March/April 2013 From Cover 22 The Second Screen Comes to the First TV Screen’s Rescue The 2nd Screen Society was formed in Port Washington, NY, last June, and it now counts 40 members with Guy Finley as its executive director and Chuck Parker as chairman. It has produced a 252-page report available for $2,995, while a 95page executive summary goes for $495. According to The Consumer Lab 2012 report from Ericsson, 62 percent of viewers watch TV while using a second screen. In a report, the 2nd Screen Society put that figure at a more modest 40 percent. Now, if indeed the report that 62 percent of TV viewers watch television while using tablets, smartphones or laptops is correct, one might think that it doesn’t say much for the quality of the programs viewed. If one observes how children and young adults consume television, when watching something that interests them, they focus solely on the program. When, on the other hand, they slouch on the couch with the TV tuned into a program they do not particularly like, they immediately go into the second screen mode. Not so, said Parker, pointing out that the Super Bowl game on CBS last February represented the most social TV telecast so far, with a total activity of over 52.5 million performed by 24 million people. Some 56 percent of these “engaged” viewers were male and 44 percent female, using mobile devices (88 percent) and the Web (12 percent). During the most recent Academy Awards ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and ABC Network provided second screen viewers with “Oscar All Access” digital offerings accompanying the live broadcast. Also recently, Fox Broadcasting Company (FOX) launched a new syndication network that will distribute FOX’s custom sync-to-broadcast once again become a “social activity,” although of a different nature than the traditional family viewing of decades ago. Today’s TV social activity is on an individual level, interacting with other individuals through a second screen, including social media networks, such as Facebook and Twitter. It is possible that, nowadays, a family could watch the same television program, while each member is engaged with their own personal device. With the second screen, viewers also give “multitasking” a new connotation, since they read, write, listen and watch, supposedly at the same time. Unreal as it seems, the second screen is indeed real, and broadcasters are starting to take advantage of it in shows’ production stages, if not even at script levels, with specialized teams that integrate second screen non-linear features into the process to provide engagement bait. And this can be done even with old library material for any genre, including drama, especially if the program is character-driven. Naturally, the question of standardization is still to be resolved, since it involves several issues, such as experiences, connectivity and syndication of metadata, among others. experiences — currently available exclusively in FOX NOW apps — to other second screen TV app providers. So, not only is the second screen necessary to recapture viewers, but it represents a growing source of revenues with $490 million a year invested globally so far, reaching an estimated $5.9 billion by 2017monetized both by advertising and mobile commerce. Often, the second screen is said to be the 21st century version of reading a newspaper while watching TV. But Parker rejects that analogy because reading newspapers “is flat,” while engaging with a second screen is “like reading changing headlines or three different articles.” However, one could define the second screen as the second phase of the interactivity (now called “engagement”) envisioned for just the TV screen, which was seen, as recently as two years ago, as the center of multimediality. If the surveys are accurate, watching television has Chuck Parker is the 2nd Screen Society’s chairman Guy Finley, executive director of 2nd Screen Society Traditional television could recapture viewers’ attention by engaging them through a second screen, be it a smartphone, a tablet or laptop. The Consumer Lab 2012 Report from Ericsson According to the report, 62percent of people use social networking sites and forums while watching TV on a weekly basis, and this number is growing. Of these people, 40 percent will be discussing what they are currently watching on TV over social networks. Women are more likely to use social forums while watching TV. Indeed, 69 percent of women engage in this behavior, compared to 62 percent of men. However, of those, the men are more likely to discuss the things they are currently watching. This may be linked to the desire to discuss live sports events as they happen. Mobiles and laptops are the devices most commonly used to discuss TV content and are now also becoming part of the home TV setup. They not only allow social interaction, but also enable Internet multitasking during viewing. This phenomenon is not just limited to young people — 30 percent of those aged 45-59 engage in social TV behavior at least weekly as well.
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