CES: Zeebox to Add Content Recognition to Second-Screen Apps

Will use Gracenote ACR technology to identify programming and provide additional content

By Todd Spangler, Multichannel News -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/3/2013 12:26:53 PM

Complete Coverage: CES 2013

Zeebox, the U.K.-based startup whose backers include Comcast, NBCUniversal and Viacom, plans to integrate Gracenote's Entourage automatic content recognition system into its TV companion apps to "listen" to audio and identify programming on the big screen.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The companies plan to demo Zeebox featuring Gracenote Entourage next week at the International CES in Las Vegas.

Zeebox said it will use the Gracenote ACR technology to identify the program the user is watching, either live or time-shifted, to automatically provide additional information, votes and polls, tweets, presence and T-commerce opportunities synchronized with the program being viewed.

Zeebox launched its apps for iOS and Android devices in the U.S. last fall with partners including NBCU and HBO. The apps provide enhanced and related content culled from the Web and provided by TV programmers, social networks and advertisers as well as e-commerce features.

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