Quiz app HQ Trivia is setting the pace for interactive broadcasting
https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/home/is-tvs-future-in-your-hands/5129490.article
Last autumn, the team behind Twitter’s six-second video
app Vine launched what is arguably the world’s most successful new
gameshow.
HQ Trivia is a free-to-enter, live playalong show, accessed
via a mobile app. It attracts audiences of up to 2 million, mostly in the US,
for its twice-daily broadcasts. A UK version launched in January and has built
an audience of around 200,000.
On the face of it, HQ Trivia is an old-fashioned pub quiz
dressed up in familiar TV quiz show trappings. It’s a rapid-fi re,
presenter-led knockout competition, with 12 multiple-choice questions of
increasing difficulty.
Users select their answer within a 10-second time limit
(preventing Google searching), and correct responders progress to the next
round.
“TV producers might feel the format is lo-fi, crude and
lacking in innovation, but it has been executed in a very impressive way. HQ
Trivia is setting the pace for scheduled live interaction,” says Tom McDonnell,
chief executive of Monterosa, the company that helped the BBC devise one of the
first live TV and digital programmes, Test The Nation, in 2002.
App integration
Mobile companion apps connected to TV programmes are nothing
new. “But in many cases, they are not integrated into the show format from the
start,” says Rob DeFranco, vice-president of sales and development at
interactive producer The Future Group (TFG).
Lost In Time, which TFG co-produced with
Fremantle Media, featured a mobile connected app that allowed viewers to
play against TV competitors in real-time.
Gamification is a proven mechanism for generating loyalty
and recurring behaviours from viewers, and HQ Trivia developer
Intermedia Labs has latched onto a formula that is attracting admirers.
“Indies, broadcasters and app developers are all thinking
about how they can pivot ideas towards HQ’s brand of appointment-to-view
programming,” says Tom Young, executive producer at Somethin’ Else, a
London-based indie that has developed online audiences for ITV’s I’m A
Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, Saturday Night Takeaway and The Voice
UK.
Indeed, Intermedia Labs co-founder Rus Yusupov has
publicly declared an ambition “to essentially build the future of TV”.
Many concur with him. An article in the New Statesman argued
that HQ Trivia rather than Netflix signals the future of television
because viewers want to be participants, not mere spectators.
“HQ Trivia is certainly the future of broadcast,” says Peter
Maag, executive vice-president of video streaming software developer Haivision.
“The combination of synchronisation and acceptable latency delivery at scale is
amazing at driving engagement through interactivity.”
HQ pushes reminders out to players to ‘tune in’ to the next
broadcast, which creates a sense of anticipation around the live event. “It’s
dictating the lifestyle habits of its users in a way that TV and radio station
schedulers can only dream of,” says Young.
A ‘Friends on HQ’ feature lets users search for and connect
with friends and family, the first of several enhancements coming to the app
aimed at cementing the appointment to view.
“There is a compelling social element in which players can
see and play against friends and other competitors in the same space,” says
Tom Williams, chief executive and founder of digital production designer
Ostmodern.
“The boundary between viewer and gameshow has been broken
down. The viewer is intimate with the live event. In a way, they become
the star.”
It’s also exciting to realise that hundreds of thousands of
people have been knocked out while you are still in the running.
“Seeing thousands of chat messages stream past underneath
the live video provides a sense of occasion that is more immersive than a TV
show can offer,” says McDonnell.
The show’s 15-minute duration is also important. “There are
lots of examples of indies trying to create short episodic drama, but
stickiness has been low,” says Williams. “HQ Trivia has no narrative arc,
meaning viewers can just drop in.” Young admires HQ Trivia’s hyperactive
running order.
“The gameplay zips by with punchy formulaic links that its
audience know inside out,” he says. “Only the countdown seems to last longer
than 10-15 seconds. It’s content that’s purpose built for a short attention
span.”
HQ’s main draw is the carrot of winning cash prizes from a
typical pot of around £15,000 shared between sometimes hundreds of winners.
According to a Strategy Analytics survey, viewers like the
ability to win prizes and receive discounts, and are least interested in
posting photos and videos related to the show on social networks like
Instagram.
Funded by venture capital, HQ’s makers are hunting sponsors.
Nike and Warner Bros have advertised on the app, the latter promoting
movie Rampage by drafting in actor Dwayne Johnson as host and upping
the cash giveaway to $300,000 (£220,000).
Betting companies like Betfair would be a logical fit for
longer-term sponsorship, suggests Strategy Analytics analyst Brice
Longnos.
“The prizes and rewards earned must be tangible and feasible
to obtain, relevant to the user’s interests and comparable with the amount of
time and effort being put into using the app,” he adds.
Provided HQ Trivia keeps audiences loyal, the potential for
monetisation is evident. As a result, one valuation puts Intermedia Labs at
around $100m (£75m).
It is the wider potential for interactivity with video that
causes most excitement. “Visually, it feels incredibly personal – talking
directly to its users, framed perfectly as vertical video,” says Young.
“This approach is certain to influence the future of live
mobile streaming. Talent auditions, news broadcasts and online shopping formats
seem a logical evolution, but how about live music or stand-up comedy gigs,
delivered directly to you daily at a regular time?”
McDonnell ponders: “What if iPlayer, BBC3, ITV Hub or
even Netflix began to introduce playalong concepts? Talkshows or news
programmes could be made more engaging by involving audiences, and a new
generation of talent shows could run rapid-fire audition knockouts at lunchtime
every day.”
The growth of eSports and interactive platform gaming among
10-35s should also spur producers into action. “Traditional broadcasters and
producers need to borrow and incorporate these strategies in their formats to
stay relevant and increase revenue streams,” says TFG’s DeFranco.
Live-streaming over mobile networks is critical to HQ
Trivia’s success and the technology behind it should not be underestimated. The
app has experienced glitches and struggled to cope with peaks in demand.
“We’re working on making the service more reliable as
we scale to meet demand,” HQ Trivia tweeted to players in November.
Monterosa, which created the playalong companion for Channel
4’s Million Pound Drop, the interactive app for Love Island and a Doctor
Who mobile trivia game for the BBC, is offering broadcasters a pre-built
solution.
Launched at Mip TV, Gameshow Live is a customisable
live-to-mobile gaming platform supporting features such as trivia, polls and
leaderboards, a push notification system and fast video latency. “It is in
production with a small number of clients,” says McDonnell.
He says the big challenge for HQ will be competition. Like
Farmville or Pokemon Go, the game may go viral but have a limited shelf
life.
“Perhaps we need to look at apps like these as periodic:
you’re going to get a year out of the idea, and that’s just how life is now,”
says McDonnell.
Live synchronisation
Synchronising with live broadcasts is a wider issue.
“Cross-platform formats increase the complexity compared to standalones,” says
DeFranco.
“There are different platforms, different time constraints
and different form factors to consider. The necessary co-ordination is now
happening prior to the show being produced and developed, rather than being an
afterthought.”
Some believe further advances in streaming technology will
ultimately make massive multi-user live interaction to mobile as
straightforward as today’s broadcast.
“We are seeing requests for all types of genres,” says
DeFranco. “The formula will become commonplace in the next three years.”
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