Local TV station operator Sinclair is going to let viewers interact with its on-air programming — and ads — in a new way under a partnership with IRCODE.
Sinclair has made a strategic investment in IRCODE, a computer vision and AI company that claims its system makes TV interactive and shoppable in real time. The amount of the investment isn’t being disclosed. Other IRCODE investors include Craig Kallman, former chairman and CEO of Atlantic Records who recently was named chief music officer of Warner Music Group.
Alongside the investment, Sinclair will roll out IRCODE-powered interactive television at its stations in Salt Lake City and Austin beginning in July 2026, with additional markets to follow through the year. The deployments will let the stations make interactive television a native capability inside its own platforms.
According to IRCODE, its real-time image recognition system works like “Shazam for images.” It identifies what is on screen (without QR codes) and connects the viewer to relevant content and commerce.
In Sinclair’s implementation, viewers can open the app for the local Sinclair station and point their phone at the TV. At that point, the app kicks off an action to let the viewer purchase a product, enter to win a sweepstakes or link to additional info. Because it happens inside the station’s app, the viewer is identified and opted in, and every step from first scan to conversion is captured as first-party data. For example, advertisers running spots on Sinclair’s stations in Salt Lake City or Austin can now measure who engaged, what they did next, and whether it led to a purchase.
