If new media is the hot, young neighbor on the block, then television is like the grand dame holding court in the mansion up the street. She’s clearly the richest lady in the county, and eventually everyone comes knocking to pay homage to her.
First up is Twitter, which furthered its efforts to ingratiate itself with big league TV advertising through a few newly announced initiatives. Twitter Amplify brings TV partners on board with real-time video streamed directly in the service, giving broadcasters BBC America, FOX, Fuse and The Weather Channel some additional advertising and second-screen promo opportunities.
Of course, this isn’t the first time the company has dabbled in this area. Likely, its experience working with the NBA and the Olympics paved the way for Amplify. Twitter also announced TV ad targeting, a new tool that lets advertisers easily monitor when/where TV ads air, coordinate tweets and gauge social media response to them.
Meanwhile, Shazam is hard at work on boosting its second-screen mojo as well. Sure, most of its 93 million+ U.S. users still consider it just a music-tagging service, but the company is on a mission to prove that it’s serious about television.
Shazam has long been able to identify TV programs and ads, but users always had to tap the screen to make it work. Now iPad users can turn on the new AutoTag feature instead and simply let it tag in the background. The application listens for identifiable content and then auto-loads related information in the carousel at the top of the screen. Users can sit back and watch as cast details, soundtracks, gossip, trivia, social media, official websites and more populate the app, along with any related buying links. For sports, the app can even grab schedules, stats and scores. And for advertisers, commercial-tagging can be an extremely interesting scenario.
Considering that the app supports 160 channels of live or DVR’d TV content, spanning all nationwide programming and most nationwide TV commercials, that’s an incredible load of tagging we’re looking at.
The company also tweaked the interface for its iPad app, so users can view trending TV shows (U.S.) and songs (around the world), enjoy enhanced social features and see fullscreen song lyrics. For a closer look at the new Shazam for the iPad, hit the video below.
Disguise your little one with the help of a themed costume
From avocado halves to hoppy bunnies, costumes speak to every child's unique spirit. And we've collected our favorite options.
Add magic to your living space with these string lights
String lights add personality and soft light to your living space. Here are some of the best.
The Galaxy S20 Ultra's Space Zoom camera is amazing and a bit creepy
The Galaxy S20 Ultra supports up to 100X zoom, which Samsung calls Space Zoom, but is it any good? Can a phone really product usable photos at 100x zoom? We've got our Galaxy S20 Ultra already so join us to find out!
Keep your cat happy with the best cat litter
If you want a pet but you're renting your home, live in an apartment, or don't have the time to spend on a dog, then a cat might be the perfect companion. They're much more capable and resilient than their canine counterparts and don't require nearly as much time or energy. What they do need is a litter box and the right cat litter for you and your home. Whether you're new to owning...