New Shazam features could extend reach of shows

New features for content recognition app Shazam could radically extend the reach of TV shows beyond their immediate broadcast, Andrew Fisher, executive chairman, Shazam, revealed at TV Connect today.

Delivering a keynote presentation, Fisher highlighted Auto Shazam, a new feature that enables users to open Shazam and leave their device to capture automatically whatever music and TV shows is playing around the device.

Viewers can then review content on a carousel to check which content they want to interact with.

“We don’t interrupt the viewing experience for other people,” said Fisher. “We’ve moved from the capability on the couch to the intent and people are actually purchasing on their devices.”

Fisher said he believed this type of interaction would extend to new environments, citing Shazam’s ability to know where its users are in retail stores and to identify promotions in real time around them in those high street stores.

“We have the power today to say there is a two for one offer in that store [you may be interested in] and that you have just walked past it – thanks to what you have done previously on television,” he said. Fisher cautioned that it would be “a year or two” before such a service is rolled out, thanks to data protection issues and the need to educate the market to be receptive to the use of data in this way.

Fisher said that providing data to programmers is also important, enabling American Idol’s advertisers to run different creative treatments for the US East Coast and West Coast and check out response rates for each.

“The Holy Grail for second screen from a broadcaster’s perspective…is to encourage people to watch the show,” he said. If people had Shazamed a particular genre or show, they could be messaged to encourage them to ‘check  in ‘ to watch that show when the new season goes on air.

Shazam can also provide feedback on the best performing channels for programme providers, said Fisher.