What happened to Second Screen this week?

What a crazy week.  As if it wasn't enough for NATPE to be taking place in Miami (with some great research and stats published about second screen), there was a ton of consolidation activity in our industry (Dijit/Viggle, IntoNow from Yahoo, Digitalsmiths/Tivo) and some rebranding by GetGlue.  At the same time the 2nd Screen Society (S3) published a teaser on its new research about monetizing the second screen, and then Gigaom and TechCrunch wrote some pretty disparaging views, with Gigaom reverting to the salacious headline of "Social TV is Dead".

Second Screen market growth evidence: 53m Tablets ship, Twitter wins the Super Bowl and buys BlueFin

So Twitter "won the Super Bowl", bought BlueFin and last Friday we heard that 53m tablets shipped worldwide in Q4 of 2012.  So what?

When a bird breaks through its shell to be born, the world shouts its a market "revolution", but the tiny bird itself has been making progress steadily for a long while--more of a "rapid evolution" with one very publicly acknowledged milestone.

How was your Second Screen Super Bowl 47?

On Thursday, we suggested a few apps you might want to try out during the Super Bowl to see what kind of enhanced and stimulating experiences the market has dream-up for such an event.  How did they stack up?

The 2nd Screen Super Bowl - Lots of Activity

It was a great, well-played game for the fans, and the second screen action was everywhere during the game.  Apps to call the next play (PrePlay), apps to talk "smack" (Smack-stat), apps to check into the commercials and rate them (IntoNow), apps to give you live streaming of other football angles (NBC) and the reaction of the Polar Bears from Coca-cola, apps for good ol' fashioned stats on steroids with graphics to boot (NFL '11, ESPN ScoreCenter, theScore, etc), and 3rd party Second Screen apps doing the best they can with the Super Bowl material in front of them (ConnecTV, Umami, Viggle, Yap.TV).

First, I spent some time with the much advertised NBC.com live streaming site (laptops only).  It had great promise, allowing you to choose 5 different camera angles that were not being shown on TV.  Good UI, et.  Problem is that it was about 90 seconds behind real-time, so useless to use as a second screen while watching the game on the first screen.

Then I spent some time on the Coca-cola polar bears site.  While seemingly the most innocuous and least interesting approach, it was the biggest hit amongst the children as was always worth a quick look from the adults when something major happened on the 1st screen--especially the tie in with their own commercials.

Then I spent some time with TVplus.  They continue to do a good job on the timing of new events (about every 45 seconds) and the selection of information to share.  While not really stimulating for football, a great UX for TV shows and movies.

Then I popped over to IntoNow.  They made a big deal about giving you the option of voting on the Super Bowl commericals.  Actually it was fun, and the room got into rating the commericals.  It only recognized about half of the commercials by sound (ACR).  To be fair, I think their audio sync works better than anybody's, but it is the Super Bowl and the background noise will be what it is.

ESPN ScoreCenterXL has a pretty decent stat summary, allowing you to even do team comparisons, etc.  This is a shot from half-time, showing the teams were in theory neck-and-neck.

Back to IntoNow for a surprisingly good set of sport stats as well.  Decent UI with play-by-play action, players stats, and a Twitter feed (not so interesting).

ConnecTV actually recognized the show (2nd try) and had a decent sports 2nd screen expereince.  Good stats, good Twitter feed, etc.

Umami also surprised me.  They had a number of additional UX's on tonight's game that are not normally there, including a playback center of the night's Super Bowl commercials--very handy.  There graphics were also on par with NFL'11--impressive.

I expected more form BuddyTV, but to be fair, I was not in my own home, so it could not tune to the channel and build the 2nd screen experience.  There should be a manual option for this...

Miso still needs to graduate beyond the check-in app capability.  Not much else to discuss.

Yap.TV was interesting.  Took part in a few polls, did some chatting/tweeting.  I could see that if I were stuck in a hotel room, this would be interactive, vs being in a room with 15 people and not feeling the need to be social on line.

Viggle.  The ACR worked right out of the gate--first try,  Yay.  Again interesting approach where it asked a question every 45 seconds and by answering, you earned points.

I don't know what the press will say tomorrow or what BlueFin and others will say about the traffic, the tweets, etc.  But the opportunity to get engaged was everywhere--it is not a question of creating experiences that are worth the consumers' attention while they keep the majority of their brain cycles on the 1st screen.

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A couple of fun Second Screen games for the Superbowl

I found these apps preparing for tomorrow.  The first one you can start using tonight.  It's called "Stat Smack" and the idea is that you give the app the two teams who are playing and it gives you a whole series of stat-based facts to give you the ammunition to talk smack to fans of the opposite team.  As an example, I am rooting for the Patriots tomorrow and put them in as my first team, the Giants as the 2nd.  It then gave me facts that I could start posting on Facebook to drive my Giant-supporting friends crazy.

The 2nd app is more of a contest of skills.  The app is called "PrePlay" and it's designed for those people who sit in front of the TV and yell at the coach as if he could hear them (and gives a damn about what the advice would be if he could there them),  In this app, you and some friends try to predict what the next play will be (run, pass, etc).  You put your coaching prowess to work, and the app keeps track of who can predict the next plays.  Fun, if you think you are an expert, but even more fun if your friends think they are experts.

So, enjoy the Superbowl.  Enjoy a few SecondScreen apps.  Be part of the seismic change people will talk about years from now--2012, when the Superbowl was the milestone for success in Second Screen.

Ready for the Superbowl? Which Second Screen app will you use?

The big game is on Sunday and already every article you pick up seems to be discussing how Coke or Pepsi or Chevrolet or even Subway is going to have some new-fangled app experience to push their brand during the Superbowl.  You can find some great reviews of those apps on LostRemote.com and SecondScreen.com.

But what about all the apps we've been discussing over the past few months?  When we checked out a few games during the playoffs, we tried the classic sports apps (NFL '11, ConnecTV) and on Thanksgiving (ESPN Scorecenter XL, CBSports Yahoo IntoNow).  Of course, NBCSports.com plans to stream live during the game with alternative angles and up to date stats.  What about BuddyTV and Dijit (both recent strong featured apps in our review)?  What about TVplus, Miso and their Sideshows, Umami or Viggle?

Well one thing is for sure--this space is already very crowded.  But that should be expected on the single most watched television event of the year.  I mean advertisers pay $3.5m per TV spot for 30 seconds of your attention, right?

But what will this do for Second Screen and Social TV?  Will it put all of these burgeoning technologies and changing consumer habits immediately into the lexicons of everyday Americans on the other side of the chasm, fueling water cooler conversations on Monday? Will we find social and second screen app usage having it's own tablet-like 2011 Christmas effect, with usage doubling overnight?  Will consumers just be so confused they mentally and emotionally shut down?

I have an idea.  Let's run an experiment.  Run your own test of your favorite apps or the promoted apps from the Superbowl commercial and tweet your comments with #2ndScreenSuperbowl and let's all share our thoughts on the good, the bad, and the confusing.  Honestly, with the mere 15 apps listed on this page alone, I can't think of another way for us to share enough experiences to be meaningful and still have time to watch any of the game.

Enjoy the game.

@ChuckParkerTech