At the TechCrunch Disrupt event in New York City, Monday, Comcast unveiled a social TV service called Tunerfish that was developed by employees of Plaxo, the address book/social networking service that Comcast acquired back in 2008.
Tunerfish--whose public beta is slated to begin in around two weeks--allows users to share and comment on what they are watching on TV and on online video-sharing services, in real time, via their social networks. Because it also displays which TV shows are trending up or down among a user's friends, it simultaneously functions as a social recommendations/discovery service. Like location-based social networking service, Foursquare, Tunerfish incorporates a game element, providing users with "influence points" (i.e. points for influencing other users' viewing habits) that they can redeem for rewards. It also allows users to embed videos from online video-sharing services, so that they can co-watch them with their online friends.
According to John McCrea, the Plaxo VP of marketing who delivered the presentation and who is leading the Tunerfish project for Comcast, the MSO will initially launch the service on the Web and on the Apple iPhone and iPad. An Android version is slated to follow shortly thereafter, and a set-top box version is also planned.
A video interview with McCrea about Tunerfish, that was shot by blogger/Twitter personality, Robert Scoble, is embedded above.
