The future of TV: five innovations to look out for
Dynamic second screen ads
Social TV has been a big success. 40% of tweets at UK peak time are referencing television.
BSkyB recently revealed it’ll be showing ‘instant replays’ of football games via Twitter, to capitalise on this second screening.
However, how you use social to interact with your TV campaign, or simply to piggyback on others’ should be done with caution.
Dynamic second screen ads are still a big unknown.
I say that because there’s big interest, some great tech out there and the obvious success of ‘social TV’ (tweeting whilst watching), and yet there’s still the feeling that serving second screen pre-roll ads be wanted by advertisers but not by viewers.
However, the companies pioneering second screen ads would rightfully counter that ads is the wrong word to use.
What we’re really talking about here is tailored content (ok, sometimes sponsored content), served to your tablet when appropriate, during a TV show.
This tech is being pioneered by Innovid and Cisco as follows.
Cisco’s cloud based Contexta system allows broadcasters or third-party app providers to deliver content to the second screen based on keywords that are spoken in TV shows on the TV or ‘first screen’.
Innovid is handling the second screen ad serving and gave an example at CES of how it works with Cisco.
If Jon Stewart is talking about an iPad or tablet, Contexta sends that info to Innovid’s ad servers which will present an Apple ad.
The clever bit is that Cisco’s system analyses sound, so anything on TV can be captured and tied to second screen content.
The tablet example sums up nicely my initial point. Being careful what to serve will be important for adoption of this technology by the user.
t-commerce
I haven’t figured out how best to spell ‘t-commerce’ yet. Perhaps we’ll know it’s mainstream once the hypen is dropped?
H&M has jumped in at Super Bowl 2014 to allow viewers the chance to purchase the featured products via a Samsung Smart TV.
This is interesting but I wonder if it clashes with second screen technology. If TVs can push commerce to tablets, as described above, this may be a more effective way to sell, considering the rise of tablet commerce.
Curved screens
I’ve sort of thrown this in here as a joke. I don’t see what the fuss is about.
They cost £7,000 upwards, too.
Connected home
This one I can see taking off as part of the internet of things.
Essentially the idea is that devices for audio and video become sort of like dumb terminals, which is essentially what they are already. Your personal device will ensure that wherever you are, the speakers or screens will enable your media.
Could this eventually kill the Smart TV?
YouTube
Google thinks it has already won.
Gradually, generations begin to associate televisions with awkwardly sharing a room with their parents and having to agree what to watch. TVs are big and non-mobile.
The developing world will be moving to YouTube in ever increasing numbers as countries such as India expand via cheaper devices such as the Aakash.
The growth of the YouTube-made star shows that TV networks are not needed any longer. All it takes is YouTube and a manager to force the next commercialised music starlet on to the tween market.
The stats are stark and of course, more niche audiences can be catered for, without fear of annoying a primetime audience.
Just check out the stats for channel views and you’ll see number one is Machinima, for gamers, with nearly 5bn views.
Here’s a handy infographic looking at the rise of YouTube.
(Click to enlarge)
