Channel 4 is working on a Twitter-based iPhone and iPad app, provisionally called 4Now, that’ll pull up extra content about programmes while you’re tweeting away.
4Now, which is out next month, promises to make second screening – tweeting along with a TV show – smarter. The app will offer live polls of shows, games, quizzes and cast information alongside a Twitter feed.
The free app will be ad-supported and those adverts will be tailored to whatever it is you’re watching and tweeting about. So if you’ve been tweeting about hat dress Binky’s wearing on Made In Chelsea you might start seeing adverts for, say, Harvey Nichols popping up next to an #MIC thread.
It sounds a lot like Zeebox to us, albeit a second screen service that’s been tailored specifically for Channel 4, More 4, E4 and 4seven.
Similar to how Shazam has interacted with TV in the past, the 4Now app will support audio triggers, calling up adverts in real time that are synchronised with ads on the main screen.
As well as this, there’s a tweetbar containing messages from the likes of Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver. We’ve been able to get hold of some pre-release screen shots, click the thumbnails to enlarge.
Keith Underwood, Director of Strategy & Technology at Channel 4 said: “Channel 4 has a long history of delivering innovative new technology projects. As a centralised product destination, 4Now allows us to enhance our relationship with viewers and enables us to offer them a range of interactive, synchronised experiences for shows which may not have warranted a standalone application. Additionally, it enables us to drive further commercial opportunities for our advertising partners.”
The app has launched to selected registered Channel 4 users as part of a live trial, which Underwood describes as “part of the two-way relationship we have with our viewers.”
While the 4Now is headed to iOS devices first, Channel 4 says its considering launching on other mobile platforms in the future.
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