TV Technology on Second Screen

The September, IBC issue of TV Technology includes a feature on Second Screen including examples and quotes from Ex Machina:

IBC2012: Second Screen Applications and the Technologies That Power Them
At this year’s IBC exhibition proponents of second-screen viewing will argue that consumption of “companion” content on a second-screen device—whether it be a mobile phone, a laptop or an iPad, while simultaneously watching a show on the main TV set—is more of a natural fit with viewing habits than OTT services. They will argue this for one simple reason: we’ve already started doing it.

Whether tweeting friends during a talent show or going online to a sports forum to discuss the man of the match, it’s already happening. The big challenge for “Connected TV” meanwhile, is the renewal cycle. People change phones and tablets on average every two years, but only tend to change their TV sets every five to 10 years.

What many in the first-wave of second-screen apps are doing at present, however, is not rocket science—it’s quite basic: filtering out the noise of social media and creating more bespoke applications for specific TV shows.

Game shows are one genre already making the most of the second screen. Dutch software firm ExMachina’s second-screen platform PlayToTV enabled RTL Group viewers of “The Voice” to listen to performances on second-screen devices prior to the show’s broadcast. Users were then able to give their predictions on the contestants’ performances, which were fed back into the live TV show.

Another RTL Group quiz show, “Intuition,” pushed the envelope further, devising a TV show with second-screen applications in mind as players at home were able to perform a key role in the quiz and were rewarded with discount vouchers. According to ExMachina’s CEO Jeroen Elfferich between 6 and 10 percent of all viewers played along.

“That’s high, as the average conversion rate is around 2 to 5 percent,” said Elfferich. “By the end of the series one, once the audience had become familiar with the format, one in three people requested the coupons.”

Elfferich, who is set to speak at the IBC session “The Rise of the Second Screen,” adds that the PlayToTV platform will also play an important part in the Dutch election coverage this month when it’s set to power broadcasters’ second-screen applications.

The platform claims to provide real-time feedback to the studio, making it the perfect platform for conducting polls and feeding the results back into the live coverage and debates.