经济学人下载:看电视 分开的屏幕

Business
商业报道

Watching television
看电视

Cracking the screens
分开的屏幕

Media bosses hope mobile devices will help, rather than hurt, television
媒体老板希望移动设备能够帮助而不是伤害电视业

IN THE television business, as at buffets, people crave seconds.
电视业务，就像自助餐，人们渴望快捷。

A series is deemed a success if it is renewed for another season.
如果能一个赛季续约就被认为是一系列的成功。

The industry is currently obsessed with the second screen—mobile phones and tablets that people play with while they watch TV.
该行业目前无法摆脱于第二屏幕-他们在看电视时玩手机和平板电脑。

Around three-quarters of American internet users regularly fiddle with a mobile device while watching the gogglebox.
大约四分之三的美国互联网用户经常边玩手机边看电视。

Media executives are abuzz working out how to turn this distraction into profitable transactions.
媒体高管们正在讨论如何将这种分心转成有利可图的交易。

Twitter, a social-media firm which published its filing on October 3rd for an initial public offering, has big ambitions for little screens.
Twitter，一个在10月3日提交其首次公开募股的社交媒体公司，其在小屏幕上有很大的野心。

It trumpets its role as a complement to TV, pointing out that Americans sent 24m tweets during this year's Super Bowl and that 45% of the TV ads during the event invited viewers to tweet about them.
它鼓吹其对电视的补充作用，并指出美国人在今年的超级碗发出两千四百万微博和45％的电视广告在活动期间邀请观众发关于他们的微博。

The firm has launched Twitter Amplify, a service that lets media firms and others tweet clips of shows or sporting events.
该公司已经推出了增强的Twitter，一个让媒体公司和其他企业的微博关注节目或体育赛事的服务。

These carry sponsorship messages from advertisers and make money for both the TV company and Twitter.
这些可以从广告公司带来赞助消息并为电视公司和Twitter赚钱。

Old-fashioned TV companies see the opportunity too, and insist the second screen will not hurt their first, and primary, source of advertising revenue.
传统的电视公司也发现了这个机遇,坚持认为第二屏幕不会伤害他们首要的和初级的广告收入来源。

Viewers who are multitasking with other devices tend to tune in for longer, because they are commenting on the shows online or interacting with extra content through the networks' apps.
携有其他设备的多任务观众往往收听时间更长,因为他们会在线发表评论或通过应用软件交流其他的内容。

A survey by Bravo, an American network owned by Comcast, found that viewers using mobile phones were also more likely to sit through adverts.
美国网络康卡斯特旗下的布拉沃的一项调查发现观众使用手机更有可能把广告看完。

TV executives predict it will become more common to sync TV and mobile ads, so marketing messages are reinforced across the two screens.
电视高管预测电视和移动广告同步将变得更加普遍,所以营销信息在两个屏幕之间得到加强。

On October 7th, Nielsen, a firm whose ratings determine how much TV networks get paid for ads, launched a new product that analyses how many people comment about shows on Twitter.
10月7日，评级决定电视网络收取多少广告费的尼尔森公司推出一款新产品, 分析有多少人在推特上评论节目。

Sporting events and talent shows present the greatest opportunity, because they attract passionate fans who like to chatter online.
体育赛事和选秀节目提供了最大的机会,因为他们可以吸引热情的球迷在线交流。

Some shows, such as The X Factor, encourage voting, and others feature social-media comments on live TV.
一些节目,比如X因子鼓励投票和其他社交媒体评论电视直播功能。

There are now as many start-ups vying to profit from the second screen as there are Real Housewives.
现在有许多新公司从第二屏幕争夺利润，因为有真正的家庭主妇。

A daft name, like Zeebox or Viggle, is mandatory.
一定要取一个像Zeebox或Viggle的愚蠢名字。

But with more screens, advertising may become confusing.
但是屏幕再多广告可能会变得混乱。

Firms will start to advertise on mobiles while viewers watch a TV ad for a rival product, predicts Charles Muirhead of Rightster, an online-video platform.
公司Muirhead Rightster在一个在线视频平台预测观众看电视上竞争对手的广告时公司将开始在手机上做广告。

And media firms must be careful not to besiege viewers with too many ads and novel features.
媒体公司必须小心不要用太多广告和新颖特点烦扰观众。

There's a fine line between providing consumers with information they want and annoying them, says Alan Wurtzel, president of research at NBCUniversal, a media firm.
媒体公司nbc环球的总裁艾伦说提供的是观众想要的信息还是厌烦的信息是有一条明显的界限的。

The second screen is unlikely to be as lucrative as many hope.
第二个屏幕并不是像希望的那样有利可图。

For one, its impact will be limited to certain shows.
其一, 其影响将被限制在特定的节目。

Second-screen applications work best when people watch live TV, says Jonathan Reynaga of Tiny Horse, a digital-media firm.
一个叫Tiny Horse的数字媒体公司的Jonathan Reynaga 说第二屏幕在人们观看直播电视时应用最好。

But more people are watching shows on demand.
但是更多的人正在看节目点播。

No one is sure whether the money spent on advertising will grow thanks to the second screen, or simply come out of marketers' overall TV budgets.
没有人能说清楚花在广告上的钱的增长得益于第二屏幕或简单地来自营销人员的整体电视预算。

At a recent gathering of TV executives in Cannes, Dan Rose, who oversees partnerships for Facebook, gave a slick presentation about his firm's ambitions for making money from TV.
最近在戛纳举办的一次电视行业高管的聚会上,丹罗斯负责为Facebook寻找合作伙伴,他做了一次漂亮的演示表达了他们公司从电视赚钱的野心。

He did not discuss whether the advertising pie would shrink for TV companies.
他没有讨论电视广告是否将会缩水。

The audience must have found themselves wondering.
观众必须发现自己想。

He left the stage without taking questions.
他离开了舞台但没有回答问题。