White Paper: The Second Screen

The Second ScreenA growing phenomenon in the multimedia industry

WHITE PAPER

The Second Screen: A growing phenomenon in the multimedia industry Beenius ©2

1. Introduction 3

2. Statistics 4

3. The Beginnings of Social TV 6

4. TV and Social Media 7 Twitter 7 Facebook 9

5. Applications and Examples 11

6. Predictions for the Future 13

References 14

Abbreviations

EPG Electronic program guideGUI Graphical user interfaceIPTV Internet protocol televisionPVR Personal video recordingSTB Set-top boxSVG Scaled vector technologyVOD Video on demand

3 The Second Screen: A growing phenomenon in the multimedia industry Beenius ©

Figure 1: Second screen devices

Introduction

The term »Second Screen« also referred to as a »Companion Device«, is a relatively new but growing phenomenon in the multimedia industry. It refers to an additional electronic device such as a smartphone or tablet which enables users to interact with TV content (e.g. reality/talk shows, movies, live sports, commercials). Data displayed on the TV is also enriched by additional information which is simultaneously shown on the second screen.

Second screen functionality is supported by several interconnected devices and applications which are seamlessly delivered across all screens. As a result, the way in which content is produced has changed and new services and applications keep being developed, but above all, second screen has become an important advertising channel [1].

Let us look at the facts. Due to the booming use of the internet during the past few years the decline of TV seemed inevitable but according to a study by Nielsen Audience Measurement company we are now watching more TV than ever, in spite of the rise of both online and mobile video viewing [2].

According to Mike Proulx, the coauthor of the book Social TV: How Marketers Can Reach and Engage Audiences by Connecting Television to the Web, Social Media, and Mobile “The internet isn’t killing off TV – instead it’s enhancing it” [2].

> 1.


Statistics

Several studies have shown that the use of smart phones and tablets is increased during TV sessions. According to Nielsen’s rating studies, users post more comments on social networks while watching TV. The statistics reveals that tablets and smart phones are the most frequently used devices in front of TV (the yellow columns in the first and the last graph in the figure below) [3].

> 2.

Figure 2: Simultaneous use of TV and second device [3]

Source: Q1 2011 Mobile Connected Device Report

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81% 66% 66%Figure 3: Multiscreen combinations [4]

According to a study by Google consumers are becoming “multi-screeners” by using computers, TVs, smart phones or tablets, depending on the location, the amount of time available and the contents being watched. “The attention is split between several devices, while users are performing distinct activities on each of them. This multitasking gives a feeling of a greater efficiency and “found time” [4].

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Research reveals that about 24 % of our daily media interactions occur on PCs, keeping us productive and informed, 38% on smart phones, keeping us connected, and 9% on tablets, keeping us entertained. There are two main modes of multi screening – sequential usage (moving from one device to another to accomplish a task) and simultaneous (using more devices at the same time for one or several activities).


> 3. The Beginnings of Social TV

The use of second screen device has started by interaction between traditional TV and social media. Sharing of TV contents on social media is also called “Social TV”. Due to the rise of social media (e.g. social networking services such as Twitter, Facebook and Social TV applications GetGlue, IntoNow, Miso, Tunerfish, Zeebox etc.) the way how we watch TV has changed. Watching TV is no longer an “offline” experience [5].

Back in 2010 MIT Technology Review ranked Social TV among 10 breakthrough technologies of the year. According to William Bulkeley, the author of the article 10 Breakthrough Technologies [6]:

“The viewership for live television broadcasts has generally been declining for years. But something surprising is happening: events such as the Winter Olympics and the Grammys are drawing more viewers and more buzz. The rebound is happening at least in part because of new viewing habits: while people watch, they are using smart phones or laptops to swap texts, tweets, and status updates about celebrities, characters, and even commercials.”

Marie-José Montpetit, an invited scientist at MIT’s Research Lab for Electronics, has been researching the Social TV phenomenon for the past few years. Her goal is to make watching TV an experience that can be shared on social media and also to simplify content search for users. Nowadays people, devices and networks are intertwined therefore also the contents and applications are constantly changing. Interactions happen on many levels.

For instance one can watch a show, record only the most interesting parts and share them on social networks. Media analytic companies, on the other hand, can track social media comments and measure which topics are the most attractive for certain audiences. The viewers can influence the contents in such a way.

Montpetit and her students at the MIT Media Lab demonstrated an interesting prototype, consisting of a central database, which gathers videos from the web sources (e.g. YouTube), shares user-specified data on social networks, delivers videos on user’s TV sets and let the people in the same network comment and rate the video contents via iPhone applications. Users can also choose their favorite programs. If someone suggests a show and another person in the same social network agrees, the same show pops-up at the appointed time [6].

According to before mentioned Marie-José:

“Operator can make money on Social TV« (e.g. subscribe to a special service allowing you to download an application, this brings traffic to the operator which further implies the operator can keep the relationship with the advertisers.” [6].


