As TV becomes increasingly social, social overkill is a growing concern.  Audiences who DVR their programs may find ‘live’ incorporation of social feeds a stale and potentially irksome feature. Furthermore, industry insider Tom Cunniff, raises a simple yet very important question: what about people who turn on the TV to tune out? He is referring to the ‘lean back’ audience who wouldn’t want to ‘lean forward’ even if served with the opportunity.  They don’t want to make more work for themselves – they simply want entertainment.

Perhaps we should consider the fact that every show on television is not equally suited for Social TV. Certain genres, and perhaps specific shows among genres, may be equipped for social in different ways. Some shows might find success in incorporating on air social integration while others would benefit from providing that additional content via the second screen. Still other programs might do well to leave audiences in control, inviting their off-color remarks and unsanctioned opinions to grow a more organic community. Such a community could fill creative holes a network or producer has overlooked, and might do so in ways that wouldn’t be appropriate for the latter parties to attempt.

In sum, there is no blanket Social TV formula that can be applied across all shows on air. The way forward is to identify what aspects of social are best suited to the program even before it is put into production, thereby allowing the social features to be baked in at a deeper level.  That is what ‘Extra’ host, Maria Menounos, Al Jazeera and Channel4 (to name the few cited below) are doing. Even brands, such as Ford, are setting social as an initial target.

While the new playground of Social TV has invited many a newcomer, there has been talk that second screens market will begin to consolidate. This week TVGuide, acquired Fav.tv in a move that would suggest this process is underway. Still expansion seems to be happening at a greater rate, just look at TvTak, IBubblr, Wayin and Fanatix (below) which have all jumped into the news recently.

All of this and much more is covered in the articles of this week’s Social TV round-up… Continue reading →

Social TV detractors claim that a barrage of secondary content and social features can be distracting and even intimidating to the average television viewer.  Despite the fact that this information influx is most likely a non-issue for the TV junkie who has deliberately opted-in to such services, the worry caused by data overload is legitimate.  Reconciling these concerns, by figuring out the right ratio of TV to social and supplemental content, will certainly solve a great number of problems in the growing industry.  Fortunately, this is exactly where many companies are focusing their resources.

Some critics have asserted that second screens move viewers further out of range for advertisers; I believe this is a fallacy. There is always the opportunity to generically screen sync ads – but if the notion of creating transmedia experiences intimidates rather than excites the agency, well then, we should really be having another discussion.  All this is to say nothing of the personal data a second screen has the potential to capture!

But for every cynic there are a dozen supporters. TVGuide has just published the latest bit of empirical data, which suggests social media is driving engagement and fueling retention when it comes to TV. A separate survey conducted by ANA/Forrester found media budgets are increasingly diverting dollars to TV and Digital ad buying.

Also promising, Netflix, a service once known only for movies, is now thriving off its TV offerings.  Meanwhile, movie studios are adapting their “bonus content” to second screen format in hopes of bolstering DVD and Blueray sales.

Finally check out some of the exciting new plays in the social TV space from folks like Discovery, NASCAR, Umami, MTV, Audible Magic and RUWT.

All that and more to follow in this week’s Social TV recap… Continue reading →

Television “networks” fail when they divide the viewing community via Lance T Peterson
“CBS executives, or whomever made the decision not to broadcast [the Grammy’s] live, failed to understand a few things” about social media, viewers and “the now communal nature of their product”.

NBC Universal’s New Olympics Challenge: Screen-Jumping via Ad Age
“NBCU has enlisted Google and ComScore to analyze what is known in the industry as ‘single source’ consumption, or individual, unduplicated viewership patterns, across video shown via TV, mobile devices, personal computers and tablets…Advertisers absolutely want to begin to reach consumers across all these platforms, and we need, as an industry, to understand how these consumers are behaving said Alan Wurtzel, president-research and media development for NBC Universal) … ‘It’s almost like the old metrics don’t apply anymore,’ said Mr. Wurtzel. ‘If you want to see the future, you have to invent it.’ ” Continue reading →