Second Screen? Many Definitions Found at NCTA Session
The term “second screen” means many different things to different people in the TV industry, Matt Murphy, senior vice president-digital video distribution for Disney and ESPN Networks, said at the NCTA convention Tuesday. That fact could not have been more apparent during the series of presentations webcast live from the trade show in Boston, as executive after executive gave his or her own take on the technology. For some it’s delivering traditional TV programming to new devices, such as iPads and smartphones. For others, it’s using those devices to let viewers interact with TV programming and ads without interfering with the programming on a main TV. For others still, it seemed to mean allowing media companies to tap into the vast stream of data being created by users talking about TV on social media.
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ESPN is focusing on delivering its live networks to more devices, Murphy said. “With sports, 99 percent of the viewership is live, and that’s why we wanted to focus on the network itself,” he said. For Disney’s WatchESPN apps, the network was initially delivered ad-free, Murphy said. That gave the company the ability experiment with new ad formats and take advantage of the two-way nature of devices like tablets and smartphones, he said: “They have qualities that allow you to do much more engaging things."
Sports programming also drives social media use on second-screens, said Sean Casey, CEO of SocialGuide, a Brooklyn, N.Y.,-based startup that is aggregating information about how people discuss TV on social media platforms and selling those insights to media companies. “Sports events, in any given month, constitute about 2 percent of all TV programming but make up about 50 percent of the social activity” tied to TV, he said. Viewers are already discussing TV programs on social media, he said. “The next step is how can they [the media companies] bring their sponsors and advertisers and add them to the conversation,” he said.
Time Warner Cable executives said they're also focused on bringing their living-room TV experience to more devices. “We want to be on all the devices consumers are using,” said Kevin Leddy, executive vice president-technology policy and product management. On those devices, “our navigation can be a lot better than it is on a set-top box,” he said. He said TWC is streaming about 250 channels live to IP devices and plans to add more broadcast channels this year. TWC is already carrying broadcasters on its IP platform in New York: “We'll be adding the broadcasters from other markets through the end of this year.”