© Copyright 2012 Starling Inc. - All Rights Reserved.
© Copyright 2012 Starling Inc. - All Rights Reserved.
We want to create the best social experience for Television, without sacrificing all the wonder. Combining our many years of experience of making television and games, we are proud to launch, Talking TV.
Starling is working with major networks and major brands to bring you the future of Social TV, right now.
Sign up, below, to be notified when TalkingTV is available.
There are many ways to say hello! We would love to hear nice things from you..
419, Park Ave. South,
New York, NY 10016,
USA
Norrlandsgatan 12, 4tr
11143 Stockholm
Sweden
In just a few seasons, television has truly become social.
The medium that is the very definition of broadcast is evolving faster today, as a result of connected audiences, than at almost anytime in its history. TV related conversation often dominate social media. 59% of American audiences watch TV while actively using a second screen such as a lap top or mobile device. Real-time connections among viewers and with celebrities are turning ordinary TV back into event television.
New modes of viewing demand new forms of social programming. Starling was formed to meet this challenge. Our platform for social entertainment is deployed on the web, phone, and tablets and is designed to connect and engage audiences while they enjoy broadcast media.
Audiences with Starling enjoy social activities, games earning virtual and digital goods in ways that are stubble and tuned to this new parallel mode of viewing – co-viewing. Thenaudience has taken it upon themselves to pioneer this behaviour, Starling merely heightens it. No doubt just the first of many that will define what audiences can do while using the formerly passive medium of television.
For broadcasters and advertisers we deliver greater audiences engagement, more persistent conversation, and measurably increased viewing times.
Starling launched in Q4 2010/Q1 2011 bringing an entirely new look to social television with its initial breakthrough implementation for MTV Skins, the Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures, and more later the Nordic launch of MTV Jersey Shore. Working closing with these programmers we pioneered a visual form of chat game which takes its cues from the graphic richness of broadcast design. Users are able to combine comments with graphic virtual goods they can earn, creating a new form of gameplay during television.
For the first time a broadcaster could “throw” a digital good from a show to its audiences’ second screen— as MTV did when they embedded songs from MTV Skins into Starling cards that originated with MTV. and then could be then be earned and shared by viewers. A year in media history is such a short time for so much to have evolved.
Starling’s founding team have been at the leading edge of interactive developments for Television, Games and the Internet for decades and we think we have something special that is rejuvenating audiences’ interest in broadcast television.
Declan Caulfield, Co-Founder and CEO
A serial entrepreneur who for the last five years has worked within the Bertelsmann Group, primarily running the central R&D department at FremantleMedia and reporting directly to the COO. Declan’s professional career as a Researcher/Producer on TV shows that were among the first to feature the internet in 1993. By 1995, his early work in the development of streaming media resulted in project managing digital projects at a European level within the EBU and European Commission. In 1998 he co-founded Kamera, a pioneer in online video asset and rights management, adopted in 2000 by AP and acquired in 2005 by News Corp. In both research and management consultancies, Declan has worked for Intel, BBC, Nokia, Ericsson and Hutchison Whampoa. In 2004, he co-founded Movota, an innovative mobile synchronised games company that in 2005 was acquired by Bertelsmann.
Kevin Slavin, Co-Founder
Prior to Starling, Slavin co-founded Area/Code in 2005 (sold to Zynga in January 2011), which continues to pioneer new forms of cross-media entertainment with clients including MTV, CBS, FremantleMedia, A&E, EA, Nokia, Nike, and the Discovery Channel. Area/Code’s projects for A&E (“The Sopranos Connection”) and MTV (“Backchannel”) are credited with being some of the earliest TV co-viewing work in the industry. Kevin’s background includes 10 years in advertising and digital brand communications, leading and managing digital groups at DDB, TBWA\Chiat\Day, and SS+K. Together with Frank Lantz, he was named to the Creativity 50 in 2007, and his work has gathered recognition from the Clios, the One Show, MoMA, the London International Awards, the AIGA, and Brandweek, and has been extensively featured, most recently in the Thames & Hudson book “Sixty: Innovators Shaping our Creative Future”.