TV and Social Media

TwitterThe symbiosis between traditional TV and social media is what led Twitter to remark that social TV will “help us create innovative new ad products and consumer experiences in the exciting intersection of Twitter and TV” [5].

In 2012 Nielsen, the Media Measurement and Analysis giant, acquired Social Guide, a start-up company from New York that tracks Twitter and Facebook conversations about TV. The company associates with Twitter in order to create a social ranking of US TV programs popularity. Social Guide helps networks, brands and agencies to measure and understand the social impact of TV. It provides the most accurate reflection of Twitter TV activity and is the first real-time social guide for TV and Movies [5]. Real-time analysis makes social buzz valuable for business. The technology is based on intelligent social recognition system, which dynamically generates a series of trackers (keywords or phrases) for TV programs in real-time. Another company that has recently joined Twitter in order to become a part of social TV story is Bluefin Labs [5].

They claim:

“While our products have always included data from multiple social media services, the reality is that Twitter is the platform where the overwhelming majority – about 95% – of public real-time engagement with TV happens. So we couldn’t be more excited to join Twitter.”

According to Technology Review, journal published by MIT “Discovering the patterns in tweets will reshape TV, ads, and politics” [7].

The following two figures are examples of statistical data, gathered by Social Guide. Figure 4 shows real-time data of comments on Twitter for all network types, whereas Figure 5 shows US TV program rankings (program, type of the program and numbers of comments, tweets and shares).

> 4.


Figure 4: Twitter real-time TV audience statistics [9]

Figure 5: US TV program rankings [9]


TwitterBesides Twitter another strong social TV media player is undoubtedly Facebook by more than one billion subscribers it is expected to have a strong impact in social TV media space in 2013. Facebook already offers a personalized TV program guides based on the contents that user’s friends are watching and offers video applications e.g. Open Graph which enables users to share video based contents. According to AdAge Digital it is expected that another video-advertisement application will be released by Facebook in the first half of 2013 [5]. A study performed by Nielsen showed that Facebook has the strongest impact on TV viewers of all online media [5]. As shown on the left graph below people of various age groups use different channels to discuss TV contents. Watching TV is frequently initiated by social media as it is shown on the right graph below.

Figure 6:

a) TV content discussions,

b) stimulation of TV viewers by Social media [8]

Methods Used by US Internet Users to Talk About TV Shows/Content, by Age, Sep 2012

% of respondents

18-34 35-49 50-64 TotalWith people in the same room 71% 66% 62% 67%while I am watching Face-to-face conversations 66% 62% 57% 62%Phone conversation 41% 40% 27% 37%Texting 47% 25% 13% 31%Updating or posting on Facebook 40% 27% 14% 29%Email 28% 25% 18% 25%Instant messaging 28% 17% 9% 19%Tweeting 21% 18% 8% 17%Social network app 25% 16% 5% 17%Blogging 19% 12% 3% 13%Check-in app 18% 14% 3% 13%Live chat on Xbox live 18% 11% 3% 12%

Note: n=828; “always” or “often”Source: Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), “How Chatter Matters in TV Viewing” conducted by Nielsen in Collaboration with MBI TouchPoints and uSamp as cited by TVbytheNumbers, Dec 28, 2012 150451 / www.eMarketer.com

US Internet Users Who Started Watching a TV Program Due to Opinions Online, by Site and Age, Sep 2012

% of respondents

18-34 35-49 50-64 TotalFacebook 54% 48% 30% 46%Twitter 21% 12% 5% 14%TV show websites 8% 12% 6% 9%Forums or discussion boards 11% 8% 3% 8%Entertainment sites 8% 9% 4% 7%Pinterest 5% 3% 3% 4%reddit 4% 1% 1% 2%Viggle 3% 2% 1% 2%foursquare 2% 1% 0% 1%GetGlue 2% 1% 0% 1%IntoNow 1% 1% 0% 1%

Note: n=828Source: Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), “How Chatter Matters in TV Viewing” conducted by Nielsen in Collaboration with MBI TouchPoints and uSamp as cited by TVbytheNumbers, Dec 28, 2012 150452 / www.eMarketer.com


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Figure 7: Social media comments [7]

According to Technology Review magazine, published by MIT, the number of comments on social media has been rising sharply during the past few years [7].

Facebook is currently testing ways to let their users share the emotions more visually, but “watching” the user status seems a possibility of a new TV check-in feature [5], [11].

Figure 8: Visual FB status as TV check-in [11]


> 5. Applications and Examples

Nevertheless Social TV and commenting on social media is not the only purpose that second screen is used for. Other applications and services keep being developed for multi-screen usage with a goal to enhance user interactivity as well as to enable new advertising channels [1], [9]. Let us mention just a few possibilities of second screen services and applications.

