In a bid to capture the attention of an audience divided across screens, broadcasters are increasingly integrating Television with Digital for a seamless viewing experience. From social conversations to video-on-demand apps, will advertisers get a better deal?
By Henna Achhpal
Indians spend a total of 6 hours and 24 minutes of their day consuming some form of screen media, states Millward Brown’s AdReaction Report, 2014. Out of this, 42% of the time is spent on smartphones, and only 25% on TV. Taking into account the galloping pace of smartphone penetration and the prediction that India will have 213 million mobile Internet users by June 2015, it’s safe to assume that by the time Millward Brown releases its 2015 report, there will be an even more prominent shift towards smartphone screen consumption.
My earliest experience of the second screen phenomenon was when a bunch of friends and I live-tweeted our opinions of Bigg Boss episodes back in 2009. Others on my timeline would tweet about football and IPL matches. This was when hashtags were created and trended by users themselves, and recorded episodes were unofficially uploaded by viewers. The attention of audiences was beginning to get divided between their smartphones and television screens with the youth, or screenagers, increasingly being drawn to the more convenient of the two, their personal screens.
Cut to 2015, broadcasters officially upload their content in HD quality for viewers to ‘catch up’. It’s no longer piteous clips or promos of shows. Twitter is not being used as a mere marketing tool, but as a platform for conversation. Going a step further, they are developing their own apps, eliminating the need for third party platforms. Says Narayan Murthy, VP-Global Sales & Strategy, Vserv, “Broadcasters are facing a huge challenge of time spend competition which is impacting their regular parameters such as TRPs. The time spent on television vis a vis the time spent on a mobile phone is hugely disproportionate right now. With advanced features such as large screen and better resolution phones being introduced in the market, the time spent on these screens by consumers is increasing. Broadcasters had to do something to bring back that audience and ad revenues, which is why they are now moving towards a medium agnostic and content specific strategy.”
Without losing their footing in a Digital world, broadcasters are integrating TV with mobile screens to offer a seamless viewing experience to their audience and a wider, targeted and niche consumer base to advertisers. Thus the second screen promises to be a win-win for all.
SOCIAL CHATTER
Owing to their real-time nature, reality TV, sports and news are genres that benefit the most from conversations on social media. Star’s Satyamev Jayate is a noteworthy example of on-air integration with social media.While the show has been a talking point right from its first season, the network capitalized on this buzz by introducing a new segment, ‘Mumkin hain’, in its third season. Viewers interacted with the show’s host, Aamir Khan, via dial-ins and social media. #LetsPlayIndia, the hashtag for Satyamev Jayate’s third season debut, trended worldwide on Twitter.
During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Times Now and Twitter entered an exclusive partnership that gave the news channel exclusive access to Twitter’s data. Explaining what the partnership entailed, Viral Jani, Head – TV Strategy & Social Media, Times Television Network says, “We made good use of tweet via SMS and Twitter’s data on air in the form of visualizations and sentiment analysis. We also did an initiative called ‘Tweet to Remember’. Viewers tweeted to us with a hashtag and we sent them ‘add to calendar’ reminders of the polling dates in their respective cities. The same people received a reminder to watch Times Now on May 16.” The initiative is likely to be adapted by Twitter for the next election in the USA. Recently, Twitter and Times Now’s Newshour entered an exclusive global partnership for the former’s video product.
Social media engagement helps a broadcaster gauge what the audience is thinking. Jani says, “If a particular story is not trending, it gives us an idea that maybe people are not interested in it, helping us tweak our content. Every week, we analyse what kind of stories created impact. Apart from TAM data, social media gives us an insight into what is working and what’s not. TAM is a limited sample size, social media is a massive sample size that we engage with.” It also helps the channel reach a wider audience. “Hashtags also increase our reach among viewers who are not viewing our channel. Sometimes there’s a set of people who haven’t watched something when it aired but after it becomes a viral conversation point, people watch out for it the next time it’s telecast or watch it on YouTube,” explains Jani. Integrating a show with Twitter hashtags is a matter of plain hygiene for MTV India by now says Ekalavya Bhattacharya, Head - Digital, MTV India. He states, "What broadcasters are doing now is what we did six years back. Roadies won the Most Social TV Show in the world by Mashable in Season 8, back in 2011, we are in Season 12 right now."
