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The Nintendo DS is the most famous device to use a second screen.
A second screen is a computing device used with two screens to provide complementary or interactive content. The term most commonly refers to using a smartphone or tablet computer while watching television, where the second screen displays related content such as social media discussions, polls, additional information, or interactive features synchronized with the broadcast.[1][2][3]
Second screen technology is designed to increase audience engagement and has been found to support social television by generating online conversations around specific content. The term can also refer to multiple monitors connected to a single computer for productivity purposes.
Analysis
Some studies[4][5] show viewer tendencies of using another device while watching television, such as a tablet or smartphone. Other studies distinguish a higher percentage of comments or posts on social networks about the content that is being watched.[6][7][8] Proclaimed benefits from these studies include keeping the audience engaged (via polling, chatting, providing additional information about content, and participants, etc.) and generating revenue via advertising. Second screens can be used as a metering solution to get information about the audience.
Second screen solutions can be both far-reaching and inexpensive, which has led some to think a second screen may replace people meters in the future.[9] One factor hampering the growth of second screens is that many shows are creating their applications for them. It is considered impractical to expect users to download multiple applications and switch between them for each channel or show.[10]
Conference and business meeting organizers may also incorporate second screens.[11] The second screen phenomenon was described as a significant and growing trend by the "2014 Trend Tracker",[12]. "Attendees are so glued to their devices, even while watching a live presentation (or at home, on television) that marketers are supplying them with a simultaneous engagement tool they can access on that device," says Robin Stanley, VP-design and creative at GES.[13] "Software tools allow conference session presenters to share slides and presentations in real-time, so attendees can follow on with their device in hand." Second screen technology at conferences allows conference attendees to engage with the speaker and other participants.
Applications
Many applications designed for the second screen give another form of interactivity to the user and another way to sell advertising content.[14] Second screening may also involve applications not formally connected to the primary entertainment.[15] Some examples include:
TV programs broadcasting live tweets and comments.[16][17]
Synchronization of audio-visual content via web advertising.[18]
Applications that extend the content information, whether news, weather, or chat, to another screen.[1][2]
Remote workers, as business travelers, can set up their working space anywhere to attend meetings and manage projects.[3]
Shows that add content exclusively for the second screen to their websites.[19]
Applications that synchronize the content being viewed to the mobile device.[20]
Video game consoles playing with extra data, such as map or strategy data, that synchronize with the content being viewed on the portable device, such as the Wii U.[21][22][23][24][25] PlayStation also has a game accessibility feature called "Chat Transcription", which allows a user to read what others say and send text to speech messages through the PlayStation 4's Google Play App named "PlayStation Second Screen".[26]
Applications that display polling results and audience-triggered animated emoticons (along with the sender's name and location) in real-time on the broadcast instead of the user's second screen.
Voting functionality for audiences at home via the broadcaster app.
Sports broadcasters, to stem the flight of the audience away from watching the main screen (the television) to the second screen, are offering alternative content to the main program, such as unseen moments, alternative information, soundtracks, and characters. Proposed new technologies allow the viewer to see different camera angles while watching the game.[30][31]
TV2 (Denmark), Denmark's largest commercial TV channel, synchronized its Second Screen service with the live broadcast of the Giro d'Italia cycling race from May 5 to May 27, 2012. Viewers on all internet devices could get rider stats, biographies, news, stage reviews, city information, weather updates, and more. Viewers scanned a QR code on the TV broadcast to get connected to the service or typed in a short URL.[32]
In the US, HDNet Fights utilizes a service that synchronizes with live MMA broadcasts. Viewers on smartphones and tablets can get stats, vote on fights and rounds, chat, win prizes, and see how fellow second-screen users voted on fight outcomes.[33]
Other television
Slate described popular procedural dramas like Suits as examples of "second-screen content—shows that don't require viewers to hit rewind if they idly drift off while scrolling their phones."[34]The Hollywood Reporter described the Jennifer Lopez film Atlas as "another Netflix movie to half-watch while doing laundry".[35]John Landgraf of FX Networks bragged that, by contrast, Shogun was "not a two-screen show".[36]Justine Bateman said to The Hollywood Reporter in 2023, that "the viewer's primary screen is their phone and the laptop and they don't want anything on your show to distract them from their primary screen because if they get distracted, they might look up, be confused, and go turn it off." Many users describe this as a 'visual muzak'.[37] In 2025, Netflix reportedly told screenwriters to have characters announce actions, so those watching the streaming service in the background while doing something else know what is happening.[35]
12Mukherjee, P., and Jansen, B. J. (2015) Correlation of Brand Mentions in Social Media and Web Searching Before and After Real-Life Events: Phase Analysis of Social Media and Search Data for Super Bowl 2015 Commercials. International Workshop on Event Analytics Using Social Media Data, IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM2015) Atlantic City, New Jersey. 14–17 Nov
↑Giglietto, F. and Selva, D. (2013) Second Screen and Participation: A Content Analysis of a Full Season Dataset of Tweets, Social Science Research Network, p. 1-24.
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