TV.com
TV.com was a website owned by Red Ventures that covered television series and episodes with a focus on English-language shows made or broadcast in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Originally launched by CNET in the mid-1990s, the website was transformed in 2005 when CNET acquired the website TV Tome and incorporated its assets into the new website's composition. CNET Networks, including the TV.com site, would later be purchased by CBS in 2008. In its heyday, TV.com emphasized user-generated content listings for a wide variety of programs that included episode air dates, descriptions, news, season listings, notes, credits, trivia, and a forum section.
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Type of site | Entertainment |
|---|---|
| Dissolved | June 28, 2021 |
| Owner | Red Ventures |
| Registration | Optional |
| Launched | May 24, 2005[1] |
| Current status | Offline |
Although TV.com was successful as an information website in the late 2000s, it went without regular updates beginning in 2019. Around July 2021, the TV.com website was quietly shut down with no redirect put in its place.
History
CNET originally acquired the domain name (among other generic domain names like news.com, radio.com, etc.) in the mid-1990s to host a website for the company's technology-related TV shows. One of these shows was titled TV.com. The program, highlighting the best of the Internet for new and casual computer users, aired in U.S. syndication, and featured Ron Reagan as a correspondent.[2]
On April 22, 2005, CNET acquired TV Tome, a fan-run television database.[3] TV.com was launched a few months after that acquisition on June 1, 2005.[4] Many of the features and content from the original TV Tome site were maintained in the new TV.com site.
On May 15, 2008, CBS formally announced its purchase of CNET Networks,[5] and the company changed its name to CBS Interactive.
TV.com continually looked at innovating the television viewing experience by incorporating it with technology, as seen with the creation of WatchList.[6] This service offered personalized TV listings influenced by user actions and social media, which eventually carried over to the creation of TV.com Relay.
The news and features pages on TV.com were no longer updated after the spring of 2019, and the website was only accessible on an intermittent basis in 2019. In early 2020, registered users became unable to log in to profile pages, and user posts were removed from forums. As a result, information pertaining to individual programs and series could no longer be edited or updated.
As of July 2021, the site is no longer available on the internet.
TV Tome
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Type of site | Entertainment |
|---|---|
| Dissolved | June 13, 2005 |
| Owner | CNET Networks, Inc. |
| Created by | John Nestoriak III |
| URL | web |
| Launched | July 11, 2000 |
| Current status | Defunct |
TV Tome was an American website devoted to documenting English language television shows and their production. It was run by volunteer editors, with the assistance of user contributions. The site was founded by John Nestoriak III.
The site had over 2,500 complete television series guides, over 3,500 developing television series guides, and filmographies for 250,000 actors and crew members moderated by a five-member crew. In addition to the television series guides, TV Tome had a forum for each television series, with information regarding episodes, their interpretation, and general discussions.
A spin-off site, Movie Tome, was established in August 2003. A video game tome and a music tome were originally planned as well, but such plans were abandoned with the purchase of TV Tome and Movie Tome by CNET.
On April 22, 2005, TV Tome officially announced its acquisition by CNET.[3] CNET reportedly bought TV Tome for US$5 million in January 2005.[7] CNET announced plans to relocate the site to its TV.com domain, which was acquired in 1996 for use in conjunction with the short-lived syndicated television series of the same name. A preliminary version of the new site launched on June 1, 2005, and on June 13, 2005, the site was permanently redirected to TV.com with an entirely new layout.
Features
TV.com provided show descriptions, cast and crew listings, full episodes, clip length videos, discussion forums and detailed episode guides for many shows. Episode guides included synopsis information, a recap, credits, notes, trivia, quotes and images provided by the networks. All textual information in the guides was user-generated.
Users earned points for participating. After a user earned a certain number of points, they became an editor for the guide and could moderate user submissions.
The site provided actor guides that included actor bios, credits, trivia, quotes, images, forums and related news. Like show pages, users became editors for these guides after earning points by providing sourced content.
In addition to its user-generated database of television information, TV.com created original editorial content and special features for noteworthy television events, such as Comic-Con, season finales award shows, upfronts, and holiday TV.
Mobile app
The site's mobile application[8] allowed users to stream video content, including clips and full length episodes, directly to their device.
Relay
TV.com Relay was a social television check-in application that was available via mobile networks and web.[9] Users could check into shows they were watching, see what their friends were watching, participate in discussions and earn badges.
References
- "TV.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info - DomainTools". WHOIS. Archived from the original on February 24, 2021. Retrieved August 9, 2016.
- Evenson, Laura (October 2, 1996). "Ron Reagan Online: Ex-president's son does tech TV show in S.F." San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on April 7, 2020. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
- Pasiuk, Laurie (2006). Vault Guide to the Top Internet Industry Employers. Vault, Inc. ISBN 978-1-5813-1384-0.
- Kramer @sdkstl, Staci D. (June 2, 2005). "CNET Launches TV.com". GigaOm. Archived from the original on May 11, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2016.
- Wong, Jon (May 15, 2008). "CBS to buy CNET Networks". CNET. Archived from the original on February 21, 2022. Retrieved February 21, 2022.
- Christina Warren (September 30, 2009). "TV.com Launches WatchList: TV Guide for the Social Media Era". Mashable. Archived from the original on February 16, 2020. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
- Fritz, Ben (August 9, 2005). "CNET takes in MetaCritic". Variety. Archived from the original on February 21, 2022. Retrieved February 21, 2022.
- "Connecting to the iTunes Store". Apple. Archived from the original on February 29, 2016. Retrieved February 11, 2016.
- Kastelein, Richard (August 12, 2010). "Relay and TV.com Join Social TV Race [492] | Archives - TV App Market". App Market. Archived from the original on November 12, 2010. Retrieved February 11, 2016.