Before social media, viewers shuffled between channels during the commercial break, now they turn to their phones to catch up on their social newsfeeds. Integration of shows with social media helps advertisers overcome the blind spot. Pratiksha Rao, Head of TV & Entertainment Partnerships, Twitter India says, “When the show takes a commercial break, you can still engage the audience with tweets from your account.” Commenting onTwitter’s role in partnerships with broadcasters, Rao says, “Our work revolves around making sure that broadcasters reach out to as large an audience as possible. That’s been our goal as of now with all our partnerships. Broadcasters believe that when they’re investing in Twitter, they’re investing in building their audience.” Rishi Jaitly, India Market Director, Twitter emphasises, “Broadcasters and brands know that Twitter is a natural TV companion that drives audience tune-in, engagement and affinity.”
While integration with social media via hashtags is not a revenue channel at this point, Jani believes that soon there will be opportunities for monetization.
ON-THE-GO ENTERTAINMENT
Given that Digital offers viewers the convenience of time and medium, YouTube soon became the destination for audiences to catch up on missed shows. Eliminating the need for a third party platform altogether, broadcasters developed their own apps. Ditto TV, from the digital arm of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), is India’s first over-the-top TV distribution platform. It offers viewers live TV and video on demand across screens. Sony LIV from Multi Screen Media (MSM) offers a library that consists of 18 years of content from the Sony Entertainment Network channels in India. In June 2014, MSM launched a digital sports entertainment property called LIV Sports. It was the official mobile and Internet broadcaster of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Uday Sodhi, EVP & Digital Head, MSM says, “Sony LIV is about catch up entertainment for content on the go. We are now looking at smaller format shows and Digital only shows. Our objective is to look at branded content. In 2015, Digital only properties are going to be our key thrust.” Even Star India is on a roll with its digital properties starsports.com and the newly launched Hotstar app. Ajit Mohan, Head of Digital Business, Star India, says, “We have built starsports.com as the most compelling destination for fans in India to follow sports on a mobile screen and the best platform for advertisers to reach an attractive audience on Digital.”
Appointment viewing has taken a hit agrees Bhattacharya. He says, "The overall consumption of Roadies has not reduced on Digital over the last five years, but on TV from say five years back, it has come down a little bit. Is it TV vs Digital, we don't know but now our eventual goal is to create platform agnostic content." Broadcasters are now able to recapture viewers who had lost interest in appointment TV viewing, in turn promising a better deal for advertisers. Sodhi says, “We are seeing more advertiser interest than we can imagine. Digital gives advertisers measurability, they can run shorter and time-bound campaigns. It also addresses a larger pool of advertisers. On Television, if you’re not a large advertiser, you get short-changed as thresholds are important. On Digital, whether you’re a small or big advertiser, if you’re focusing correctly on your TG, then you can get the returns that you’re looking for.”
A POT OF GOLD?
Eventually, second screen integration is a reflection of consumer behaviour, says Divya Karani, CEO, Dentsu Media. Karani explains, “It is all about augmenting reach, both by broadcasters and media planners. It is inevitable as consumers increasingly want to consume content at their convenience, and broadcasters have little choice.” Although generating revenue from this integration may take time to reach its peak in India, Karthik Lakshminarayan, COO, Madison Media says the second screen is certainly viewed as the future by advertisers, agencies and broadcasters. He says, “Advertisers are seeing value in this combined package. While the audience is being split up, the advantage it offers is reaching the hard to reach upper segments that are not bound by appointment viewing.” He adds, “Currently, broadcasters are in an investment phase. Getting seeded and traction is more critical for them at this point.”
Anita Nayyar, CEO, Havas Media Group, India & South Asia agrees, “Digital offerings allow new real estate for ad placement which generates revenue. However, broadcasters’ packages are more in silos for both TV and Digital over integrated, as also their teams and offices. There is a lot of ground to cover with much potential. Only when they integrate the packages across screens will it show traction for them and benefit advertisers.”
Feedback: henna@exchange4media.com
