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As TV watching becomes increasingly multiscreen and social, NBC Universal is looking to make tagging TV shows the new norm.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, the Comcast-owned media conglomerate expanded its partnership with Shazam, the smartphone app which millions use to identify songs. The two companies kicked off the initiative Shazam for TV, a program that will encourage viewers of the cable networks Bravo, Oxygen and Syfy to ‘tag’ shows using the Shazam app to unlock complementary content, offers and even celebrity chat.
Syfy began experimenting with Shazam last fall, first with the midseason finale of the quirky hit Eureka, and then with the UK series Being Human early this year.
This past Monday, Bravo viewers watching the new songwriting competition series Platinum Hit were invited to use Shazan three separate times — to unearth playlists compiled by the show’s judges and panelists, watch extended performaces by the show’s contestants and view extended video of the judges’ deliberation.
Oxygen will follow suit on June 12 with its new series The Glee Project. The 125 million or so folks who have downloaded Shazam to their iPhones, Droids and other mobile devices will be encouraged to tag as they’re watching live.
And later the summer, SyFy will once again employ Shazam to encourage live viewership of its upcoming superpower series, Alphas, on July 11.
NBCU’s networks plan to include more shows from its cable nets to the Shazam for TV initiative as the summer unfolds, said officials. Besides featuring content extras, these shows more social viewers will be able to share their Shazam tags on Twitter and Facebook, where they’ll be able to see what their friends are watching.
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