Page 30 - The Channel Issue 2 2010

ocial media is here to stay. Media consumption of Facebook, Twitter and Youtube can be measured in hours rather than minutes a day. People under 30 are spending more time sharing content using social media and 59% of Americans surf the Internet and watch TV simultaneously. Brands follow the buzz and have started to flock to emerging convergent formats such as Social TV. The UK’s total 2010 online media budgets are already bigger than those for TV. So it’s perfectly understandable that broadcasters and production companies are looking for ways to combine social media and TV to win back the budgets they are losing. In the words of Erik Huggers, BBC director of

Future Media & Technology, Social media has become “…part of the fabric of everyday life. The question is how we, as a broadcaster, work with these services and come up with compelling propositions that make using both even better.”

MAKING TV…MORE SOCIAL

This may come as a surprise but TV is not becoming social – because TV already is social and always has been. Yes, we’ve moved away from the TV as being ‘the electronic hearth’ – a collective centralised event for the family. TV sets are now peppering the average house – 66% of US

What is social TV, and where are we now in the development curve? What does it mean for the business models of the current industry and what challenges lie ahead? In a series of articles, Richard Kastelein, Founder of Appmarket.tv and Dick Rempt, CEO of Talents Media explore the emerging Social TV phenomenon from different angles. This first article offers a general introduction to the concepts and technologies out there, the forces driving further development, and the challenges ahead to making the TV experience more social

THE VIRTUALWATERCOOLER?

SOCIAL TV

households have three or more TVs with 250+ channels that make TV a more individual experience. But despite this fragmentation of consumption, there’s still no other mass medium that matches TV as a social experience. Think about the football World Cup, Super Bowl, Britain’s got Talent…TV has always been social as it draws people together around experiences they want to share.

But there’s a lot more coming and social media will add considerably to the social experience of TV. It’s the virtual water cooler, but with instant gratification using social media tactics in the broadcast television industry.

More than 50% of people under 30 regularly watch TV while interacting with a web-connected device. More are sharing their experiences around the TV content

"Social TV is not just about people being social; it's also about devices and even networks being social."

Marie-Jose Montpetit, Invited Scientist at MIT for Social TV

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30 | ISSUE 2 2010 | THE CHANNEL

The TV appmarket will be worth over £1bn by 2013 with the availability of over 1bn TV apps down-loaded by 2015

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