Issue 41  11th December 2015

New apps show off Apple TV's bigger potential

It's been six weeks since the release of the new Apple TV. In this article Mashable UK take a look at some of the apps that are really utilising its potential. We're delighted to see the QVC app—our collaboration with QVC—featured in the list, and also featured in Apple’s own best apps of 2015!

QVC's Apple TV app was available at launch and it remains one of the more impressive from a technical standpoint. It's that live component that makes QVC really unique and shows that Apple TV can be more than just re-purposing iOS content.

Apple said to suspend effort to develop live TV service

The Apple TV rumour mill has started again! This particular story about Apple pausing its 2016 plans for a live TV service originated from a CBS executive and other TV executives.

This week, Apple launched its new advertisement for Apple TV, which is somewhat of a departure from the usual Apple-style glossy video. The ad doesn't show the device once, instead choosing to focus on the content. However, as Recode's Peter Kafka points out most of this content was available on the previous Apple TV device.

There's a nice reference in here to the seismic shift in viewing that technicolour brought to movies like The Wizard of Oz, (and TV apps will inevitably bring to TV), but without the device to ogle over, the ad left us feeling cold.

Inside Turner's plans to take eSports mainstream

Turner Sports already broadcasts NBA, MLB, golf and college basketball, and now they're looking to add eSports to their repertoire. Next year they'll join forces with Hollywood talent agency WME-IMG to kick off the “ELeague,” a professional video gaming league.

Why eSports? The audience for eSports is rapidly growing, not to mention incredibly engaged, passionate, social and mobile.

“As we make this shift from the totality of the linear world to a digital, mobile, social world, eSports is right on the cusp of that content line,” said Craig Barry, evp and chief content officer for the company.

According to gaming industry research firm Newzoo, 204 million people either watched or participated in eSports in 2014, a number that’s expected to rise to 226 million this year. Industry revenues are expected to hit $278 million in 2015, up 43.1 percent from last year, and will eventually balloon to $765 million by 2018.

The battle for the second screen

The vast majority […] of device-owning people who watch TV admit to using additional devices [...] while viewing. So the obvious question is, why not try and link the two device experiences together?

Yes, this does seem obvious, but as Bob O'Donnell points out, it hasn’t happened yet in a very meaningful way. This is because it’s actually quite a complex thing to do right. Just because devices should be able to link up and talk to each other, this alone does not automatically lead to good UX.

At Rerun, we're veterans of second screen. Our ​team’s​ vision is to deliver the best experience, no matter what screen the viewer is watching, even if that’s two different screens at the same time.

We know there are a multitude of subtle viewer interactions to consider while creating second screen content synced to TV. For example:

• the amount of time it takes for a viewer to look up from their TV screen and back to their mobile device and still understand fully what's happening. People can only really focus on one thing at a time.
• content that still works logically if a viewer pauses, rewinds or skips forward in the show they're watching
• the pacing of the show itself. Does it lend itself to a companion experience or is it too fast paced?
• does the second screen content provide something valuable to the viewer they can't find anywhere else?

And that's just the tip of the iceberg!