Showtime is shutting down SHO Sync, an interactive TV app for mobile devices and select smart TVs, but hopes to reintroduce the feature in a different form sometime down the road.
Showtime has not announced when it will shut down the app, but since Thursday the SHO Sync app for the iPad presents a message that it has indeed been discontinued on that platform. In recent days, Showtime has been alerting iPad users who have installed SHO Sync that the network intends to discontinue the app “soon,” while also providing users with a code that’s good for a 20% discount on Showtime products purchased at SHO.com.
Showtime launched the second-screen interactive app for the iPad and iPhone in the fall of 2012, and followed with a version optimized for LG-made smart TVs in August 2013. Both versions supported interactive elements, such as polls and trivia questions, that synced up with Showtime original series such as Dexter, Ray Donovan, Nurse Jackie, Penny Dreadful, Californication, Homeland and Masters of Sex. In a smart twist, the app ran independent of the set-top box, triggered by Automated Content Recognition (ACR) elements that were supported whether the show was being watched live, on-demand or from a DVR recording.
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