Smart Screen
Vast Media Smart Screen Round-Up: BBC, Fox Offer Up VR
Story Highlights
Here’s a run-down of recent second screen-related entertainment items, via Berlin-based research and consulting company Vast Media.
• On Aug. 13, Fox worked with YouTube and its VR180 platform to live-stream the one-hour red carpet of the 2017 “Teen Choice Awards,” via Fox’s YouTube channel. The virtual reality experience featured celebrity interviews, commentary and celebrity profiles.
Additionally, Fox featured a “Teen Choice Scavenger Hunt” during the awards show, offering fans a chance to win a surfboard. The contest had viewers searching for clues offered up by the hosts and presenters of the show, and then submitting answers via Instagram.
• To help promote the new Kylie Jenner reality TV series “Life of Kylie,” NBC Universal-owned E! debuted a companion show — “Ask Kylie” — exclusive to Snapchat. The Aug. 12 debut of the show on Snapchat Discover featured Jenner responding to fan-submitted questions and opening up about her life. New episodes of the Snapchat series will debut every Saturday, a day ahead of the new episodes of the reality series on E!
• On July 21, Discovery Channel partnered with Red Lobster for an interactive tie-in to the series “Deadliest Catch,” giving fans of the series the opportunity to meet with experts on catching and preparing seafood. The interactive online video allows viewers to pick and choose different segments to watch, and access additional video material as they watch.
• For the Aug. 1 debut of “Manhunt: Unabomber” Discovery Channel included an interactive timeline showing how Ted Kaczynski became one of the most-hunted men in FBI history. The online feature begins in 1967 and runs all the way through 1998, when Kaczynski was sentenced to life in prison.
• On Aug. 3, BBC released a new virtual reality offering dubbed “AbstACTION,” which features abstract, motion-capture dance performances in a 360-degree environment. Available exclusively for Google Daydream, the VR offering allows viewers to see dance performances from four different angles, with music featured by the group “Daughters of Grief.”
