Twice as much TV? How networks are adapting to the second screen

Network AMC has created an interactive mobile app called Story Sync for its "Walking Dead" series.



STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Using another digital device while watching TV is fairly common
  
• TV networks are experimenting with ways to reach their audiences on the second screen
  
• They have to keep in mind that less is more and be wary of distractions
  
• The possibilities of second screen are still developing
  

(CNN) -- The next time you pause to watch TV --
anything from the morning news to a prime time drama -- try an
experiment: Watch the show in its entirety without interacting with
another device.

That means no checking
email, no texting, Tweeting, pinning, visiting Facebook or hunting for
spoilers. No unlocking your smartphone every 60 seconds or casually
flipping through content on your tablet or e-reader. (And if you're one
of the reported 2.65 million whom The Convergence Consulting Group
found ditched TV subscriptions for the Web between 2008 and 2011,
resist the urge to open a new tab in your browser, just to play along.)

For many of us, that's
far less intuitive than it sounds. Our mobile devices have not only
given us a new option when deciding where to watch a favorite show, but
they've also changed the way we experience TV. Whereas we simply watched
one screen in the era of "The Cosby Show," some of us would be at a
loss if we couldn't have our laptops out while also viewing "Modern
Family."

Having that "second
screen" -- the common phrase for a mobile device used while watching a
TV program -- can make us feel like we're being more productive, but it
can also broaden our viewing experience. We can figure out what song
that "X Factor" contestant performed by searching for lyrics, read a
live blog that breaks down issues during a political debate and be
vastly entertained by the communal digital snark that erupts while
watching reality TV.

Nielsen reports that
during the second quarter of 2012, 86% of tablet owners and 84% of
smartphone owners in the United States said they used their second
screen of choice while simultaneously watching TV at least once during a
30-day period.

But for 41% of tablet owners and 39% of those owning smartphones, that multitasking is more like once a day, at a minimum.

Our attachment to our
mobile devices during TV time isn't surprising, least of all to the
digital strategists at the networks creating what we view.

Some of them, too, have
noticed their own propensity to have another device close by while
watching TV, which caused them to notice something else: An opportunity.

Major broadcast networks
and cable programmers alike are tinkering around with what they can
offer a second screen captivated audience, as are companies like GetGlue, Miso, Yap.tv and Yahoo's! IntoNow.

While those latter
services are focusing on creating opportunities for engagement across a
wide spectrum of shows to serve TV's fan bases, networks are zeroing in
on how they can take advantage of their insider knowledge to keep users
interacting with them on those inescapable second screens. (Rather than
using them for, say, emailing, which Nielsen in a 2011 report found 61%
of tablet owners were doing while also watching a TV show.)

That's why TV fans are
frequently coming across applications pegged as "second screen
experiences" -- downloadable environments where viewers can often
interact with and learn more about what they're watching on TV, in some
cases syncing the application with the TV show.

The second screen seems
to work particularly well with live events, as well as reality
programming, sporting events and news. For example, Albert Cheng, chief
product officer and the executive vice president of digital media for
Disney/ABC Television, said ABC saw success with their Backstage Pass
app for the Oscars, which offered "all-access" to viewers above and
beyond what they could see at any one time on their television screens.

So if you were a fan of
2012's best supporting actress winner Octavia Spencer, Cheng said, "You
followed her nomination, you followed her through the red carpet, and
when you saw her on TV get her Oscar... with your iPad or computer, you
could see her walk down the winners walk and [be interviewed.] ... As a
fan, you felt as though you were with her all the way through."

But while the Oscars or
the recent Republican debates -- for which ABC News worked with IntoNow
to create polls that allowed viewers to interact with the verbal
sparring -- provide a fairly natural fit, scripted programming has been
trickier. Even before you break down the difference between creating a
second screen experience around a half-hour comedy versus a detailed
hour-long drama, there's the delicate balance between providing content
that's engaging and worthwhile to the viewer while not annoying them or
pulling them out of the storyline.

Yet with so many viewers
intent on using a second screen while watching TV, what's a showrunner
to do? Networks are in the midst of experimenting, but a few refrains
are starting to emerge: Know your audience, less really is more, and
above all else, keep the content king.

"People are getting
better and better all the time at multitasking, that's a truism. But
that said, I think people want to lose themselves in television," said
David Wertheimer, Fox's president of digital media. "Television and
feature films are fundamentally about suspension of disbelief and
getting into the moment, and you do have to be careful not to take them
out of that."

