Even ‘Doctor Who’ can’t time-shift social media
Time zones are a challenge for social TV. Friends watching the show in a time zone ahead of you are yacking in real-time on social media, which can quickly turn into spoilers. Conversations become fragmented, weakening the show’s social punch. The British TV show Doctor Who had a different twist on the problem. Episodes were [...]
Lots of social media for Royal Wedding, no breakthroughs
Updated: Despite being the largest single video streaming event in history, it didn’t break the internet. The royal wedding of Prince WIlliam and Catherine Middleton was every bit a social media affair, but the web seemed largely prepared. It probably didn’t hurt that it happened in the early hours of the morning in the U.S., [...]
Xbox play! Kinect-enabled Hulu Plus arrives
My family watches a lot of Netflix on Xbox, and we were pleasantly surprised to wake up this morning to see Hulu Plus ready to go. After a quick download, we were watching TV shows in HD via our Xbox, yelling “Xbox play!” and “Xbox pause!” at our Kinect sensor to play and pause the [...]
Social media and the royal wedding online
We’ll be getting up early in the morning Friday (or, should Cory choose, staying up late at night) to find all the great social media happening surrounding the royal wedding. In the meantime, there are a number of resources you can check out. It’s hard to know where to begin, but here are some of [...]
Facebook hosts its first journalism meetup
Facebook held its first journalism meetup last night where it demonstrated several tips and ideas for using the social network as a newsgathering, sourcing and distribution tool. “The average news organization has seen an increase of referral traffic from Facebook of 300 percent since the beginning of 2010,” said Facebook’s Justin Osofsky, who kicked off [...]
ABC 33/40 shines as tornado hits Tuscaloosa
A couple weeks ago, we wrote about the incredible work of ABC 33/40 meteorologist James Spann, both on-air on in social media. Yesterday, as a tornado tore through Tuscaloosa, Spann and fellow meteorologist Jason Simpson were watched live around the country. (Here’s the most dramatic moment.) Just like before — but multiplied several times — [...]
Without newscast, TV station posts videos on Facebook
Last night, technical difficulties prevented Tallahassee TV station WCTV from airing its 11 p.m. newscast. The newsroom kept the updates flowing on WCTV.tv, Facebook and Twitter, and it also posted a few videos of anchor Lee Gordon reading stories from the newscast. The videos — which appeared to be shot from a phone — appeared [...]
NBC’s The Voice pulls out all the stops on Twitter
NBC’s The Voice premiered Tuesday night, and it quickly topped Twitter’s trending topics. It doesn’t hurt that all four judges on the show (@BlakeShelton @AdamLevine @CeeLoGreen @TheRealXtina) have Twitter accounts topping 100,000 each. And along with host Carson Daly (@carsonjdaly), each of them tweeted during the East Coast airing. Those tweets appeared on air, interspersed [...]
Tweet briefs: Couric, YouTube, Countdown, Facebook
Latest industry tidbits from @lostremote on Twitter: – Katie Couric announces she’s leaving CBS, won’t say what’s next – Couric is leaning toward a deal with ABC, reports TV Guide – Report: YouTube to announce partnerships with studios on movie VOD service – Olbermann’s upcoming show on Current will be called… Countdown – Facebook rolls [...]
New TBD.com, WJLA.com launch in DC
Back in February, Allbritton announced a restructuring and downsizing of TBD.com from an around-the-clock news site to a more entertainment-focused site. At the same time, WJLA-TV News Director Bill Lord announced that WJLA.com, which was redirected to TBD.com, would return as a news site. Two local sites, two complementary strategies. Today, the new TBD.com and [...]
Celeb predicts TV stars will be required to tweet
Survivor’s Jeff Probst has been live-tweeting while his reality show airs on CBS, and he’s enjoying it. “It’s kind of extraordinary,” he says of connecting with people around the world on Twitter from his living room. Survivor is one of a small, but growing number of pre-recorded shows that feature the host live-tweeting during the [...]
Tweet briefs: Netflix, Netflix and more Netflix
It’s a Netflix edition of tweets from @lostremote over the last 24 hours: – Netflix now boasts more subs than any other video service in the U.S. – For the first time, Netflix’s DVD business declined. Are DVDs dying? – Netflix says it’s interested in buying more original TV shows Want Lost Remote stories in [...]
Should sites add Facebook’s new ‘Send’ button?
Sure, your site has like buttons, tweet buttons, email buttons… and now there’s a new button from Facebook called the “Send” button. In essence, it lets you send a story via a Facebook message to the friend(s) of your choice. Here’s a screen grab of it in action: “We designed the Send button to be [...]
Yahoo scoops up social TV company IntoNow
That was fast. IntoNow launched a TV check-in app in January, and today Yahoo acquired the company for anywhere from $13 to $30 million, depending on which report you believe. As we’ve been reporting, IntoNow is the first check-in app that listens to your TV set and identifies the show you’re watching. By “tagging” shows [...]
Storify launches social curation tool for journalists
After several months in private beta, Storify officially launches today. The site allows anyone to build and embed their own storyline of tweets, YouTube clips, Flickr photos and other social media elements. If you’ve ever tried to do this by hand, you can appreciate the ease and simplicity of Storify. “We have so many real-time [...]
NBA offers second-screen iPad app for playoffs
With the NBA playoffs in full swing, I downloaded the NBA Game Time iPad app for a test run. The free second-screen app (iTunes) was updated earlier this month. For NBA junkies, the app is a must for real-time stats while watching TV. It shows who’s on the court at any given time, shooting percentages, [...]
KMOV puts Facebook to work covering airport tornado
When a tornado tore through St. Louis’ airport and leveled a neighborhood Saturday night, KMOV-TV and KMOV.com went wall-to-wall with live coverage. At the same time, the station’s Facebook page kicked into high gear. KMOV posted frequent updates (more frequently than Twitter) as viewers submitted damage reports and questions, sometimes several per minute. Poised at [...]
Anchor embraces Facebook fans… after her departure
One of the sure-fire ways for some on-air talent to embrace social media is to find themselves on the open market, looking for a job. That was the case with Conan O’Brien, Keith Olbermann and Charlie Sheen. And now it appears to be the case with Suzanne Geha, a popular anchor from WOOD-TV in Grand [...]
Twitter hashtags appearing on Fox shows
It looks like Twitter hashtags, which have been popping up as social experiments, are going mainstream on TV shows. Fox displayed a small #Bones hashtag on this week’s episode of Bones (see it?), as well as recent episodes of Glee, Fringe and Breaking In. “We’ve noticed shows like Glee and Idol trend while the show [...]
Twitter users like their TV sites, finds Nielsen
If anyone doubts the booming business of TV, Nielsen published a snapshot of the 2010-11 season today. First off, TV viewing is up again — the average American watched 34 hours and 39 minutes in the fourth quarter of last year, a gain of two minutes. And ad spending is up, too. Overall TV spending [...]
