Category: Social Apps

Pinterest-Like Video Apps Empower Brand Builders

Posted on December 6, 2012

Video apps that simplify creation of Pinterest-like collections  are a potent new tool for brands.

The new world of “a la carte” entertainment is blurring the line between traditional, professionally-produced TV commercials and video created by “users”…the audience itself. A decade ago, we debated whether audiences would watch user-generated video. Today the verdict is clear: not only will they, but in many cases “UGV” is trusted by audiences more than agency-produced spots, particularly when real users are authentically promoting a brand’s product, service or event.

Branding expert Karen Leland’s must-read Huffington Post  blog,

Who Really Owns Your Brand?

captures this new reality in an interview with Ringz.TV founder Robert May. May describes how new video apps like Ringz are enabling companies to empower their customers and supercharge their brands through easy-to-make, shareable Pinterest-like video collections.

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Cord-Cutting: Do Cable Companies Really Care?

Posted on August 17, 2012

There have been a spate of recent articles debating the effect of Q2 2012 declines in Pay-TV subscriptions suffered by US cable and satellite TV operators  (“multi-platform video distributors” or “MPVD”s). While we believe the trends toward “a la carte entertainment”, or what we call “direct-to-consumer TV”, is unstoppable, it’s likely that MPVD  revenue lost from “cord-cutting” will be made up elsewhere.

It’s increasingly clear that dropping pay-TV subscriptions increases  entertainment consumption from the broadband pipe. Whether consumed via iTunes downloads through Apple TV or streaming video views monetized through “authenticated” iPads, phones and PCs, Comcast’s Brian Roberts, Time Warner’s Jeff Bewkes, Liberty’s John Malone and others saw this coming a long time ago. They’re betting  increased average revenue per user (“ARPU”) from DRM-supported VOD and streaming video will more than offset lost recurring subscription revenue. Today’s MPVDs are focused on making sure they’re getting a good slice of tomorrow’s cord-cutter’s spend (hello Hulu Plus, TV Everywhere,  etc.) Subscriber losses are less meaningful than year-over-year ARPU. Bottom-line: it’s about the bottom-line.

http://www.videonuze.com/article/why-has-the-definition-of-cord-cutting-become-so-squishy-

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Founder of Streaming Video App Ringz.TV Interviewed by TV of Tomorrow

Posted on July 25, 2012

TVOT founder Tracy Swedlow probes Ringz’ features, business model and roadmap in an exclusive interview with Ringz founder Robert May. Freewheeling discussion on trends in streaming video, content discovery, “over the top” television, a la carte entertainment, and next generation EPGs.

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“One Ring to Rule Them All”: Ringz Unifies The Interface To Simplify Video Sharing and Social TV

Posted on June 12, 2012

 Entering the multi-billion dollar content discovery market for cord-cutting video viewers, RingGuides Inc. (“RGI”) announces Ringz.TV.

A radically different entertainment experience, Ringz’ beta app organizes thousands of web video streams in a multi-dimensional environment. Leveraging the iPad’s dual core processors and multi-touch inputs, Ringz delivers a fast-paced world where viewers flip, swipe, tap, and pinch to explore a rich media universe.

Ringz is designed to organize and monetize video sharing from all sources—“over-the-top” web streams, live IPTV and cable television, video-on-demand (VOD) services like Netflix, “free-to-air” TV broadcasts, DVRs, and local files—in a single interface that works identically on TVs, phones, tablets and PCs.

“The future of television is video sharing of multi-source entertainment. Ringz’ simple interface and business model monetizes new services like Aereo and hybrid media player products like Apple TV that mix web video, local content, and live television” said Robert May, a successful serial entrepreneur and founder of Ringz. “Ringz provides consumers with easy access to personal entertainment on all their devices, while enabling advertisers to reach aggregated audiences with consistently measureable messages.

Ringz’ initial app focuses on web streams, showcasing partners AnyClip, BAMM, MetaCafe, Turner Broadcasting’s truTV and others, plus videos uploaded via Facebook and local iTunes content. Daily “Featured Ringz” present curated videos from around the world. Scrolling Twitter #hashtags link to Ringz about events, trends and sponsored brands. Social TV is encouraged with top RingMaker promotions and Ring sharing via email and social networks. Ringz’ iPad app can be mirrored to Apple TV as a “second-screen” remote control.

Ringz’ high-energy, over-the-top design by Emmy Award-winning film designer Kirk McInroy (“Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Night at the Museum,” “Aon Flux”) was refined through consumer research with hundreds of households at CBS Television’s testing lab.  The result is an immersive second screen interface that respondents described as: “fast…like channel surfing the web”, “I can see everything at once”, ”I’m finally in control of my TV.”

Based on the patented Ikonic Navigator electronic program guide (“EPG”), Ringz is the first social TV product of RGI, an angel-funded startup based at RocketSpace in San Francisco, CA.

