EXCLUSIVE: The ABC will continue its role as Australia's broadcast innovator with the launch of its second screen 'companion app' on 20 March. The corporation is also putting mobile and tablets as its number one priority.
The ABC will initially test the app on the forthcoming comedy quiz show Tractor Monkeys. “We're trialling it to see if it is the way to go,” Mark Dando, head of online and mobile, told AdNews. The ABC's Innovation unit would benchmark it against other third party applications “conducting separate trials with stuff like Zeebox so we can decide what suits,” he said.
The only definition of success cited by Dando was gathering “good information about the way Australians interact with content.” Historically, the corporation's learning has filtered down to commercial networks, which have to be more risk averse, often at the expense of innovation.
The ABC has also refurbished its flaghip apps to enable people to see all related corporation content in one place, and will push the button later this month. Yesterday it relaunched the ABC home page after user research placed news as a priority for visitors. Some 70% of current homepage views are news related, said the corporation.
Dando said that research suggested people wanted a news-focussed site with a simple, intuitive interface that was easy to use on tablets and on mobile phones.
The ABC was “reorganising [itself] to be mobile and tablet first” he said.
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