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Zeebox launches in Australia

Social TV application zeebox is now available for mobile and tablet devices, with TEN as a key partner.

Social TV application zeebox is now available in Australia for mobile and tablet devices.

The platform offers extensive interactive features, similar to those available on Seven’s FANGO and Nine’s Jump-In platforms, with a full Free to Air guide.

Zeebox is British-owned, with TEN on board as a key partner and others “to be announced.”

Australian audiences can now experience TV as never before with the local launch of zeebox, a free TV companion app that has already been adopted by millions of viewers in the US and UK as their official TV ‘side kick’.

Launching in Australia as part of a global expansion, the award-winning social TV platform is the brainchild of former EMI executive Ernesto Schmitt and BBC iPlayer CTO Anthony Rose.

zeebox displays in-depth information about the programs viewers are watching, enabling them to engage with friends and their favourite television personalities directly through zeebox, and even makes it easy to buy the products seen on TV.

“zeebox knows what’s happening on the show you’re watching and opens up that world to you. With search, recommendations, social connectivity and ecommerce functions all built into the one app, it will be Australian’s first truly integrated second-screen experience, making TV even better,” said zeebox Australia CEO, Craig Blair.

Blair says zeebox also allows broadcast networks to extend the TV experience by sharing engaging and relevant content directly with the viewer.

“Imagine watching a programme and on your mobile or tablet receiving synchronised trivia on the cast, only the most relevant Twitter feeds on live shows, an invitation from a celebrity to join a group chat, up-to-date statistics on big sports games, or being able to directly purchase a product seen on screen. All that is now possible with zeebox.”

zeebox uniquely enables consumers to discover what to watch by browsing comprehensive TV listings, social media and personalised recommendations while getting real-time contextual information about each programme. From one screen, viewers can:

• Discover what to watch through the rich, 7-day TV guide that shows what friends and celebrities are watching, which shows are trending on Twitter, or are most popular on zeebox
• Set up viewing parties with TV buddies in just a few clicks, making it seamless to share, chat and Tweet around shows, people and gossip
• Dive into any programme via the news feed, or by clicking on live ‘zeetags’ to be directed to a world of information about virtually anything mentioned on TV
• Vote and play alongside shows, follow celebrities and get live statistics for big sporting events
• Conveniently buy products seen on screen and access relevant digital content such as music, videos, apps and ebooks with just one click

“zeebox has made huge waves overseas through its ability to enrich the TV experience, with the backing of the world’s largest TV media companies, including BSkyB, Comcast, NBCUniversal, Viacom and HBO, who are seeking to make zeebox the industry-standard platform for second-screen enhancement of television,” said co-founder and global CEO, Ernesto Schmitt.

Network Ten has already teamed with zeebox in Australia, with other strategic partners to be announced.

zeebox is available as a free download through iTunes, Google Play and zeebox.com

12 Responses

  1. Awesome, just one problem here in Tasmania, the program guide shows all channels such as Seven, Seven Two etc and Eleven and One, but no TDT which is TEN in tasmania.

    Let us hope this small glitch gets fixed soon. Otherwise why would you require anything else

  2. I like it overall, it’s a little harder to navigate the TV guide on an iPhone than I would like but not impossible. The only thing is that it asked if I was subscribed to Foxtel but doesn’t have the Foxtel guide available. Hopefully they get that up soon, then I would never miss Foxtel shows through being in WA and the Foxtel site refusing to acknowledge local time zones.

  3. Robbie1979, here’s the web URL: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zeebox.android.caa_au

    If its not supported on your device it won’t appear in the Play app store on your Android phone or tablet.

  4. I’ve just downloaded and started to have a small play, will check it out more tonight but I do like that it is even coverage of all channels, unlike Fango. Mush smoother and user friendly too. Thumbs up so far from me.

  5. Yeah you wouldn’t know it’s Channel TEN’s partner.

    SBS Two is missing as is ABC3 — not that I’m overly worried about either, both should be on there.

    Perhaps something rather small, but the picture for 7 News has the Melbourne guy, they should just do something generic or change the image according to your location. I don’t identify him with news…

  6. Tried out the Android version. Seems like a really slick app, but the TV guide is missing SBS2 and the community channel for some reason (also the infomercial channels but who cares about those ones).

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