THE HOME OF SOCIAL TV

CES 2012: Showtime Anytime iPad app is finally here

After a long wait since the original announcement, Showtime Anytime, the network’s second-screen on-demand app has arrived (for iPad). Showtime now boasts a catalog of impressive shows ranging from Dexter to Homeland to the recently-premiered Shameless, Californication and the brand new House of Lies. The free iPad app features more than 400 hours of original shows and movies.

CES 2012: Peel rolls out updated app with social TV features

The social guide app Peel — which doubles as a remote control if you buy the optional “Fruit” device — has just relaunched an updated version for iOS (iTunes) that adds social features to the experience. You can now like, recommend and check-into shows from the app, and those social activities roll up to an activity feed of your friends. The more you participate, the better Peel gets at program recommendations.

CES 2012: Microsoft shows how Kinect can make TV social

Microsoft’s annual CES keynote — its last, according to the company — was light on product announcements, but it did demonstrate how Kinect can transform traditional TV into a social, interactive experience. Using PBS Sesame Street and National Geographic as examples (promotional video below), CEO Steve Ballmer showed how Kinect can engage kids to participate in educational TV. Here’s a video:

Amazon inks licensing deal with Viacom to add streaming TV shows

Disney, Univision in talks on English-language cable news channel

Advertisers' free ride may end on Facebook soon

CES 2012: Myspace and Panasonic launch ‘Myspace TV’

Justin Timberlake took the stage at CES 2012 to help introduce Myspace TV, a new social TV service presented by MySpace and Panasonic. That’s right, Myspace TV, coming this spring. “We’re ready to take television and entertainment to the next step by upgrading it to the social networking experience,” explains Timberlake, who’s a co-owner of Myspace. Can Timberlake bring Myspace back?

CES 2012: Samsung adds TV voice and motion control

Samsung took the wraps off “Smart Interaction,” a new feature for its next-generation TVs that allows voice and motion control — even facial recognition. This is the second TV manufacturer to announce voice control at CES (see our earlier story on Lenovo). Samsung explains:

CES 2012: Dish brings video streaming to iPad app

Dish Network is the latest in a string of cable and satellite providers to provide subscribers with access to on-demand video via a second-screen app. Dish rolled out an update to its “DISH Remote Access for iPad” app that now features thousands of hours of on-demand content, including HBO, Cinemax and other premium channels (assuming you’re paying for them in your service, of course.) Like other cable/satellite apps, it only works within the WiFi confines of your home.

CES 2012: Lenovo’s voice-controlled TV powered by Android 4.0

The first wave of press announcements surrounding this week’s big Consumer Electronics Show have hit the inbox, and one of the most interesting is a new TV set from Lenovo that runs on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and responds to voice controls. We’ve been following Apple’s highly-rumored race to bring Siri to TV, and of course, Xbox’s Kinect allows voice controls, too. So it’s no surprise that the TV manufacturers want to get in the voice game, themselves.

Yap.TV to add audio recognition through Audible Magic

Last year IntoNow surprised the market with an app that listened to what you’re watching on TV, allowing viewers to easily sync their devices to television. And now similar technology is starting to roll out across other second-screen apps. Yap.TV announced today it’s teamed up with Audible Magic to bring audio recognition to its apps later this quarter. “ACR (automated content recognition) is fundamental to creating an interactive TV experience,” said Yap.TV CMO Shawn Cunningham. “By recognizing the content…”

Social TV startup Zeebox scores over $15 million from BSkyB

We’re only in week two of 2012 and another social TV startup has just received a huge amount of investment from a major media company. Zeebox, yet to launch in the US, received over $15 million from News Corp controlled BSkyB, the largest pay-TV broadcaster in the UK with over 10 million customers. As Paid Content points out, “The funding means Zeebox has a triple-digit million valuation after just two months of live operation, and without yet having executed a monetization strategy.”

