative digital strategy provides viewers and novela fans with a fully interactive social-TV storytelling experience on a nightly basis, generating interest and tune-in among existing fans and 'friends' of fans," the company states in its press materials. "To promote the launch of the anticipated novela, Telemundo hosted a 30-minute live Facebook video chat from the set of 'Relaciones Peligrosas' on January 20, featuring talent from the novela, including Sandra Echeverria, Ana Layevska and Carlos Ferro, among others. The premiere episode of the novela will air first on Club de Noveleras, the network's official telenovela fan club. To encourage 'must-tweet TV,' the official hashtag of the novela will appear on-air throughout the novela. In a first for Telemundo, the novela premiered via VOD prior to the television launch. Additional highlights of the social media strategy include 16 'character' Twitter handles managed by the social media team that will send nightly tweets live during both East and West Coast television broadcasts, the content of these tweets relate directly to on-air events, as they were prepared by the writers team of the novela. The social conversation will continue throughout the course of the novela by using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as the main social vehicles. To engage fans during the first episode, a social premiere party will be hosted with the entire cast of the novela, incorporating YouTube videos of talent answering fan questions, tweets with 'best quotes' from episodes for fans to re-tweet, and much more. Promotional support of the new social media strategy is being provided by Telemundo programs, 'Levantate,' 'Al Rojo Vivo,' the social media profiles and accounts of the talent, as well as the network's own social media vehicles. In addition, promotion through exclusive content is being seeded on MSN and YouTube...Social@Telemundo focuses on delivering its fans across Facebook and Twitter interactive experiences tied to TV programming. With dedicated social media resources tied to each of Telemundo's shows and novelas, Social@Telemundo aims to take the entire TV viewing process to a more engaging level. Building of the success of its interactive broadband series 'Telemundo Live' and mobile social initiatives, Telemundo is expanding its focus on sharing more access to its studios, shows and talent in Spanish and English."
• During Time Warner Cable's earnings conference call, Thursday, president and COO Robert D. Marcus provided an update on the MSO's TWC TV live-streaming app, and on its plans to extend the app--which is currently available on the iPad and iPhone--to other platforms. "Our TWC TV app for the iPad has continued to get better and grow in popularity," he said. "It's now been downloaded to around 850,000 unique iPads. And in December, it had more than 300,000 unique users. Last week, we launched a similar app, including almost 200 live video channels for the iPhone [see the article published on itvt.com, January 22nd]. In addition, we have an app that enables customers to use their Android tablets and smartphones as very capable remote controls, and we expect to make live TV available very soon on devices running the new Android 4.0 operating system. We're planning to bring our live IP video to a wide variety of new platforms in the home this year, including PC's and Mac's, game consoles, and certain models of Internet-ready televisions. And in addition to live television, we plan to make On-Demand content available in all of these platforms." Marcus also stated that Time Warner Cable plans to enhance its VOD portal this year."