AMC Networks has been shooting material for its crime drama The Killing but it will not be seen on TV. The material is for second-screen viewers.
LAST weekend, members of the cast and crew of AMC Network’s crime drama The Killing were on location in Vancouver, British Columbia, shooting material for Sunday’s season premiere. What they produced won’t be shown on television, though. It is meant for smartphones, tablets and laptops.
The video vignettes are for an online application AMC channel is launching this weekend to promote The Killing, one of a number of increasingly ambitious such efforts being produced by TV networks.
Designed to be watched on mobile devices and computers, the services show videos, photos, games, trivia and other content when the affiliated TV show is on the air.
TV networks are trying to take advantage of viewers who are increasingly multitasking as they watch shows. More than 40 per cent of Americans have smartphones or tablets in their hands each day as they watch TV, according to Nielsen.
By offering so-called second-screen content synchronised with the broadcast, the networks hope they can persuade viewers to watch programming live, instead of on a digital video recorder several days after their initial broadcasts are recorded.
When viewers watch on DVRs, they often skip over ads. In addition, networks want to attract more digital ad dollars.
In the case of The Killing, which starts its third season this weekend, the video shot last weekend is intended to give digital viewers background on a new character, a runaway teen named Bullet, and insight into the world of young homeless kids. It will be portrayed as footage from Bullet’s smartphone.
“You’re picking up a flavor of these street kids’ life,” said Mac McKean, senior vicepresident of digital media for AMC.
The idea is not t to add any new plot elements. “There’s only one story – we are complementing it,” Mr McKean said.
The video, one of nine the channel produced for this season, is part of a content stream that will pop up periodically on digital viewers’ screens during the telecast.
AMC also offers second-screen content for two of its other original shows, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead.
The channel isn’t alone. Comcast Corp’s USA Network offers synchronised digital content for all of its original shows – available via the Web and apps – and production is getting more intricate.
The second-screen content for Graceland, a series launching next week that revolves around law-enforcement agents sharing a house, includes a virtual rendering of the house with which users can interact. Doors unlock as the show progresses, revealing information about characters.
Viacom’s MTV used its second-screen app to introduce viewers to new characters on Teen Wolf, showing short interviews with actors during telecasts.
Sports TV networks are jumping in, too: Viewers watching NFL Network’s coverage of the National Football League draft last month could use a mobile app to see a range of content during the telecast, including video interviews with players selected in the first round and analysis from experts.
“They were producing it just like a television show, except that it was only going to smartphones and tablets,” said Manish Jha, general manager of mobile at the NFL.
The audience for such services is still small. Just 15 per cent of people who use TV networks’ websites or apps watch digital content synchronised to live TV, translating into just 3 per cent of the overall TV audience aged 13 to 54, according to marketresearch firm GfK.
Users more commonly watch on-demand video clips and look up schedule information. “The networks really have to do a better job of educating users on when and how to use it,” said David Tice, senior vice-president of media and entertainment for GfK.
One risk is that by providing so much content on tablets and smartphones, viewers can get distracted from the show or, even worse, the ads.
AMC’s Mr McKean says the video vignettes for The Killing will be shown during down time, like commercials or credits, and users will have to choose to play them.
AMC says the videos are short and that overall the synchronised content keeps viewers from changing channels during the commercial breaks.
News Corp’s Fox says its approach differs depending on the genre. For comedies like The Mindy Project, it serves up more frequent second-screen content – such as video clips of funny moments – than for action-packed dramas such as Bones, where producers don’t want viewers to miss any key developments.
“We’re very careful about how we program it,” said David Wertheimer, president of digital at Fox Broadcasting. “During the broadcast we want to add value to your experience, not detract.”
News Corp also owns The Wall Street Journal and The Australian.
AMC’s Mr McKean said the network worked closely with writers and producers of The Killing to find opportunities in the script for second-screen material. In addition to the video vignette, other digital content that will be made available during the premiere includes a coroner’s report for the murder victim, a crime-scene photo that only gets briefly displayed on TV and a middle-school report card for Bullet.
Mr McKean said the number of second-screen users for AMC’s other shows has been into the six figures per episode and more than one million over the course of a season. “It’s a new medium,” he said. “We want to see strong growth.”
AMOL SHARMA – The Wall Street Journal – June 03, 2013