From smarter ad campaigns to opportunities for direct commerce, the future of TV is put under the spotlight in the Media Network's live discussion exploring the commercial value in second screen TV viewing
It's widely accepted that we don't just sit and watch television anymore – we actively participate and comment on what we're watching through smartphones and connected devices. As a result, 'social TV viewing' and 'second-screening' has lead to new commercial models for media owners and new channels for advertisers to reach consumers.
Here's an overview of the key points raised in the live discussion on this topic, involving fifteen experts in this emerging industry.
Commercial implications
One of the first issues to be raised was the issue of commercial models – where is the commercial value in developing this technology and functionality around TV content?
Futurescape.TV's Colin Donald cited two approaches being taken by broadcasters when it comes to social TV. The first is to aggregate social activity about their shows and get people to see it on their website and get web ad revenue – as used by Discovery and CBS. Secondly, by developing their own social TV apps, and syndicating their content across third-party apps – a model used by Fox.
Appmarket.tv's Richard Kastelein gave a broader overview of two opportunities for the commercialisation of social TV for broadcasters:
1) Bringing the brands into the second screen to engage with viewers in unique new ways including gamification, transmedia storytelling and branded content.
2) Through direct commerce and the ability to 'buy what you see' on screen via temporal metadata created either by technology or by creating metadata during the pre-production process.
He argues that social TV gives media owners the chance to emulate the best of the music industry:
Right now a large percentage of money being made in the music industry comes from three things. Live performances, VIP experiences and merchandising. Broadcasters will always be able to stuff 30 second spots into the World Cup or Super Bowl, but where's the merchandising? Where's the VIP experience? I believe the second screen app experience for the Oscars in the USA last year included exclusive red carpet scenes and behind the stage extras. There's certainly things to be learnt from the music industry.
Broadcasters have embraced social media with a passion and are doing an excellent job, according to Thinkbox's Simon Tunstill:
Shows are commissioned with social media elements included in the format (like Million Pound Drop); new ad opportunities are emerging, such as ITV's Ad Sync which enables an advertiser to launch a second screen takeover when its TV ad is broadcast; Channel 4 has recently launched 4Now, a dedicated second screen app for its content; Sky has invested in Zeebox; and all broadcasters utilise social media channels to promote shows and encourage interaction in a very cost effective and agile way.
Squawka CEO Sanjit Atwal said it was important to invest in ad technology to make the commercial potential of second screening a reality, sharing an example from their own platform: "We have built our own ad sever and can trigger a brand message depending on the event on the football pitch. For example, if Rooney scores, brand X can show the boot he's wearing and where you can buy it from)."
Q: What's the lay of the land? How big is the market potential and how much 'second screen' activity is actually going on?
Thinkbox's Simon Tunstill said social data doesn't reflect the entire TV viewing population:
A couple of stats to set things in context early on: according to IPA Touchpoints data, half of the UK claims to have ever multi-screened and 21% claim to do so daily. So, it is not yet the norm; most TV is watched the way it always has been. But it is one of the most interesting things happening in TV at the moment and is on the rise.
Twitter says that 40% of its evening tweets are TV-related. But important to remember that less than 20% of the UK is on Twitter, and the majority of tweets come from a relatively small proportion of users. So it is far from representative.
Keller-Fay, the word of mouth specialist, have calculated that 90% of brand conversations take place offline. Comments on Twitter and Facebook et al are the visible tip of an enormous iceberg.
Second screen data is great, but it is not representative because not everyone does it. And those that do don't do it all the time. Again, Ofcom's latest report shows that only 25% of the UK regularly uses a second screen when watching TV (44% for younger people).
Richard Kastelein also shared a number of statistics on second screen usage:
• 41 per cent of all viewers second screening daily while watching TV (Ofcom)
• 44 per cent of total tablet usage is while watching TV (Nielsen)
• 72 per cent of under 25's in the UK comment on programs via social networks (Digital Clarity)
• 19.4 per cent of TV watchers who engage in second-screen activities shop for products seen in ads (NPD)
Q: How are broadcasters and social networks competing for ad spend?
