The second-screen app ConnecTV — which has partnered with 201 TV stations across 10 local media groups — launched some interesting co-viewing features in time for March Madness. For starters, the app can recognize the game you’re watching (via audio) and display real-time stats and background info on the respective teams and players.
We were intrigued by two other novel features designed for the March Madness experience. “Timeout detector” identifies when a timeout has been called on the court, and then it serves up additional information in the app: scores around the league, NCAA news and other sports highlights. It’s a great use of a second-screen app, to identify down periods and capture a viewer’s shifting attention.
And “ConnecTV Madness Squares” is real-time game that corresponds with the broadcast. In a blind pool, users are assigned five squares on a ten by ten grid filled with “magic numbers.” Viewers win points for having the right numbers that correspond with the first digit of the score at each given period. The points are totaled up on a game-by-game basis.
“ConnecTV is a lightning rod for March Madness fans that offers an unparalleled second screen sports experience to energize the final TV match-ups in NCAA basketball,” said Ian Aaron, ConnecTV Co-Founder. “With our notable partners, like STATS, and comprehensive platform capabilities, viewsers can watch, talk smack with friends and classmates and share the most exciting Madness Moments.” (Yes, he said “viewsers,” which is a term we made up on Lost Remote in 2001!)
It’s great to see so much experimentation and innovation in the synchronized second-screen space. As we’ve predicted before, the second screen is beginning to create a new industry of synchronized content and community producers. And it’s just getting started.