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TECHNOLOGY

23 March 2011 Last updated at 02:49 GMT

Tweeting with the telly on

The days of families reverentially gathered around the box may be long gone

but the doom-mongers who said that on-demand would kill linear TV

completely may also be somewhat off the mark.

A new generation of viewers is watching what has been dubbed social TV - a

synthesis between TV and social networking.

A recent study from marketing agency Digital Clarity found that 80% of under-25s

used a second screen to communicate with friends while watching TV and 72%

used Twitter, Facebook or a mobile app to comment on shows.

Currently it is little more sophisticated than watching TV with one eye on Twitter or

Facebook, but that is beginning to change as TV executives start to experiment with

greater social networking integration.

In New Zealand, TVNZ has just launched a new youth channel which sees

Facebook heavily integrated to create an interactive entertainment and music show.

The backbone of the schedule is U live, a show that features chat and commentary

By Jane WakefieldTechnology reporter

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driven by a Facebook app. It includes profile pictures, comments and polling activity

which automatically become part of the programme.

Holy grail

Last month the US channel HBO ran the Howard Stern movie Private Parts with

Stern himself commenting live on Twitter throughout the broadcast.

Twitter bosses are excited about the possibilities of deeper integration with TV,

although they are still in the process of figuring out how they will make money from

it.

Speaking at Mobile World Congress, Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo claimed

that the search for the TV industry's holy grail - a second screen - was over.

"That second screen is Twitter," he said.

The hope is that the conversations started on Twitter can be carried on, and even

shaped by TV executives, although how far this will alienate tweeters is open to

debate.

According to a Nielsen mobile study, more than 85% of mobile and PC users access

the web while watching TV.

But only 24% were looking at content related to the TV programme, while others

used it to text family and friends (56%), visit social networks (40%) and browse

unrelated content (37%).

Robin Sloan, from Twitter's media partnership team, thinks there is definitely an

appetite among the Twitterati for more integration.

He told BBC News that the service saw huge spikes in traffic when certain shows

were on - soap operas, live sporting events and reality shows.

"It's remarkable because the Twitter conversation will be going along a few tweets

here and there and as soon as a new episode premieres or the Oscars start or a

game kicks off, the tweets per minute skyrocket and we see it multiply 10, 20, 50

times and it stays like this until the show ends.

"People like to talk about this stuff as it is happening, which is sort of counter-


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intuitive because a lot of folks are talking about time shifting and everything being

on-demand," he said.

So what is the next stage for Twitter on TV?

Promoted tweets"At this stage they [TV executives] are primarily using Twitter to engage their

existing audience and give them something to talk about. Our goal is to get Twitter

integrated into TV shows," said Robin Sloan.

"It means that people think about Twitter as a source of really, really great content

and frankly it means that Twitter gets in front of a really big audience."

Promoted tweets, which allow businesses to pay to have their Twitter commentselevated, are one of the main current revenue sources for the firm.

News networks, such as the Washington Post and Al Jazeera were already using

promoted tweets to tell people about their news contents and live streams, said Mr

Sloan.

There is an obvious correlation between them and Twitter, which has increasingly

becoming a tool for breaking news.

"When you walk into a newsroom these days, every other monitor has a Twitter feed

on it," said Mr Sloan.

Although, when it comes to finding ways to integrate it into broadcast, it can be a

different proposition.

"It means they have to get new kinds of technology to put tweets up on air in real

time. We tell some networks they have to do this and they say 'our broadcast

graphics were invented in 1963 - we can't do that right now', while others are totally

ready to go," he said.

Product placement

Integrating Twitter with TV dramas is proving more problematic.

"With scripted drama, people talk about them on Twitter but not quite in the same

way.


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"If you are the producer of one of those big shows - let's say CSI or NCIS - and you

come to us and say, how should I integrate Twitter into my show? That's actually

something we are still trying to figure out," said Mr Sloan.

"This is all still really new and we don't know exactly how Twitter works best or what

the right tools are, but we are always looking for partners willing to experiment," he

said.

Not everyone is convinced that acting as a second screen will be a huge cash cow

for Twitter.

"There is not a huge opportunity for Twitter to monetise this," said Jonathan Doran,

a principal analyst at Ovum.

"Social TV is being described as one of the next big things, but in reality people are

struggling to know what they would do with it. There are limited amounts of

interacting with content. We haven't seen much blending of TV content into social

media," he said.

But savvy advertising executives are already beginning to see the possibilities,

according to Reggie James, managing director of Digital Clarity.

"There will be more social platforms from advertisers allowing users to carry on

enjoying and talking about their favourite TV programmes. The old-fashioned

models of advertising will be replaced by things like more product placement," he

said.

And while social TV might be heralding a modernisation of advertising, it could also

be keeping the home fires burning for the TV industry.

"Social TV is a modern version of the old days of gathering round the TV to watch a

variety show on a Saturday night," said Mr James.

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