Despite differences – social TV studies agrees on strong progress

Social TV – a strong trend despite differences in study results.

2012 was obviously the big year for social-TV, at least it was one of the buzz-words within the industry. A number of new applications were released and after more or less every big TV-event, it was reported that a record number of postings were done referring to it. A number of studies were done during the year and The Guardian summarizes them all in an interesting article where it’s still obvious that, even if there are some differences between the studies, the positive trend for the second screen phenomena is very strong.

Between 75 and 85 % of the TV-viewers are actually using other devices while watching, a very impressive fact indeed. Of these, between 37 and 52% are doing something that’s directly related to the show they are watching, for example tweeting about the story, browsing for products seen in an ad or similar. Around 20% are chatting on Facebook and/or Twitter about the content but up to 50% are still on these network, obviously doing other things than discussing TV.

The facts above are the ones that are more or less common for all the studies but there are of course interesting facts from one or more of them. Here are some of them:

DigitalResearch/IMRG (UK)

• 41% of the ones that have used a second device have used it to browse for products seen in a commercial

RedBeeMedia/Decipher (UK)

• 55% of the ones that have used a second device were keen on the ability to respond to shows through polls and voting
• 25% of the respondents were ready to pay for a second screen app, on average they were willing to pay 1,27 £ per app.
• 22% of the respondents have searched for something that they saw on TV.

Verizon/Harris Interactive (US)

• This research focused on the presidential election and TV:s impact on it. 23 % of the respondents that were planning to watch the debates were also considering posting comments on Facebook and Twitter.

Google/Ipsos/Sterling (US)

• The most interesting findings in this research was Google:s claims that “77% of the times people watch TV, it’s with another device”
• According to Google, 81% uses smartphones and 66% use laptops or PC:s while watching TV.

Ericsson (UK)

• The Ericsson report claims that 30% of the viewers in the ages 45-59 are using “social TV” at least once per week, this shows that this isn’t only something for the younger audience.

IAB / ESPN (UK, US)

• This study focused on second-screen usage during the Euro 2012 and therefore of course the European countries. The purpose was to see how people are using second screen services during sports events.
• 54 % of the fans were using other devices while watching the games on TV of which 68 % could be related to Euro 2012.

There’s a lot more to learn from these studies but it is obvious that social TV and second screens are here to stay. It will be even more interesting to see how 2013 will look like. Will Twitter still be as dominant as today and which apps will be successful next year?

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Source: “Social TV and second-screen viewing: the stats in 2012″, article on guardian.co.uk, 29th of October 2012

The German TV-viewer more and more social.

The blog is now back again after some weeks of silence. The updates will now be more frequent, I promise.

One of the main focuses of the blog is the social TV-trend in Europe and today, we’ll look a little bit closer at the German market. The local trade organization BITKOM has, together with research company Goldmedia made a survey about the usage of social TV in “der Bundesrepublik”.  The poll was made on 2000 respondents and one of the main outcomes is that around 20% of the Germans are discussing TV-programs while they’re watching. Of this group of people, 51% are using laptops or tablets, 35 % are using desktops and 21 % are using smartphones.

The study also shows that the German television series are very popular in social media, they have, in total, received over 18 M likes and has gathered around 1,2 M followers on Twitter.

The most interesting fact is nevertheless that 77% claims that they are watching TV while browsing the Internet which shows the fantastic opportunity that the social TV phenomena has to create new revenues in our part of the world.

Michael Schidlack from BITKOM summarizes all very well:

“Television is no longer just on the TV set. Instead, programmes are discussed before, during and after broadcast on social networks.”

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Source: “TV-viewers go social in Germany, article in WARC, 23rd of October 2012

Focus a must for the social TV industry.

Social TV is the buzzword on everyone’s lips but in fact, most of the TV-related discussion is so far taking place on Twitter and Facebook. There are hundreds of applications available out there but few (only GetGlue, Zeebox and maybe some more) has reached high volumes. Somrat Niyogi, the CEO of Miso addresses this problem in an article on TechCrunch where he means that the dominance of Twitter can be explained with its ability to take part in people’s daily life but also with the fact that social TV hasn’t succeeded.