Bruce Collingwood said that the platforms (Twitter and Facebook) are making the running. They are worth billions while everyone else is still trying to find out where the money and value is, with Colin Donald agreeing that Twitter has taken the ball and run with it the last couple of years, but pointing out that Facebook's new social TV team look set to leverage Facebook's much larger scale and compete much harder. The social networks are also launching new products on to appeal to TV advertiser with Twitter Amplify which launched in the US this year providing real-time, dual-screen sponsorships and in-tweet video clips from broadcasters. Facebook's social TV group have also hinted at new products.
Elsewhere on the Media Network, YouTube's uneasy relationship with TV has been explored in depth.
Q: Who's leading the pack and creating great social TV experiences?
Brightcove's Sophie Rayers is of the opinion that ad-supported companion apps are a huge opportunity for brands and advertisers:
Channel 4 look to be doing this really well with 4Now, their second screen app. They have audio triggered (using audio watermarking) real time ads which launch once a programme nears an ad break. These ads expose the viewer to advertising whilst at the same time engaging them (through interactivity such a polls & games). Viewer engagement & attention during ad breaks via the second screens far more likely than for traditional viewing where you would typically wander out of the room to make a cup of tea!
Kastelein feels one example from the Netherlands highlights the true potential of second screen, social integration with TV programming:
John de Mol's latest weekly television quiz phenomenon in The Netherlands called Weet Ik Veel ("How would I know? " or "Beats me!") is mind blowing.
If the numbers from the Dutch show from Talpa were translated into the UK market it would mean 1.5 million active users and four million downloads of a second screen application meant to play along with a show. In the US that's 20 million downloads and 6.5 million active users during the show.
NBCU can barely get five million to watch a show these days. That's crossing the second screen rubicon as far as I am concerned.
Q: Is the business of creating mobile, tablet and connected TV apps to interact with content sustainable in the long run?
The majority of the panel felt that the cost of development was coming down all the time, and that the short-lived nature of most TV programmes meant that we might see more multi-functional 'umbrella' apps from broadcasters and production companies.
UX manager Bruce Collingwood discussed the financial outlay required to create these experiences:
Second screen apps - especially good native ones - are very expensive and TV shows have short runs. Its hard to justify the marketing spend. We built a native app to promote the Walking Dead for Fox – it was very successful – but not cheap. I would say native gives the best experience by far but incredibly expensive due to the proliferation of devices (IOS, Android etc). Responsive is the way to go and hopefully html5 will start to integrate more features to allow more immersive experiences and include apis for audio syncing which is pretty crucial for non-live viewers.
Kastelein said 'flick to screen', where the companion device was effectively the controller for the content on the big screen, would be the future of TV:
With projects like dial-multiscreen.org (backed by a plethora of players including Netflix, Google, BBC, Hulu and others) and other tech such as Zapstreak - flick to screen is the future. Discovery, dissemination and discussion will all take place on a tactile second screen device - which is a few years, will likely be shipped with your TV.
Brightcove's director of strategic accounts, Nicolas Gaviola, gave an overview of how hardware will dictate the apps that get built in the future:
Our experience shows that the most robust from a technical standpoint are the ones that combine a native mobile app with a device such as Google Chromecast or Apple TV.
Connected TV manufacturers, and in particular Samsung, are catching up so we should see better technology to enable these type of experiences moving forward. I don't think content publishers want to see all this interaction happening solely with social network apps as they would lose control over the experience and the end user.
We know that Apple makes great software/hardware combinations so the question is whether the TV manufacturers will form alliances with Google or Microsoft (if they are still around in a few years) to offer better platforms to power social TV and dual screen services.
