Samsung has reached an agreement to bring Yahoo’s Broadcast Interactivity platform to its 2012 lineup of smart television sets.
Broadcast Interactivity, powered by Yahoo’s automatic content recognition (ACR) technolog [PDF], SoundPrint, will be deployed in Samsung’s SyncPlus platform, enabling intelligent content discovery, advertising and interactivity with viewers.
With this agreement, Samsung Smart TV owners will receive real-time, actionable content that runs alongside and complements TV shows and commercials. TV viewers will see on-screen prompts informing them that additional content can be accessed.
With a remote, connected tablet or phone, Samsung Smart TV viewers can access content or offers related to the TV shows and commercials they are watching. This means viewers may actually be watching more commercials on the system, rather than less.
TV programmers can provide complementary content like trivia, additional show insights, commerce or interactive gaming to extend engagement. Showtime Networks and National Geographic Channel are two of the initial TV programming partners.
The Samsung-Yahoo partnership also creates new forms of advertising by extending traditional 30-second commercials into immediate actions. With enabled commercials, advertisers can embed calls-to-action for downloading apps or digital media, providing coupons, ordering samples, reading reviews or viewing product information.
“By combining watching TV with engaging content, we can change the way audiences are entertained and informed,” said Ron Jacoby, vice president of Connected TV at Yahoo.
“Our expanded partnership with Samsung extends our platform’s footprint, enabling our content partners and advertisers to reach many more consumers. Content owners can augment their programming and advertisers can create compelling calls-to-actions that allow audiences to engage on marketing messages the moment they are delivered.”
Yahoo Broadcast Interactivity uses Yahoo’s SoundPrint to enable real-time identification of live or recorded, cable, broadcast and satellite television through audio fingerprinting.
The features will be delivered in the latest firmware update to Samsung’s 2012 Smart TVs in the U.S. Yahoo’s technology will also be integrated into future models of Samsung TVs.
Sony adopted Yahoo’s interactive technology earlier this year by for Sony’s Bravia line of television sets.
