Social television

Social television is the union of television and social media. Millions of people now share their TV experience with other viewers on social media such as Twitter and Facebook using smartphones and tablets.[1] TV networks and rights holders are increasingly sharing video clips on social platforms to monetise engagement and drive tune-in.

The social TV market covers the technologies that support communication and social interaction around TV as well as companies that study television-related social behavior and measure social media activities tied to specific TV broadcasts[2] – many of which have attracted significant investment from established media and technology companies. The market is also seeing numerous tie-ups between broadcasters and social networking players such as Twitter and Facebook. The market is expected to be worth $256bn by 2017.[3]

Social TV was named one of the 10 most important emerging technologies by the MIT Technology Review on Social TV[4] in 2010. And in 2011, David Rowan, the editor of Wired magazine,[5] named Social TV at number three of six in his peek into 2011 and what tech trends to expect to get traction. Ynon Kreiz, CEO of the Endemol Group told the audience at the Digital Life Design (DLD) conference in January 2011: "Everyone says that social television will be big. I think it's not going to be big—it's going to be huge".[6]

Much of the investment in the earlier years of social TV went into standalone social TV apps. The industry believed these apps would provide an appealing and complimentary consumer experience which could then be monetized with ads. These apps featured TV listings, check-ins, stickers and synchronised second-screen content but struggled to attract users away from Twitter and Facebook.[7] Most of these companies have since gone out of business or been acquired amid a wave of consolidation[8] and the market has instead focused on the activities of the social media channels themselves – such as Twitter Amplify, Facebook Suggested Videos and Snapchat Discover – and the technologies that support them.

  1. ^ Dumenco, Simon (April 13, 2012). "Believe The Hype? Four Things Social TV Can Actually Do". Ad Age. Retrieved May 24, 2014.
  2. ^ "Watchlist Predicts Fall TV Show Success". Mashable.
  3. ^ Lomas, Natasha (October 12, 2012). "Report: Social TV Market To Be Worth $256.44BN By 2017; Europe Taking Largest Share Now". TechCrunch. Retrieved May 24, 2014.
  4. ^ "MIT Technology Review on Social TV".
  5. ^ "David Rowan, the Editor of Wired magazine". Wired UK. 2011-01-11.
  6. ^ "Ynon Kreiz, CEO of the Endemol Group told a packed crowd". Archived from the original on 2011-01-30.
  7. ^ Roettgers, Janko (January 29, 2014). "Let's face it: social TV is dead". Gigaom. Archived from the original on February 16, 2023. Retrieved May 24, 2014.
  8. ^ Roettgers, Janko (April 14, 2014). "Amid social TV consolidation, Zeebox rebrands as Beamly". Gigaom. Archived from the original on February 16, 2023. Retrieved May 24, 2014.