Former RDF USA executive VP Greg Goldman has joined a social TV start-up that already has deals in place with Studio Lambert and Donald Trump Productions.

Goldman, who left RDF last summer to set up his own production outfit, Blackbird Television, has been named chief creative officer at Philo, a New York-based firm that modestly states its ambition as "reinventing television."

The firm is joining rival start-ups such as Miso and Starling by offering TV fans a means to register the fact that they're watching a particular show and alert their social network to it.

Studio Lambert and Donald Trump Productions have already signed up to test Philo through a number of cross-promotional initiatives, potentially extending to series such as Undercover Boss and The Apprentice.

Goldman, whose RDF credits include Don't Forget the Lyrics and Shaq's Big Challenge, plus The Bachelor and Wife Swap, during his time as exec director of alternative series and specials for ABC, has promised more deals in the coming weeks.

"For the first time in 15 years, television ratings are up - and our research attributes those gains to the power of social media," said Goldman, going on to claim that Philo (which takes its name from TV inventor Philo T Farnsworth) will be the "most important thing to happen to television since the remote control."

The company offers users a free iPhone app that allows them to 'check-in' to TV shows, rewarding them with 'prizes' for doing so - similar to location-based services Foursquare and Gowalla. They can then share this information and any comments they wish to add with friends on Twitter and Facebook.

Miso, from a company called Bazaar Labs, and Starling - a start-up that made its debut at MipTV in April and has FremantleMedia on board as a trial partner - are also trying to popularise their own equivalents. Comcast in the US is developing a social TV app, called Tunerfish.