Own the Second Screen: Why Broadcasters Must Bring Fan Engagement Home

Summary

• The Problem: Broadcasters face a critical challenge where audience attention and valuable data leak to third-party apps during live events, eroding the ROI on expensive sports rights.
• The Solution: By integrating interactive fan engagement games like predictors and trivia directly into their own platforms, broadcasters can reclaim engagement, turning passive viewers into active participants.
• The Impact: This strategy unlocks new sponsor revenue, provides a goldmine of first-party fan data, and directly boosts viewership by creating a sticky, year-round digital ecosystem.

The Stakes Have Never Been Higher

As a global broadcaster, you operate in a high-stakes environment. You spend enormous sums to secure premium sports rights, knowing they are one of the last bastions of live, appointment viewing. Yet, two silent risks are actively eroding the return on those nine-figure investments: first, that fans don’t show up in sufficient numbers, and second, that even when they do, their attention and data immediately flow to third-party platforms.

This is the modern reality of sports viewership. During a live match, your broadcast may be on the main screen, but the real action is often happening on the second. Viewers are multitasking on social media, debating in WhatsApp groups, and checking fantasy scores on other apps. Every glance down at their phone represents lost watch-time, a weaker ad yield, and a critical gap in understanding who your audience truly is.

The moment to passively accept this fragmentation is over. It’s time to own the second screen—to host the interaction, the energy, and the conversation inside your own digital ecosystem. When you do, you protect ad revenue, cultivate a rich asset of first-party data, and create new sponsor value you can price with confidence.