What will 2012 bring the Digital Video Space, especially in #SecondScreen?

For the past 6 weeks, I have been focusing largely on Second Screen apps.  I have reviewed 22 of the most written about apps that allow you to watch sports with more data at your finger tips, check-in to a show, share your thoughts with your friends and the wider world, find content from multiple sources, control the first screen, engage in commerce, get extreme videophile content syncrhonized to your viewing experience, and help you discover new and interesting content.

I have covered widely publicized apps such as IntoNow, GetGlue, Yap.tv, Fanhattan, zeebox, Clicker, Miso and Umami.  I've covered a few operator apps, a few sports apps, and a few Blu-ray title specific apps.

I have tried to summarize these apps based on their ability to provide five major feature sets:

1.  Simple.  The ability to allow control of the first screen.

2.  Social.  The ability to share your thoughts with others.

3.  Seamless.  The ability to integrate multiple sources of content.

4.  Stimulating.  The ability to provide additional information and to enrich your viewing experience.

5.  Discovery.  The ability to enable you to find new and interesting content based on your preferences.

As we head into 2012 and into CES in a few weeks, I wanted to give everyone an idea of what I have planned:

- I plan to finish another 10-15 reviews and then to summarize those apps for this audience.

- I plan to present the landscape of players in their supporting ecosystem and how they interact with each other.

- I am hoping that many of those apps will present a major refresh at CES and I will review their improvements.

Post-CES, I am hoping to continue to flesh-out this space (there are more than 75 apps now in this space), providing greater insight to the various segments of apps that are forming to specialize around sports, synchronized content, social communication, etc.  If possible, I hope to help bring together a conference specifically on this subject.

I think 2012 will be the year the majority of tech-savvy consumers (esp. 13-24 year olds) look back and say, "That was the year when my TV viewing experience changed."  

Let's hope we can figure out how to be a part of that and provide more value to our consumers, our content brands, and our shareholders.

Happy New Year!