TVGuide.com will shut down the Fav.tv service in the next few
weeks and allow users to import their data to TVGuide.com.
Fav.tv co-founders Shaun Harrison and Saverio Mondelli will join
TVGuide.com, and a third employee will consult to help the company
create versions of TVGuide.com's interactive Watchlist for iOS and
Android devices.
"Hiring engineers with experience is challenging in New York;
hiring engineers with both mobile and entertainment experience is
even more challenging," Ms. Tanner said.
She would not disclose financial terms of the deal.
With 6.5 million installations and 1.5 million active mobile
users, TVGuide.com is one of the bigger players in TV-related
mobile apps. Messrs. Harrison and Mondelli will join an engineering
team of 20 in New York.
Watchlist, which Ms. Tanner calls "the future of the company,"
is a guide to TV content wherever that content is -- be it Hulu,
Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, the
open web, proprietary cable or satellite-TV systems or
video-on-demand services. Launched in August, Watchlist lets users
search by title, or follow individual celebrities or sports teams;
460,000 users have created lists.
"TV needs to be simple again, and that 's what TV Guide is here
for," Ms. Tanner said.
TVGuide.com is more tech-focused than most other content
companies, largely because its core listings product has always
relied heavily on technology. Today its 70 employees are broken
down equally into technology, editorial and sales.
TVGuide.com is owned by a joint venture consisting of the
entertainment studio Lionsgate and One Equity Partners, an
investment arm of JPMorgan Chase. The
group also owns the TV Guide cable channel, which operates as a
separate business. Both are expected to be sold off, with
TVGuide.com retaining the brand and TV Guide Channel repositioning
as a general-entertainment network.
TV Guide magazine is owned by a different private-equity
group.
