We recently wrote about Turner’s 2014 Media Camp, an incubator for social TV and media innovation. One of the selected startups was Watchup, which aims to “reinvent news watching for the mobile video age.” The app, which bills itself as the “fastest way to watch the news” is already making a splash with a recent launch. The app recently debuted on iPhone after already having an iPad app. “With a single account, both iOS and Android users can now enjoy over 200 international and US channels in one personalized newscast,” said Watchup CEO Adriano Farano, a former journalism fellow at Stanford in their release. “Multiple reports allude to a much bigger iPhone 6. If they are true we believe this will improve the mobile video watching experience; news videos are no exception.” The company is already planning for a social TV and video environment for the future and are ready to curate news video like never before.
Here are the features that Watchup boasts. They already have a partnership in place with The Washington Post.
- Personalize. Select your favorite topics such as technology or sports and news from all over the world including India, China, Latin America and Europe. Watch what most interests you, skip the rest.
- Daily news ritual. Pick a time of the day and Watchup will deliver your personalized newscast every day at that time.
- Binge Watch. Your newscast continuously plays as you grab coffee or commute.
- Adaptive stream. Give a thumbs up or thumbs down to videos in order to fine-tune your newscast.
- Pick up where you left off. Watchup remembers your preferences across all your devices.
- Get Context. Simultaneously Bing search a related article when you need more detail.