Social television platform Beamly is facilitating a unified experience across all screens by teaming up with Android TV.

Bringing its personalized TV guide, content discovery, content recommendation, remote control, personalized news feeds, community and show engagement platform to an Android TV application for mobile devices, Beamly furthers its positioning that television is no longer something experienced just on a stationary set as viewing shifts increasingly to on-demand, 24/7 engagement. A linear TV guide paired with recommendations no longer cuts it for connected consumers, and manufacturers need to provide an all-day experience, across mobile and TV.

?Innovation has been taking place on the phone very rapidly, but advances in television have remained fundamentally the same,? said Anthony Rose, co-founder and chief technology officer Beamly.

?Android TV means that it will be possible to create mobile apps that will allow startups and companies to bring that pace to TV as well, as they will be able to quickly and inexpensively make and publish apps live, which will change the far from openness of TV.

?Manufacturers are slightly wrong with television as consumers are not looking for apps on the TV. When you switch it on you expect content and action, when you see stagnant apps, that?s not TV,? he said.

Anytime, anywhere
By integrating Beamly's Android TV application into their devices, OEMs are able to provide a TV solution powered by Beamly's personalized guide and content discovery platform, where users can seamlessly browse for shows on their phone or on the TV.

Beamly's remote control capability allows the TV set, an external set top box and the Android TV interface all to be controlled with a single click, creating a unified experience across cable, free to air and IP-delivered content. Additionally, the Beamly mobile and on-screen apps can sync with the show being watched, providing a harmonized second screen social and show participation experience.

On-demand experience

An increasing number of people watch TV with a phone or tablet in hand while simultaneously chatting with friends, tweeting about a show, or looking for information on a program or actor. As more consumers switch from live to on-demand viewing, the conversation has shifted from taking place during a show rather than before and after.

Incorporating the Beamly application into their Android TV devices allows manufacturers to deliver Beamly's second screen TV show games, votes, polls and interactions, as used by NBC, Viacom, Sky and other major broadcasters, directly into the show itself. This allows users to play along to popular shows from their phone or directly on the TV.

For example, The Voice, a popular singing competition show used Beamly as a social network to commence voting amongst fans. Turning mobile devices into social hubs as a community to find shows and friends allows for participation to form anywhere, and often nowhere near a TV.

New advertising channel
Beamly's SpotSync ad platform allows device manufacturers the potential to participate in an ongoing revenue stream from consumers rather than merely a one-time device sale every 7 years, the average TV replacement cycle.

?The biggest opportunity for advertisers is perhaps the future use of click-to-buy, which could be linked to iBeacon technology in-store, where a user?s phone could be pinged when an item featured in their favorite program is available in a near store,? Mr. Rose said.

?Once this tech is in place and platforms like Beamly allow advertisers to buy an ad on TV and synchronize on mobile phones, television advertising will change.?

Beamly is already working with several Android TV manufacturers on integrating the Beamly experience across their platform, but is open to all. There is no word on when the Beamly Android TV app will become available for consumers.

?In the future you will press ?Watch? on your phone and the program will play on your TV or device and you won?t care if its streamed on your device, the Internet or TV, and you won?t care its live or on demand,? Mr. Rose said.

Final Take
Michelle is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York