As today’s universe of content spirals outward, Big Bang-style, it has become increasingly challenging for viewers to sort out their mobile-watching experience. Every service has its own app, individual networks have their own apps, some of the content from those apps are available on other apps, and wait, which login do I need for this app again?

Fanhattan’s Fan TV hopes to remedy all of that. Fanhattan’s own innovative app helps viewers cut through the slew of online video services and network providers to find the show they’re seeking. To that end, Fan TV collects all of the user’s disparate streaming sources and organizes them by content (title, genre, channel, etc.) and then delivers that content to the television with a press of a button… or swipe of a thumb. The remote control accompanying Fan TV’s set-top box is perhaps the simplest of its kind: a smooth, button-free object about the size of a drink coaster, and resembling an upside-down computer mouse. It lets the user navigate the Fan TV onscreen interface entirely via thumb swipes and taps, which means a viewer never has to look down to select which button to press.

Fan TV is also, like the Fanhattan app from which it derives, a social experience, which means viewers can see what their friends are watching and liking, and find out what’s trending. The service even acts as a DVR, allowing users to record content. That said, the Fan TV hardware isn’t actually available yet, though its iOS app has been trucking along in different forms since 2010. For the set-top box, Fanhattan is working with Cox Cable in Southern California to test the service with subscribers. According to Mashable, Fan TV is not selling itself as a solution for cord cutters, but instead hopes to partner with local pay-TV providers, including Comcast, AT&T Uverse, Time Warner Cable and Cablevision.

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