According to Niyogi, second-screen manufacturers haven’t been very good in persuading the users why they should use their application. The companies aren’t asking any questions but telling the user how to do, very often through trying to squeeze in all the functionalities that is supposed to be available in a social TV-application (exclusive content, chat with friends, possibility to buy products on TV etc). Niyogi calls this the “checkbox philosophy” and means that the social TV-companies should rather focus on one single feature and do it very well.

The most successful applications today are single-purpose ones. Look at Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, they have a very clear and simple purpose but the market has also been flooded by ambitious but not very successful apps with multi-functionality. Niyogi wants to encourage the entire industry to improve, its companies must ask themselves whether there is a habitual experience that people want to use every day that it can deliver.

Niyogi highlights a very interesting phenomenon and a risk for the industry itself. As social TV is growing very quickly, it is a risk that broadcasters, TV-channels etc. are focusing on quantity rather than quality, to release a social-TV-application quickly instead of doing a good research of why it should be released and towards which audience. I think that companies needs to think very carefully before entering the social TV-market. with a good pre-work, the chances of succeeding are much bigger.

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Sources: “Twitter Dominates Live TV Because Social TV Is Failing”, article by Somrat Niyogi on TechCrush, Okt 7 2012

Thinkbox: Advertising only stronger with social TV.

British company Thinkbox, jointly owned by Channel 4, ITV, Sky Media and Turner Media is mainly focusing on promoting TV-advertising but is also looking deeper into TV as a phenomena including how it affects people’s behaviour. You’ll find a lot of interesting stuff on their website Thinkbox.tv but of a certain interest for us interested in social TV is how the company sees the second screen phenomena’s impact on advertising. According to other research, there is definitely a reason to fear decreased ad revenues when viewers use social-TV apps instead of getting exposed to the sponsor’s messages but, less suprisingly, Thinkbox thinks differently.

‘Screen Life: The View from the Sofa’ is a new research made by COG Research on behalf of Thinkbox and its main target group is advertisers, media agencies and other who wants to know more about how social TV affects TV-viewing. 23 households, all using multiple screens, have been studied and filmed; their behaviour has led to the report and the following key findings:

People using a second (or even third or more) screen do not leave or zap during commercials

Among those who used an extra screen, 81 % stayed in the room without zapping to another channel during commercial breaks while only 72 % of those who didn’t use an extra screen stayed. 31 % chatted about the programme or the ad while this rises to 56 % in the age group 16-24.

Multi-screening leads to more TV-viewing

People tend to watch more TV when using a second screen. When the viewer were alone and used a second screen, 64 % of his/her TV-sessions lasted for longer than 15 minutes which was clearly more than for the viewer with someone else or being alone but without a second screen.

Usage of a second screen does not affect recognition of ads

There were no significant difference in ad recognition between users and non-users of social TV apps.

TV-related social media activities increase the feeling of being closer to TV

When the viewer can share what he/she watch and do other soci-TV-related things, he/she feels closer to TV as a media.

Social TV tends to gather the family in front of the TV

Partners and children tend to be more positive to stay in front of the TV-set if they can multi-screen.

The blog didn’t get hold of the entire research and I cannot comment further on it more than the findings above is remarkable although the fact that a) the report is financed by a pro-TV-advertising company and that b) the study is done on a fairly small group of people. Of a specific interest is the fact that social app creates enough attention to keep the viewer on the actual channel during a commercial break, the strength of the app is thus bigger than the distraction it might cause.

If the result is transferable on the “big” population, it is a strong weapon against those who fear the death of TV-advertising when social TV grows bigger!

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Source: “Multi-screening encourages more ad and TV-viewing”, text on thinkbox.tv

Can social TV threat existing revenue models?

It has been widely discussed whether the multi-screen behavior that we now can see in the Western World, in the longer run, will be a threat for the business’ existing revenue streams. Today, broadcasters and channels are getting their income from subscriptions and advertising but what happens if the 62% that actually uses a second screen (Ericsson Consumer Lab, 2012) chose to skip the ads?

The second screen – is it a future threat?

