We’re living in the golden era of television. While there are still failures (I’m looking at you, Whitney), we’ve perfected how to create TV that everyone enjoys through our massive array of channels. For the people that love high-quality, Emmy-chasing programs, we have Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire as top-notch dramas; brilliant comedies like Modern Family, Parks and Recreation, and Community; and crowd-pleasers like American Idol, Glee, and Dancing With the Stars.
Yet, we still haven’t mastered a method of interacting with this content. Many of us go online while we’re watching our favorite shows, but we have to search out information pertaining to what we’re watching. What if a program knew what we were watching, and gave us the information we were looking for? That’s where Miso comes in.
Miso, a startup formed over a year ago, is bringing this online searching experience to you. Miso started as a website where people would comment on and rate episodes of different shows for a communal TV-watching experience. But Miso’s recently-released mobile app has transformed the experience into something completely unique. When you download the app, your phone is synchronized to the TV you’re watching. From there, the app will send relevant information to your phone, like the IMDB profiles of guest actors in an episode, details on the music played on the show, trivia, and prompts to comment on what’s happening based exactly on the part of the episode that you’re watching. Furthermore, users can contribute to the app their own thoughts and comments, which makes for a truly interactive experience.
Miso has a partnership with DirecTV for this synchronizing experience, and more partnerships will be announced over the next year. Dexter, the breakout Showtime hit, is the first show that’s being synchronized this way, which started with its premiere last Sunday, September 25th.
Katie Smillie, Director of Product and Marketing for Miso, believes this communal experience will make Miso transcendent. “We believe in the power of our user community. Over the last year we've slowly opened up Miso to let our users create content, and they continue to rise to the challenge and ask for more,” she said. “No matter who you are, you can create what you think people want at a specific second and people can follow you and get that information when they watch. Once something is tagged to a moment in a show it doesn’t matter if you as a viewer watch live or five days later, you’re still be able to have the experience on Miso anytime.”
Smillie is excited about seeing Miso synced with Dexter but is also is looking forward to more shows being available for syncing. She noted that “for sitcoms like Modern Family, I'm looking forward to sharing funny quotes from Manny and Phil. For Glee, I always want to know more about the music and original artists behind the songs they sing. For shows on the Food Network, I want to get the recipe on my phone and save it for later, or if I'm feeling lazy I want someone to tell me the nearest restaurant with that particular dish.”
With TV fully embraced as a great form of entertainment, Miso plans to be there with viewers along the way. As social media brands like Twitter have shown with its trending topics during award shows or sporting events, we enjoy interacting with others about what we watch on TV, and we get a kick out of reading real-time reactions to what’s happening. Miso capitalizes on that interest, and it does the work for you.