This Sunday, many Americans will watch Super Bowl XLVI, but the television will not be the only the electronic device to which viewers turn.
Almost half of Super Bowl viewers are expected to check their mobile devices up to 10 times during the game, Mashable reports. More than 80 percent of polled viewers said they will check their mobile device at least as much as they did during last year's game, Mashable reported citing a Harris Interactive study.
Live tweeting and Facebook-status updating via mobile devices has become a common way to interact with friends and the outside world during live televised events, including presidential debates, awards shows, last year's royal wedding, last week's State of the Union address and Sunday's big game.
However, the practice of TV watching with mobile device in hand is not limited to these special events.
A yet-to-be-released Nielson study found about 45 percent of Americans who own mobile devices watch television while engaging with a second screen, reported the Washington Post. Among tech-savvy teenagers, that percentage is even higher at 53 percent. The trend spans across the generations with 38 percent of tablet users ages 55 and older reporting they also watch television with their mobile device in hand.
Interested to hear from a member of the older generation who uses tablets while watching TV, I called my own mother, a 57-year-old housewife with an iPad. Sure enough, she is part of the 38 percent. Specifically, she checks for recipes and products mentioned during her morning and daytime news and talk shows. Sometimes she checks the shows websites; other times her search turns to Google, she said.
While my mother surfs the web as she watches television, others also engage in discussion about the shows they are viewing.
Using Twitter search terms, called hashtags, signified by the pound sign, Twitter users interact with other TV viewers and even the stars of television shows. On NBC's "The Voice," which will premiere its second season following the Super Bowl, viewers are encouraged to tweet to the show. The show even invoked a social media correspondent to drive conversation on air and online. Bravo executive Andy Cohen also uses his Twitter account to pull audience questions during his late night talk show.
This two-screen multitasking has pushed traditional Super Bowl advertisers to reach the audience through multiple devices. Already, more than 39,000 subscribers have signed up for YouTube's adblitz, a channel that compiles the 2012 Super Bowl ads. Also, Discovery News reported Chevrolet has released a Super Bowl smartphone app that allows users to enter to win prizes, and Coca-cola has a Facebook page and website where users can interact with the brand's signature polar bears as they watch Sunday's game.
What does this mean for journalists?
For broadcasters, the overall trend of engaging with a second screen means it will be increasingly important to provide viewers additional online resources.
For legacy publications and online mediums, tweeting during live televised events like the Super Bowl may drive web traffic to their sites, simply because that is when a captive audience is viewing their tweets.
And for the sports journalists covering Sunday's Super Bowl, quickly updating statistics and utilizing social media will be key to grabbing the interest of mobile users.
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ReplyDeleteI watched some of the first season of The Voice and thought they did a good job on that show of giving the social media correspondent some air time and also using social media in general to engage with the at-home audience.
DeleteIt is really interesting to read that your mother is using her iPad to check recipes and products while watching TV. This shows that this trend is not limited to only one generation or one demographic, but clearly seems to be picking up among many Americans who own mobile devices.
But is this a form of multitasking, even if it pertains to entertainment and consumer behavior? I seem to recall that Prof. Yaros mentioned to us in our first J689M class that true multitasking is not really humanly possible, according to key scientific findings. So is this a kind of "entertainment multitasking" that is considered to be fun and relaxing, like candy for the mind?
One place where I think we should draw the line, however, is the movie theater. Once someone starts checking facts on their iPhone as they sit next to me in a darkened cinema, and then begins to comment on said facts, I would like a refund for my ticket. (Thankfully this does not seem to happen too often however!)
Karen, thank you for your comments.
ReplyDeleteI, too, watched the first season of "The Voice," and I found myself wanting to grab my laptop to follow along with the show's Twitter feed. (I do still find interacting on Twitter to be easier on a laptop, or perhaps a tablet, rather than a smartphone because of the screen size.) In fact, I usually did and tweeted about the show too. To my knowledge, "The Voice" is the first prime-time, network show to utilize social media to this extent. However, I have also noticed stars, usually from reality TV shows, tweeting with fans as new episodes air. The Kardashians often do this for all of their shows, including Rob Kardashian's run on ABC's "Dancing With The Stars."
As for my mom and her iPad, I do wonder if her usage -- looking up recipes and products mentioned on shows, not engaging in the social media conversation about the shows -- is unique or if that is common among all mobile-device users or just the 55 and older age group. My mom is not on Twitter yet and only ocassionally shares stories to her relatively small set of Facebook friends. In comparison, as a young adult with a smartphone, most of my two-screen time is spent on social media, sharing the things I find and commenting on my friends' finds.
The two studies I cited in this blog were not yet publicly released, as far as I could tell. Perhaps, these studies hold some of the answers I seek about what the devices are used for now that we know how many people are actually using them as they watch TV.
Lastly, you caught me! I did use "multitasking" to describe this two-screen engagement. As an experienced two-screen TV watcher, I admit I concentrate less on the TV show when I'm looking at my smartphone or laptop screen. While watching TV with the world via Twitter is interesting, it certainly has its time and place. And I agree that at the movies is not the time or place!