What can the second screen do for the first? Television was once a “lean-back” experience, passively consumed from the comfort of the couch, but the proliferation of laptops, smartphones and tablets is making media multitasking the norm.
As viewers’ eyes flick from the set in the corner to the device in their hand, how do television companies – and their advertisers – turn a potential distraction into a tool for deeper engagement?
The scale of the distraction is impressive. A survey by Time Warner’s Medialab found that 52 per cent of people with both a television and a laptop habitually multitasked while watching TV. Add a smartphone and a tablet and the figure rises to 65 per cent.
Some of those screens are being used for emails, texts and content unrelated to what viewers are watching. Yet much of the growth is in social media discussions of TV shows and digital content designed to deepen engagement with programmes.
PwC found that “social TV” activity on Facebook, Twitter and Google nearly tripled in the second quarter of 2012 from a year earlier. This year’s NCAA basketball tournament similarly generated 16.3m social media comments, an increase of 112 per cent over 2012, Turner Sports reported.
Audiences’ appetite for digital alternatives to shouting at the screen has spawned several second-screen applications and analytics companies and some prominent deals. Viggle, which offers loyalty rewards to fans who “check into” shows, came close to buying GetGlue, a social TV app developer with 3m users who have checked into, rated or reviewed 500m shows. It called off the talks in January, citing “impressive growth” in its own business.
In November, Nielsen bought SocialGuide, a social media analytics group, and in February Twitter bought Bluefin Labs, which analyses social TV chatter.
“Twitter is an amazing complement to live television viewing,” Ali Rowghani, Twitter chief operating officer, said in announcing the deal.
TV networks seem to agree. “The reality of the second screen is that broadcasters are already on board,” PwC’s report concluded. A second screen is a second opportunity to sell advertising and networks increasingly cite social media buzz as part of their pitch to brands.
Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting System recently boasted, for example, that Conan O’Brien’s late-night comedy show on TBS generated 20 per cent more social media comments per episode than those of his peers.
To demonstrate that those commentators were not ignoring the show, TBS used biometric monitoring to show that people using Facebook, Twitter or GetGlue while watching TV were 1.3 times more engaged than those watching without social media sites or apps.
Such figures suggest that social media can heighten viewers’ interest without much effort on programmers’ part, but TV executives are putting increasing resources into social marketing and digital content to deepen engagement further.
MTV has invited viewers to tweet their votes for its Video Music Awards and CBS recently staged a “TweetWeek”, with stars – and even set designers – live-tweeting shows from NCIS to the venerable The Price is Right.
Philip Bourchier O’Ferrall, senior vice-president of Viacom International Media Networks, says the Geordie Shore cast’s combined 7m social media followers have helped build the MTV UK show’s TV audience. “I have no interest, frankly, in just growing the successes of Twitter and Facebook,” he points out: “My number one role … is to drive TV ratings.”
To do so, he says, VIMN has started to look differently at the “story arcs” of its shows to make sure each one has enough “digital media peaks”, which will drive social chatter or direct viewers online for additional content.
When a Geordie Shore cast member gets a tattoo the scene may last just 30 seconds on TV but a tweet from the star can direct fans to 30 minutes of extra footage.
Such second-screen content needs to offer the audience value, Mr O’Ferrall adds, but the definition of value content varies between genres. Statistics may be what persuades a baseball fan to download the MLB.com At Bat app, whereas HBO's Game of Thrones app can inform fans exactly where Aegon the Conqueror landed in Westeros or distinguish Tysane Frey from Tytos Brax.
Not all shows generate such obsessive interest and some caveats are worth remembering. In many markets, tablets remain relatively rare and audiences of different ages respond differently to social media.
Nielsen’s SocialGuide found that an 8.4 per cent increase in Twitter volume correlated to a 1 per cent rise in ratings for new shows among viewers aged 18 to 34. For 35- to 49-year-olds, however, it took a 14 per cent jump in tweets to produce the same 1 per cent ratings bump.
SocialGuide’s finding that 32m people tweeted about TV last year in the US – just 10 per cent of the population – sets social TV into perspective.
The average American still spends about five hours a day glued to TV, which suggests that the first screen has staying power but, as viewers lean in to social and digital media, broadcasters and advertisers can ill-afford to lean back.