RCDb Rebrands as Watchwith, Launches Watchwith Platform-as-a-Service, Opens Beta Developer Program

Related Content Database (RCDb) announced Tuesday that it has changed its name to Watchwith, and launched what it calls its Watchwith Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) product offering. The company also unveiled a new logo and Web site (http://www.watchwith.com), and opened a beta developer program for the Watchwith Platform.

According to the company, the Watchwith Platform enables the addition of a layer of time-based metadata to programming, allowing content-owners to build new business models and drive consumer engagement with program-related content across multiple connected devices--content-owners can use the platform to create new, licensable related content properties that "will generate profits across media far into the future," the company claims. It says that the platform's Web-based console enables time data management from creation to delivery. "Our new name reflects our mission, to create a world where every frame of film and television is rich in amazing opportunities," Watchwith CEO, Zane Vella, said in a prepared statement. "The Watchwith Platform provides the essential foundation for time-data event creation, integration, control, syndication and measurement. Content owners and developers can now dimensionalize and add value to every moment of their movies, television programs and advertising."

According to Watchwith, by allowing the addition of a layer of time-based metadata to programming, its platform "drives user experience, builds new business models and unlocks value based on the context of [the] programming." The platform allows content-owners to create and syndicate related content, the company says, while simultaneously maintaining control over the "related content experience" and the monetization of their programming across any connected device.

The company also bills the platform as facilitating the development and delivery of apps that "will redefine how people engage with films, television programs and advertisements." Its beta developer program is located at http://watchwith.com/developers.

The principal components of the Watchwith platform, according to the company, include:

• Watchwith Console: Web-based tools for creating, managing and controlling time-based events.
• Watchwith Showrunner: a Mac OSX desktop app for creating and programming related content experiences.
• Related Content Database: a database that stores content-owner-created time-based events and second-by-second metadata for "thousands" of films and TV shows.
• Watchwith API: a scalable interface for multiplatform metadata distribution, which the company says supports a range of file, syndication and delivery formats.
• Watchwith Sync Service: client and server software that is designed to enable synchronization with IP-delivered content, and also leverages EBIF to enable content synchronization in legacy/low-resource set-top box environments.
• Watchwith Tester Apps and SDK's: accelerate development of time-based-metadata-driven apps and offer pre-integrated support for Gracenote Entourage, Zeitera and Audible Magic automatic content recognition (ACR) solutions.