Zeebox rebrands its ‘new-fangled social TV guide’ to Beamly, a social network for TV
Zeebox has completely rebranded and overhauled its strategy, after realising the app’s main user was a “geeky male” and it had effectively become seen as “a new-fangled social TV guide" rather than the social network and TV participation experience it had set out to be.
The original Zeebox app was integrated with Sony, Samsung and Panasonic TVs and with Sky, Virgin TiVo and Comcast Xfinity set-top boxes, allowing these broadcast partners to enhance TV shows with votes and polls, quizzes, games and other interactive experiences.
The live experience element was combined with a TV guide, which sorted shows by popularity or by what a user's friends were watching.
However, as on-demand viewing became more prominent the functions of the app became less relevant.
Now, Zeebox has completely overhauled its approach to second-screen behaviour and vowed to become more of a social network for TV.
Rebranded to Beamly, the app is positioning itself as a place to get up-to-date TV news via a feed that is personalised based on the shows a user follows.
It also has TV Rooms hosted by TV influencers, celebrities and passionate fans where people can chat to other show fans.
Since launching the new offering, Beamly has seen a nine-times increase in time spent in the app and visits per week, while the audience in the US has shifted from the “geeky male” to
a 62 per cent female demographic.
“Our UK audience is still more resolutely male, a vestige of our earlier utility-focussed product launching in the UK six months before the US,” said Anthony Rose, co-founder and CTO, in a blog post announcing the rebrand.
He added: “Turning zeebox into a social network has led to a huge take-off in people using the app as a community, a place to find friends and fans. That could be at lunch time, at work, whenever. Often nowhere near a TV.”
To address the second-screen challenge and sync itself to TV programmes, Beamly has worked with major broadcasters including NBC, Viacom, Fox, Discovery. Sky, TEN Australia, giving them publishing tools to create their own content.
“Zeebox is a platform and destination that dramatically reduces the cost and effort of creating second screen companion experiences,” said Rose of the broadcasters currently on the roster.
“Our syndication platform allows broadcasters to author experiences with Mission Control tools, then publish those experiences in multiple places, avoiding the vexing question of whether to build a dedicated app or publish into an umbrella app such as Beamly. Broadcasters can now have it both ways,” he continued.
Rose added that as the next generation of media streamers – Chromecast, Android TV, Roku, Sky’s NowTV – come to the fore, there will be a spurt of activity with interactive experiences beamed back onto the TV.