TVGuide.com rolled out a revamped “Watchlist” today that aims to take the complexity out of finding your favorite shows across TV, video on demand and online services like Netflix. Watchlist allows you to import your “liked” shows on Facebook (and your favorite actors and sports teams) and add others as you go, resulting in a personalized entertainment guide.
The guide displays shows your friend’s Facebook favorites (although it takes awhile to import them) and tweets from official accounts of the shows you’ve added. Watchlist also ties into TVGuide’s own social check-in service, “I’ll Watch.” Since launching in October, TVGuide.com has registered 3 million+ check-ins, averaging 20,000 check-ins per day.
On the home page, a widget lets you know which shows on your Watchlist are airing/available tonight. And you can also browse dozens of celebrity watchlists (did you know, Henry Winkler likes to watch, “So You Think You Can Dance?”)
“TV has always been social,” explains Christy Tanner, EVP & GM of TVGuide.com, when we asked how social TV fits into TV Guide’s evolution. “Word of mouth led to message boards, which led to blogs, which led to social networks and what we’re now calling social TV. Social TV has always been a powerful aid in discovering new content. In fact, 95% of TVGuide.com users consider themselves TV influencers, who actively seek new content that they can share with friends…. We’re looking forward to new forms of entertainment that will integrate the power of social, creating new ways to interact, inform and entertain.”
The new Watchlist is web-only for now, but TVGuide is planning to roll it out on its iPhone, Android, and iPad apps, which now have over 4 million installations.