In an excellent article in the The Telegraph, signed Katherine Rushdon, these fears are more or less confirmed. The article refers to a study made by accountants Deloitte in which the phenomena is described as “a similar status as eating in front of the TV – an everyday experience for some, absolutely unthinkable for others”. The study still points at the risks for broadcasters and claims that especially the younger’s (16-24 years) attention is constantly distracted by other media.The article also claims that there a high risk that the social networks themselves can “steal” some advertising money from the broadcasters if “syncing” with the TV-shows. If the users are on Facebook and/or on Twitter instead of watch the ads, the networks might be a better place to place the ad on than the TV-channel.

Another opportunity that Katherine Rushdon points at is the fact that government-owned TV-channels sometimes are free from commercial ads, to be visible on Facebook, Twitter or on other social networks during a popular TV-show on these channels might be a way for sponsors to come around the problem and thus reach new groups of consumers.

The article is interesting but I think it focuses on the threats and neglects the opportunities with the new technology. I have previously in this blog presented some of them and I will come back to them again later. I still think it’s very important that broadcasters and TV-channels discuss these topics and creates a strategy for how second screens should work together with the TV-content and to support the existing revenue model. The second screen phenomena is there, it’s very obvious and visible, the question is whether you want to make it your friend or your enemy!

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Source: “‘Second screen’ social media threaten broadcasters’ revenue”, article by Katherine Rushton in The Telegraph 20 Aug 2012

Emmy Awards up 148% in social media since last year.

Sunday was the day for one of the biggest TV-events in the US, the 64^th Emmy Awards created a lot of interest in social media and, as usual, social TV tracking company Bluefin has the full picture of what was done and said on Twitter, Facebook etc.

The total number of comments about the Emmy Awards 2013 was around 1.0 M which means that the number increased with 148 % since last year’s event. This is still relatively low compared to, for example, the Grammy Awards which generated 13.0 M comments and the MTV Music awards which delivered 12,8 M. During the whole day of the awards, 1,5 M comments were posted about Emmy.

Of the 1,0 M comments, almost everything were on Twitter with only 23,8 K public comments on Facebook (bear in mind that many Facebook-profiles are non-public and cannot be tracked). 60% of the comments were posted by women and the “sentiment analysis” presented by Bluefin revealed that 21 % of the comments were positive, 10 % were negative and 69 % were neutral.

The peak of the evening came when host Jimmy Kimmel asked actor Tracy Morgan to enter the stage while encouraging the viewers to post/tweet that “OMG Tracy Morgan just passed out on stage during the Emmys, turn on the ABC”. The stunt generated around 17.000 tweets, other popular moments were Homeland’s Damian Lewis winning an Emmy for best lead actor and Homeland itself winning the Emmy for best drama series.

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Sources: Lost Remote, article “Social TV highlights from the 64th Annual Primetime Emmys” by Natan Edelsburg 24th of September 2012, Bluefin Labs report from the Emmy Awards 2012.

Social TV – how can you make money from it?

Everyone talks about social media as the new trend within the media industry. New applications are flooding the market and broadcasters are all trying to develop new features in order to get some extra buzz on Facebook, Twitter and in other networks. But besides the viewers, who are the real winners of this trend? Who can actually earn money from this new phenomenon and in what way can this be done?

In an article by Simon Dumenco, recently published in AdAge, five possible ways to “monetize” social TV are described. This might also be valuable input for those thinking about starting up a new business within social TV – where can MY firm fit into this? It is also interesting reading for those who are trying to understand social TV and its possibilities to offer added value in the long run.

Social TV can help sales departments make bigger deals

If a social TV feature such as an app is co-packed with traditional ad sales, this will increase the incentive for the possible client to accept the deal or even to pay more than what was initially planned. It is still important to underline that the client cannot buy the digital app only, access to the social-TV-content requires purchase of the full ad solution offered by the broadcaster.

Social TV can generate traffic.

The question whether social TV will improve ratings is still to be resolved but there’s no doubt that web traffic increases when a broadcaster launches a social TV application. If, for example, a hash tag is displayed on-screen, the number of tweets about the actual program increases dramatically which in turn increases traffic on the broadcaster’s web sites.

