Are you ready for a Second Screen Super Bowl? (#2ndScreenSB)

The big game is on Sunday and by now everyone has been reading articles about how 36% of viewers plan to use a second screen as a companion to the big game.  With 84% of Americans planning to watch the game from their (or a friend's) house, this is a second screen industry opportunity like no other.  We are even being told that the CBS has sold more than $10-12m of advertising on the second screen alone (forgetting the $3.5m per commercial for the 1st screen).

An Updated View of which Second Screen Apps to Watch in 2012

Earlier this summer, I wrote a brief blog on 10 second screen apps to watch discussing which apps I thought had a compelling enough user experience to propel them forward. Since then, we have gotten together as an industry for debate in NYC (twice--once for Advertising Week, once for CEA), in Amsterdam @ IBC, and on the West Coast at the MultiScreen, NextTV and TV|Next summits. In the meantime, NextGuide and zeebox launched their apps in the US--a lot of changes have taken place.

As we are now a few weeks into the Fall TV season, I thought I would update my views on which apps seem to be furthest along the path to develop the features that will drive serious consumer adoption.

I continue to believe there are really 5 major features sets that drive consumers to pick up a device as their second screen in an attempt to add value to their first screen experience: Finding something to watch (Discovery), determining where to watch it (Seamless content sourcing, often combined with Discovery), launching that content to your first screen (Simple), getting more information about the program, whether sport stats, actor bios, games, or commerce opportunities (Stimulating), and then sharing all of that and more with your friends (Social).

Who is going to disrupt the Pay TV industry?

I've spent the last few weeks having renewed discussions with a variety of people whose opinion I respect in this space, including those in the Twitter-sphere, the blogosphere, and in plain old real life, and with the NCTA Cable Show happening in Boston next week, I think it is the right time to open this debate up again.

The debate is simple: Who is going to disrupt the current Pay TV industry?

A few months ago at the OTT Con in Santa Clara, I had this discussion in spades with many of the participants in the would-be "cable killer" world (most of whom themselves are "cord cutters" or at least "cord thinners").  My take aways after those discussions were that it was incredibly premature to even think about "Over the Top" or "broadband" video killing the established Pay TV operators like Comcast, DirecTV and Verizon because only the metrics had indicated that all of the current players combined had only made a minor dent in TV Viewing (3 hours of online viewing vs. 34 of traditional viewing per week, 2% of the $200B TV advertising spent on "on-line" video) and that so far the only business being disrupted in a serious manner was DVD sell-thru, which was suffering as much from physical Netflix and the shift from purchase to rental as it was from digital Netflix.  My brief conclusion then was simple: Large pay TV operators were bringing in an average monthly bill per household of close to $100 (ARPU) and the would be disruptors were still in the sub-$15 range and those Pay TV operators were "Striking Back" with their own TV Everywhere solutions, so any would-be survivors in the next 3-5 years would have to deliver an incredibly compelling user experience (UX) centered around Discovery (likely on the second screen).

My review of DirecTV, AT&T U-Verse and TimeWarner Cable as Second Screen experiences

I noticed while preparing for the last few blogs that AT&T U-verse updated their 2nd screen app.  I checked it out the other night and it was actually a significant improvement over the previous version (I reviewed it here last November), which got me thinking about the network operators in general.  Last November, I postulated that operators would focus strongly on Simple and would likely be ok (medium) on Social and Stimulating, but would be weak (naturally) in Seamless.  I also think they are (at least currently) significantly behind the power curve on the concept of Discovery (they are still in the grid guide mentality and think Search is a form of Discovery).  Anyway, while I don't have easy access to every app out there (the US market alone has a significant number of network operator apps (satellite, cable, telco), I was able to access DirecTV and TimeWarner Cable through some friends/neighbors and add in my own U-verse view.  I'd like to round this out with Verizon and Comcast in the next few weeks, but need to find some friends who live in neighborhoods with that service (no always easy in the LA Metro area).

Let's start with DirecTV.  My good friend Bill loves his DirecTV installation, with 6 receivers in his home.  He is a technical geek (like others of us) and prides himself on implementing the latest in-home streaming solutions, etc.  He was unaware the DirecTV app actually existed (poor marketing by DirecTV), but was very pleased with it as we worked thru the various elements of the app.