This comes back to the point of HTML5 and bringing the development costs down. I think there is a lot eyeballing but not a lot of big announcements. Samsung has made some headway in this space but we're still far from a mature landscape. I do think that the days of the bulky set top box, as it currently sits under the TV, are numbered.
Q: How is the social TV ecosystem going to develop?
"The market is hot in terms of investment but dry in terms of quality apps available", said Sanjit Atwal. "Every VC in town has been pitched a second screen app but interestingly its the ones in niche areas that are receiving the funding."
Bruce Collingwood and Richard Kastelein predict consolidation in the market for second screen TV startups:
Collingwood: "Facebook will challenge Twitter even more and the majority of specialist social TV startup companies will merge or disappear, leaving just a few survivors. Likely survivors will be Zeebox and ConnectTV, with TV companies as investors. Shazam is well-established and well-funded. GetGlue, if it can keep growing its community. There's probably still a space for one dedicated social TV sports service in the USA. Will larger countries (Russia, India, Brazil) still have their own social TV startups? Supported by national media companies. Or will these be overtaken, like local social networks were overtaken by Facebook and Twitter?"
Kastelein: "Social TV start-ups will die, merge and eventually one or two will rise to the top of the heap – most likely Zeebox and/or Shazam. TV discovery, dissemination and discussion will eventually all move to the second screen as TVs will be shipped with tactile remotes (like a tablet or smartphone) that facilitates social TV amongst the neophytes."
Q: Are second screens a threat to TV?
While TV is being forced to compete for attention from companion devices, are these companion devices seen as a positive or negative force for TV advertisers and programme producers? Richard Kastelein and Simon Tunstill explored both sides of the story.
Simon Tunstill highlighted the fact that multitasking around TV was nothing new:
People have always done things in the ad breaks – and multi-tasked during programmes – using a second screen is just a new behaviour. But it is one with more obvious commercial benefits to advertisers and broadcasters. The evidence from our Screen Life research is that multi-screening is good news for advertisers. Multi-screeners actually watch more live TV, are more likely to stay in the room during the ad break (because they already have something to do if they want), and have no less ad recognition than people who are not multi-screening. You don't have to pay explicit attention to TV ads for them to work. We tested to see if using a second screen is a distraction by testing ad recognition (we didn't tell participants that they were being tested – a twist on the ironing board test). It had no detrimental effect on ad recognition.
Ofcom's latest report came to a similar conclusion that live TV events are still in rude health: "Watching live remains the core way in which we watch television. Its continued popularity demonstrates viewers' preferences for watching TV as it is broadcast."
Kastelein thinks broadcasters could be struggling to compete for young people's attention:
Between PVR, fragmentation of content (niching), second screen distraction (yes, I believe it is a distraction and have been told as much from Stephan Loerke the CEO of the WFA that he thinks it is), competition from gaming and other entertainment amongst younger demographics (US Broadcast ratings in the key 18-49 demographic tumbled by 17 per cent during the winter months when compared with a year earlier, according to Goldman Sachs), it's not all that rosy if you ask me.
I am in the camp that firmly believes the 30 second spot is dead except for live events. Broadcasters are about to become retailers in a sea of options. And to be frank, people hate commercials.
Concluding the Q&A session, the panel shared their thoughts on how social TV technology could develop in the future.
Nicolas Gaviola from Brightcove said he saw an example from Foxtel in Australia where users could invite their friends to watch movies with them in the app. Essentially, you would create an avatar 3D character that came and sit in a virtual living room with your friends and could chat or speak with your friends during the movie.
Colin Donald made a similar prediction, saying that at least some viewers will take up live video chat (Skype etc) with programming that doesn't need intense concentration, like reality, sports, talk and news.
The overall consensus reached by the panel is that socially-augmented TV experiences look set to become part of TV culture and become a growing part of media owners' revenue streams and advertisers' marketing plans.
Visit the live chat page to view the conversation and panel lineup in full: Social TV and second screens – what's new and what's next?.
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Connected TV
Chris Smith
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