Social TV grips Europe

摘要

Founded in 2009 by Alexander Mazzara and TV industry veteran Kurt Schaad, the concept for joiz was to create the most innovative social TV broadcaster and platform. Mazzara has a background in journalism and has worked within the TV industry for Switzerland's largest broadcaster (SRF) and Germany's RTL and Pro7, so was well placed to enter the TV market. The idea for joiz was to fuse TV with the web, social media and mobile platforms, In 2011, investors were secured to launch joiz for the first time in Switzerland, followed by Germany in 2013. "When we started, second screen and social TV didn't exist," explains Mazzara. "Those days, it was more about interactive TV. There's a chance that people are using other devices while watching TV and the reason is that Wi-Fi is available for the first time and there's a huge chance of having interactivity with software, not with hardware. Many companies tried to do interactivity with another remote control or set top boxes and typically it didn't work because in those days, interactivity was not fast enough. Right now with apps or websites you can do much more interactivity. You can create a community around a programme."