Samba TV


Samba TV is a content recommendation engine and viewer tracking application designed for Smart TVs. The developer, San Francisco, California-based Samba, was co-founded in 2008 by early employees of BitTorrent, including Samba’s current CEO, Ashwin Navin. Samba TV develops software for televisions, set-top boxes, smart phones and tablets to enable interactive television through personalization. Through its portfolio of applications and TV platform technologies, Samba TV is built directly into the TV or set-top box and will recognize onscreen content—live or time-shifted—and make relevant information available to users at their request. The service is available only after a user activates it on a device, and is supported by interest-based advertising delivered on the television or on devices within the household. Through APIs and SDKs for mobile application software developers, Samba TV is usable on a second screen or the TV itself. Samba TV applications are currently available on over 30 million screens in 118 countries.
The company has raised over $40 million in capital from Disney, Warner Media, Interpublic Group, Liberty Global, MDC Partners, A+E Networks and Union Grove Venture Partners.

History

The company was founded as Flingo in 2008, to help media companies like Showtime, FOX, A+E Networks, TMZ, Revision3, PBS and CBS develop apps on Smart TVs that synchronize with linear Broadcast programming and Non-linear media. In January 2012, Samba TV launched one-click sharing on social networks like Facebook and Twitter from the television. In January 2013, the company announced further developments and features and named its interactive TV platform Samba.
In September 2013, the company adopted the Samba TV name.
In October 2017, The Walt Disney Company became a strategic investor in Samba TV to better understand TV viewership and engagement with advertising.

Features

Samba TV tracks what appears on the users' TV by reading pixels and utilizing this data for personalized recommendations on the TV or mobile apps connected to the television. This capability extends to streaming programs and even video games played on the television.
The system also allows viewers to access additional content from their favorite TV shows and actors, including thousands of exclusive online videos from over 80 channels. By connecting phones or tablets to the TV, viewers gain access to exclusive content and special offers. Also, as they flip through channels, related online videos or similar TV programs are automatically recommended. Advertisers can also present additional information directly to interested viewers on the TV or any device synchronized with it.
In June 2018, it became public that Samba TV is planning a cryptocurrency to provide its users incentives for sharing their data.

Ownership

Samba TV was incorporated as Free Stream Media Corp. in 2008, a company founded by Ashwin Navin, David Harrison, Alvir Navin, Omar Zennadi and Todd Johnson. According to the public source code repository, Flingo's open source client was written by David Harrison and Omar Zennadi in Python, and is free software licensed under the GPL.
In February 2012, Flingo announced a $7 million Series A round investment from August Capital. In May 2012, Flingo added additional investors, closing at $8 million, including entrepreneur Mark Cuban and Gary Lauder. Cuban discovered Flingo at CES 2012 when he saw a crowd in the Flingo booth watching a demonstration of its SyncApps technology. The funding helped Flingo expand its presence with smart TV and device manufacturers, building on its existing partnerships.
In April 2015, Interpublic Group announced a strategic investment in Samba TV. Subsequently, Samba TV announced more strategic investors totaling $30 million in a Series B round coming from Liberty Global, Disney, Warner Media, Interpublic Group, MDC Partners, A+E Networks and Union Grove Venture Partners.