Exclusive Shazam deal for ITV
April 19, 2012
By Colin Mann
UK commercial broadcaster ITV and media discovery company Shazam have agreed a partnership which will see ITV become the exclusive UK distributor for Shazam functionality in UK broadcast advertising.
Under the terms of the deal, ITV Commercial will be the exclusive UK sales force offering advertisers the chance to have their traditional 30-second TV spots Shazam-enabled for the first time. Viewers who have Shazam installed on their smartphones, currently more than 10 million in the UK, will be able to use the app to interact with the enabled adverts to enter competitions, get additional information about a brand or product, view additional special content or download free music.
The partnership follows the success of Shazam for TV in the US where it has revolutionised the viewing experience of some of America’s most popular television shows and events such as American Idol, the GRAMMY Awards and the Super Bowl, where more than half of the advertisers in this year’s big game chose to Shazam-enable their ads.
Simon Daglish, Group Commercial Sales Director at ITV, said that Shazam’s audio-recognition technology was at the forefront of the second screen movement which was transforming the way consumers interacted with content including advertising.