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Second-screen engagement the way forward for Live TV

Experts reiterate that second-screen engagement represents an opportunity for Free to Air because it compels an audience to watch TV Live.

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Social media continues to be hailed as the future for Free to Air TV.

In this video Steve Hasker from Nielsen talks about the ways that second-screen engagement represents an opportunity for networks, because interactive engagement compels an audience to watch Live in order to participate.

While the clip is a promo tool from Free TV Australia (which represents Seven, Nine and TEN), he makes some excellent points about where technology is headed.

This follows a survey from Deloitte of more than 2000 Australians across four generations showing that that 60% of viewers who prefer the big screen TV also multitask on other electronic devices.

In fact there was no better example of this than SBS’ Eurovision site on the weekend.

As each country performed on the TV screen, the website put them front and centre with big, bright voting prompts and Twitter / Facebook feeds. And changed the content to match the on-screen broadcast. This was completely different to websites that rely on post-show engagement with video clips and galleries. Why let Twitter have all the action on a third-party site?

Networks could be leading audiences to react to The Voice contestants, Dancing with the Stars acts and Masterchef food tastings while the show is underway -not afterwards.

Too many of them see this as a threat, rather than complementary. Wake up and smell the overnight ratings.

Disclaimer: David Knox blogged Eurovision for SBS site.

6 Responses

  1. Live only in the eastern states, that is. Which is unfortunate. Hopefully more programs can be live around most of the country at least

    But yes, I’m now always watching TV with my laptop or iPad. Love joining conversations on Twitter and Facebook.

    1. Yes Eastern States, fair point. I don’t see this changing anytime soon, aside from news and some sports. Maybe websites could have a timezone option so that the content is also published on delay for those outside of AEST.

  2. “60% of viewers who prefer the big screen TV also multitask on other electronic devices”. In our house, more like 100% during commercial breaks, but nothing to do with the program. Emails, Facebook, and of course TV Tonight updates.

  4. “As each country performed on the TV screen, the website put them front and centre with big, bright voting prompts and Twitter / Facebook feeds. ”

    Yes, as long as you were in a state that was not 2 hours behind.

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