Social TV News: ClipSync Launches Social TV Application for Facebook

San Francisco-based social TV company, ClipSync, contacted [itvt] Monday to let us know that it has launched an application called ClipSync Viewing Parties for Facebook, which it claims is the first Facebook application to combine social networking with social TV, allowing users to host, invite and gather Facebook friends into live viewing parties. The company says that the new app will initially be offered in conjunction with the reality series, "Big Brother 11," and the soap opera, "The Young and the Restless," both of which air on CBS, a company with which ClipSync has an existing partnership. According to the company, the latest episodes of those shows will be made available in the Viewing Parties app a few hours after their broadcast, and more shows will be offered through the application on a weekly basis.

ClipSync says that the Viewing Parties application lets Facebook users schedule a group event--i.e. a viewing party--for an episode of any of the supported shows, and then send invitations to their Facebook friends to watch the episode together within the app. According to the company, participants in the viewing parties can interact with one another and the show they are watching through pop-up comment bubbles, triggered avatar gestures, and by throwing "interactable objects" at one another and the screen. The app is powered by ClipSync Social TV, which the company bills as a highly scalable interaction service and games engine. "As we've done with CBS.com, TV.com, MTV.com and recently MySpace's 'Married On MySpace,' ClipSync's Viewing Parties application for Facebook is changing the way people watch TV," said ClipSync CEO, Itzik Cohen. "Facebook provides the perfect setting to launch this application. By combining our Social TV with Facebook's social network, the Viewing Parties app bridges the gap between TV viewing and the way we socialize." The Viewing Parties for Facebook application is available at http://apps.facebook.com/viewingparties, and will shortly also be available through the Facebook application directory, ClipSync says.

In related news: In a posting on UK terrestrial broadcaster Channel 4's blog, Monday, Channel 4 product development manager, Andy Pipes, announced the trial launch of a social recommendation service, called Test Tube Telly, that integrates the broadcaster's player and extensive line-up of broadband video programming with Facebook. The service is designed to make it easier for users to discover the programs that interest them from among the thousands of archived programs that Channel 4's catch-up service, 4oD, recently made available on Channel4.com. "In techie terms," Pipes wrote, "Test Tube Telly = 4oD + Facebook Connect. In English, it's an experimental site that lets you see what programs your Facebook friends are themselves watching and discussing."

According to Pipes, Channel 4 "built the site very quickly and very cheaply" (with the assistance of Meta Broadcast) and it therefore has some "rough edges." He added that the broadcaster plans to expand and enhance the service over the coming weeks, and is currently considering integrating it with Twitter as well as Facebook. "We'll be keeping the site live until the end of September," he wrote, "after which we'll share what we've learned...with a fair wind, some of the features included in Test Tube Telly may appear on channel4.com, but no promises." Pipes also added that the site will collect "the very bare minimum of personal data we need to run the prototype." (Note: Due to rights restrictions, programs on Test Tube Telly can only be played out by UK users.)