An initial review of Viggle as a SecondScreen experience

Tonight must be beta night because there seem to be a plethora of new apps in the second screen hitting the iOS marketplace today but the functionality is just not ready.  Viggle, like TVDinner, launched with much fanfare and funding recently, but as a loyalty/rewards play vs. the "gaming" approach TVDinner is taking.  I was admittedly disappointed that it only had an iPhone experience, but will assume the tablet versions are coming.

No special account was required (open to the public).  The initial sign-up was thru my Facebook account.
I was greeted with a 1500 bonus point award for successful sign-up (yay).  I then watched a 2-minute video on how Viggle works, how the point system allows you to acquire real-world goods, etc.

I checked-out the featured show (or tried to), but Viggle requires that the ACR (audio sync in this case) works to allow you to check-in to the show.  Not one to be easily rebuffed, I tried other live TV channels.  I tried 5 or 6 with the sound cranked up (wife now upset) and stood next to the speakers.  Occasionally, it would tell me the list of networks it handles (seemed as upset as I was).  There apparently is no manual way to check-in to a show (if the ACR fails).  Seems like a serious UX flaw, regardless of what the requirements are from the brands/networks/advertisers.

I spent the rest of the time checking out what rewards I would be able to get if I could check-in.
I was able to check-out American Idol (a featured show) further to see what Stimulating content would normally be on offer.  Links to IMDB, Twitter (chatter), Facebook, Wikipedia, iTunes, Amazon and Bing.  IMDB didn't quite work right (launched me to the 2002 season).  Twitter worked fine but was not curated (Idol was on and there were too many tweets).

Then it suddenly offered me 10 Viggle points to book a reminder to watch Alcatraz.  Interesting approach.

I am going to check back in a few days to see if the ACR problem clears up.
I'd like to see the app working to get a real feel for it.

My initial guess on what we'll find:

Simple.  Probably none.

Social.  Probably Medium.  No curation is a problem for big shows like American Idol.

Seamless.  Probably none.

Stimulating.  A lot of stuff going on there.  I think the work on the cast/crew is light, but the rest of the links to content is strong.  I'd like to see some sync'd content for all that work on the ACR via audio.  Probably Medium.

Discovery.  Looks like none.

Let's check back together soon.  Some more images are below to give you a better feel for the app.