Apps Mean Different Things to Different Content Providers
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. -- Entertainment content providers see apps as potentially powerful tools for disseminating content and interacting with consumers, executives said. Speakers at the Entertainment APPS Conference said figuring out how to best use the technology is still a work in progress. It depends on the device, said John Penney, Starz executive vice president-strategy. “The smaller the device, the harder it is to create an impression.”
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Tablets bring “a rich environment for engagement and creating impressions,” Penney said. “Mobile can be a direct marketing tool because it’s on one network and they know where consumers are. So they can target because they know if you are near a coffee shop or movie theater.” Charlie Echeverry, Univision Interactive executive vice president-sales, said mobile needs to be viewed as a dual device. “It’s both a screen and a tool, something you can use to interact,” he said. “In case of the Hispanic audience, they are leading this revolution because these are their first screens and they are looking for experiences. Our mobile audience is really growing and expanding, but the question in mobile remains, can I reach scale?"
How content translates is a key, said Paul Condolora, senior vice president-digital & consumer products for Cartoon Network/Adult Swim. “Video obviously translates well and is economical but games can become very expensive and overall, creative clearly isn’t as good as you see online or TV. The supply on [the] mobile side will continue to outstrip demand, and pricing will not keep pace, so direct-to-consumer business is more attractive to us in the mobile space.” Condolora said all the networks’ content is developed for cross-platform use.
Broadly, the main function of an app is having people find content, Penney said. “There is flourishing development in content discovery as we go from an impression-based model to a direct to consumer model. A subscription channel like ours demands an experience and value above basic cable, so customers feel like they are getting extra value. Through apps tied to a subscription, for the first time we can interact directly to our consumers. It’s opening an amazing candy box to know what they're watching and where they're watching.”
The best example of access now is the UltraViolet content cloud, said Richard Berger, Sony Pictures senior vice president-global digital strategy and operations. “A consumer buys content once, then can access it anywhere across multiple platform[s], so every time a new device comes on the scene, the value increases.” Every panel member agreed that consumers’ desire for all access all the time over all platforms drives app development, from a content providers’ perspective.
Enough consumers are now more engaged with smart and connected devices to realize the potential of second screens, executives said on another panel. “The first wave of second screens is dead,” Magic Ruby CEO Tom Engdahl said. “You now have an opportunity to go directly to the consumer. We find people use their device to get immersed in the content."
Content providers are incorporating second screens as part of the production “so consumers can dig deeper into the content,” Engdahl said. “If you don’t have people on the second screen, then the business model makes no sense. But once you do, then you [have] enough of an audience, then avenues for advertising, product placement, and marketing open up. There are still banners and sponsor ads at a time when you've got all these people with smart devices. We need to change the paradigm so it is interactive with the content."
Second screens help MTV Networks’ cable channels build relationships with viewers, said Jim Eadie, senior vice president-digital business development. “We have a better sense of who is watching and what they are watching and how they are responding to our programming. It’s important to be where the audience is, which in our case is social media and mobile. When we think of social TV, we think of how to build interaction and cross-promote.” Such marketing will lead back to e-commerce and enhanced interaction opportunities, Eadie said.
One of the challenges faced by content providers is getting the scale, which Eadie said nobody has done extremely well yet. Engdahl agreed: “The tools to measure second screen audiences don’t exist yet, but measurements of its effectiveness will be crucial to monetization.”
The first phase of second screen was on technology and modernization, said 1K Studios President Matt Kennedy. Now it’s on aggregating content, he said. “How can we make experiences so it can be monetized and get people engaged in second screen apps, so you are not competing with the show but complementing it? What’s more exciting is we are getting enough audience engagement now before and after the show to start deriving revenue from second screen.” Univision focuses on “reaching the consumer at the right time and the right place to stay engaged,” said Scott Levine, Univision Interactive vice president of video product. “With the coming of connected TV, there’s no longer new media and traditional media -- there is just media.”