tamhery readyn mardin
Magdalena Liendo
TV Time tracks TV shows and movies, pitches recommendations and connects you with fellow fans on social media. The app is available for Android and Apple users and you can sign up for an account using Google, Apple, Twitter, Facebook or email. To get started, choose what shows you've watched on which streaming service (or network). Interestingly, when scrolling through Hulu's selections, only its originals are listed but the app tells you that you can add more later.
With TV Time, you can choose from multiple lineups, including Trending Shows like Ted Lasso, Demon Slayer or Grey's Anatomy. There are also categories for genres, a "Most Added" section with titles such as You and even a "Most Added Animation Series" row.
Once you lock in your choices, TV Time collates a Watch List and suggests which episodes of your chosen shows you should watch next. There's a separate tab labeled "Upcoming" that outlines the day and time that new episodes drop. Thanks to TV Time, I now know the exact premiere dates for The Witcher season 3 on Netflix and the new season of Reservation Dogs on Hulu.
The app also prompts you to check off which movies you've watched, and the list spans decades, platforms and genres. Once you've completed that step, TV Time then asks what movies you want to watch. Here is where you search for specific titles or pick from TV Time's trending list to add them to a calendar.
You may already be familiar with JustWatch as an app that curates where a title is streaming, but you can also make a watchlist, track upcoming releases, and watch a show with a single click. Once you open the app, you can select each streaming service you use -- including Disney Plus, Crunchyroll and Fubo -- to watch shows and films. There are 100-plus providers listed on JustWatch, and the app recently added a streaming guide for sports.
Use the app to search for TV shows and movies or click Discover to go on a scrolling adventure. Narrow your search by platform, genre, year or rating. When you click a show tile, you can tap "Track" to keep up with every episode and season. JustWatch will ask which episodes you've watched, and you can check off entire seasons or individual installments. Where this app stands out is when you navigate to "Watch Now" to click a streaming service's logo, and you're immediately taken to the show's landing page to begin watching. Talk about convenience.
The app also has a personal recommendation feature and displays the price of each streaming platform. You can use JustWatch on a web browser, on Fire TV devices or on iOS and Android mobile devices. Sign up directly on the app or with your Google or Facebook account.
Available on iOS and Android, Hobi is one of the most popular and comprehensive tracking apps out there. When you open it, you can select the shows you plan to watch or have watched, and Hobi indicates where you left off. The titles are added to your watch list. If it's an old show, Hobi lets you know the series ended but still reminds you which episodes are next for you. The Discover feature highlights trending shows, series returning in the current week, new ones airing for the month, and recommendations across genres and networks, including HBO and Netflix.
In addition to monitoring your watch list and new episode release dates, Hobi provides personal viewing stats on how much TV you've watched. It also estimates your favorite genres based on those statistics. The app can be integrated with Trakt.
When you first sign on to SeriesGuide, it gives you the option to block spoilers for show episodes you haven't watched yet. You can either search for a title or click Discover and scroll through a lengthy list of content. Like Hobi and TV Time, the app lets you know which platform houses the series or movie you'd like to watch or track. It also integrates with Trakt.
Once you select your shows, SeriesGuide provides upcoming or recent release dates and times. For example, the display shows that episode 10 of Succession dropped on Max at 9 p.m. ET on May 28, and Power Book IV season 2 debuts on Starz on Friday, Sept. 1. I've been able to glean tracking information for content on Netflix, Disney Plus, Prime Video, Max, Paramount (Yellowstone) and more.
Its movie listings are pulled from TMDB and JustWatch, and you'll find the release date, run time, cast credits and synopsis on the page. You can add films to your personal watchlist, click on the trailer link or tap the Stream/Purchase option if the digital version is available.
Among its features, there's a notification system that alerts you when new episodes are available, a favorites list and a catalog of how many episodes remain unwatched per season. With SeriesGuide, you can click "Skip" and the app will consider an episode watched. The user interface is very easy to navigate, and you can sync alerts to your device's calendar, rate content or check out your viewing statistics for movies and shows.
Cinetrak allows you to track both TV shows and movies, but you have to set up a Trakt log-in in order to create watch lists. You will see ads at the bottom of the screen, but the interface is clean and intuitive. Under the TV Shows menu, you can find titles under several categories: Genres, Trending, Popular and Top Watched. Click on a series and Cinetrak pulls up general information about the show and the seasons. Tap the plus sign to add a show by title, episode or season.
The calendar feature allows you to see episodes that have been watched, added to collections or added to your watch lists. Basic access is free, but you can upgrade your account for additional features such as creating "Liked" lists, curated collections or sharing with friends.
