BBC’s Daniel Danker joins Shazam as chief product officer
Shazam has appointed the BBC’s general manager of On Demand Daniel Danker to the newly created role of chief product officer as it continues to drive its footprint in the TV market.
In his new role Danker will be responsible for driving new product development for Shazam as it continues its aggressive expansion strategy which has seen it evolve beyond a music recognition service alone to an established second-screen TV companion service.
Shazam for TV has been incorporated into more than 200 campaigns globally and works for all shows across 160 channels in the US.
Danker’s remit will include leading Shazam’s developer team in the creation of new apps for phones and tablets as well as working with social networks Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
Shazam has clocked up 300 million users worldwide and claims to generate a further two million each week. It has recently rolled out new iPad and Android apps designed to cater for tagging results in TV programmes as well as music content and new features for browsing what friends are tagging.
During his time at the BBC Danker was responsible for delivering strategy around BBC iPlayer, Radio & Music and Red Button products.
Danker also helped deliver the technology that powered the BBC’s online media experience for the London 2012 Olympics and his previous experience includes helping develop Mediaroom, Microsoft’s internet-connected TV platform, as well as Microsoft’s Xbox Music platform.
He was also a member of the Future Media Group Board at the broadcaster and helped oversee new developments including the BBC’s new Red Button service designed to cater for connected TVs, providing a more consistent and seamless viewing experience between its online TV and radio content via connected TVs, unveiled last December.
The BBC is yet to release any details regarding his replacement, but a spokesman said Danker will continue to lead the Programmes and On Demand team for the next two months.