Type Private Area served Worldwide Website frequency.com Founded 2010 | Industry Internet, mobile apps Number of employees 20 (2013) Founder Blair Harrison | |
Headquarters Los Angeles, California, United States | ||
Frequency is a service that aggregates free-to-watch online video from multiple platforms into channels in a single application. Apps are available for free on mobile devices, personal computers and connected televisions.
Contents
History
Frequency Networks was founded by Blair Harrison, the company's CEO, in Los Angeles in 2010. Harrison previously founded FastTV, an early Internet video search site, and was CEO of online video entertainment site IFILM, sold to Viacom in 2005.
After raising an initial $4 million from investors, Frequency's website and iPad app were launched in January 2012. This was followed by a pre-installed version for connected Samsung televisions in September 2012 and an iPhone app in December 2012. In January 2013, Frequency announced a partnership with Chinese television maker TCL, for the app to come pre-installed on TCL's Android-based TVs, as the default option to watch video from online sources. In April 2014, the app was launched on Android phones and tablets, and that month Frequency announced a partnership with Amazon to launch its service on the streaming device Amazon Fire TV.
App description
Frequency compiles free-to-watch online videos from social networks, media sites and blogs, and creates custom channel streams based on individual users' interests. The channels are updated in real time, delivering videos from a wide range of sources in a single application. It synchronizes channels and viewed content across multiple devices. The platform channels are divided by content type, such as news, entertainment, sports, tech and children’s programming. Users can aggregate video from over 4,000 sources, including ESPN, CNN, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BBC, TechCrunch, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Users can also create their own personalized channels, and they can connect their account to Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus, allowing the service to filter through videos shared by social networking friends and provide recommendations. Videos are played non-stop, creating an experience similar to watching television.
Frequency makes it easier for television makers and over-the-top content providers to offer their customers a streamlined way to access short-form online content without having to access multiple websites or apps. Publishers can directly place videos into the app in exchange for a percentage of revenue. The only ads on Frequency are ones added in by a video's original distributor.
Frequency indexes approximately five million new videos and over 500 million social networking posts per day. As of April 2014, it has approximately four million monthly active users.
Availability
The Frequency app is available on the iPad, iPhone, Android phone and tablet, the web, Google TV and Amazon Fire TV, and comes pre-installed on connected televisions in over 90 countries, manufactured by Samsung, Sony, TCL and Hisense.
Other services
In 2014, the company launched Frequency Sync, a hosting service that allows video owners to publish, manage and monetize their videos across the range of Frequency applications. The tool helps users create and program channels, manage video advertising and get detailed analytics. The company previously partnered with video platform Brightcove, which allows its customers to publish video directly to Frequency.
Also in 2014, Frequency Source was launched, a software development kit and set of services that allow television operators, consumer electronics manufacturers and other platform developers to integrate Frequency and its curated videos into their own platforms.
Ratings and reviews
Frequency was ranked #40 on Complex magazine's list of the 50 Best Apps of 2012, chosen as one of the Top 100 Websites of 2013 by PC Magazine, and nominated for a Best Mobile App Award for Overall Best App of 2014. It was also named one of the 30 Best iPhone and iPad apps of the week by The Guardian in December 2012, was the Android Authority Indie App of the Day on May 5, 2014, and an Editor's Choice by the iTunes App Store. The app was rated a 4.5 out of 5 on AppSafari and a 4 out of 5 in MacLife.