Smart Screen Exclusive
Second Screen Comes Into Focus at Summit
Story Highlights
By Lyndsey Schaefer
At Tuesday’s second annual 2nd Screen Summit in Beverly Hills, 200 home entertainment executives gathered to discuss the emerging ecosystem poised to be the next evolution of home entertainment, where the audience could appropriately follow along with a live second screen app of the day’s program, and also tweet in real-time.
Chuck Parker, who chairs the 2nd Screen Society, set the stage with the numbers surrounding the second screen ecosystem – highlighting the $5.9 billion industry growth over the next five years. The second screen phenomena is that we are all trained to engage in second screen activity whenever there is a lull in activity, Parker explained. He said that second screen is a huge opportunity for the business as it creates a reason for people to buy content again.
Keynote speaker Robert Tercek, President and Founder, General Creativity, kicked off the afternoon with his perspective on finding opportunities in the rampant fragmentation of content present in today’s home entertainment market. The leveling off of the TV industry leveling paired with the evolution of cable companies is content fragmentation on a massive scale, Tercek said, adding that the future of video on multiple devices means that the industry needs to adopt a new attitude.
“From the consumer standpoint, piracy is the way to gain access to content,” Tercek said, citing a set-top box available in the United Kingdom that is certified by content-sharing company BitTorrent. “This is closer to the U.S. than we think.”
Panelists discussed leveraging their brands within multi-screen apps to go beyond the wow factor. ConnecTV’s Stacy Jolna, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer, likened second screen apps to potato chips, something you can’t help but keep consuming.
Throughout the program, companies also provided insight into the benefits of working together to create the most innovative second screen apps.
“What works well is to have a loose framework that plugs in other people’s technologies that are well developed,” said Matt Kennedy, President, 1K Studios. “[We] collaborated on the ‘Happy Feet 2’ App with Audible Magic; we have a flexible backbone where we can plug things in as needed.”
DEG Technical Director Marc Finer moderated “DEG Focus on CE in the Living Room,” which featured executives from leading TV manufacturers LG Electronics USA, Samsung Electronics, Sony Electronics and Panasonic discussing their respective efforts in the connected TV and second screen space. LG’s Tim Alessi, Director, New Product Development, said that their goal is to keep the TV as the first screen, while making all of its products connectable and compatible with a multitude of devices and portable video apps. Panelists also discussed the inclusion of Near-Field Communication (NFC) in TVs, wherein a user’s compatible portable device connects immediately with the TV to offer intuitive user experience. Each of the panelists discussed variations in personalization, and the need for a consistent user interface.
Another theme of the summit was harmony within the second screen ecosystem. Items that still need to be addressed include measurement of over-the-top and second screen viewing. Panelists admitted that those in attendance aren’t necessarily the targeted users of second screen apps – it’s the generation below – often referred to as millennials. Monetizing the second screen ecosystem was another topic that was weaved throughout the day’s discussions.
Bill Baxter, Chief Technology Officer for BuddyTV, said that user interface (UI) is one of the biggest factors of discovery for consumers.
“It’s hard to achieve social mass if you don’t provide a great level of utility,” Baxter said. “The goal is to get a user to what they want to watch in 20 seconds or less.”
“Word of mouth is the best way [to gain traction],” said Juan Reyes, Chief Technology Officer, BluFocus. “You see your friends talking about what they’re going to watch. You’ll try it out and that’s a big part of how people are finding these shows.”
To learn more about the 2nd Screen lexicon, visit www.mesaonline.org/communities/second-screen-society.
