An app for all seasons
The broadcast market is undergoing significant change under the impulse of new competition from pure OTT players and the introduction of new standards such as ATSC 3.0. To stay ahead of the game TelevisaUnivision, the leading Spanish-language media and content company in the U.S., wanted to develop an app to enable personalization of viewer experience over both broadband connected and linear TV. Fincons Group stepped in to help them develop a revolutionary app that was so successful it won the 2021 NAB “Product of the Year” award.
The Broadcast App (BA) leverages ATSC 3.0 technology and innovative integrations to provide viewers with dynamic content both via Broadband (OTT) and Broadcast (OTA) connection.
The app is self-consistent and works on a TV browser without the need for a broadband connection, providing extended navigation to TVs that are connected to the internet.
Additional content for Over The Air and Over The Top viewers
Perfectly interpreting the spirit of integration between OTT and OTA functionalities, the new app enables unprecedented functions for OTA TV, such as the delivery of additional information regarding news anchors in the “Meet the local news team” navigation node, access to QR coded additional content and dynamic local weather forecast.
For OTT viewers, the app provides even more additional content such as access to on-demand local news clips. The weather section specifically enables two levels of navigation depending on the TV connection: either a single picture of the day’s weather for OTA viewing, or an animated GIF of radar weather maps for OTT viewing. The dual application for both broadband-connected and broadcast TV, supported by the new ATSC 3.0 standard, is revolutionary for the industry and ushers in a complete reimagining of viewer experience.
New Hybrid standard to the rescue: ATSC 3.0
From a technology perspective, this app is one of the first to leverage the ATSC 3.0 standard to deliver enhanced viewing experiences to both connected and unconnected TVs.
Use of hybrid delivery via ATSC 3.0 APIs enables viewers to access additional information such as hyper-local news or weather forecasts when they want a more in-depth insight, regardless of their connection to the internet.
Content is available both OTA and OTT thanks to datacasting technology, although broadband viewers have a wider range of content choices available to them, such as VOD news clip highlights and animated weather GIFs.
Fincons Group integrated, personalized and configured the standard Framework application provided by A3FA, a Pearl Consortium Company, making this a one-of-a-kind tool on the US market at this time.
Changing skins
The app not only provides dual viewing experience but delivers additional branding support. In fact, the app can be deployed across multiple channels with new branding elements via new skinning. Currently two branded skins are being deployed for some of the network’s main channels, TelevisaUnivision and UniMás.
Dynamic editorial control for content editors
Regardless of the TV connection or skin, the app provides user-friendly editorial control so that content can easily be managed dynamically from the backend CMS system. Content editors can add nodes, navigation pages and content for both broadband and broadcast users without the need for third party intervention or additional integrations.
From a geo-location perspective, the personalization potential of the solution is limitless as content packages sent via OTA can be tailored to hyper-local market level, tailoring content to the specific urban area covered, for example, by an antenna.
Introducing QR codes
Another tool editors have available to them are redirects to webpages via QR codes. The QR codes are visualized on screen in-app and, by redirecting to sites on different devices, enable multi-device viewing and browsing experiences. This capability lays the groundwork for additional advertising and e-commerce avenues as viewers are able to discover more about specific products and buy them directly on their smartphones or tablet computers while they watch their shows for example.
Alternative sound
Another key feature is that the app enables multi-language navigation and alternative sound. As around 70% of the network’s viewers are native Spanish speakers, being able to offer menus and navigation as well as editorial content in Spanish means increasing loyalty in this key viewer demographic.
Market positioning thanks to the broadcast app
The decision to provide viewers with additional personalization, choice and content is underpinned by the strategic objective to continue to build loyalty and retention among key viewer demographics. In addition to this, the content provided helps drive greater loyalty and stickiness in local and hyper-local markets and opens up the business to new advertising revenue opportunities.