TV viewers – especially younger ones – can barely watch without using their smartphones to comment on and share  what they see on screen. Orange TV Clipping helps them do it. The tool has just won the 2016 Innovation in Content award…

“For Millennials, watching TV without a smartphone is the same as watching it without audio.” So says Emanuele De Leonardis, innovation director of data and analytics at Orange.

He was describing the context for the development TV Clipping, a ‘second screen’ tool developed by Orange (along with French start-up, Wildmoka and technical provider Dotscreen), which has won the 2016 Innovation in Content Meffy.

TV Clipping is a tool that lets TV fans share their favourite items of content with friends in real-time. Viewers simply open the Orange TV app, select the show and click to share the scene. They can then select which social networks to share across. The hashtags are already pre-populated by the app.

Of course, there are many other options for fans of second screening. But they all have drawbacks. Some require the user to film the TV through their phone camera, or they only support sharing to one channel. TV Clipping is designed to be instant, friction-free and cross-network.

Orange says its the first telco operator to deliver this kind of multi-screen experience. It believes the offering benefits from Orange’s neutrality. It’s not trying to push any particular broadcasters, show or social network.

The company says more than 6.6 million French Orange TV households can access the service in November, and that the goal is to expand TV Clipping over Orange’s European Footprint (more than 8.2 million households).