Ringz.TV for iPad is free in the iTunes App Store, at Ringz.tv and facebook.com/ringz.tv. Follow on Twitter @ringztv.       ###

 

Contact: Zoe Sexton, Maguffin Worldwide, +1-415-888-2565, zoe@maguffinworldwide.com

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Millions of Channels, Dozens of Devices…GigaOm Defines What It Takes To Win

Posted on February 20, 2012

A recent GigOm study, “Managing Infinite Choice: The New Era of TV User Interfaces“, by Alfred Poor, identified six key requirements for the next generation of of television Electronic Program Guides (EPGs).

According to Poor, the successful EPG must seamlessly enable Search, Browse, Recommendations, Retrieval, Access Control, Social Interaction functions. We’re excited by Poor’s recommendation, as we’re building Ringz.TV  to deliver these capabilities in a single, consistent, extensible user experience on any device.

Poor’s study quotes U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics findings that U.S. TV viewers aged 15 and older spend 3.44 hours a day watching television…nearly two-thirds of their available leisure time. He concludes ”…the rewards for solving this problem could be enormous. A better television interface for consumers could unlock the conundrum of how to monetize the content that used to be paid for through commercials interspersed in linear programming. For example, it could hold the key to delivering targeted content to small segments of the population that were not fiscally viable when we were limited to three major networks. It could also enable individualized advertising, much as marketing content is now customized for specific users in web searches. The very future of professionally produced video content may depend on finding a solution to the user interface problem. Without giving users a better way to access the universe of content and without giving advertisers a better way to reach those users, the current system of terrestrial broadcast and MVPD channels could continue its downward spiral and ultimately fail to support the generation of new content.” We couldn’t have said it better.

If you’re interested in “over-the-top”, direct-to-consumer entertainment, we highly recommend the entire GigaOm report, available here.

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Twitter Feeds XFactor on Fox

Posted on January 27, 2012

The question of how we make the conversation as engaging for users as the shows they are watching is being answered by Twitter and by XFactor on Fox. XFactor has invested heavily in the infrastructure allowing viewer participation in the show and its outcome. Previously viewers could participate by texting in a voting code, but now votes, comments and responses will be seen on Twitter via XFactor Twitter feed. Now viewers can see and engage directly with each other.
Twitter’s long-term plan of developing partnerships with other types of media and programming are giving the privately held company massive influence and it’s not by accident. “This is the product of a strategy that started nearly three years ago with the hiring of Chloe Sladden, a former vice president at Current TV, who put Twitter messages on screen during the 2008 presidential election.” –NYTimes
“Benefits will accrue to us,” said Dick Costolo, the chief executive of Twitter, as a result of the service’s “engaging with these other media platforms and providing benefits to them.”
“The only powerful people now on TV,” he [Mr. Simon Cowell] declared, “are the people on Twitter and Facebook.”
While Twitter is great for sharing instant messages and links, Facebook users can truly implement the dual screen aspect of viewing that has become so popular. With Ringz.tv they will be able to share their visual media libraries with friends, developing an ongoing dialogue and shared experience via Facebook, Twitter and email. Creating and saving content takes sharing to a whole new level. At the end of the day, that is what users want, an outstanding experience they revisit over and over again.

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It’s Not TV, It’s Social TV

Posted on January 26, 2012

 

How can we find a way to make the conversation as engaging as the content people are watching? –Gavin Purcell on Social TV.
Twitter and television have a unique relationship.

These were comments from last year’s SXSW Social TV panel in Austin, TX. The answers are being driven by consumer choices. Ringz annually participates in a major network’s consumer testing, and the number of households using a second screen device, meaning a cell phone, tablet or a PC has more than doubled while watching broadcast television in past 12 months. This indicates consumers are becoming more accepting and interested in the integration of TV and the Internet; a process that has been years in the making.

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Xfinity User Testing Results

Posted on January 24, 2012

“Perhaps, it turns out, the most obvious features can also be the most innovative, or at least the most demanded.” Comcast user testing results in the release of its new cable box showed users’ favorite feature to be the weather.  But they are not accessing the social applications included with the box to share about it.

“People are not accustomed to signing into their TV,” Tom Blaxland, a senior director for the company’s Xfinity TV digital platform, said.

Or maybe it’s the input device that poses the barrier to users’ sharing on social media apps. There’s certainly something less tactile about pointing a remote control at the TV, vs. tapping, swiping or pinching a touch screen. Comcast users may stick to accessing the weather with the new Xfinity box, but recent consumer testing results for RingzTV confirmed viewers’ interest in creating instant collections of shows they love and sharing them with their friends.

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Inside Social Apps 2012 Discussion Points

Posted on January 22, 2012

We’re just three weeks away from the San Francisco based Inside Social Apps 2012 where panels will discuss the future of social apps, gaming and monetization of social media platforms. Topics include design, marketing and the distribution of established and emerging platforms. Naturally, we are expecting the subject of Social TV and TV Everywhere to come up, particularly after all the talk at CES and the Mashable live chat held last week in San Francisco. In light of the challenges to developers for these apps, it will be a great opportunity to uncover new ideas and network around this evolving world. At Ringz, our interest is multi-dimensional as we’re a Social Television app that combines new monetization opportunities for audiences in a game-like platform.  

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