Mandalay Sports Media To Produce Second-Screen Content For Samsung Devices

This is part of Samsung‘s effort to help its gadgets stand out from the consumer electronics pack. By early 2015, owners of the company’s smart TVs, tablets and smartphones who watch certain TV shows will be able to access so-called second screen content produced by Mandalay Sports Media. The deal is interesting, Mandalay CEO Rich Battista tells me, because they’ll work the second screen material in from the start. “Usually it’s sort of an afterthought,” he says. No word yet on the number of shows in the deal, what networks they may be on, or the financial terms. But the companies are looking at multiple scripted and unscripted programs. In one that “lends itself to a bit of mythology” Mandalay may introduce a character and then immediately offer Samsung device owners his or her or its back story. The company also is looking at providing character information for “scripted content in the sports realm.” The interactivity should help generate revenues: The companies are exploring different models involving ads and e-commerce, and there “could be other revenue balls,” Battista says. While it’s relatively easy to connect second screens with live programming, the partners are “still working through” options for linking devices for time shifted shows. Mandalay’s eager to expand in new media. Microsoft’s Xbox Entertainment Studios greenlit Mandalay’s unscripted series about street soccer: Every Street United.

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