Simple.  They have very strong features around controlling the first screen.  The ability to use it as a remote, to manage multiple set top boxes in the house, to see what is on the DVR, to record, to browse cover art and play to the TV, etc.  High+

Social.  Not surprisingly, the social features are light.  You do have the ability to tell others what you are watching on Facebook and Twitter, but there is no interface to view your friends' comments or viewing habits.

Seamless.  There are no other sources of content--except that there are some titles and channels that you are allowed to stream to your iPad.  This is somewhat interesting (a first screen experience), but the fact that it isn't all titles and is only some titles will likely frustrate the consumer and just drive them to NetFlix or Hulu.  None.

Stimulating.  I was surprise at their efforts in Stimulating.  They had a section to keep up with current team scores, a decent deeper dive on the show you are watching, etc.  There is not the deep, rich metadata to the levels of Fanhattan nor the synchronized content capabilities of a TVplus, but there has been some effort on behalf of the consumer here.  Medium

Discovery.  I was also surprised to see a decent effort at Discovery.  There was a "What's Hot" section and a "You Might Like" area under title details.  Mostly the Amazon approach, but better than I thought it would be.  Low.






AT&T U-verse.  I took the plunge on U-verse 2 years ago for better broadband speeds and haven't been disappointed in content options or download speeds.  The app I previously reviewed was really meant to be your mobile phone app--when you are somewhere else and essentially want to record something on your DVR you forgot to set.  The new version of the iPad app is actually pretty impressive.  There is even an on-demand section for content to stream to your iPad.  They are making progress, which as a subscriber, is received well even if they aren't going to match BuddyTV or Fanhattan anytime soon.

Simple.  Strong capabilities to control your first screen, access the DVR listing, record new shows/series, access multiple devices in the home, and even flip through the cover art of currently airing programs with an HD filter (doesn't remember your filter preference unfortunately).  High.

Social.  As predicted, a weak showing in Social, with the ability to post a comment to Facebook (but not Twitter), no Check-in feature, no ability to see friends' comments or viewings, etc.  Low.












Seamless.  It was not surprising to find no way to view other sources of content.  They did try to let the consumer browse content by networks for VOD (not sure why) and allowed some titles to be streamed to the iPad (but not channels). None.

Stimulating.  Again, better than I though it would be.  The ability to see show level detail in a series, cast members and photos, etc.  Not the level of Fanhattan for rich metadata and no TVplus-like synchronization experiences, but a start in the right direction.  Low.

Discovery.  Very, very rudimentary level attempt at making recommendations (Related Programs).  Low.

TimeWarner Cable.  I wouldn't say Jeff is in love with his service from TWC, but it gets the job done for his viewing and broadband needs.  When I reviewed the TimeWarner Cable app in December last year, I did not give them high marks.  They were certainly the poorest showing of the three in this blog.  Opening the app was much more difficult than the others, requiring a password re-entry each time you launched the app.  It opened onto the live streaming channels feature (something DirecTV had as well), but was slow and unresponsive to get to the other features (had to wait 4-5 seconds).  The other features were literally remote features that were also slow and difficult to use.  As Jeff put it, "This just makes the iPad a big, slow remote."

Simple.  You do have the ability to control channels, tune in to content, access the DVR, etc.  I would give it lower marks for the difficulty of use and slowness of the experience, even when tuning-in to content.  Medium.

Social.  No social features what so ever.  None.

Seamless.  No seamless features, but again this concept of being able to stream channels (only certain ones) to my iPad.  No ability to stream individual titles to the iPad.  None.

Stimulating.  Only very cursory title information available on shows and movies.  Low.

Discovery.  Nothing.  Not even and attempt.

Summing it all up.  DirecTV has a strong app and AT&T's U-Verse app is right on it's heels.  TimeWarner Cable...well, they have a long ways to go.  What about my theory last November?  They are all strong in Simple, and while DirecTV surprised me by doing better overall than I expected, I would say that AT&T's U-Verse is right where I expected them to be and TimeWarner Cable is below what I expected.  It you compared them to everyone else, they would have been middle of the pack (far behind BuddyTV, Fanhattan, etc, but ahead of the guide-only apps and most of the branded network and show apps.

