One of TV’s biggest events airs this weekend, and many viewers — 13.3% of them last year — will be multitasking on their laptops, phones and tablets while they watch the Academy Awards. To capture their attention on the “second screen,” a handful of media companies are launching companion experiences.
ABC and the Academy Awards will offer live streaming, a live “My Oscar Picks” prediction game and live tweets on Oscar.com. But for the first time, they’re also offering a $4.99 premium “all access” experience with additional live streams and a “360 cam” that allows users to select and pan multiple cameras. Paying members will also get a chance to watch a live stream at the Governors Ball.
You can also get a similar experience on iPad and iPhone apps called the Oscars Backstage Pass (iTunes), from live cameras on the Red Carpet…
… to a bunch of cameras in Kodak Theater. The apps cost an affordable $.99.
People.com will roll out an online game called “Red Carpet Trivia Live” that will encourage viewers to test their Hollywood knowledge by answering trivia questions in sync with the broadcast. Players can enter to win a $10,000 prize, and it’s all sponsored by Sprint.
“Within 24 hours of the Golden Globes this year, PEOPLE.com attracted nearly 75 million page views,” said Mark Golin, editor of PEOPLE Digital, in a press release. “We expect even more for the Oscars – essentially the Super Bowl of our industry – especially with this new real-time companion experience.”
Of course, the most common second screen experience for many will be Twitter. ABC and the Oscars are asking fans to submit their suggested Red Carpet questions via Twitter with the strange double hashtag #ask #oscars, or on the Academy’s Facebook Wall. Similarly, Jen Chaney, a Celebritology blogger on Washington Post, is crowdsourcing her Red Carpet questions with the more understandable hashtag #oscarspotting. And MTV is doing the same, but requiring you include @mtvnews with the hashtag #oscars.
And if that’s not enough, you can follow James Franco, who just joined Twitter in time for the Oscars (he’s presenting and nominated). Franco is tweeting random stuff like this Photoshopped pic of him smothered in kittens. Ok, then.