Type of site Entertainment Commercial Yes | Website tv.com Registration Optional | |
Owner CBS Interactive
(CBS Corporation) Launched June 1, 2005; 11 years ago (2005-06-01) | ||
TV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive (CBS Corporation). The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom. It emphasizes user-generated content. Australia and UK versions of the website are also available, at au.tv.com and uk.tv.com, respectively.
Contents
History
CNET originally acquired the domain name (among other generic domain names like news.com, radio.com, etc.) in the mid-1990s to host a website for the company's technology-related TV shows. One of these shows was titled TV.com. The program, highlighting the best of the Internet for new and casual computer users, aired in U.S. syndication.
CNET then acquired TV Tome, a fan-run television database. TV.com was launched a few months after that acquisition on June 1, 2005. Many of the features and content from the original TV Tome site were maintained in the new TV.com site.
On May 15, 2008, CBS formally announced its purchase of CNET Networks, and the company changed its name to CBS Interactive.
TV.com continually looked at innovating the television-viewing experience by incorporating it with technology, as seen with the creation of WatchList. This service offered personalized TV listings influenced by user actions and social media, which eventually carried over to the creation of TV.com Relay.
TV Tome
TV Tome was an American website devoted to documenting English-language television shows and their production. It was run by volunteer editors, with the assistance of user contributions. The site was founded by John Nestoriak III.
The site had over 2,500 complete television series guides, over 3,500 developing television series guides, and filmographies for 250,000 actors and crew members moderated by a five-member crew. In addition to the television series guides, TV Tome had a forum for each television series, with information regarding episodes, their interpretation, and general discussions.
A spin-off site, Movie Tome, was established in August 2003. A video game tome and a music tome were originally planned as well, but such plans were abandoned with the purchase of TV Tome and Movie Tome by CNET (see below).
On April 22, 2005, TV Tome officially announced its acquisition by CNET. CNET reportedly bought TV Tome for US $5 million in January 2005. CNET announced plans to relocate the site to its TV.com domain, which was acquired in 1996 for use in conjunction with the short-lived syndicated television series of the same name. A preliminary version of the new site launched on June 1, 2005 and on June 13, 2005, the site was permanently redirected to TV.com with an entirely new layout.
Features
TV.com provides show descriptions, cast and crew listings, full episodes, clip length videos, discussion forums and detailed episode guides for many shows. Episode guides may include synopsis information, a recap, credits, notes, trivia, quotes, and images provided by the networks. All textual information in the guides is user-generated.
Users earn points for participating. After a user earns a certain number of points, s/he becomes an editor for the guide and can moderate user submissions.
The site provides actor guides that include actor bios, credits, trivia, and quotes, images, forums and related news. Like show pages, users can become editors for these guides after earning points by providing sourced content.
In addition to its user-generated database of television information, TV.com creates original editorial content and special features for noteworthy television events, such as Comic-Con, season finales award shows, upfronts and holiday TV.
Mobile app
The site's mobile application allows users to stream video content, including clips and full length episodes, directly to their device.
Relay
TV.com Relay is a social television check-in application that is available via mobile networks and web. Users can check into shows they are watching, see what their friends are watching, participate in discussions and earn badges.