Vimond Media Solutions has launched Vimond Connect, to allow digital media service providers to facilitate a social media experience for video on-demand (VoD) viewers. Based in Bergen, Norway, the company powers services from online TV brands, such as Comcast, Thomson Reuters, TV 2, and iflix.
Vimond Connect allows consumers of VoD to comment on the content as they watch, and anchors the comments to the exact moment in the video when they were posted, so they can be seen at the same point by viewers watching later. This enables a spoiler-free conversation around television content between viewers watching VoD at different times.
Vimond Connect’s feature set is designed to give a sense of social interaction, with users able to find content that their friends have enjoyed, go straight to the most commented moments in a programme, create groups of friends to share comments with, initiate private chats with online viewers, and monitor trending topics.
The solution lets viewers continue the discussion after watching, by being notified when someone responds to their comments, and can automatically create compilations based on chosen criteria such as topic hashtags or ‘most commented’ moments.
“Social media interaction is the lifeblood of most people’s digital experience today, and yet until now there has not been an easy and coherent way to integrate it with VoD services,” said Helge Høibraaten, CEO of Vimond Media Solutions. “With the decline in linear TV viewing, media consumption has become a more solitary activity, but previous pilots have shown that viewers really value the facility to share their reactions and thoughts as they watch. Now Vimond Connect offers the first opportunity for providers to bring their services more into line with the way today’s consumers like to watch and share their experience of watching.”
