Beck Announces Innovative Second Screen Technology That Will Allow Viewers to 'Experiment With the Show Itself

TheBlaze TV

How often do you sit in front of the TV with your phone or tablet in hand? Given the propensity of people to multitask while they're watching a show -- nearly 50 percent of people do it -- "second screen technology" has slowly been emerging and it's coming to TheBlaze TV.

As Glenn Beck put it in his announcement of the new tech on his show Tuesday evening, viewers will be able to watch the show normally on one screen and on another can "experiment with the show itself."

"This isn't just where you can pick from the shots, pick from the cameras," Beck said. "I want you to be more than the cameraman."

"It will allow you to watch the show as if you were in the studio."

With the tech you would be able to poke around TheBlaze TV studios instead of just watching Beck himself. If you needed to learn more about what is being discussed on the show, you could pause, find out more and could even pull up, say, a list of related books or other videos.

"This gives you control of the news and information," he said. Beck explains:

But that's not even as cool as it gets. Beck went on in the show to talk about "the brain," a concept he has worked on for the last five years. It's an application of the technology, an "edit bay," that will let you save and share things that you liked from shows on TheBlaze TV.

If there's a specific segment you wanted to share, you would simply use second screen to make a clip of the content you wanted and save it into "the brain." From there you would be able to share it on various social media sites or via email.

Relatively speaking, second screen technology is so far limited in its use, but industry experts expect it to boom. The sporting industry has readily adopted it. Here's more on how it will be used in the coming year in that capacity from Active8Social:

Stadiums around the world are frantically ramping up Wi-Fi bandwidth and implementing equipment to display relevant social media. This will encourage fans to interact with other fans online while at the game. For example, Sporting Kansas City’s stadium offers over 200 Wi-Fi hot spots and a 550 square feet HD video board that fans can interact with through Twitter. Fans can also download the Sporting Explore app to view in-game content, play trivia, or “check-in” to earn credits that can be used towards in-stadium and online purchases.

CBS recently released its second screen Connect app to engage its audiences based on the show they're watching, and last year Comcast and NBC invested in the Zeebox app which would allow for similar engagement as well.

It's clear why the sports and television industries are picking up on second screen apps. A study by Neilson found that 45 percent of Americans use a smartphone or tablet while they're also watching TV. Although at this time most people are just checking email, usage trends are shifting. Some use it to engage with content on the TV or to look up information related to the show or a commercial. Adoption of second screen technology will only make these actions easier.

When would second screen technology become active for TheBlaze TV? Beck said on the show sometime within the next 12 months.