Second Screen

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What Does Second Screen Mean?

A second screen is a second electronic device used by television viewers to connect to a program they’re watching. A second screen is often a smartphone or tablet, where a special complementary app may allow the viewer to interact with a television program in a different way – the tablet or smartphone becomes a TV companion device. The second screen phenomenon represents an attempt to make TV more interactive for viewers, and help promote social buzz around specific programs.

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A second screen is also known as a companion device.

Techopedia Explains Second Screen

The use of second screens or companion devices or applications is something that many are talking about in today’s broadcasting industry, where new display options, such as tablets and smartphones, are revolutionizing the way businesses think about digital media.

A second screen allows for viewer interaction. For example, some of these secondary displays could enable real-time chat about visual broadcasts, such as news or current event broadcasts. Second screens also can help shape how businesses reach customers, and how consumers use state-of-the-art technologies in an increasingly digital world.

The use of second-screen broadcasts also coexists with the emergence of portable data delivery through cloud-based software systems, along with other ways of getting content over wireless platforms directly to a customer’s device.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist
Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.