Showtime Launches Social iPad App

Today, Showtime Networks announced the launch of its new second screen viewing experience "SHOWTIME Social" app for iPad. The SHOWTIME Social app will significantly enhance the live TV viewing experience for fans of the network's award-winning and critically-acclaimed series by following along with their iPads while they watch. The app's unique community layer aggregates all online content about SHOWTIME and the network's series posted on Facebook, Twitter and blogs, among others, and sorts these comments to show real-time reactions. Users can also participate in live discussions during linear episodes, and react and comment directly through the app on a variety of social networking sites.

By using the SHOWTIME Social app, viewers will be able to answer polls, make predictions and share instant reactions with friends on Facebook and Twitter. The app also boasts a distinctive interface where the menu navigation is overlaid over the app's full-screen video player. The content itself serves as a canvas encouraging video browsing. Consumers can watch in-depth behind the scenes features, browse photo galleries, view the latest episode previews, movie trailers, custom webisodes and sample full episodes. When the user wants to watch video, the navigation simply fades away, allowing viewers to enjoy content from some of their favorite SHOWTIME series including DEXTER®, HOMELAND, SHAMELESS, WEEDS, THE BIG C, THE BORGIAS, CALIFORNICATION and more.

The SHOWTIME Social App launches just in time for viewers to discuss and interact with the season finales of WEEDS and THE BIG C, airing tonight on SHOWTIME from 10 to 11 p.m. ET/PT, and the premieres of DEXTER and HOMELAND, launching this Sunday, October 2nd from 9 to 11 p.m. ET/PT. The App offers three key advantages to fans of the network's programming:

Community:
The concept of community is ever-present throughout the SHOWTIME Social app. Whenever the viewer wants to browse discussions online or interact on various social networks, the user can just tap to open the app's community layer. The community feature aggregates all content online related to SHOWTIME and sorts it to present only relevant comments to the viewer, including real time fan reactions on Twitter, Facebook and relevant online blog posts, stories and features from entertainment websites, among others. The community layer will filter content according to the area of the app where a user is browsing - for example, if a user is browsing the DEXTER page, then the app only shows DEXTER content. Users can directly post to Facebook and Twitter via the app, and can share, retweet and reply directly from the app to all of the content that appears in the community bar.

Live Discussion:
The second screen viewing companion feature allows fans to interact with social networks in a new way using the tactile features of the device. SHOWTIME viewers who are live tweeting and posting to Facebook in real time while they are watching their favorite series can now enjoy a more tactile and emotional experience designed specifically for the iPad. As an alternative to typing their reactions in the community layer, users will be able to touch and select the options that they feel. The feature makes it easy to react at any time during the episode without distracting from the viewing experience and gives viewers a frictionless opportunity to react instantly at any time during the episode. For those logged into the app along with their friends on Facebook, they will be able interact and see their friends' reactions in real time. The real time app updates have the advantage of not clogging the user's Facebook news feed, as the reactions are displayed only in the app. At carefully selected points in the episode, polls or questions will also be presented to the user, timed to the specific episode's storylines. For questions that ask viewers to predict what will happen the answer will pay off before the end of the episode, with the app showing how the community as a whole voted.

As the episode draws to a close, the app encourages viewers to stick around to see an interactive "heat map" depicting how viewers reacted throughout the episode. This unique presentation allows users to swipe through the episode timeline minute-by-minute, displaying the range of the audience reactions at each point in time.

Program Guide and Content:
The SHOWTIME Social app offers a sortable schedule for all of the network's programming as well as schedule information for movies on all of the SHOWTIME multiplex channels, with the ability to set program reminders to tune-in. The app also offers robust episode guides for the network's original series, including preview scenes, behind the scenes video and photo galleries from upcoming episodes.