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Civolution to unveil real-time ACR that could deliver interactive TV, ads to mobile devices

January 4, 2012 — 1:12pm ET | By Steve Donohue

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Cable executives attending the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next week may want to check out an exhibit from automatic content recognition (ACR) technology firm Civolution, which plans to demonstrate a service that could allow content owners to deliver interactive video and advertising to mobile phones and tablets that is synchronized with programming that a viewer is watching on TV.

Civolution, whose clients include HBO, Disney (NYSE: DIS), ABC, CBS and 20^th Century Fox, said its new SyncNow synchronization service could help application providers trigger interactive programming and advertising by monitoring more than 1,700 TV channels worldwide for audio watermarks or fingerprints. The company said it will team up with two of its application partners for the demonstrations at CES--ConnecTV and Ex Machina.

ConnecTV was co-founded by former TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO) and Gemstar-TV Guide executive Stacey Jolna, and its investors include broadcast station groups Hearst Television, Cox Media Group and Belo Corp. The company has been developing applications that could help local TV stations deliver interactive content and advertising to mobile devices that is synched with TV programming.

Amsterdam-based Ex Machina has developed a PlayToTV platform that could potentially allow hundreds of thousands of a reality show such as Fox's American Idol to use their mobile devices to rate the performances of contestants.

In addition to developing products for program suppliers and application developers, Civolution has been pitching its ACR technology to TV manufacturers for use in connected TVs and to interactive television technology firms. Last month, Civolution announced a deal with Ensequence to integrate its SyncNow product with Ensequence's iTV Manager platform. That deal could allow Ensequence customers such as ESPN, CNN, MTV, Showtime or HSN to deliver interactive content to mobile devices that relies on ACR technology.

For more:
- see Civolution release