Test Driving SecondScreen for Sports and Celebrity Entertainment Last Sunday

As I said in my previous post, I wanted to test drive some of the SecondScreen applications "in the field" with some good friends as we gathered around the large screen TV watching the Packers break our hearts during the NFL Playoffs and various actresses melt them as they took awards at Golden Globe Awards.

I started with DirecTV (will blog about the full experience soon) since my neighbor had it and loved their service.  He considers himself technically adept and after we downloaded the app, was surprised he had never heard of it (marketing problem again) because he instantly loved ALL of the features, especially the streaming within the home that he had just spent considerable time finding an alternate solution for.  While the app was very good for finding out which game was on and could tune the TV for you (very Simple though we had some trouble with that function),

it wasn't nearly as engaging graphically or with statistics as the NFL '11 app was.  Surprisingly, the ConnecTV app (just launched at CES), was a pretty engaging (Stimulating) as a Second Screen sports experience.

All of them were relatively limited in their Social ability.  ConnecTV was probably the most advanced with a decent "show" Twitter feed. None of them recognized your friends in Facebook as your friends in their app (despite asking for the credentials--arrgghh).

Finally, all of them also fell short on the Seamless and Discovery features.  So, hats off to NFL'11 for having great play-by-play graphics, stats, and information about the team and congrats to ConnecTV for coming out of the gate with a decent sports experience.









So then we moved on after our bitter defeat to the girls' favorite of the evening - the Golden Globe Awards.  I tried in vain to find a dedicated app (there was one last year for the Oscars that was pretty intense) and was even more frustrated when I found the E! On the Red Carpet app after the red carpet had ended (would have been good to test it).  This time I bounced around with my friends on the yap.TV app and ConnecTV.  I did briefly try to bounce into tvplus (really struggled to use it's ACR to recognize the show, which did nothing for us when it was successful), Umami (also an audio sync up-front requirement that was disappointing for all the "shhh-ing" going on), and Miso (I had forgotten you could only check-in and see what other shows are trending).

Here, the ConnecTV experience was pretty poor.  I think they had put all their effort into the playoffs and had left the awards show alone.  There was limited Stimulating Content (thought the syncing worked relatively effortlessly) and it kept repeating a stream of 5-7 factoids that had nothing to do with what was on the screen at the time (even the news links seemed canned and a week old).

 You'll notice the tweets on the right hand side had nothing to do with the show (shameless promoting to someone who had clearly already downloaded the app) and the "What's trending" was great if you were bored and wanted to know what everyone else was watching.  They did manage to squeeze an add in (not seen very often YET) in a relatively unobtrusive manner.






yap.TV was much better for the Twitter integration (capturing what looked to be a semi-curated feed on the show in general) and allowing you to toggle back and forth between a "out in the wild" Twitter feed and the official GoldenGlobes feed (which allowed you to see exactly who won what without any clutter).

 Unfortunately, that is where it ended for yap.TV.  The polls section was left relatively untouched during the show and they did not offer much else except for a very glitzy opening image.

When I finally got Umami working, it did have an interesting Wikipedia link, but then again the rest of the app did fall extremely short.

None of the apps had anything in the way of Simple, Seamless or Discovery.  Stimulating was relatively weak considering what could have been presented.

So my take-aways:

1.  The average consumer is still a long ways from this being a behavior they understand.  I asked at the start of the day who knew what it was.  None did.  I explained it.  All of them said they'd never use a second screen--yet during the shows all of them grabbed their phones and tablets at various times to look something up (not always related to the show).

2.  The app developers continue to have a long ways to go to achieve an app that provides the user with better control of the first screen (Simple), strong integration with their friends (Social), integration of multiple sources of content (Seamless), an engaging experience (Stimulating) and the ability to find new and interesting content (Discovery).

Hang in there everyone and back away from that window ledge.  In 1995, my then-girlfriend (now wife) told me the Mosaic browser was too slow and too ill-featured to ever catch on as well.  There are too many good reasons (200B of them) to spend the time and money to get these experiences right.