Is IntoNow's new app a social TV game-changer?

By Cory Bergman 

IntoNow launched an iPad app and updated its iPhone and Android apps today with an entirely new experience that goes beyond identifying TV shows to powering a real-time, second-screen experience that’s synchronized with what you’re watching. And it’s impressive.

Up until this point, IntoNow — which was acquired by Yahoo in April — used audio-identification software to allow viewers to identify and “tag” TV shows. With this new release, IntoNow is offering synchronized news headlines, in-depth sports stats, recommendations and social discussions that correlate with what’s on TV.

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To start, push the green button. In an example video, IntoNow shows a viewer watching ABC’s Good Morning America (Yahoo recently partnered with ABC News). As the show is identified, the iPad app serves up ABC News headlines, discussions and tweets. It’s even content-specific: a discussion about politics will trigger political headlines, for example.

For sports fans, the app serves up scores, stats and news related to the specific game on TV. While other apps synchronize with a given show, IntoNow is using Yahoo search and content to power a social TV experience across a wide slate of programming. Impressive indeed.

We have yet to run the app through all its paces (we’ll do that tonight during primetime and report back), but clearly this one of the biggest social TV moves we’ve seen to date. And not just because of the technology, but because of Yahoo’s tremendous reach. IntoNow says its iPhone and Android apps have been downloaded 1.6 million times to date, and that’s just scraping the surface of its distribution potential through Yahoo.

As it grows scale, that opens up a world of second-screen advertising opportunities. We’ve already reported on IntoNow’s experiment with Pepsi — tag the Pepsi commercial and you get a coupon for a free Pepsi — which starts delivering on the promise of interactive TV. But scale has always been the challenge. Can IntoNow break through the scale barrier? Stay tuned…

Promotional video for the new iPad app:

More screen grabs from the iPad app:

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