Miso Cuts Deal with DirecTV for Social TV App - No Checkin Required

Posted by Richard Kastelein in Breaking News on September 02, 2011  |  0 Comments More from this author  |    |  Follow Richard Kastelein on: Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter | YouTube

The checkin is not the answer to Social TV, Miso CEO Somrat Niyogi, told Appmarket.tv at the first Social TV Summit in Los Angeles earlier this year. And it appears that Miso has perhaps found the answer?

"The integration of Miso’s social TV app adds another dimension to the viewing experience and supports DIRECTV’s strategy to assist customers in discovering television shows, sports and movies through their friends and social connections," said DIRECTV CTO Rômulo Pontual.

“Our partnership with DIRECTV is a big step toward delivering a truly connected home experience because, for the first time ever, a social TV app will enable viewers to easily share what they’re watching, as they’re watching it,” said Somrat Niyogi, CEO of Miso. “DIRECTV is a leader in providing innovative entertainment and we’re excited to be working with them to deliver this industry first. This is just the first of many new partnerships we’ll announce in the coming months.”

The San Francisco Gate is reporting that Miso, via a new deal with DirecTV, is now entering the synchronous 'scene' with a multiplatform play that, unlike a number of others such as IntoNow does not rely on audio fingerprinting, but rather taps into the wireless network in the house.

"...DirecTV subscribers will find their Miso app will automatically display what's currently on their TV, even if they change channels or watch a program recorded on the DVR. (See video below.) The integration only works with DirecTV's Internet-enabled HD set top box, which the Miso app communicates with through the user's home WiFi network.

Miso only has about 225,000 users, but the concept of social TV is generating buzz within the entertainment industry because viewers are already using a "second screen" - like laptops and smart phones - to share what they are watching.

One big example came Sunday when the MTV Video Music Awards generated a record 8,868 Twitter tweets per second as singer Beyoncé Knowles revealed she is pregnant. As Forbes contributor Michael Humphrey noted, there were 5 million mentions of the VMAs on Facebook, Twitter, Miso and GetGlue. That, Humphrey said, could be as important a stat someday as the Nielsen ratings.

 

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Cory Bergman at Lost Remote interviewed Niyogi:

Lost Remote: You’ve said the check-in is just a starting point. Does your DirectTV deal signal a new era of the integrated check-in?

Somrat Niyogi: We think this is a lot bigger than just an integrated check-in. We see this as a new era around “connected social TV,” where devices are truly communicating with each other to deliver a more seamless and integrated sharing experience. Now that I know what you’re watching whether live, on DVR, or on-demand, and I know what you’re watching, we can start exploring delivering what you want at those exact moments. What if you are watching “Glee” and Brittany says something funny that you want to share and immediately you get a push notification with the quote she just said on TV. No more typing, just more seamless sharing. This is the start of an era of delivering on the promise of a connected home.

See full interview here.