Android Apps and News

The Weather Channel is running a promotion to encourage viewers to download its Android app while watching TV. During select broadcasts, TWC will display a barcode on-screen that viewers can scan with their phone and find a link to TWC’s Android Market entry. The barcode will play at 20 minutes after during:

Day Planner (Monday – Friday, 11am-2 pm)

PM Edition (Mon-Fri, 4-7 pm) and

WeatherCenter Late (Mon-Fri, 10pm -1am)

The Weather Channel bills this promotion as the first time a broadcast outlet has offered an Android app as an on-screen scanable download; however, I can’t confirm that claim. I know that QR code scanning is more popular in Japan, so I’d bet that a network has incorporated a code somehow. Either way, this is probably one of the first U.S. occurences of a network making an app downloadable from television.