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Second screen
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A second screen involves the use of a secondary computing device to provide a different viewing experience for content on another device.
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The term commonly refers to the use of such devices to provide interactive features, like posts on social media platforms that take input from the audience during a broadcast, such as a television program. This type of technology is designed to keep the audience engaged with what they are watching[1] and has been found to support social television and generate an online conversation around specific content.[2][3] It is a type of screen casting technology that allows a smartphone or tablet to display its contents on another screen. A second screen can also refer to having multiple monitors connected to a computer.
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Analysis
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Several studies[4][5] show a tendency to use another device while watching television such as a tablet or smartphone. Other studies distinguish a higher percentage of comments or posts on social networks about the content that is being watched (Nielsen ratings).[6][7][8]
Benefits include keeping the audience engaged (via polling, chatting, providing additional information about content and participants, etc.) and generating revenue via advertising, a second screen can be used as a metering solution to get information about the audience. It can be more far-reaching and inexpensive, which leads some to think a second screen may replace people meters in the future.[9]
One factor hampering the growth of second screens is that many shows are creating their applications for them. It is considered impractical to expect users to download multiple applications and switch between them for each channel or show.[10]
Conference and business meeting organizers may also incorporate second screens to deepen audience engagement.[11] According to the "2014 Trend Tracker",[12] the second screen phenomenon is a significant and growing trend. "Attendees are so glued to their devices, even while watching a live presentation (or at home, on television) that marketers are supplying them with a simultaneous engagement tool they can access on that device," says Robin Stanley, VP-design and creative at GES.[13] "Software tools allow conference session presenters to share slides and presentations in real-time, so attendees can follow on with their device in hand." Second screen technology at conferences can be an integral part of the event experience by allowing conference attendees to engage with the speaker and other participants.
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Applications
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Many applications designed for the second screen give another form of interactivity to the user and another way to sell advertising content.[14] Second screening may also involve applications not formally connected to the primary entertainment.[15] Some examples include:
- TV programs broadcasting live tweets and comments.[16][17]
- Synchronization of audio-visual content via web advertising.[18]
- Applications that extend the content information; whether news, weather, chat to another screen.[1][2]
- Remote workers as business travelers can set up their working space anywhere to attend meetings and manage projects.[3]
- Shows that add content exclusively for the second screen to their websites.[19]
- Applications that synchronize the content being viewed to the mobile device.[20]
- Video game consoles playing with extra data, such as map or strategy data, that synchronize with the content being viewed on the portable device, such as the Wii U.[21][22][23][24][25] PlayStation also has a game accessibility feature called "Chat Transcription", which allows a user to read what others say and send text to speech messages through the PlayStation 4's Google Play App named "PlayStation Second Screen".[26]
- TV discovery application with recommendations, electronic programming guides (live content), and personalization.
- Applications that display polling results and audience-triggered animated emoticons (along with the sender's name and location) in real-time on the broadcast instead of the user's second screen.
- Voting functionality for audiences at home via the broadcaster app.
- Video games that use mobile phones for interaction – examples include Kahoot!, The Jackbox Party Pack series of games, and Everybody 1-2-Switch!.
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Sports broadcasting
Sports broadcasters, to stem the flight of the audience away from watching the main screen (the television) to the second screen, are offering alternative content to the main program, such as unseen moments, alternative information, soundtracks, and characters. Proposed new technologies allow the viewer to see different camera angles while watching the game.[27][28]
TV2 (Denmark), Denmark's largest commercial TV channel, synchronized its Second Screen service with the live broadcast of the Giro d'Italia cycling race from May 5 to May 27, 2012. Viewers on all internet devices could get rider stats, biographies, news, stage reviews, city information, weather updates, and more. Viewers scanned a QR code on the TV broadcast to get connected or typed in a short URL.[29]
In the US, HDNet Fights utilizes a second screen service that synchronizes with live MMA broadcasts. Viewers on smartphones and tablets can get stats, vote on fights and rounds, chat, win prizes, and see how fellow second screen users voted on fight outcomes.[30]
Other television
Slate described popular procedural dramas like Suits as examples of "'second-screen content'—shows that don't require viewers to hit rewind if they idly drift off while scrolling their phones".[31] The Hollywood Reporter described the Jennifer Lopez film Atlas as "another Netflix movie to half-watch while doing laundry".[32] John Landgraf of FX Networks bragged that, by contrast, Shogun was "not a two-screen show".[33] Being the second screen has reportedly become desirable. Streaming services tell showrunners, Justine Bateman said to The Hollywood Reporter in 2023, that "the viewer's primary screen is their phone and the laptop and they don't want anything on your show to distract them from their primary screen because if they get distracted, they might look up, be confused, and go turn it off. I heard somebody use this term before: they want a 'visual muzak.'"[34] By 2025 Netflix reportedly told screenwriters to have characters announce actions, so those watching the streaming service in the background while doing something else know what is happening.[32]
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