Take the time to review the privacy notices and settings for each service. JustWatch explains that it collects user data that may be used to target ads based on your movie tastes, while TV Time also uses nonpersonal information for marketing and advertising purposes. With the latter, you're also able to toggle your personal account settings and set it to private, which prevents nonfollowers from viewing your activity. You can also unlink social media accounts.
Though some of these apps offer the ability to upgrade, we recommend sticking with the free versions, especially if you just want a basic way to remind yourself of upcoming releases or to track your progress for a show.
Reelgood is an excellent platform that enables you to track movies and TV shows that have already been released or those with scheduled arrivals for the current month. However, it doesn't provide information for the months ahead. JustWatch and TV Time, on the other hand, show the release date for the new season along with an episode count. You can even set a notification for its arrival.
In addition to working on soundtracks, Glotman releases and performs his own music under his own name and under projects such as KETEV and collaborations with composers Mats Erlandsson and Viktor Orri rnason.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: How do you track who's watching what in the era of streaming TV? That's the question we're asking this week on All Tech Considered.(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)SHAPIRO: Nielsen has dominated this market for decades. TV networks, advertisers, critics and show producers still rely on Nielsen ratings to see which shows are popular and which are flops. Now that more people are streaming programs through services like Amazon Prime and Netflix, there's a lot Nielsen doesn't capture. NPR's Laura Sydell tells us about a new company that's trying to take its place.LAURA SYDELL, BYLINE: Among TV executives, there's a joke. When a family sits down in the living room and watches a show at the time it's scheduled, that's TV as God intended it. But that just isn't how people watch anymore.KEVIN SEAL: We do not follow the appointment-viewing-wait-for-the-show-to-come-on-at-a-given-time schedule.SYDELL: Kevin Seal and his family have cut the cord, meaning they've dropped their cable subscription. Seal lives in San Francisco with his wife and 6-year-old son. They only watch programs that stream over the internet from services like Amazon and Netflix.SEAL: We watch a lot of Netflix programming. Recently "Black Mirror" was the one that we devoured in its entirety.(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "BLACK MIRROR")JESSICA BROWN FINDLAY: (As Abi) This cognitive behavioral thing, it realigns your thinking to pick healthy food.SYDELL: But if the producers of the show, a British-based company, want to know just how popular it is in the U.S., they're out of luck. And so is Kevin Seale. He has no idea how many other people liked the show. Even though streaming should make it easier to track who's watching, Netflix doesn't release those numbers. Netflix says the number isn't important because it doesn't sell advertising. It sells subscriptions.So as long as its content keeps bringing in viewers, that's what matters to Netflix and also to Amazon, which doesn't release its numbers. But they're important to the people who sell programs to Netflix or Amazon, says media consultant Bill Harvey. The people who make shows like "Black Mirror" are at a disadvantage in price negotiations with the company that distributes the programs, say, Netflix.BILL HARVEY: The price paid by distributor to a program source is less based on the assumption that the audience is smaller.SYDELL: And Harvey says the companies that make the programming for TV Also don't look as good in the eyes of Wall Street. Harvey says according to Nielsen's measurement system, overall TV viewership is down. But if you were really to measure how much TV is being watched on streaming, that may not be true.HARVEY: Those younger people are doing less and less of the old-fashioned TV viewing and much more of the new-fangled TV viewing that Nielsen isn't measuring.SYDELL: And this is where a new company called Symphony comes in. It's a startup that says it has a way to accurately measure the ratings of shows on Amazon and Netflix even without cooperation from the companies.Symphony has a sample of over 15,000 people. They download the Symphony app on their phones and it runs as long as their phone is on. Let's say I was one of the testers. I like a British sci-fi show called "Humans" about a company that releases totally human-looking robots.(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "HUMANS")PIXIE DAVIES: (As Sophie Hawkins) What if she's not pretty? Can we change her if she's not pretty?TOM GOODMAN-HILL: (As Joe Hawkins) Just follow the instructions on the tablet, and you'll have it configured in no time.SYDELL: Charles Buchwalter, CEO of Symphony, says the app works like Shazam does for music. Each TV program has a code that the app can identify from the audio.CHARLES BUCHWALTER: And so if Laura is watching "Humans," the app knows that this is the audio code that Laura's listening to. And then we are matching that to a reference database of all programs out there - says, Laura's watching "Humans."SYDELL: And Symphony would know even if I watch "Humans" on my phone or tablet. That's very important information to NBCUniversal, which uses Symphony. Alan Wurtzel is the senior vice president of research.ALAN WURTZEL: These folks have migrated to watching a great deal of video content on non-Nielsen-measured devices like smartphones, like tablets. And when you re-aggregate all those numbers, they basically come right back to where they've always been.SYDELL: Meaning he says that Americans watch as much TV as they ever have. Well, he might be right. But like just about everybody else, he doesn't really have enough data to prove it. Laura Sydell, NPR News.
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