challenge with the second screen is that it all too easily provides distraction. It takes the audience out of the broadcast. In attempting to enrich the experience, some of the real richness is lost. The experience becomes diluted. Worse than that, for broadcasters: it weakens the bond between them and the consumer. The broadcaster becomes a “bit part” player in the experience – not the sole provider of it.
Bridging the gap
Second screen or multi-screen has been a great way of trying to bridge the gap between what consumers want and what broadcasters have been able to provide. Things could, however, be much better. We need to focus on delivering everything that consumers wants on a single screen of their choosing. Multi-screen needs to be unified into a single screen. When we do that, the second screen phenomenon dies, and we strengthen the bond between broadcaster and audience.
At Sixty, we firmly believe that there is a pressing need to merge the interactivity of the second screen into the multiscreen linear TV experience. That gap between what consumers have shown they want on the one hand, and what the industry is providing them? We can close it. We can enable the traditional broadcast to come to life for our audience.
For many people, that proposition makes a whole lot of sense. It does, however, raise what amounts to the $64 million question. “How?”
That’s not as hard a question as you might think. Imagine that the audience is able to interact with the same data that the producers behind the broadcast production are interacting with. That way, we are not adding extra experiences to the online broadcast: what we are, in effect, doing is bringing the outside interactivity in to the linear television experience by making this experience come to life on any connected device - phone, tablet, set-top box or computer. In addition, since these are all devices that are connected in one digital ecosystem, they can be used alongside each other to create one large experience across several screens. And, if you´d like, you can control the different interactive elements from the other devices as well.
Endless opportunities
With interactive on-air graphics, the opportunities are endless. Data previously only known to the producer in the operator room can be served to the audience through the already well known design of a football match or golf tournament. By using your remote on the set-top box or your finger on a touch screen, the score bug, name super and tournament information come to life, and give you additional information. And, since it is all operated in a technology that interacts with your existing broadcast set-up, it uses the same data you have already implemented. That means that advanced data such as tracking data also can be used by the end user to enhance their engagement and experience. The possible applications are countless.
We believe that Ease Live, the Sixty product that enables interactive on-air graphics to come to life on any connected device, represents a major paradigm shift in the broadcast industry – because it enables that gap to be closed between what con-sumers want and what they’re getting, and the gap between old and new ways of experiencing television.
Kjetil Horneland is the CEO and one of the founders of SIXTY. Following his university studies in Graphic Design he started working in the Broadcast industry. He has been involved with user experiences and design for content owners, distributors, broadcasters and OTT platforms since 2006. Horneland has produced compelling TV experiences for several companies such as Ericsson, British Telecom, RiksTV, C More, TV 2 and Altibox.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kjetil Horneland
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