This morning, Flingo announced it will be showing its new interactive TV platform, which instantly syncs live TV shows across TVs, PCs, phones and tablets without downloading an app or logging in, at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Flingo’s Samba platform automatically recommends related online videos or similar programming as viewers go through channels. It also generates real-time information and social media discussions about the TV program currently playing.
When Samba is integrated into a TV or set-top box, it can boot up interactive features, such as check-ins, tweets, polls, quizzes, cast and crew information, special offers from the device or directly on the TV itself, via the remote.
“We saw a surge of Smart TV and tablet adoption in 2012 but realized that a seamless TV experience across all screens was missing,” said Ashwin Navin, CEO and co-founder of Flingo. “Samba will blur the lines between linear television and the Web in a way that empowers the viewers, giving them an unprecedented viewing experience.”
Flingo said other second screen platforms typically rely on automatic content recognition (ACR) technology using a microphone from second screen devices to identify broadcast content playing on the TV. Flingo’s recommendation technology can identify related content while watching live broadcast TV content within a few seconds.
Flingo developed its Samba platform via its $8 million round of financing last year. Flingo investors include venture capital firm August Capital, entrepreneur Mark Cuban, technology investors, Gary Lauder, VIA Capital, Passport Capital, founder of Rackspace Richard Yoo, and founder of Summize (Twitter’s search engine) Jay Virdy, as well as angel investors Tom McInerney, James Hong and others.