In 2012 more people bought smart TVs than ever before, and the projections indicate that the number of new smart TVs people will buy in 2013 will only increase. What does that mean for us as video creators for the people who watch our videos via the HDTV YouTube app? I thing there are at 7 implications for how we craft our video content for YouTube and how we develop our audiences who are watching on a big screen HDTV.
1. We can’t rely on annotations. We have to physically show things on the screen and talk about it.
2. Interaction will be much more difficult because it takes much more effort for a viewer to engage with a video beyond viewing it. The exception is if they’ve paired a mobile device to the TV. Our call-to-actions have to be much more enticing than before. They now need to cause someone to pick up a computer and manually go do what you asked them to do.
3. Sharing is almost impossible right now. Unfortunately, that’s outside our control. In the future hopefully smart TV apps will include social sharing.
4. People may be watching your content passively. It may be turning the “lean-in” experience into a “lean-back” experience.
5. We may see longer audience retention scores because they either played the video on the TV and are only passively it, or they actually watch more of it because there’s less distractions enticing them to click alway. That’s why mobile devices have a higher audience retention rate than desktop computers. It might be true for the TV, too.
6. Recording in 1080p with clear audio is becoming more important.
7. We can’t refer people to links and info in the description text nearly as easily. They can get to it within a smart TV app, but links won’t be clickable or anything.
QUESTION: How do you see smart TVs influencing how we craft our videos and interact with our audience?