Earlier this month, we previewed Viggle, a new social TV app that’s the brainchild of former American Idol exec Robert Sillerman. Today, Viggle hit the iTunes Appstore (iPhone right now), and we gave it a spin.
Viggle is based on rewards — not badges or stickers — but gift cards from Amazon, Starbucks, Burger King, iTunes and freebies like an iPod Shuffle and one month of Hulu Plus. To earn these rewards, TV viewers accrue points by checking into broadcasts, setting reminders for upcoming shows, watching videos, playing games and taking quizzes (such as, “Test your American Idol IQ”).
For example, I checked into the TODAY Show (the audio recognition was touch-and-go for me) and I earned 10 points. It then encouraged me to set a reminder for NBC’s The Firm for an additional 10 points. The app will then send a push alert (this can be turned off) shortly before the show begins.
The app highlights featured shows across several networks — American Idol offers the most points for a check-in at 400 — and there’s a long list of available rewards. A $5 Amazon gift card costs 4,000 points, and a $5 Starbucks gift card is 7,500 points. A Fandango movie ticket goes for 17,500 points. The iPod Shuffle costs 100,000 points, and a Kindle will put you back 175,000. You can even donate $5 to the Boys and Girls Club and Convenant House (7,500 points each.)
The app also offers social features like browsing the latest tweets about a TV show (“latest chatter”) and sharing check-ins on Facebook and Twitter — but it has yet to create its own community like competitors GetGlue, Miso and IntoNow. Viggle also links to a show’s Facebook page, IMBD page, Wikipedia page and it runs searches for related merchandise on iTunes and Amazon.
As we wrote before, Viggle is a serious entry into the social TV space with a substantial resource investment behind it. The rewards are a nice differentiator that could grow into a TV loyalty platform with plenty of tie-in opportunities for advertisers. And the “reminders” feature has the potential to get network and cable TV marketing execs excited. However, the “check-in” market is competitive, and it will take a big investment (and aggressive partnerships) to help Viggle gain scale. Stay tuned…