Fanhattan adds Crackle, PBS and Lifetime

Fanhattan is trying to make it easier for users to discover content available on mobile, and soon connected TV devices. With that in mind, Fanhattan announced Friday it has added videos from new content sources, including Crackle, PBS and Lifetime.

The company has built an app for iOS devices that allows users to search for and discover videos from multiple content providers, rather than having to look in individual apps themselves. So a Modern Family fan, for instance, would be able to see which episodes might be available on ABC’s app as well as Hulu Plus all in one place.

Until now, though, Fanhattan’s video discovery app has been somewhat limited in its content sources, indexing videos from iTunes, Netflix, Hulu Plus, Vudu and ABC. The addition of videos from Crackle, PBS and Lifetime will help diversify that selection, with a wider range of new movies and some exclusive TV content.

Crackle is Sony’s online distribution engine, which includes content from its movie and TV divisions. While it has spent some time making web originals over the last few years, the main thrust of Crackle lately is creating an ad-supported distribution engine for some of its movies and TV shows. As a result, Fanhattan viewers will now have access to movies like Donnie Brasco or A Few Good Men, and TV shows like Seinfeld, Sanford and Son and All in the Family.

Lifetime adds another unique content source, as it brings titles like competitive reality show Project Accessory to the video discovery app, as well as some syndicated content like How I Met Your Mother or The New Adventures of Old Christine that Lifetime distributes through its iOS apps. And public broadcaster PBS has a wealth of exclusive programming available as well, including favorites like Antiques Roadshow and The American Experience.

Video discovery on apps is a big problem, which Fanhattan is hoping to solve. For it, the addition of new content sources makes it even more valuable to users, as they seek to browse and navigate videos available on their devices. And for its partners, being part of Fanhattan’s index makes it more likely that viewers can find their content, as users might not have known those shows or movies were available.

Source is
http://gigaom.com/video/fanhattan-crackle-pbs-lifetime/