Facebook makes case for social TV guides
Twitter isn’t the only social platform that loves TV — Facebook, too, is courting television programmers, marketers and distributors to embrace social TV. Facebook’s Andy Mitchell told a crowd at the TV marketing conference PromaxBDA today that social program guides are a growing opportunity. “If you look at the program guide [now], you’re trying to [...]
Detroit station taps #backchannel to make ‘good news’
Don’t just complain about sad news – do something about it! That’s what viewers of and staffers from WXYZ in Detroit did, using the power of social media in the community. Using the Twitter hashtag #backchannel and Facebook, a group of more than a hundred people gathered to help clean up Detroit. The group partnered [...]
‘Experimentation still rules’ with social viewing
A new report by eMarketer called “Socializing the TV Experience” looks at the usage and impact of Twitter and Facebook around live TV. For example, it cited this Harris study from last March that breaks down when people interact around TV shows: And when you break it down to 18-34 year olds, social TV participation [...]
Local TV iPhone app tops the iTunes charts
Here’s a first for local TV. Orlando’s WESH-TV has produced a 99 cent iPhone app that has topped the paid news app chart on the iTunes store. And they did it by focusing the app on a single story with a national following: the Casey Anthony trial. “I think it’s safe to say we never [...]
Twitter reactions to Myspace sale
With Myspace going at a fire sale price of $35 million, you can bet there is a lot of reaction online. Sean Percival (@percival), Myspace’s now-outgoing VP of Marketing, posted this candid Tweet: Michael Jones, the CEO of Myspace, tried to put a positive spin on things with this Tweet: Then there’s this observation from [...]
MySpace sells for $35M, what went wrong?
MySpace will go down in history as a classic MBA case study. How did the darling of social networking, bought by media giant News Corp. for $580 million in 2005, sell to ad network Specific Media for $35 million? Today’s deal, first reported by AllThingsD, will involve cutting MySpace’s 400 person staff in half. In [...]
The Voice steps up social media for final shows
NBC’s The Voice has been airing live episodes (East Coast) as it nears its season finale this Wednesday night, and the show is featuring a social media room to shine a spotlight on live Twitter reaction. Hosted by “social media guru” Alison Haislip — sporting a phone, then a tablet — the room features live [...]
TV meteorologist tweets after station knocked off-air
When a thunderstorm knocked CBS 11 in Dallas off the air during the 5 p.m. newscast, meteorologist Larry Mowry decided to try to tweet his forecast instead. We put together a Storify to chronicle the moment: [View the story "TV meteorologist tweets forecast when station knocked off air" on Storify]
Google takes on Facebook with new social media service
Google is introducing a new social media site, one that takes aim at privacy concerns about Facebook. The Google+ Project is in invitation mode only — and it’s not accepting any more for the moment — but a tour of the site provides a good overview. For starters, it provides a way to set up [...]
Why social TV will be a multi-billion dollar business
The former CEO of Endemol, the world’s largest independent production house, says social TV is “going to be huge.” The CEO of Hulu calls it a game-changer. And the research firm Futurescape says social TV has “radical implications for the future of television viewing.” Is it just hyperbole, or are real economics in play? There are three arenas where social TV is quickly gaining traction, and all three have the potential to become billion dollar businesses by themselves.
1. Interactive TV at last
Last April, Yahoo snapped up IntoNow for $20 to $30 million, just three months after the TV-listening app made its debut. By encouraging viewers to “tag” TV shows and commercials for rewards, IntoNow is beginning to bridge the last mile of television, bringing interactivity to TV commercials — a task that interactive TV companies have tried for a decade. This month the music-listening app Shazam landed a $32 million funding round to expand its push into TV to reward users for tagging commercials, and other startups, like WiO, are quickly pushing into the space.
TV check-in companies like GetGlue and Miso, for example, also have potential if they can move beyond the mobile check-in. “(The) check-in is just the starting point of a conversation about TV but it is not the be-all end-all,” says Miso CEO Somrat Niyogi, who recently opened an app store for Miso’s API. “We believe the social TV experience can exist everywhere.”
