It may be a golden age of TV, “but there’s also a lot of noise,” said Dan Brian, COO of WhipClip, during a panel addressing how apps and tech are transforming the TV experience. “Consumers and content creators are looking for a way to drive discovery of new shows.”
A Santa Monica, Calif.-based startup, WhipClip allows users to clip and share live and recorded TV. Think of it as “user-created trailers for show,” Brian said. “[80%] of our users said they discovered a show they had never seen before.”
Kimberly Kalb, the entertainment partnerships director of live-streaming platform Meerkat, talked about finding new ways to reach audiences and being your own broadcaster. “We’re not suggesting putting your television show on Meerkat,” she said. While piracy concerns have dogged the company and rivals like Periscope, Kalb emphasized that Meerkat is not promoting piracy but rather the creation of new content around existing TV content.
While many apps require Twitter accounts in order to facilitate engagement, “I think there’s going to be new platforms that don’t require people to log in or attach people’s names to things,” said Lee Brenner, who runs Microsoft’s real-time audience engagement platform Bing Pulse.
“The new normal today is a Generation Z viewer,” said Matt Smith, chief evangelist at TV Everywhere platform company Anvato. “Facebook and Twitter represent as large an audience as a broadcast audience.” He offered two predictions: an increase in binge-watching and a major shift in the traditional network/affiliate model. With a bevy of TV Everywhere platforms, second-screen devices, OTTs and more, “affiliates won’t have as much content viewed exclusively in their market,” Smith said.
