Partnership between Disney/ABC and The Nielsen Company.
US broadcaster ABC has launched a new iPad app for its My Generation TV show, which is the first to use The Nielsen Company's Media-Sync Platform.
The app is designed to be used on the iPad while people watch the show on their TV.
How? By serving up synchronised content and social media features with the episode and advertising breaks.
The app uses audio watermarking to detect where users are in an episode, which means it works even if they've recorded the show to watch after it initially airs.
The content includes polls, trivia, behind-the-scenes info and production details, along with material from advertisers.
Article continues belowAdvertisement
"Together with Nielsen, we've created a sync-to-broadcast app that appeals to both fans and advertisers, and holds an array of possibilities for deeper engagement with our content and our advertisers' brands," says Disney/ABC Television Group's EVP of digital media Albert Cheng.
The Media-Sync Platform is designed to make these kinds of apps possible, using the audio watermarks inserted into US TV shows for Nielsen's separate TV audience ratings system.
The platform will launch more broadly early in 2011, according to Nielsen.
In separate but related news, Disney/ABC says its ABC Player app for iPad has now been downloaded more than 900,000 times, with more than eight million episodes watched.
Meanwhile, its ABC News app has been downloaded more than 420,000 times since its debut in July.