Xbox, too, is making strides at connecting viewers to commercials in innovative ways. Last week Xbox announced that will voice and motion interactivity to commercials — called NUads — for users with the Kinect attachment. “I’m here to say that it will change television as we know it — forever,” explains Mark Kroese, a GM at Microsoft. “I say this because NUads — specifically the Kinect voice and gesture technology that enables them — finally unties the Gordian knot of interactive television, and by extension, interactive advertising…”
Tweet briefs: Twitter guide, @ChuckTodd, TMZ, Hulu
Extra social TV stories from @lostremote on the Twitters: – Twitter rolls out a resource guide for newsrooms – “I think Twitter is made for TV,” explains NBC’s @ChuckTodd – An inside look at TMZ TV and TMZ.com (NY Times) – Will Hulu’s owners really sell? Perhaps not And you can also sign up for [...]
GetGlue sets TV show premiere record
Last night’s premiere of True Blood on HBO sparked 38,000 check-ins on GetGlue, a new record for a show premiere, the company said. Last season, the show premiere generated 3,000 check-ins. Sunday night’s check-ins resulted in a barrage of tweets (for many users a check-in automatically triggers a tweet) — as many as 15 to [...]
Local media fast-tracks tweets to BreakingNews
Where I work at BreakingNews.com and @breakingnews, our 24/7 team of editors scours the web for the first instance of a breaking story and eyewitness accounts at the scene. We then publish a link, with credit, back to the source. As you might imagine, it’s not always easy, especially when we’re following hundreds of news [...]
‘True Blood’ episode debuts on Xfinity, HBO Go
HBO’s hit show True Blood returns tonight (Sunday) with its season premiere, and moments after it airs, the second episode will debut on XfinityTV.com, the Xfinity iPad app and HBO Go a full week early. For Comcast’s Xfinity, it’s a way to drive awareness to its online and recently-launched tablet presence. For HBO, the HBO [...]
BET aims for ‘most social awards show ever’ Sunday
The 2011 BET Awards will kick off this Sunday night at 8 ET with multiple levels of social engagement. BET’s new director of social media, JP Lespinasse (formerly with the NBA), says the network’s “mission is to make this the most social awards show ever.” While most awards shows are going out of their way [...]
Yidio debuts social alerts for TV shows
As TV becomes increasingly non-linear, many viewers don’t know when a new episodes airs — or when it becomes available online. Enter the social TV guide Yidio, which has added a new feature that alerts you via Facebook, Twitter or email when new episodes of your favorite shows become available to watch online. “Just because [...]
Minot flood victims turn to KXMC TV’s Facebook page
If you’re a TV station in a town of 40,000 people, you’d expect to have a few thousand Facebook fans, at best. But KXMC-TV in Minot, North Dakota, has over 27,000 Facebook fans. And they’ve turned their Facebook page into a one-stop resource for the record flooding that’s inundating the town. As we’ve seen with [...]
Reddit users edit Hulu’s home page for a day
Chalk this up to smart social marketing. An editor at Hulu emailed Reddit, offering its users (called “redditors”) to edit the “featured content” section of the home page for a day by voting up their favorite clips. “We weren’t expecting much of a response out of it. We just like Reddit,” explains Ben Collins, assistant [...]
NBC still trying to shake social fallout from Pledge flap
NBC is still trying to shake off negative press dogging it after it cut out the “under God, indivisible” part of the Pledge Of Allegiance during a video package aired during its U.S. Open coverage Sunday. TBD.com notes that “the backlash on social media was quick and harsh,” and as of Thursday, NBC was still [...]
KOMO TV launches lifestyle site SeattlePulp.com
The media group Fisher Communications has launched a new lifestyle brand tied to its Seattle TV and radio operations. Aimed at the 18-49 demographic, SeattlePulp.com covers the “newest restaurants and bars, upcoming events, the latest in technology, gadgets and gaming, personal and career development and reviews of the ‘Best Of’ the city.” The site is [...]