While Fox has created
second screen apps around properties like "So You Think You Can Dance,"
with plenty of creative input this season from executive producer and
judge Nigel Lythgoe, the process varies from show to show.

Generally, Wertheimer
said, the digital side will get input from a writer to construct an app,
with its scripted shows focusing on more "lightweight material." The
network's freshman hit "New Girl," for example, has a companion app that
includes polls about relationships, a breakdown of the curious sayings
of Max Greenfield's breakout character Schmidt, and the option to audio
sync the app with the show as you're watching it, of course.

"You want to give people
sharable moments. You want to give people little bits that help them
engage deeper with the show and the ability to drill deeper on their own
time when the show's not on. It's not really about inundating them with
stuff. That's one of the mistakes that many, many people have made in
the second screen world," Wertheimer said.

ABC learned its own
valuable lessons on the integration of scripted programming and the
second screen experience with "Grey's Anatomy," one of the network's
biggest series. After taking a swing with a second screen app for 2010's
swiftly canceled "My Generation," the network wanted to test the technology with the more stable "Grey's."

Creator Shonda Rhimes
was "very, very gung-ho" about the app, and the network had two writers
on her staff write the concept. "She was very excited about the
technology and her fans were [too]," Cheng said.

But the pesky problem of
a distracted audience was a deal breaker. While watching the show,
"when there was [related] content there was an audio cue, [so] you look
down, you read the content module," Cheng explained. But that meant "I'd
answer the question, and I'd look up, and I'd miss a key scene. With
that specific application, viewers expressed that it actually distracted
them from the storyline and narrative. For a showrunner, then, it
became very apparent that it's not helping as much as we'd like it to.
The hardest thing for me was to actually sit down with Shonda and say,
'Hey this is great, but guess what, your viewers told us it was kind of
distracting and they couldn't follow the scenes."

Without a clamoring
demand for additional content to supplement scripted programming, Cheng
concluded that energy is better spent on continuing to create social
buzz.

"I think it's great for
everyone to be experimenting now, but our opinion at this point here,
after having done the experiments, we want our showrunners focused on
creating great shows," Cheng said.

At AMC, home to critic-
and fan-adored shows like "The Walking Dead" and "Breaking Bad," they're
continuing to eye ways to do both with their Story Sync second screen
experience.

The idea was spawned
after AMC noticed the high level of interaction on the live
"watch-and-chats" on the cable network's website. Fans would come
together and talk about what they were watching as moderators supplied
additional content.

The network also picked
up on how frequently their programming would ping around social media
sites. Clearly, said Mac McKean, senior vice president of AMC Digital,
they have audiences who want to "engage with each other and with the
show while it's on." And from there Story Sync, which rolled out earlier
this year with "The Walking Dead," was born.

The program was built
"very specifically to tap into the emotional and dramatic moments of the
shows that are most evocative, or that people are most responding to,"
McKean said. "We collaborate closely with the writers' rooms and
production teams of the shows for every episode. In fact, the 'Breaking
Bad' one, we had someone from the writers' room actually scripting it."

From the outset, McKean said, they leaned toward restraint when creating content.

"We're pretty judicious
in what we choose to provide content around ... We pick the moments
where that content is going to appear and we literally watch the show
like, five times, and we're constantly adjusting it," McKean said.
"We're not asking you to click a button in the middle of someone getting
shot, or a complex conversation that you should be paying attention to.
... The second screen is connecting some dots that people might not
connect for themselves. Our goal is to enhance the experience without
making it a new story."

While they're getting
positive feedback from fans, McKean said they're not automatically going
to construct a Story Sync approach for every show, unless they're
confident it'll enhance the viewing experience without detracting from
it.

Thinking on how the
second screen could continue to develop, McKean said he doesn't have
"any doubts that we're tapping into something that's going to mean more
in the future. What shape it will have at that time is anybody's guess."

The variety of
approaches seems open-ended at this point, as networks like NBC, which
recently rolled out an e-book for supernatural series "Grimm," CBS, with
its social TV platform CBS Connect, and MTV with its WatchWith app,
continue to test theories on the second screen.

But as these digital
execs will note, the second screen is just another player in the
increasingly robust digital playbook now demanded of TV shows.

"The second screen
discussion we've been having is just one piece of a strategy that's all
about giving our audiences an opportunity to talk about the shows and
share thoughts with the showrunners and the talent," Fox's Wertheimer
said. "To us, that's what television in the 21st century is all about."