innovation will thrive on the
second screen at a substantially
faster pace than it will on the TV
itself.
What has the reaction from
broadcasters been?
Sky has purchased 10% equity in
zeebox, they were so excited about
the concept they wrote a nice
cheque. Other broadcasters have
been fantastic in engaging. I think
the reality is the broadcasters are all
experimenting in this new space.
No‐one knows what the answer is.
Broadcasters are creating their own
apps for given shows, as well as
partnering with zeebox and others
to enhance their propositions
within those.
The question for broadcasters is
if they create their own second
screen applications do they make
one for each programme, or do they
make one for each of their channels,
or do they make one for their whole
company. My world view says
consumers will interact with a
single application that will span all
of TV viewing, and as they switch
programmes it will bring rich
experiences hopefully delivered by
the broadcaster within that
application.
Broadcasters today put Twitter
hashtags and Facebook fan page
URLs on screen and tell people to
go to these other companies which
run advertising against their own
channels. But they do it because it
is mutually beneficial, they can use
these social networking sites to
reach more audience.
Of course we see other parties
looking to enter – Google TV,
Microsoft with its Xbox has been
quietly revolutionising the way
younger demographic consume
content. It is an amazingly
competitive space.
What about advertising?
It would be inopportune for a
second screen provider to want to
advertise against the ads on TV of a
broadcaster, and instead they
should look to partner with the
broadcaster so that their existing ad
sales team can now sell new richer
ads that provide them with
additional revenue. And thatʹs
exactly what we’re doing with Sky
Media– selling first and second
screen advertising. They can now
sell new interactive ads in zeebox
synchronised to the ad playing on
TV. At present, when an advertiser
buys an ad on TV they canʹt target
their ad to a particular person, they
canʹt measure the number of times
a particular person has seen it, it is
not clickable. But all of this changes
on the second screen.
zeebox opens opportunities that
have never been possible before.
Our servers are able to watch or
listen to every word on TV. So letʹs
say Gillette sponsors Roger
Federer. Gillette could purchase the
keyword ʹRoger Federerʹ and
whenever someone says those
words on any TV channel and the
user clicks on the Roger Federer
zeetag that appears in zeebox as
soon as his name is mentioned,
there could be a Gillette display ad,
or it could be a coupon for
something.
The ability to purchase cross‐
channel, to purchase by topic, to get
feedback and only send the Gillette
ad to males because you know from
THE CHANNEL
|
IN CONVERSATION
Top Rose with
co-founder
Ernesto Schmitt
Below The Voice
18
|
ISSUE 2 2012
|
THE CHANNEL
TV when it came out and worked
to make iPlayer available on every
Smart TV but now I think it is not
reaching its potential. If you’d like
zeebox on your iPhone or Android
tablets, it takes you 60 seconds and
zero money and, presto, you have
it.
But if youʹd like to get some new
proposition from a TV
manufacturer you have to put your
shiny 50 inch Plasma HD TV in the
bin and buy another one. So in my
view your TV becomes your
beautiful big shiny playback
vehicle, and your smartphone or
tablet becomes your content
discovery and selection vehicle, and
the place to interact with the
content you’re watching on that
nice big shiny playout screen.
So is 'second screen' the wrong
label?
Absolutely, someone needs to work
out the terminology for this new
space. One of the key things for me
is: demand doesnʹt exist, demand is
manufactured. So how are you
going to choose what to watch?
Today you choose what to watch
because of a schedule that is
brought to you, but as people
increasingly move off schedule
there is going to be a new way of
finding and choosing what to
watch. It will be an application on
the second screen or your computer
that guides you to what to watch.
And it will be a mixture of your
friends, trusted authorities, and
recommendation engines that give
you a small list of things for tonight
to watch. Youʹll be saying: “Oh,
Anthony is watching ʹThe Voiceʹ
tonight, I am going to watch with
him” and youʹll start a chat session
with me, and your TV will spring
to life and jump to that programme.
And that really takes the TV
manufacturer out of the
monetisation loop because their TV
is faithfully playing what it is being
told to play – but the power of
choice is now on the second screen.
And there are no restrictions – you
can run whatever you want on your
iPad and no one can say what you
can or canʹt do. So I think
The power
of choice is
now on the
second
screen
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