Social TV helps the advertisers to come closer to their consumers

In including social-TV in its marketing mix, the ad buyer/media agency gets an extra tool which, in turn can help the company to change the consumer’s perception of the brand. In the example Lexus, mentioned in the AdAge article, the car manufacturer managed to strengthen the view of the company as being “technologically innovative” when sponsoring the USA Network show “Suits”. The campaign “Suits Recruits” also helped the company to learn more about its consumers through the direct contact that they got through the social TV-application.

With a social TV-platform, it becomes easier to attract sponsors that are themselves interested in being more social with their customers.

Some ad buyers than others are more keen to be social with their potential clients, the example mentioned in the article, American Express is a good one, the same goes for insurance companies and telecom companies that focuses on family, relatives and friends. These companies are keen to create a long-lasting relation with the customers and to be present on a weekly or maybe even daily basis. The fact that a social-TV-application can help the advertiser collecting contact data to potential clients is of course also a fact that cannot be underestimated.

Social TV can create new opportunities for smaller network/broadcasters.

Smaller networks, normally not fully competitive with their traditional sponsor packages, can improve their position on the market in being the masters of social TV. The American movie channel AMC has been extremely successful with their second screen program which has, in turn, helped them finding new customers.

These five are good reasons for launching a social TV-program within your company but the non-monetary reasons for doing are of course also there. The PR-aspect should of course be mentioned but also the fact that social-TV helps the broadcaster/network to strengthen the relation to the subscriber/viewer which will, in turn, improve loyalty and reduce “churn”. This will be discussed further in this blog!

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Source: “Wait, who’s actually making money off social TV?”, article by Simon Dumenco in AdAge, September 17

Product review: Fanatix

As promised before, the blog will from time to time test and review different social TV-applications on the market. We will now start looking at the sport segment in which there is some dedicated sports apps while the more general ones such as GetGlue and Miso claims that they cover this area as well. That is probably true but the sports nut is keen on getting access to specific data during the event such as stats from the game, player bios etc. which mean that a dedicated sports app in a better way can meet these needs.

The challenge for a social TV sports application is to reach enough number of participants (or check-ins) in order to get enough buzz around a specific game. This requires that the event is on a high level including teams with a big number of fans, ex. Manchester United, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Milan etc.

There are some interesting features on the event page.

When reviewing an application, whether it’s a sports app or not, we will take a closer look at the following parameters.

• Graphical interface
• Functions available
• Level of social interaction
• Popularity (number of simultaneous users)
• Overall feeling

The first application to be reviewed is Fanatix. Initially,we’ll focus on the Iphone application!

Fanatix is a London-based company which has been successful in setting up deals with strong brands such as Eurosport, Manchester City and ESPN. It is described as the GetGlue of sports and time will tell whether it will reach such high volumes. It offers an applications both for Iphone and for Ipad.

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FANATIX (IPHONE)

Graphical interface:

The interface when entering the application looks nice. The user can enter a main menu in which there are several choices. The “trending” header takes the user to the most popular ongoing games but he/she can also pick from a long list of games. In the bottom part of the main menu, it’s possible to check personal settings such as check-ins, favourite teams etc. There are many nice photos from the world of sports in the app which improves the overall feeling.

When entering an event, it is possible to check if friends or other are logged in and to chat with them but there is also a possibility to follow tweets, both “official” and general from “normal” users.

It is easy to navigate back and forward in the app and to toggle between different events.

Functions available:

As mentioned, it is possible to choose between most major sports events and its impressive to see the number of football events available. Check-in, chat and basic game facts such as goal-scorers are also available but more could be offered here. Brief news from the sports world is also offered.

Can you predict the winner?

Level of social interaction:

Check-ins, chat and polls (which team will win the game?) is basic functions that are available here but that’s also all. Points can be gained with engaging socially but the only reward is a high ranking on the leaderboard.

Popularity:

451 persons were logged in during the Champions League-game between Real Madrid and Manchester City which is a fairly good number but this is also a game on a high international level.

Overall feeling:

Fanatix is a nice product with an impressive graphical interface, a wide variety of games and it seems that the product is widely used; at least during the Champions League-evening when I tested it. Nevertheless, I would have preferred some more exciting social activities besides traditional ones such as log-in and chat, as a user, I quickly gets bored!

Overall Swedish Chef rating: 5/10

Social TV the HBO-way!

HBO Connect – a success story!

