Kit Digital Skins the TV Guide, Adds Social Features

The social TV revolution is in full swing, and last week Kit Digital showed off its contribution at the NAB show in Vegas. Kit’s Social Program Guide is a white label product for service providers that lays social functionality on top of a traditional EPG. Even if you don’t want to tweet from your TV, Kit offers features that help you discover what friends are watching. The guide also provides recommendations based on a combination of personal preferences and activity in your social circle. Want to keep the social stuff limited to your iPad? Kit lets you do that too, offering a cross-platform application for browsing comments and background info on your lap, while leaving the main entertainment up on the big screen.

If my experience at the Cable-Tec Expo last fall is any indicator, lots of companies are getting into the TV guide business. And everyone is touting a combination of cloud-based technology, social content discovery, and new advertising opportunities. Kit Digital is no different, but it does have an appealing interface and some nice touches. I like the asynchronous commenting feature, and the ability to set up individual accounts in a household. Here’s a list of capabilities, as provided by Kit Digital lead analyst and loyal ZNF reader Alan Wolk.

Social Program Guide Features:

• Individual accounts: Every family member gets their own account which is tied to their social networks. That means everyone can be sharing a first screen experience while simultaneously having a personalized second screen experience.
• Watchlist: Your go-to screen, it combines all the shows you’ve recorded, added to the watch list or bookmarked via the (pay) On Demand service.
• TV Guide: Two views: a traditional Grid EPG that highlights which shows your friends are watching, and a Recommended Viewing matrix that sorts what’s currently on air via an algorithm that combines your preferences with recommendations and activity from your social graph and/or critics.
• Asynchronous commenting: If you are watching something after it’s aired, your friends comments are saved in a timeline and shown in real time, so you the experience is not ruined by spoilers.
• Multiscreen: You can watch on any screen you like – tablet, smartphone and, of course, your television. You can move the show from one device to another with just one tap.