THE REAL STAKES OF LIVE TV RECOGNITION (2/2)
As interaction has become vital to viewers, content providers and advertisers, no matter the medium, television still struggles finding ways to keep its audience in front of the screen rather than interacting on parallel platforms. 90% of viewers use a second screen while they watch TV, meaning a lack of attention on the main screen and less retention. Reminiz just launched its Live TV recognition service that could substantially change the story. After having reviewed the various technical challenges that poses real-time recognition, discover why this new service will upgrade interaction, content and sources of revenue on and for television.
NEW FORMS OF INTERACTION FOR THE AUDIENCE
Liking, sharing, commenting and even looking for information have no equivalent when watching a TV program, preventing the audience to react on the go and leading them to use other devices. This paradigm shifted a bit with on-demand and replay platforms as they started introducing personalization and additional information. As of today, live television still faces the “second screen” issue but live recognition brings new solution to the table. How so?

By pushing linear contextual information
Providing all information upfront regarding programs, celebrities or any data related to broadcast is a tedious and uncertain job. It depends on arbitrary human decisions, especially for live shows. Live recognition brings this information continuously: it does not rely of what should be broadcasted but what is actually broadcasted, making it even more reliable.
Rather than taking your smartphone to check who that celebrity onscreen is, your television is now able to give you the answer. In addition, it will give you his/her latest appearances on previous shows, a biography or any other information or service that might be valuable for the audience. You ask, the TV answers. In other words, contextual information.
By improving personalization and bookmarking favorites
This is the direct consequence of contextual information. Imagine you would not want to miss a single appearance of Lady Gaga on television. Your first reaction would be to follow her twitter account, check the TV program on regular basis and subscribe to any website providing such information. In our case, our system pushes direct notifications in real-time whenever Lady Gaga is on screen.
Bookmarking favorite celebrities and content creates a virtuous circle in the short to middle term: television streams adapt to your requirements and preferences, leading you to a channel more than another, only because the celebrities appearing are most likely to interest you. This fully changes how we relate to television, switching from unilateral to comprehensive broadcasting.
By interacting with live content
Here is the key to bringing the audience back to focusing on the TV screen. Downloading a Spotify playlist with your remote control because the singer appeared in a broadcasted concert, rating the appearance of a guest in a talk-show to provide direct feedback or betting on a player during a sports game are as many examples of what live recognition allows for the audience.
It would be presumptuous to imagine that these forms of interaction will prevent the audience from using smartphones in the same time. To the very least, it will put television back on track as the medium where [inter]action takes place. For broadcasters, it is the ideal way to retain viewers in their own ecosystem rather than losing them into the abyss of internet searches.
NEW SOURCES OF MONETIZATION FOR CONTENT PROVIDERS
If live recognition represents many various ways for the audience to interact with content, content providers themselves will find tremendous outcomes in implementing this service without being more intrusive and annoying viewers.
Through cross-selling and associated content
Content providers and channels have a real interest in using the live momentum to promote associated programs and various ways to boost content sales. First, by automating celebrity related content and urging the viewer to watch and/or buy it. There are reasonable chances that if you bookmarked a celebrity or even asked a few times who it was, pushing his/her latest movies on your on-demand platform will do the trick. Tune-in is nowadays the true challenge for all broadcasters: keeping a same audience from one content to another.

Second by integrating paid interaction mechanisms directly on television. This case is particularly adapted to singing contests such as The Voice. One could imagine giving the possibility to vote with your remote (and adapt the paid SMS voting mechanism) every time your favorite competitor appears on screen. In all cases, live recognition allows content providers to seize the ideal moment to root for their own programs and merchandising.
Through affiliate sales
Rooting for your own content is one thing, pushing others is another way to benefit from live recognition. Partnering with Amazon to sell Stephen King’s latest book while he’s promoting it in a talk show is as interesting for the audience, the channel, Amazon and even Stephen King. As a fair percentage of viewers will buy it anyway after the show, you better get the best share of it right away. Most platforms already have such partners, they just do not know how to push these services seamlessly. The French Telecom Orange already has partnerships with FNAC and Deezer for instance.
Instead of driving viewers (potential customers) outside the TV frame to complete a transaction (buying a book, concert tickets, merchandising) or an action (subscribing to an artist’s Spotify account, following on twitter) through mobile and desktop, affiliate sales hold the whole process (discovery, interest, search, subscription or acquisition) on television.
Through sponsored sales
Last but not least, sponsored sales are not to be forgotten. So far, we have mainly discussed the capacities to create a coherent bridge between content and interaction. Now if you can assess a viewer’s appetite for content “A” and celebrity “B”, there is no doubt you can deduct his interest in product “C” and push it as well with the right momentum.
NEW WAYS TO ADVERTIZE FOR BRANDS
This leads us to advertising and how live recognition redefines brands position throughout the TV ecosystem. The old-fashioned commercial break hast lost its splendor. We know it, you know it, everybody knows it. Yet, few to no alternative model has been found to make an efficient new room to advertising, especially because contextualization was very limited so far. Understanding content in real-time is assessing its value for the ones who watch it. If advertising does not become intrusive.

A perfect match with in-program advertising
Video understanding automation redefines the industry’s capacity to react on the go and again, seize the perfect momentum. A brand has a real interest in promoting its products and content every time it appears on screen. Sponsors during sports event will finally convert TV exposition if their appearance triggered new advertising mechanisms such as side banners and contextual pushes every time a viewer uses the live recognition service.
Faces, logos, emotions, settings, business cases are endless if we start imagining how advertisers will play with context of appearance.
Introducing Addressable Television
A new field of possibilities opens for Television : crossing audiences with content related data to aim the viewer with ideal commercial at the right time. And what better time than when the viewer is looking for additional information?
We’ve already discussed addressable television and the opportunities it will create long term. Let’s just keep in mind that live recognition services are also a tremendous way to learn more about viewers habits and behavior when watching television.
The real deal for moment marketing
Through Moment Marketing, brands and advertisers finally have the opportunity to spread the right message at the right time to the right person, no matter the media. Not only is it possible to do it on television but also combining it with digital instantaneous campaigns by :
1. Scanning TV programs
2. Identifying the viewer
3. Pushing adequate message on digital platforms depending on both what is being watched and who the viewer is
This might be the key to counterpart the “second screen” effect and benefit from two simultaneous media appearances, on television and on digital.
Overall, live TV recognition and video understanding capabilities have definitely enabled comprehensive content strategies profitable for viewers, content providers and advertisers. It opens a new era for interactive television and gives the TV screen a chance to renew its appeal to viewers.

