Shazam, the popular “media discovery” app, partnered on Friday with three NBC Universal shows for their upcoming and current seasons — USA’s “Psych”, SyFy’s “Being Human” and E!’s “The Soup.”
Viewers of the three shows can access special show-related content, qualify for prize sweepstakes and unlock other special features if they “Shazam” the show.
Shazam began as an app for identifying songs that one heard. Using audio recognition software the app can tag a tune playing near one’s phone. Over the past few years the company has expanded with its “Shazam for TV” feature, which enables a viewers to use the same software to tag a show or an ad.
It has partnered with 12 TV shows since it launched the project, many of them over at NBC Universal.
Jesse Redniss, SVP of Digital for USA, told TheWrap that prior experiments with USA’s “Royal Pains” and “Covert Affairs” led to increased interest in further partnerships with Shazam.
“There are more people with smartphones and people getting savvier, so all marketers and networks are starting to utilize the platforms a lot more,” Redniss said. “For us, the way we look at it is Shazam has a user base of more than 175 million across the world and more than 60 million in the United States […] partnering with Shazam provides us with immediate scale.”
Also Read: Shazam Offers Free Unlimited Tagging for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch
With these three NBC Universal shows, Shazam has achieved different levels of integration.
This will be the second season in a row in which Shazam for TV will be integrated with an entire season of “Being Human.”
The show debuted Jan. 16 and using Shazam one can access exclusive scenes from the next week’s episode, a track list of the songs featured in any given episode and a wallpaper for one’s phone. Lexus is also sponsoring a sweepstakes that offer a chance to win a trip to Boston, the locale of the show.
When “Psych” returns Feb. 29, its first two episodes will be Shazam-enabled, offering viewers bloopers, photo galleries and wallpapers. Again, there will be a chance to win a trip, but in this case it is to Santa Barbara.
Similarly, the Feb. 29 and March 7 episodes of “The Soup” will be Shazam-enabled, offering exclusive clips and a trip to a taping in Los Angeles.