• Automatic content identification• Accurate synchronization with TV content• Time-shifting• Personal video recording (PVR)• Interactivity (gambling, tele-voting, polls)• Social network (rating, chatting, sharing)• Video on Demand (VoD)• Live content enrichment• Engagement measurement• Remote control

Sports broadcasters for example try to attract their audience by offering alternative content to the main program on the second screen, such as unseen moments, alternative information, soundtrack and characters. New technologies offer a possibility of viewing a match from various camera angles. Second screen apps are popular also for live events such as Giro d’Italia, where viewers can get riders’ statistic data, biographies, news, stage, reviews and weather info. Viewers of Boxing Fights can use their second screen devices to vote on fights, chat or win prizes. A new feature is advertising and online shopping of sports equipment related to the sports event being watched [1].

Disney second screen for example offers additional contents to a user by synchronization of the movie with the viewer’s device through an audio cue, by manual sync, or by a visual sync indicator. Synchronization enables interactive elements such as interactive games, photo gallery, videos, behind the screen features or animated flipbooks on the second screen supported by Flash. Viewer can explore 3D environment by using touch-screen or a mouse [12].

Dual touch-screen apps are used for gaming consoles to display different but related information on both screens [1].

Second screen can also be used as a remote control through a set-top box, which enables to launch the content from the second screen to the main screen [1].

The table below shows a few examples where second screen applications have been successfully implemented.


Table 1: Overview of multiscreen applications

Category Applications Examples

Sports ∙ rating information ∙ Giro d’Italia by TV2 Denmark [3]: ∙ various camera angles rider stats, biographies, stage reviews, weather info) ∙ voting ∙ HDNet Fights (stats, voting ∙ commenting on social media on fights and rounds, ∙ Winter Olympics chatting, prizes) ∙ Grammys

Video Games ∙ console playing with ∙ Various angles, characters extra data and a possibility of programming

TV programs ∙ live tweet and commenting ∙ Live stream applications for) ∙ unseen moments Oscars (by Disney ∙ alternative information ∙ soundtrack and characters ∙ remote control ∙ reality shows

Cartoons ∙ characters storyboard ∙ Disney animations


> 6. Applications and Examples

According to research published by Business Insider the facts why second screen industry will ultimately succeed are as follows [10]:

• Fast usage growth: 85% of smart phone users reported second-screen linked behavior at least once a month

• Mass acceptance isn’t even necessary: it is enough that a significant minority of viewers develop this behavior

• Second screen isn’t really a new activity: it is just a new way of commenting the last football match

• Second screen applications are bridges: they help to connect the increasingly fragmented world of television media

According to an article, written by Alyssa Priden and published on Activ8Social [7], “Second Screen is Here to Stay”.

“Last year many predicted the rise of second screen, but few foresaw how much it would dominate the social media landscape. The biggest social media moments of 2012 coincided with live televised events (Super Bowl, Grammys, VMAs), proving that second screen was no passing fad. In 2013, sports brands and teams will find new and more powerful ways to reach fans and consumers through second screen capabilities.”

Innovations, which are expected in this field in the next few years [3]:

• New ways to supply the content in the network

• Innovations in the business cases

Connected devices and connected people create a framework for new business cases (e.g. while watching a football match viewers can also see banners for sport equipment and they can navigate to a sport equipment web-store).

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References

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_screen#cite_note-1[2] http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorieclark/2012/09/06/why-tv-is-going-social/[3] http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/in-the-u-s-tablets-are-tv- buddies-while-ereaders-make-great-bedfellows/[4] http://www.slideshare.net/smobile/the-new-multiscreen-world-by- google-14128722[5] http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2013/02/09/facebook-social-tv-checkin- feature/[6] http://www2.technologyreview.com/article/418541/tr10-social-tv/[7] http://static.bluefinlabs.com/website/bluefin_mit-tech-review.pdf[8] http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-television-study_b34910[9] http://sgi.socialguide.com/[10] http://www.businessinsider.com/bii-report-why-the-second-screen-industry- is-set-to-explode-2013-2[11] http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/30/facebook-visual-sharing/[12] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_Second_Screen

About Beenius: Beenius is the developer of Beesmart, interactive TV middleware for modern TV service operators that deliver the most exciting interactive TV experience to their subscribers. Beesmart empowers the uniqueness of every operator by providing a TV platform along with the tools for extensive upgrades and prompt customizations in a cost-effective manner. Beenius has a proven track record of successful customers and partners, and is committed to continuously delivering the means for their sustainable growth.

About the Authors: The team that contributed to this paper among others includes Mr. Dejan Pavsek, Product Manager at Beenius, Mrs. Nika Mohar, Marketing Manager at Beenius, and Technical Writer. For additional inquiries specifically concerning the topic of this paper, please contact us at [email protected].

Date post:	22-Jan-2017
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