- One Stop Shop for Availability, Chats, User’s Rankings, Show Guides
- Incorporates Social Networks Twins: Twitter & Facebook
- Sources: TV Networks, Hulu, Netflix, iTunes, Amazon & 120 Other Online Video Services
There is a major phenomenon taking place under the radar of most industry observers. It’s called social TV. The youngsters are taking to it like a frog to water. They are using tablets, smartphones and PCs, not for the purpose of just watching a TV show or movie, but as companion screens to chat, get information and rate the shows as they watch.
TVGuide.com has been at the forefront of social TV with a record 24 million unique visitors in September. Its app for mobile devices has been downloaded an amazing five million times.
This week it signed up ION Television as its 50th sponsor of Social Spotlight for the “Flashpoint” TV series. Social Spotlight provides information that fans need to engage in “companion screen” discussions through Facebook, Twitter and TVGuide.com
“Both users and advertisers have embraced social TV on our site, and we’re happy to share the milestone of our 50th social sponsorship this year with ION,” said Christy Tanner, EVP and general manager of TV Guide Digital. She said there is no direct one-to-one competitor to TVGuide.com. That’s despite the fact the pay TV companies and their STB makers are talking about deploying their own social networking and that a number of start-ups have similar aims. Tanner said the company does not have any announced plans to embed its app in the pay TV companies STBs.
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The TVGuide.com Strategy
Tanner said TVGuide.com has a big jump on potential challengers:
- A great brand name — everyone is familiar with TV Guide and what it does.
- Consumer trust.
- Authority that comes from its 10+ years of experience and enormous database.
- Two-year lead time developing apps for mobile devices, which the young like to use while watching TV.
- Growth from four million to 24 million unique users.
- Access to data about shows from over 120 online video services, DVDs and Blu-ray discs, national TV networks and the pay TV networks.
- Revenue that comes from advertisers attracted by its users’ demographics.
TVGuide.com has an app that’s available on new TV sets from Vizio, the US’ largest seller of LCD TV sets. The app does not include the guide grid but has other TVGuide.com services such as finding the sources for shows and social networking. We expect the smart TV app will start appearing on other smart TVs, Blu-ray players, game consoles and smart TV adapters.
| TVGuide.com’s Social TV Efforts - Watchlist is a personalized, social, one-stop entertainment guide that 400,000 users have helped create. It finds what you want to watch when you want to watch it — or if it’s not available, when and where it will be. - TV check-in allows users to share what they’re watching with friends and their social graph, including tune-in time and channel. There have been 4.5 million check-ins since the launch in October 2010. - Social Power Rankings continuously updates the ranking of the most buzzed about TV shows, plus the best, funniest and most provocative user comments as compiled by TV Guide curators. - Watch & Share lets users share video trailers with their friends. - The TVGuide.com app runs on iPhones, iPads and Android devices. |
People find out about the TVGuide.com service when they search for “TV Guide” or the name of a TV show. TV Guide has 20 to 30 editors that are producing stories about TV shows and their stars. When they are posted on the Internet, they show up when a consumer does a search. Users also tell their friends so they can chat about what they’re watching.
The company is focused on three areas: personalization, social and mobile, Tanner said.
She said the company has developed a “next generation” guide called Watch List that helps users navigate in a world that has more shows and video services than ever.
It allows them to find anything they want to watch by specifying the name of a show or a star, a sports team or athlete. It shows users where and when those appear — whether on linear TV, a pay TV company’s VoD service, online VoD services like iTunes, online subscription services like Netflix and on DVD/Blu-ray disc. If it’s not currently available the app tells them when and where it will be.
A new development for TVGuide.com is the ability to access and search the content of a VoD service from pay TV companies that are ramping up their push to sell or rent shows in competition with OTT service. TV Guide recently signed a deal with Comcast for search and to give its users access to Comcast’s VoD content. Users can view and, if required, pay for the show. We expect other pay TV companies to follow suit. They cannot afford not to have their VoD content listed where their online competitors like iTunes appear.
Chris Addeo, VP of marketing at ION Media Networks said the company is excited to “further connect with our fans via unique social platforms like this.” The social aspects increase the opportunity to communicate with viewers in real time.
Watch It Here, Watch It Now
You would expect TV Guide to have an online TV guide, wouldn’t you? It’s called TVGuide.com and lets users watch most full-length TV episodes that are available from the US’ major broadcast and pay TV networks plus
TV networks and studios outside the States.
The guide includes more than 120 online video services, both free and paid, such as the free Hulu, the subscription Hulu Plus, Netflix, Amazon and even the elusive iTunes. If the show is free on a site, the user clicks “play” and watches. If it’s a rental or purchase, the user makes the payment to watch. If the user needs a subscription, he’s prompted to sign up and pay before watching. If he already has paid for the subscription, he signs in and clicks “play” to watch.
The value-add for TVGuide.com compared to accessing each online video service is:
- It searches for shows in all the 120 or so online video services it has plus the TV networks’ show listings.
- It offers a one-stop shop for bios, trailers, summaries, photos and related news.
- It also offers shows in a grid (like TV Guide did) so users can see what’s coming on.
- If a show is not currently available, it shows when it will be and from which source.
The complete TVGuide.com is not available currently on any smart TV platforms as Netflix and Vudu are except for Vizio. However, we expect it to be on more in the near future.
For now, TVGuide.com cannot be watched on most smart TV sets — only on tablets, smartphones and PCs. However, a consumer could connect the device to a TV set with an HDMI cable to watch or he could use PCs with Intel’s WiDi and a companion WiDi STB that a number of companies make.
TVGuide.com is in a demographic that advertisers love: nearly half are under 35 years old and 26% earn a household income of more than $100k a year.
TV Guide is owned by a joint venture of Lionsgate, One Equity Partners and JPMorgan Chase. They purchased it from Rovi.
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