Dijit’s social TV app goes live on the iPad

We previewed the new Dijit iPad app last month, and it’s now live in iTunes. It combines a customizable universal remote (via the Griffin Beacon, and it also controls Roku boxes) along with a localized TV guide, Facebook recommendations from your friends, Twitter and Facebook integration, and the ability to control your Netflix queue, to boot.

Steve Martin on Twitter’s similarity to television

While riding in a taxi cab recently, a clip started playing from an episode of NBC’s Rock Center where host Brian Williams gets into a detailed conversation with his guest Steve Martin, on his love of Twitter. If you’re a regular Lost Remote reader, you no doubt understand the fascinating love affair Twitter and TV had in 2011. Most of the time we discuss how many people were tweeting about a program and how many times, or how the show creatively used Twitter to offer fans a deeper engagement with the show….

Sunday’s NBC debate to feature real-time Facebook comments

This Sunday morning, Republican candidates will gather in New Hampshire for a live debate co-sponsored by NBC’s Meet the Press and Facebook. In advance of the debate, Facebook conducted a poll of a selected sample of residents in New Hampshire and Iowa — via a simple poll in the right column of Facebook.com — asking them to select the issue most important to them. And NBC has been collecting debate questions via Facebook, as well.

Waiting for Zeebox to launch in the US

While the social web is instantly global, linear television is definitely not. Rights to distribute top television content globally often prevents top programming from airing outside the US for months. Completely different linear programming schedules is now forcing social TV startups to carefully launch in new markets to make sure TV needs are being addressed in each market’s ecosystem.

Zeebox is one of these apps that launched in the UK that we’re extremely excited to see. It launched in early November with very good reviews. Available on iPad, iPhone and Zeebox.com, it combines a social program guide with real-time tweets and (for internet-connected TVs) a remote control, as well.

Analyst: Netflix is the 15th largest TV ‘network’ in US

Americans spend a lot of time watching Netflix — we’ve all heard the stories of how much bandwidth it eats up — and one analyst has crunched the numbers with some surprising results. If Netflix were a network, it would rank 15th in total minutes watched, explains Richard Greenfield with BTIG.

“Netflix streaming usage is exploding and is far, far bigger than traditional media executives give it credit for,” he said. “[It] had more hours of viewing in October than FX, HGTV and History and had more than 2x the viewer hours of CNN, Discovery, MSNBC and BET.” And if you isolate the numbers to just Netflix subscribers’ homes, it would rank #2 behind CBS in total minutes, he says.

NBC show ‘Smash’ to premiere first on Xfinity

You’ve probably seen all the promos for the upcoming NBC show, Smash, premiering on the network on February 6th. But NBC is practicing some synergy with its new majority owner, Comcast, by debuting the show early on Xfinity.

Roku’s new ‘Streaming Stick’ will make any TV smart

As connected (or “smart”) TVs become all the rage leading into CES, Roku announced today it’s working on a “Streaming Stick” that can convert any dumb TV into a smart device. In essence, it’s a Roku box in a stick that plugs straight into a television’s HDMI port.

“It essentially includes everything in a Roku player—built-in WiFi, processor, memory and software—and will deliver all the channels found on the Roku platform today,” explains Anthony Wood, Founder and CEO at Roku. “It will also benefit from regular free software updates and channel enhancements.”

Loyalize to power Spike TV CES Broadcast

Loyalize, the poll-focused social TV startup that powered a Spike TV show back in September, will be powering the network’s broadcast of CES next week. Viewers of the broadcast will be able to drive interview questions, vote on their gadget favorites (not just once-and-done voting, but thousands of fans seeing what thousands of other fans are voting on at the exact second it is happening) from their smartphones/tablets and laptops.

CES is going to be an exciting time for social TV as new technology is revealed that might force some of the established platforms to rethink how consumers might use Connected-TVs, tablets and more. Todd Greene, CEO of Loyalize, answered a few questions…

TV news showcases social media for Iowa Caucus

If the debates have been any indication so far, election coverage this 2012 will be more social than ever. The news channels kicked into social media overdrive for the Iowa Caucus tonight. Here’s a brief summary, and please feel free to let us know of other social TV examples from the night: