By Vijay Kailas, CEO and Founder at Numote.

There has been a lot of media coverage about how TV is changing. Almost every week you see news about social startups looking to disrupt the TV viewing experience and new TVs that claim to be "smart" and "social." Yes there are apps such as Miso and GetGlue that offer badges for "checking-in" to TV shows but there has to be more to the future of TV than that.

The TV industry is undergoing a radical change driven by viewer demand for a more compelling experience. Working at a social tv company over the past 2 years, I've had a chance to get some insights on how things are really shaping up and what's to come. At its core, there are two components powering the change in the TV viewing experience: detecting what viewer's watching and adding context. These two components have the potential to radically change the TV industry.

It's funny to think that of what you are watching as important data. Of course you know what you are watching, but until recently, that data was locked up in the set top box with no way to get at it. There are three emerging trends unlocking what you are watching.  Startups such as Peel and Dijit are taking the route insert themselves in the "click stream" as a remote control device. Into_Now recently acquired by Yahoo and Flingo take another route of detecting viewer's content through the audio and video signals from the TV. Finally, content providers such as DirecTV and AT&T have begun offering a limited number of app developers access to APIs to access what a viewer is currently watching removing the need for detection technologies.

The fun part comes after detecting what a users is watching. Start-up companies such as mine - Numote - and others like TV Plus and Wayin are plugging away at building the contextual layer for TV. This contextual layer can include anything from tweets and celebrity gossip, to polls and game mechanics to encourage interacting. While, this new social and interactive content is still up for grabs, content providers such as NBC and Bravo are jumping in the game by offering live interactivity via their website and applications.

Who will win? It's not too early to place your bets. On the identification side, service providers are in a unique position to easily and accurately share information about what users are watching, regardless of what remote control or TV their users buy. As for the contextual layer, content creators and networks are likely to be the big winners with options to create compelling content through the second screen. Moreover, the data from usage of these apps will allow content providers to learn about their their viewers and further enrich and refine their programming in a totally new way.

While the future of TV is still in flux, what is certain is that we have a great future of TV watching ahead of us.

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Christian Hernandez, Facebook’s head of international business development, endorsed the Numote platform in a speech during the Connected Creativity Forum in Cannes last Wednesday. Hernandez highlighted Numote deep integration into Facebook for recommendations and social features.

That is a social experience for TV, he said.

It's good when the big guys start taking notice. Thanks for all the support!

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Other than fixing a few nasty bugs in our app, the new version offers a big speed boost so it’s even quicker to find shows to watch. Stay tuned for some cool new features in 1.8!

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Winner of the popular choice award and honarable mention in the Samsung Free The TV challenge, Numote was featured at the Samsung booth at CES 2011! At CES Numote presented an innovative way to experience TV demoing our app that encouraged a social TV experience with trending TV listings and badges for checking into shows.

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Pleased to announce a revamped iPhone app with a more responsive and streamlined interface, new social integration and live polls while you watch your favorite shows.

This is awesome. I can see EVERYONE in my social network that likes True Blood, my favorite show! – Tom Anderson, Numote Guide beta tester.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Summary of changes

• Redesigned friends view: added a complete list of your friends, swiping action, friend profile view with TV IQ points and more.
• Added live grid of who is watching and who loves a show.
• Up to 10x speed up!
• Numerous bug fixes.

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We are excited to launch our company blog. We’ll be telling you about latest developments in the social TV space and letting you know about updates to Numote. Keep a look out for new and exciting info about the Numote app.

We are pleased to announce a new version of our application that will hit the App store next week. The new version features a stream lined interfaces, invites, and friend’s profile pages.

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Today Numote takes over the wegot.tv project, which helps people track and manage their TV viewing.

wegot.tv developer James Smith, CTO of HeyZap, will come on as an advisor for Numote. We are excited to have James come on as an advisor and look forward to the insights and connections in the entertainment space he brings.

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