Comcast got into the social TV game in June with the launch of a new service called Tunerfish. Today, the company announced a bunch of upgrades that general manager John McCrea said should lead to more sign-ups and growth.
Tunerfish was developed by team members from Plaxo, which was acquired by Comcast in 2008 &8212' McCrea was Plaxoa4a4s vice president of marketing, and Tunerfish product director Nida Zada was Plaxoa4a4s director of user experience. Through the Tunerfish website and the iPhone application, users can share what theya4a4re watching on television, see whata4a4s trending among their friends or the general userbase, and earn rewards.
When I asked about Tunerfisha4a4s numbers, McCrea didn&'t give a specific user count, noting that it&'s still a new product, but he revealed that the number of a4Asharesa4 increased 500 percent between July and October. And its users are loyal &8212' 10 percent of them return to the website or iPhone app seven days out of seven.
One of the big changes revealed today is a new look. Tunerfish ditched the boring text-only logo and worked with the Liquid Agency marketing firm to design a cute fish mascot, which you can see in various guises above. And the website has been redesigned with what the company says is a cleaner look. That look is also reflected in an updated version of the Tunerfish iPhone app that just went live.
Lastly, McCrea said his team responded to the biggest request from users &8212' ita4a4s now possible to sign-up for Tunerfish using a traditional email address and password, rather than requiring users to log in via Facebook or Twitter.
a4AThis really surprised us, but almost all of our low ratings in the app store were around that issue,a4 McCrea said.
Comcast isna4a4t the only company interested in this area. For example, a Google Ventures-funded application called Miso also allows users to a4Acheck ina4 to their favorite TV shows.
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Companies: Comcast
People: John McCrea
Companies: Comcast
People: John McCrea
Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.
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