URL | Zap2it.com |
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Slogan | What to watch. Where to watch it. |
Commercial? | Yes |
Available language(s) | English |
Owner | Tribune Media Services |
Launched | 2000 |
Alexa rank | ~2,600 |
Current status | active |
Zap2it is an American website and affiliate network that provides news, photos and video, local TV listings and movie showtimes. The site is produced by Tribune Media Services (TMS), part of the publishing division of the Chicago-based Tribune Company. Zap2it affiliates include Cox, Dish Network, Disney, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post.
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Tribune Media Services (TMS) first began to offer online listings services as a content provider to Prodigy in the late 1980s and America Online in the early 1990s. TMS launched its first branded online TV listings service (TV Quest) in 1993 on the AppleLink online service. TV Quest later migrated to Apple’s eWorld services and to the Web in the mid-1990s.
Version 1.0 of Zap2it debuted on the web in May, 2000. In its earliest iteration, the site was a combination of TMS-owned listings sites TVQuest and MovieQuest plus the then-recently-purchased content site UltimateTV.
UltimateTV offered viewers and industry-insiders breaking news, Nielsen ratings, live celebrity chats and more. The site provided video clips, interviews and promos in its Promo Lounge area.
The earliest Zap2it focused on TV, movies and original web-based content. The site offered original editorial along with listings information for TV, movies and online. Zap2it also listed online content such as short films, interactive games and webisodes offered by Atom Films, Shockwave.com and iFilm,
Zap2it’s TV listings and movie showtimes were generated by TMS data, its web listings by Yack data.
Editorial pages of the site including the front page were redesigned in 2001. In early 2003, the editorial focus of Zap2it was narrowed down to TV and movies and the site was again redesigned. An agreement with Fandango struck in 2005 allowed for the introduction of online movie ticketing for select theaters. Blogs including “It Happened Last Night” offered show recaps were first launched in 2006 and expanded thereafter. In 2007, Zap2it launched “click-to-record” functionality allowing users with TiVo DVRs to remotely schedule recordings directly from within the Zap2it TV listings.
In early 2007, Zap2it released enhanced TV listings on its main site. Upgrades to the product included improved performance, better customization capabilities and the introduction of sharing tools and a user rating system. Following a testing period, the TV listings product was made available to affiliates.
In 2008, an revised Movie showtimes product was developed on the main site. It more prominently showcased movie trailers and offered expanded cast and crew lists which linked to Celebrity profile pages.
In February 2009, Zap2it was tapped to play an expanded role within Tribune Company.[1] The site became the central aggregator of entertainment content produced by Tribune-owned online properties including latimes.com, The Envelope, chicagotribune.com and others. As part of this development, a major site redesign was planned for midyear 2009.
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