STUDY UK: STOP FIGHTING THE PHONE AND MAKE IT TV’S RETURN PATH

Broadcasters should treat the phone in viewers’ hands as a channel they can control rather than a distraction they are losing to.

The decline in television’s share of advertising is well documented. According to WARC, linear TV’s share of global media ad spend fell from 41.3% in 2013 to 12.4% in 2025. Audiences, however, have not abandoned television; they have added a second screen alongside it. Omdia research published in September found that nearly three in four U.S. TV viewers regularly use smartphones for other media while watching television. That creates a commercial problem for broadcasters. They may retain the audience for a program while losing the next interaction, and the data and potential revenue associated with it, to search engines and social platforms.

The phone should therefore be treated not simply as a competitor but as a potential return path for television.

Why Interactivity Has Not Worked

The main obstacle has been friction. QR codes have largely replaced on-screen web addresses, but their performance suggests the limitations of asking viewers to interrupt what they are watching. BrightLine’s first-party data on CTV advertising puts the median QR scan rate at 0.004%, or roughly 400 scans for every 10 million impressions.

That figure relates specifically to advertising, but the underlying difficulty is relevant to programs, too. A viewer must open the camera, frame the code and decide whether the result is worth the effort. The code also intrudes on pictures directors have worked hard to craft.

Yet viewers still want to know who designed a particular dress, how many touchdowns a receiver has scored or where a drama was filmed. When they search independently, the broadcaster has little say in what information they receive or which platform benefits.

What A Workable Model Requires

For second-screen interactivity to succeed, it needs to meet four conditions.

First, the trigger should be the program picture itself. A viewer should be able to point a phone at the screen and receive material relevant to that moment, without any overlay or change to the broadcast.

Second, it must work whether the content is live, recorded or on-demand. That requires recognizing the content rather than relying on broadcast timecode.

Third, it must perform at the speed live sport demands, with low latency and the capacity to handle sudden surges in demand.

Fourth, control should remain with the broadcaster or rights holder, who should decide what appears, deliver it through their own app and determine the commercial terms, including sponsorship, commerce and premium features. Technology capable of supporting this approach is now available. The harder task is to offer something viewers consider worth opening an app for.

The Choice For Broadcasters

A sensible starting point would be one or two flagship programs, with clear measures of engagement, repeat use and commercial return. Those results, rather than the availability of the technology, should determine whether the service expands.

Broadcasters cannot prevent viewers using their phones while watching television. They can, however, give them a reason to remain within the broadcaster’s own service when they want more from the program. That is how the second screen becomes a commercial opportunity rather than another point at which the audience relationship is lost.

Source: tvnewscheck.com