Online video and connected TV were hot topics last week. I visited the Immovator CrossMediaCafe and the Online Tuesday, and FastMovingTargets invited also two players in this field. For me this field of connected TV and second screen apps are a longer interest, and I blogged before on this concept [here, here]. We will see a breakthrough this year and a possible definite change in the concept of watching video content if Apple is entering this market later this year. I wrote something on it also in my year forecast.
Four important elements defines the new online video experiences, close connected.
- moving to a personal on demand consuming by default
- the second screen as integrated part of realtime tv
- crowd generated curation
- authentic stories as binders
We have entered a time-shifted TV-viewing experience. We use the on demand services from our broadcasters more and more and watch our own selected TV-series. The next step is the personal relevant guides that will generated suggestions or even complete evening programs based on your data profile and social behavior. Tools like Peel will be common and build in our screens and work like Nest does, continuous becoming smarter. The payment model will change to a access based pay-per-use, where we can lower the costs by interacting with commercials.
Personal on demand behaviour we do on our own or with our family. But we still like to share our experiences with others. The on demand services will have an integrated social layer that connects others that are watching the same in the world or from your contacts, like the Into_Now app does, and it will even suggest to watch certain programs together with your peers at work so you have a topic for the next day. This can go as far as going watching together in a location like a cinema where you program you own evening.
This will be all part of your second screen mainly. We will have a second screen as integrated part of realtime tv (something we used to call live tv), but it will also be your tool to connect to others with time-shifted TV.
With the second screen it is important to understand the first and second screen are one. One experience, one story. At the same time the notion of first and second screen implies that one of them is dominant, and the other supportive. And that is the case indeed. A second screen that draws the attention away from the first screen is not a good experience. Our abilities to share attention will change by the way. For me there are a couple rules if you are designing this second screens.
First is that you should peel the story of the program down to its essence and build the different touchpoints on this story. The first screen will be the lead in the story, the second screen can play different roles. It can be a part of it to make it your personal story, or, and this is the most important function, it will generate a social emotional layer to the watching. In that sense the presentation of Kevin Slavin on this phenomenon is essential; we will have a kind of reference point for our own emotions with the emotions of the crowd that we experience via the second screen.
This can be passive like giving indications on the number of watchers and tweeters over the world (you see only filtered and relevant tweets complete) or it can be more active by creating a extra layer in the story as the Thuiscoach app is a nice example.
We will see a mayor development with the second screen apps this coming year, for instance as families are integrating their second screen apps together in one experience. And we will see integrated concepts between first and second screen apps from Apple, GoogleTV and Samsung.
On the content part there is a long winding trend tipping now; the use of amateur content in mainstream programs. Or better said; amateur content becoming broadcast content. With the on demand watching we will see that curating by peers is getting dominant. Apps like Showyou will get a place under a button on your remote control. And the channels made by people themselves will be part of TV evening.
The last aspect are the authenticity of the stories that becoming the brands of video content. This is important to create compelling multiple screen experiences, as well as it is the way to connect people in on demand viewing and more important, to let them generate profile data entries. Because just like all mayor trends generating, collecting and processing data will be the key in all concepts made for the new connected video.
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