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Companion TV service Zeebox has signed a deal with audio recognition firm Gracenote that will allow its mobile app to identify the show any viewer is watching.
Zeebox said the move would allow it to automatically provide additional information, votes and polls, tweets, and transactional opportunities – all synchronised to the programme being viewed, whether it’s live or time-shifted.
Zeebox chief technology officer Anthony Rose said while Zeebox’s current iteration is focused on live television, the Gracenote technology “will allow us to take Zeebox to the next level, providing that interactive and synchronised Zeebox experience for both live and recently PVR’d content.”
Zeebox was founded in the UK in 2011 by former BBC iPlayer boss Rose and EMI executive Ernesto Schmitt as a second screen interaction and programme discovery service.
Last year, the firm went live in the US through deals with the likes of Comcast Communications, NBCUniversal and HBO, and in Australia in partnership with Network Ten.
In October, Zeebox also launched two-way remote control functionality for a number of cable operators’ boxes in the US, after debuting the service on Sky+ and Virgin TiVo boxes in the UK.
