Shazam! $32 Million and a TV Gig

Jason Kincaid over at TechCrunch reported that the audio fingerprinting wizards at Shazam have raised a ginormous round of $32 million. Part of the new pitch is that Shazam is expanding from music track identification and into solutions for television.

They have started a program called Shazam for TV and are partnered up with the likes of MTV, NBCUniversal and diverse advertisers to integrate their content with Shazam. TV shows are promoting engagement by prompting users to 'Shazam' a segment by starting the app and sampling the audio of the program. Advertisers are doing the same. Once the Shazam app recognizes the sample it can provide a number of things back to the user: select content, background information, push deals and product info, to name a few. (see video after the jump)

This began with Gravity and Gracenote creating the Grey's Anatomy app for iPad. Using audio fingerprinting to sample a section of the show and provide content for viewer engagement.
This just scratched the surface of the potential here and Shazam is running with it. The benefits of this type of engagement are that it works with delayed viewing as well. The audio fingerprint is embedded in the app which updates for each episode so it "listens" to the program track no matter where or when you are in the show, and will catch up accordingly.

Shazam's solution seems to rely on having the program elements stored in the cloud like an audible QR code and thus requires connectivity. Gravity's app seemed to embed the fingerprint in the episode update of the app and therefore could engage with the viewer whether connected or not. With over 50% of us using portable devices while watching television, this could be a very lucrative future as long as it maintains a level of engagement beyond just pushing ads.