DISH Explorer Adds GetGlue Social Media Experience for iPad

You may not be familiar with the service, but GetGlue is one of the only platforms successfully merging social media with TV watching. The platform boasts 4 million users with 800 million total check-ins, ratings, and reviews. Time Warner is among one of their investors and they have over 100 network and studio partners in addition to the 30 media companies that utilize GetGlue's API...Make that 31. DISH just added GetGlue to their DISH Explorer second-screen app for iPad. With this, DISH customers can "check-in" and connect with their favorite TV shows, movies and sporting events. Here's what it looks like:

The update is free for DISH app users and can be downloaded today. What it does is allow DISH Explorer users to interact with the more than four million GetGlue users. The news is a big deal for two reasons: One, social media has been trying to gain traction in the television and broadcast space for some time, but it keeps slipping its foothold. Two, this marks the first time GetGlue has allowed a third party app to access its media feed. Facebook and others have not yet broken into the real-time television viewing experience, but with a third-party app integration into a broadcast app, this might be the way to jump-start a new mechanism for generating user-based social interaction.

Now, I don't WANT this to necessarily take off, but then again I'm old-fashioned. I have caught myself snapping pictures of my home theater to tell my friends that I'm about the watch a movie (and that they are welcome to come over). Perhaps this is the new way of doing just that. As a social medium, perhaps TV is in need of an overhaul... 

GetGlue is unique in that its media feed tracks real-time activity for approximately 35,000 shows and 50,000 movies and current sporting events. The information tracked includes both official and fan-generated programming content—namely, photos, comments, videos, recaps and even tweets. With GetGlue integrating with DISH, users can earn "rewards" from participating entertainment partners when they check-in to shows. And, you can automatically populate your check-ins to your Facebook and Twitter feeds. Not bad, considering that's not an automatic process.

This is a pretty logical step for DISH Explorer, DISH's second-screen iPad app. Considering that it was just announced earlier this year at the 2013 CES, it's come a long way. 

Have you progressed to the point where you might want to interact in real-time with social media? Or do you want to be left alone when you watch TV. Let us know in the discussion forums by hitting the link below. 

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