Shazam has expanded its Shazam for TV second-screening service, to cover all TV programmes in the US.

The app can now be used to recognise shows on 160 US channels, and then identify music featured in the programme, and give info on the cast – or, in the case of sports, stats on the players – as well as access trivia, related celebrity gossip, and links to Wikipedia or IMDB pages. 

Shazam has also expanded its Shazam Friends social functionality, which can be used to share tags on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Theres also in-app commenting functionality, meaning users will be able to discuss what theyre watching and see what their friends have tagged.

Previously, the service was reliant on its partnerships to deliver this kind of content – and, high profile as those partnerships might have been, they were limited, and reliant on Shazam now for extra content prompts. Opening the service up to this extent is a much bigger challenge, and it will be interesting to see how Shazam fares.

“Over the last year, Shazam has been testing and learning what works by building dozens of custom interactive second-screen experiences for select television shows and events like the Olympics on NBC, American Idol, the Grammys, and the Super Bowl, as well as other live and scripted programming across sports, reality, dramas, comedy and awards shows,” said Doug Garland, Shazam chief revenue officer. “We’ve applied what we’ve learned to our newly expanded service, and will continue to work closely with our network partners and show producers to build special, unique second-screen experiences for their tent-pole television events and many of the most popular shows on TV.”