{"id":249725,"date":"2026-07-02T15:14:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T15:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/02\/popular-tv-tracking-app-tv-time-is-shutting-down-as-company-focuses-on-ai-techcrunch\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T15:14:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T15:14:03","slug":"popular-tv-tracking-app-tv-time-is-shutting-down-as-company-focuses-on-ai-techcrunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/02\/popular-tv-tracking-app-tv-time-is-shutting-down-as-company-focuses-on-ai-techcrunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Popular TV-tracking app TV Time is shutting down as company focuses on AI | TechCrunch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tvtime.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">TV Time<\/a>, a popular app for tracking the shows you\u2019re watching and engaging in community discussions, is shutting down. The company announced via in-app messages that TV Time\u2019s app will be discontinued, no longer offering service after July 15, 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The company blamed the expense of running the platform as a reason behind the decision, but a shift to a more AI-focused business seems to be the real culprit. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhile we loved supporting TV Time, it was no longer sustainable to continue operating the service as a free app, and there was not enough demand for a paid app,\u201d the message read. \u201cTo everyone who tracked, discovered, and shared their love of TV and movies with us, thank you. Your passion and enthusiasm made TV Time more than an app. You made it a community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">TV Time\u2019s shutdown marks the end of one of the larger TV fan communities online, and underscores how the growth of the AI industry is shifting companies\u2019 priorities. As businesses race to build AI products, consumer apps are sometimes shuttered, even if they have active user bases. Another example of this trend is read-it-later app Pocket, which still had loyal users but closed down as its owner Mozilla prioritized building out Firefox and AI-powered browsing experiences. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><span class=\"wp-block-image__credits\"><strong>Image Credits:<\/strong>TV Time<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Owned by <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/whipmedia.com\/news\" target=\"_blank\">Whip Media<\/a>, TV Time\u2019s app has north of 26 million lifetime installs, per data from app intelligence provider Appfigures, and saw nearly 29,000 new downloads over the past 30 days. (Whip Media itself often referred to TV Time\u2019s more than 25 million users in marketing materials.) Under Whip Media, TV Time\u2019s data helped power a business intelligence ecosystem for the media industry. That meant the app alone didn\u2019t have to be profitable as a consumer product, because the data it generated was the real value.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Things have changed at the company in more recent months. Early last year, Whip Media <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/carol-hanley-departs-whip-media-after-eight-years-the-last-two-as-ceo\/\" target=\"_blank\">was acquired by<\/a> direct lender Blue Torch Capital in early 2025, which envisioned more of an AI-focused future for the company. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under its new ownership, Whip Media pivoted from providing the sentiment analysis, ratings predictions, content optimization, and other data that could be informed by TV Time, to instead focus on more potentially profitable paths. This now includes its AI-powered automation and workflow management tool, Helix, which is used to enhance streaming analytics and supply chain orchestration. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What\u2019s not clear is why the company wouldn\u2019t sell the still-popular app instead of discontinuing it. (Possibly, it may not have wanted to help another company generate the kind of data that could make it a more formidable competitor in the media and entertainment space.) <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whip Media notes that the data collected via TV Time will not be used as part of any commercial service after TV Time ends, and everyone\u2019s personal data will be deleted. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The company says the app will be removed from the app stores on July 15, but before then, users can request a download of their data through a <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/gdpr.tvtime.com\/gdpr\/self-service\" target=\"_blank\">GDPR-compliant export tool<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>When you purchase through links in our articles, <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/techcrunch-affiliate-monetization-standards\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/07\/02\/popular-tv-tracking-app-tv-time-is-shutting-down-as-company-focuses-on-ai\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TV Time, a popular app for tracking the shows you\u2019re watching and engaging in community discussions, is shutting down. The company announced via in-app messages that TV Time\u2019s app will be discontinued, no longer offering service after July 15, 2026. The company blamed the expense of running the platform as a reason behind the decision, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":249726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-249725","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}