TV apps are an underappreciated – and underutilized – asset for content creators and broadcasters. Properly used, even as simple a device as a five-button remote has enormous potential to engage audiences, enrich viewers’ experience and increase program popularity and loyalty.
Create compelling apps that would allow viewers to dig a little deeper, receive valuable information or simply enjoy themselves further – all without leaving the sofa.
These days, what’s on TV happens faster than ever before. On cooking shows, for example, three or more dishes are prepared and presented in less than half an hour. Viewers might want more information, but there is no slowing down these-tightly edited programs.
There’s no need to. During an A la di Stasio episode, a message appears on the screen. Using the remote, viewers can have the tasty recipe sent directly to them.
Contests featuring prizes are always popular and are a terrific way of retaining audiences since you can enter contests directly via the TV with no need to use a computer.
When we like a show, we want to engage with it even more: with a character, a storyline, a place, a time, or simply by prolonging an experience. Interactive TV can incite viewers to get more involved. Leaning in instead of just leaning back, as it were. A few examples:
Le Cercle is a very popular TV quiz show. Fans could become virtual contestants and play an interactive version of the game right on the TV.
Vie de Quartier (Life on the Block) is an animated TV series focusing on what’s going in a fictitious ‘hood. To further the fun, viewers could answer 10 simple questions and find out which of the show’s quirky characters they resemble most: The impossibly unhandy handyman, the technology-obsessed daughter, or the loud and obnoxious best friend.
Interactive TV can not only deepen the relationship between shows and viewers, it can also propel them to other offline interactions on transmedia platforms like websites and mobile apps.
Zooville is an educational program for kids about the critters that co-exist with us in urban and rural settings. During the TV program, a simple “Yes or No” question appears on the screen that kids could answer with the simple touch of a button. Badges are awarded for both participation and the number of right answers. These badges are then transferred to the Zooville website when the kids logged on.
Because of the relatively few buttons available on a remote (up, down, left, right, select) and because of the lag in the response time of infrared remotes (latency), we found that certain types of games (mostly simpler ones) worked best on interactive TV:
Multiple-choice quizzes, simple strategy games (such as puzzles and checkers), and
simple arcade-style games.
One of the simplest and most effective interactions possible is the poll, especially for competition-based shows. On Licence to Drill, a show featuring two teams exploring for oil, viewers were asked which team would win the next round and if they would actually strike “black gold” by the show’s end. Results were pooled with website voting. Updated results were quickly available on the TV app.
TV apps hold real potential increasing audience engagement. As an example, polling, perhaps the simplest of interactions. Think of the possibilities for anything broadcast live. Sporting events (Was the ref fair or blind? Who was the best player? What’s the next play?). Entertainment galas like the Academy Awards (Who’s best/worst dressed?). Political events (Who won the debate?). And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Imagine product advertising containing a simple app that would allow viewers to ask for information to be sent to them during the spot itself, thus turning passive viewers into qualified leads.
The biggest challenge would be to manage spikes that could strain a network’s resources. But the benefits? Don’t be sure that something similar to what we’ve outlined above won’t being showing up on a screen near you in the not too distant future.
On A la di Stasio, on-screen prompts during the show allow viewers to have the recipe in question sent them by email without interrupting the viewing experience.
Le Cercle is a trivia-type TV quiz show that people can play through the TV app. The app is one of the most popular ever for Videotron, and even in the off-season, more than 100,000 people play the game.
While watching Zooville, kids could accumulate badges by answering simple questions on screen. When they returned to the website, these badges would immediately appear, validating the worth of what the kids had seen and interacted with during the TV show.
On Licence to Drill, viewers could play a simple arcade-style game where they could search for the “black gold” themselves – right on the TV.
A simple multiple choice format made it easy for viewers of Vie de Quartier (Life on the Block) to get in on the fun and discover what character they might identify with most. There is also has a strategy game that works well with the simple controls of the TV remote.