Arnaud Loiseau, Co-Founder and COO
Arnaud has over 8 years of experience in Corporate Development in the technology and media space (over $5Bn in executed transactions, including 2 IPOs). Previous positions include Investment Banking with UBS Investment Bank in NYC, Corporate Development at Thomson Reuters and most recently M&A, VC investing and Turnaround Operations Management at media powerhouse Bertelsmann AG in Europe and China. He holds a Masters Degree in Engineering from Ecole Polytechnique in France, an MBA from Harvard Business School (Arthur Sachs Scholar) and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
Erik Hedenström, Chief Technology Officer
Erik is a graduate of KTH, the royal institute of Technology in Stockholm and holds a masters degree from University of Florida in his specialty disciplines of Computer visualisation and artificial intelligence. His first job was building search engines and complex logging systems to handle burgeoning traffic on some of the largest portal websites during the nineties. Erik served as CTO at Everyday, one of Scandinavia’s largest web portals. Erik setup Forefront technologies in 2000 which pioneered robot search systems and intelligent logging systems. Erik is proficient in 8 major computer languages and four human languages. If he were married to Java, Erlang would be his mistress.
Karl Rehnström, Lead Designer
A rising southern Swedish star in the world of design. Karl has been designing ever since he can remember. Karl graduated with a masters degree from HDK, School of Design and Crafts in Gothenburg, and has ever since worked as an industrial and interaction designer in the region. Recent work includes infotainment design for both Saab Automobile and Volvo concept car interiors.
Joel Sandtröm, Lead UX
Joel is the entrepreneur and interaction designer behind the interaction design company, Interaktionsbyrån,, of Gothenburg, Sweden. Elemental design, reactive surfaces and intuitive response systems are his tools for creating interfaces that are operative in primary task environments. His extensive knowledge and experience can be seen at work in many automotive projects such as SAABs new Android based infotainment system. Working on Starling Karl has been able to carry many of the core use cases of the driving environment to design Starling’s unique secondary attention UX.
Josefine Wahlberg, Community Management and Coordinator
Josefine joined the Starling team in Summer 2010 as company coordinator. Her tireless efforts have kept the Starling diaspora in sync and a happy bunch. Her inter-personal skills have spread out from the company to embrace the fan communities that are adopting Starling as home to their rich and passionate conversations. Josefine finds plenty of use for her qualifications in advanced mathematics, pedagogical teaching methodologies and information planning and can be at home in any topic of discussion. You should be so lucky to meet Josefine on Starling one day!
Ken Hertz, Advisor and Investor
Ken is a Senior Partner in the Beverly Hills law firm of Goldring Hertz and Lichtenstein LLP. Ken and his partners specialize in representing talent and new media companies in the entertainment industries. The firm’s clients include Will Smith, Destiny’s Child, Beyonce Knowles, No Doubt, Gwen Stefani, The Black Eyed Peas, Will.i.Am, Herbie Hancock, Britney Spears, Jason Mraz, The Script and Janet Jackson. Prior to joining the firm, Ken was in charge of music – business and legal affairs – for The Walt Disney Company.
Guy Primus, Advisor and Investor
Guy Primus is Chief Operating Officer at Overbrook Entertainment, the film, TV, and transmedia production company founded by producer James Lassiter and actor/producer Will Smith. As COO, Primus oversees Overbrook’s operations and manages the company’s staff. He also heads Overbrook’s strategic ventures group, an organization dedicated to expanding and optimizing Overbrook’s business portfolio. Guy is also a member of the Georgia Tech Advisory Board and the advisory board of Georgia Tech’s School of Industrial and Systems engineering.
Kenny Miller, Board Member
Kenny Miller has founded multiple digital media initiatives including Noggin for Nickelodeon. Most recently, he was EVP, Creative Director Global Digital Media at MTV Networks. He is an accomplished senior executive and innovator in digital media, and brings to RCDb a wealth of experience in using advanced technology to enhance content development, production, distribution and monetization.
Peter Hirshberg, Board Member
Peter Hirshberg is at the epicenter of the noisy, connected world of online conversation. He is changing our thinking about marketing, branding and customer relationships. A Silicon Valley executive with several high profile marketing and branding related ventures, Peter has led emerging media and technology companies at the center of disruptive change for more than 20 years. Peter’s career spans formation and senior management posts at Apple Inc., Elemental Software, Microsoft, Gloss and Technorati.
TalkingTV makes it simple and enjoyable to engage with other members of a TV audience. It is not about stealing your attention from the main screen to a second screen. It is an app available in the iTunes App Store and Google’s Play store.
Check it out, we’d love to hear what you think. We’re Talking TV!