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Cable Technology Feature Article

April 02, 2014

Millicom's mi.tv App Looks to Socialize TV User Experience

By Mini Swamy, TMCnet Contributor


With over 20 million Facebook (News - Alert) accounts and one of the highest pay TV penetration rates in Latin America, Colombia seemed a good place to combine social media and TV in a single solution. Millicom (News - Alert) Digital Ventures, a telecommunication and media company, took this opportunity to introduced a free social TV application, mi.tv.

Millicom claims to set the pace when it comes to providing digital lifestyle services to the world’s emerging markets, and the mi.tv app is the first service it has created for the entertainment and media sectors in Latin America and Africa.

App makers revel in the idea that there is always something more that they can do for TV viewers to enhance their viewing experience. And, perhaps they do have a point. How many of us sit in front of the TV, remote in hand, surfing through the 300+ channels to find something worthwhile to watch. The mind numbing process is tiring and at the end of it, we probably end up watching some stupid show, cribbing continuously about the mediocrity of programs that are aired.

The entry of mi.tv on the scene is expected to alter the user TV experience radically.  Based on users’ preferences, mi.tv will put an end to browsing and flicking across channels by gently guiding users to pick out the best ones around. It will also encourage viewers to faithfully follow those shows by reminding them when those are being aired, nudging them into sharing their experience with friends, right from where they are – lolling on the living room couch. What’s more, viewers can tailor the service to suit their individual tastes.

Sure, this little app does help in a way—finding favorite programs, keeping track of them and sharing them with friends. But doesn’t that make people dumber than they actually are? If they need an app just to help them choose what’s good on TV and alert them when they forget to watch, it doesn’t say much about their little ‘grey cells’- which the Belgian detective- Hercule Poirot was never tired of exercising.

Well, in this ‘instant era’ where people want everything at the tip of their fingers and don’t want to exert themselves too much while doing anything, apps like mi.tv could well be welcomed with open arms.




Edited by Cassandra Tucker


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