HBO is soon to enter the Scandinavian market with its video-on-demand service, titles such as The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and Sex And The City are already now well-known for the audience here up in the North and now, the successful company will be even more visible. HBO were pioneers within social TV when they launched their HBO Connect in 2011 and e-zine Co.Create recently published an interesting interview made by Christine Champagne  with HBO’s Head of Social Media Marketing Sabrina Caluori in which there are a lot of interesting stuff regarding how this TV-giant work with social media and social TV in order to reach the masses.

Initially, HBO worked with third-parties such as GetGlue and similar application companies but they soon felt that they needed to improve their own digital products in order to better fit with the needs from the market. An advantage that HBO has is that their company brand and not only its programming brands is well-known, therefore it can use it as an umbrella brand for products such as HBO Connect. This product has been very successful and will now be re-launched with some new features. Another advantage that HBO has is that they are not ad-driven which, according to Caluori, gives them some freedom in developing applications withing risking loss of ad revenues.Sabrina Caluori talks a lot in the interview about how HBO thinks when it comes to digital products in order to support their TV-formats and here are some concrete advices from her to broadcasters that are on their way into social TV:

• Before launching a social TV-app, ask yourself: “Who is the audience for this show and what are the behaviours that they’re doing already that maybe we could encourage them in an HBO/your company-kind of way?”
• Experiment on every platform as a user! Let your employees try them and think about how we can benefit from them and use them for our purposes?
• Do not only think Facebook and Twitter! What can we do on Pinterest, Tumblr etc, how can these platforms help us improve our own service?
• You don’t have to be # 1 to use a platform. Take your time to study it in order to find the best approach!
• Work closely with program creators and learn all about their vision if possible? Do not launch anything that’s not in line with the program idea.

Caluori also give some concrete ideas of how they work with directors and actors on Connect as well as features that the new version of the platform offers in this very interesting interview. I personally look forward to HBO:s arrival in Scandinavia, will they as well offer local versions of HBO Connect?

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Source: “The connector – meet the woman behind HBO:s social scene” – Interview by Christine Champagne, Co.Create

Second screen apps – improved viewer experience or distraction?

The social TV phenomenon is here to stay, that’s perfectly clear and, if done correctly, the launch of a second screen app will definitely enhances the viewer experience. There are a lot of good examples of applications that have worked out well, especially those made for live events such as sports, political debates and showbiz events such as the Academy and the Grammy Awards.  Nevertheless, what has proved to be a problem for applications dedicated to scripted programming is that the viewer, while using the app, tend to get lost in the actual TV-program and even to be distracted or annoyed.

For many, they prefer traditional TV to be kept as a “passive” medium, they want to lose themselves in TV and this might be jeopardized if the second screen app is too complicated or is not in synch with the program. In an article on CNN.com, ABC:s “Grey’s Anatomy” is mentioned as an example of a TV-show when the second screen experiment proved to be less successful. Its creator Shonda Rhimes was very upbeat before the launch of the “Grey’s” app but it proved to be a disturbing element in the viewer experience of the actual show which in turn led to a lot of complaints.

David Wertheimer, President digital media at Fox:

“You want to give people sharable moments. You want to give people little bits that help them engage deeper with the show and the ability to drill deeper on their own time when the show’s not on. It’s not really about inundating them with stuff. That’s one of the mistakes that many, many people have made in the second screen world”

A second screen application should definitely aim to offer something additional in order to improve the viewer’s experience but it cannot disturb or destroy the core experience of the program or event itself. Application makers have to work closely with program directors in order to find a good timing of when the second screen content should appear on the tablet or smart-phone, moments that are crucial for following of the actual story should definitely be avoided.

Before ordering a new second screen app, I think broadcasters needs to ask themselves the following questions:

1.    Will a second screen app be beneficial for “our” type of program? Will it enhance the overall experience?

2.    If yes on question 1, which additional content do we want to offer?

3.    When should this additional content be offered in order to enhance and not deteriorate the viewer’s experience?

These simple rules will hopefully reduce errors which will in turn be beneficial both for broadcasters and for the viewer!

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Source: Twice as much TV? How networks are adapting to the second screen. Article by Breeanna Hare on CNN.com September 15 2012.