Yahoo! and Samsung today announced an extended multi-year partnership to integrate Yahoo!’s ‘Broadcast Interactivity platform’ into Samsung 2012 Smart TVs. The tech is powered by its Yahoo!’s automatic content recognition (ACR) technology, SoundPrint, which Yahoo! currently uses for its own second screen app, IntoNow. The second screen tech will be integrated into Samsung’s SyncPlus platform to enable ‘intelligent content discovery’ and to enhance advertising and engagement.
As with all second screen services, the advertising goal is to take TV advertising beyond traditional 30-second spot, whether that’s in the form of a call-to-action to engage with additional content, social interaction or download and an app/content/coupons.
This is an interesting move for Yahoo! in that it gives the company a (much-needed?) boost in the race for the second screen, as Ron Jacoby, vice president of Connected TV at Yahoo!, said, “We are thrilled that our expanded partnership with Samsung extends our platform’s footprint, enabling our content partners and advertisers to reach many more consumers. Content owners can augment their programming, and advertisers can create compelling calls-to-action that allow audiences to engage on marketing messages the moment they are delivered.”
Repurposed IntoNow Tech
Yahoo! are already using Smartprint to power the content recognition for IntoNow, the second screen app that CEO Marissa Mayer publicly backed earlier in the year. Yahoo! say Smartprint can recognise a show even if it’s airing live for the first time, using audio fingerprinting technology that has already indexed more than 140 million minutes of previously aired shows, which is the equivalent of 266 years of video.
The partnership is an interesting alliance in that it highlights the question of what the best route to market is for a second screen app/service? Who should the second screen players align themselves with – the broadcasters (clearly Zeebox’s strategy), the hardware manufacturers, or a combination of both? Or is it possible to go it alone simply leverage a huge user base as Shazam has done (while also partnering with broadcasters on programming)?
