When broadcasters, content creators and commentators gather to chat, one of the topics that keeps coming up is double screening - people using a laptop or iPad while they are watching television. Does this spell the end for linear television as we used to know it? Are attention spans now permanently shortened? Technicolor’s Greg Gudorf reports.
Perhaps most obviously, if we give the consumer a ‘connected’ television - a device with an ethernet port as well as HDMI - do we pull everything back onto one screen? I want to look at these issues from three viewpoints: the consumer, the network operator and the content owner. But first, is it really the case that viewers are now double-screening?
All the evidence suggests that it is indeed true. Research published in the UK at the end of 2010 by Thinkbox suggests that 60% of people claim to watch television while online at least two or three times a week, with one in three doing it every day. 44% of double screeners used social networks like Facebook and Twitter while watching television.
Also in the UK, the game show Million Pound Drop Live attracts a television audience of around 2.3 million, with almost 10% of the audience playing along with the game online. Even though they did not stand to win a slice of the money on offer, the content was compelling enough to engage them twice over.
The counter-argument is that television is the lean-back experience we use to unwind, not a lean-forward experience with which we interact.
Patrick Barwise is emeritus professor at the London School of Management and Marketing. At IBC in 2009, he said: “If people spend three and a half hours a day doing something that has not essentially changed for 40 years, it suggests that it is working quite well… you watch television to relax, because it is immersive but not demanding.”
How should we reconcile these diverging views: television as immersive relaxation with the need to share and sometimes interact?
The consumer
It may seem an obvious point to make, but consumers are investing in large screen televisions - and some are even looking to 3D receivers - because they want to enjoy content on the large television screen. That has to be our first priority. At Technicolor we call this principle ‘TV first’.
Current exercises in connected television all seem to want to put user interface elements and additional information onto the screen. Here they cover the lovely pictures for which the consumer has paid big bucks, which seems to me to be obviously a bad idea. Put the additional information, the social networking, the controls, the drivers to recommended content and the rest onto a second screen. We know it is going to be there: we just need to find ways to use it.
Consumer research has shown another reason why the information should be on the second screen. Viewing the television programme is still a social activity, whereas commenting on social networks or accessing other content is personal. One viewer’s on-screen interactivity is their companion’s intrusion on immersive viewing.
What the consumer wants is a simple, seamless and social experience, with each part of that experience in the right place: the good content on the big screen, the control and interactivity somewhere else.
The broadcaster
The term broadcaster today has to embrace network operators on satellite, cable and telco. As far as they are concerned, their subscribers today have more choices on more devices, all designed to take attention away from the experience they are delivering.
Broadcasters still score with the big, live events, like sports and news. On a recent Sunday night, more than half the UK population were simultaneously watching the two main television channels as two popular reality shows neared their conclusions. Traditional television is still capable of delivering the big audiences.
What broadcasters and network operators have to do is use the second screen to add value to the existing network without drawing attention away from it. They can use it to increase brand loyalty and thus aid customer retention, and they can use it to drive media consumption.
Video on demand is growing in popularity, driven largely by catch-up services rather than new selections. By presenting consumers with increased choices, based on ratings and recommendations from their social network - ‘you are watching X, so you would probably like Y’ - the chances are strong that they will purchase more.
The content owner
The third part of the triangle is currently the least engaged, yet they too can benefit hugely by building tighter bonds with audiences.
To the broadcaster or network operator one channel is much like any other, but to the producer, particularly one with a strong brand, the ability to draw audiences in is very attractive.
The solution is to find opportunities to synchronise apps to linear television. This can add interest to those who want it, without diminishing the experience for those who just want to watch the main screen. Playing along with games is one obvious example, as we have seen, but there are many others.
Engaging audiences by channelling social comment is a strong way of building a brand. As the number of channels multiplies it becomes ever harder to identify new programmes that you will enjoy. Direct peer to peer recommendation is one of the strongest ways of building a following, and it can be controlled and empowered through double screening.
The technology
At Technicolor we like to think we know a bit about creating and delivering content. We currently transmit channels for about 250 operators in 30 countries, and we have manufactured and supplied more than 100 million set-top boxes.
Looking to the future, it is very clear that consumers have the upper hand, driving what they want to do when relaxing in front of the television. Over the past year we have seen a distinct move from the laptop to the iPad, and now to other tablet devices as the second screen. This is a consumer choice, and of course we have to support it.
At the same time, we also see the need for something that is perhaps more closely integrated, something that is an integral part of the home network rather than just a device using it for connectivity.
Take a step back, and look at the conventional remote control. It performs a limited but valuable set of functionality, it is available to whoever picks it up, and we quickly learn the location of the most important buttons so we can increase the volume, or fast forward through the commercials, or pause the show, without looking at it.
All of that could be achieved using an iPad or an Android tablet. But you would have to wake it up, get a bright screen to distract you from the nice picture on the television, then look away from that nice picture to the tablet to identify and activate the function you want.
What if there was an intermediate sort of device? Something which had key functionality in hard buttons so you could find mute or pause without looking, which was linked into the network through the set-top box so could be synchronised to the linear television content, and which had tablet-like properties so could display additional content and allow user interaction. That would provide the interlinked experience.
So perhaps the solution is not double-screening but multi-screening, with an intelligent and capable device providing all the directly linked content as well as control functionality, alongside the individual’s device of choice. Whatever the number of screens, the critical point is that each should be contributing in the most appropriate way to the viewing experience, leaving the main television showing good content in all its glory - TV first.