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New App Tells Viewers When the Commercials Are Over

Jul 31, 2013  •  Post A Comment

A new iOS app alerts viewers in real time when TV programming returns from a commercial break. Engadget reports that the tech goodie, Commercial Break, is currently running a beta test.

"You tell it what channel you’re watching and it uses DSP and some algorithms to analyze audio and video cues, delivering a push notification to your mobile device once what you were watching comes back," the story reports.

The piece adds: "As of right now, it’s in public beta with 10 compatible channels in New York City: ABC, CBS, CNN, ESPN, ESPN2, FOX, NBC, TNT, TBS and USA. Outside of the Big Apple, CNN, ESPN and ESPN2 are compatible nationwide, with a few of these channels also available to others along the East Coast."

The app’s developers have plans to expand to other markets as well, the report notes.

According to a press release announcing the app, Commercial Break is available for free from Apple’s App Store during its beta test.

Commercial Break co-founder and CEO Haim Kairy says in the release: "The average American sees more than ten hours of commercials every week. Commercial Break is two Israelis’ attempt to help them take back that time. The idea came to me after channel-surfing one day: I realized that my co-founder, Eli Ben David, and I could apply our backgrounds in engineering and sound production to automate the tedious channel-flipping that we all do while waiting for our program to come back from commercials."

One Comment

  1. Reminds me of one of my favorite Android Apps, “RunPee”. You enter the name of a movie and it tells you when are the best times to “run pee” without missing much along with a description of what happens while you are out.

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