co-internet experiences, including movies, music and even shopping. Last, but not least, TwoSeven incorporates video chat and supports a wide array of services. To spell it out: the watch party isn’t going away. In fact, it’s becoming an essential part of the audience experience. Its use right now may be intermittent or spotty, but the facility to easily share the watching experience is going to be an essential feature of on-demand content going forward. LAUNCHING YOUR WATCH PARTY FEATURE There are a growing number of services that can be incorporated into existing content platforms to create watch party options. VOD aggregator ScreenHits TV has added co-watching features to its platform, using technology from Sceenic, offering a Watch Together white label solution that works across multiple VOD, streaming and linear channels. ScreenHits lets users access all their OTT and VOD subscriptions in one interface, along with live linear channels. The company recently launched an app for desktop, tablet and smart TV, offering packages for a wealth of VOD subscription services at a discount. The USP for aggregators (like ScreenHits) is that they allow search and discovery through a single portal, rather than having to switch
between, and individually search, multiple services. “There are a lot of companies out there trying to be a content aggregator, but they’ve built that off the idea of a traditional OTT platform,” says founder and CEO of ScreenHits, Rose Adkins Hulse. “When you’re dealing with millions of hours of content, tying it to a traditional OTT format overwhelms the consumer. Our share functionality allows people to share videos across all their different services and see what’s trending across them all.” The pandemic was the final push ScreenHits needed to bring the Sceenic watch party platform on board. “I was an American living in the UK, and I really missed things like watching the Super Bowl with my dad. I thought how great it would be to have my dad in the room with me,” recalls Adkins Hulse. “There are some technologies
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