For several days leading up to this weeks two-episode season finale of American Idol, the show’s website encouraged fans to RSVP to the show on Facebook:
As of this afternoon, 25,000 people RSVP’d for the event, some inviting their friends to attend, as well. It’s not the first TV show-as-event: NBC created a Facebook event last month for the Royal Wedding and gained over 7,000 RSVPs. Certainly not big numbers compared to the millions of viewers who watched, but it illustrates a unique use of Facebook with TV shows — and Facebook wants to see more.
Two months ago, Facebook added a new feature that lets users “check into” events via the Facebook mobile apps. For example, I checked into the American Idol event with my iPhone above, which triggered this wall post below:
In a speech last month, Facebook’s Christian Hernandez Gallardo illustrated that there’s potential for TV organizations to take advantage of it. “Think about having a time and place around every single episode of a series,” he said. “I RSVP so I state my intent that I’m going to go watch it, which gives you some demographic insight into who’s actually going to be consuming it. And secondly, when I’m watching it, I state that to my friends by checking in.”
Gallardo says Facebook has spoken with a couple of broadcasters about the idea of “putting their full EPG (electronic programming guide) as events on Facebook and the ability to RSVP and check-in to all of them.” So viewers can invite their friends, get reminded, and then alert their friends when their watching — and that data can flow back to broadcasters to learn more about their audiences.
Of course, the data would flow across the Facebook platform, as well, which puts the social network in an even better position to power social programming guides. “Where we wanna go with television is creating a social experience,” Gallardo said. “The thing I’m dying to make social is the EPG.”
