Group items tagged

TV Guide rolled out an app to see what’s playing, watch whatever’s on, and also tweet, post, and blog about it. And that Apple is rumored to be releasing a mini-TV tablet to enable an iOS-style second-screen experience.

SimulTV’s solution is to combine both screens, right on the web. So your football game, Twitter conversations, Facebook messages, online search, and text and voice chat with others on SimulTV who are watching the same thing as you.

by this summer, SimulTV promises to have more than 100 channels, including ”top channels” from Latin America, China, Japan and Europe, plus 5,000 video-on-demand titles. The service is HD-quality, with picture-in-picture for the truly ADHD social TV aficionados, and according to the company, takes only half the bandwidth of typically required.

The app turns your smartphone or tablet into a universal remote, content recommender, and reminder platform. While the phone-as-universal remote concept is not new, based on Peel’s numbers, its users are both savvy and avid tv watchers, which is certain to intrigue advertisers.

There is growing consensus that traditional media, particularly TV, need to learn lessons from this. "YouTube is beginning to behave like a market leader," noted Elisabeth Murdoch in her 2012 MacTaggart lecture. "Believe at your own risk that their platform is based on homemade videos of cats in washing machines… Brands and talent are using YouTube to create direct-to-consumer relationships. Michelle Phan is the world's most popular make-up expert with over 600 million views. Yes – that's equivalent to a global Olympic audience generated by a 22-year-old putting on Lady Gaga makeup."

I'm a professional. If you expect me to jump at the opportunity to do something for free, like you're doing me a solid? No." Perhaps the scariest part of that comment for the old media is that these twenty-somethings know Jamie Oliver best for his supermarket advertising.

Cable television offers hundreds of channels, while YouTube gives us potentially millions from a global pool. The second is that technology now provides more versatility for watching content from the internet. For copying the tips from a make-up video, you might choose to use a smartphone in the bathroom; you can watch vlogs in bed on a tablet; for longer, more stylised productions, you've still got the big screen.

“For movies and retailers, time-shifting can be a concern,” says Starcom’s Bowe. “That is why live TV is interesting to a lot of TV advertisers. Advertisers are demanding immediacy. Amassing an audience on a particular night is important.” Combating ad skipping empowered by the DVR is a bigger issue for TV stations than it is for network TV.

Advertisers typically buy local TV using Nielsen’s live-only or live-plus-same-day program ratings. Network TV is bought on C3 commercial ratings, which includes live viewing and three days of DVR playback. That means local TV advertisers pay for viewers who fast-forward through their commercials.

Live TV and social media were made for each other. In 2013, 36 million people in the United States sent 990 million Tweets about TV shows they were watching live, according to Nielsen SocialGuide. Moreover, 84% of people who have smartphones or computer tablets use those devices while watching TV.

While brand marketers are enthusiastic about trying to engage second-screen viewers, much of their focus right now is on Facebook and Twitter rather than standalone second-screen apps.

As a result, these apps are looking to reposition themselves to attract more use and brands

The idea is to provide users with an experience that they can engage with throughout the day related to their favorite TV shows, whether they want to catch up on the latest gossip about a show, chat about the latest episode or engage with the app while watching a show.