Broadcasters get now used to offering new online experiences to kids as well as adults on their favorite programmes. Thanks to exclusive partnerships with social networks, exclusive content on online platforms, and other immersive contents, TV viewers are more and more invited to experiment transmedia strategies. In this way, to be distinguished, broadcasters must show themselves innovative and some of their initiatives are at the cutting edge of technology.

Recently, many broadcasters around the world mix strong brands and high tech to attract kids and teenagers.

In August 2017, Cartoon Network Latin America and Spain has released the Ben 10: Experiencia Alienígena! application for iOS and Android, with facial-recognition and an augmented reality technology. The free application uses cameras on mobile devices to transform the user into one of Ben Tennyson’s alien forms with facial-recognition technology, allowing viewers to become one of his/her favorite characters. It also offers an augmented reality game, in which users can employ Ben 10’s powers to stop a wave of robots.

Furthermore, the American television channel Nickelodeon, has unveiled the SpongeBob SquarePants: “You Bring the Color” initiative, giving fans the opportunity to go online and digitally color SpongeBob. The initiative goes further and selected fan creations will be featured on Nickelodeon during “You Bring the Color”, a special themed week of new SpongeBob SquarePants episodes in November 2017. The experience is largely promoted as packages of products are designed from official “You Bring the Color”.

New high technology experiences are not limited to well-known programmes and several content creators immerse concerts’ audience with new techniques.

This summer, during Lorde’s concert at the Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival, Snapchat has offered a new feature on its application. During the song “Green Light”, Snapchat combined the clips from phones filming at the same moment, using geolocation and timestamps to piece the audio together into a semi-seamless video. As a result, a multi-camera video was offered, with several angles available, while the sound remained continuous. Users can tap to see a new angle whenever the “Crowd Surf” icon is lit up. Crowd Surf is based on in-house Artificial Intelligence technology and the final feature should roll out progressively to more events.

In parallel, London-based startup MelodyVR is developing an application specialised in virtual reality and live music experiences. It will offer the largest digital library of VR content in the world, via a cross-platform application on leading VR devices. MelodyVR has already signed up all three major record labels - Warner, Universal Music and Sony Music Entertainment - to provide access to a large variety of artists from all genres. However, the creators of the application said they were waiting for the next round of VR headsets so the technology would be up to the technical requirements of their content.

In a competitive market, broadcasters and online content pure players have been distancing themselves to attract a larger audience through immersive contents. High technology seems to be an interesting angle but developing its own technologies and tools can be a solution to overtake its competitors.

All the facts and figures of these programmes (and much more!) can be found in the 4Screen Quarterly Report, Edition 3 2017. The report was released in October 2017.

Source: Eurodata TV Worldwide – 4Screen Quarterly report 2017 – Edition 3 / Relevant Partners