The Rise of Social TV

by David Tvrdon

It has been more than hundred years since television was founded. It has gone through many stages of evolution, been up and down, but somehow always managed to ride in the forefront of media communication. Even in the age of internet and online communication, television manages to be the highest grossing medium among all. According to Darwin's evolution theory, this would be called adaptation. And that is correct. Once again we stand before a huge change in television industry that is already happening before our eyes. TV is going social. With the emergence of social media, widespread internet connections, online TV services and increase of illegal downloading, many have predicted the fall of television. Or at least a slow, but sure end to an era. Well, an era has ended, but there is no doubt now that television will play a great part in it. However, the change did not happen overnight, therefore let us take a quick overview what lead to current changes.

A long journey to social television

In 1970s the American Time Warner Cable Inc. was the first to experiment with television. Time Warner came up with an interactive hardware and software system1 which they called Qube. It was a computer terminal connected to a television controlled remotely with a remote control. Audiences could vote for their shows, play games or change channels remotely, which was not common at the time. The remote control had many buttons and people could also switch to different channels by category. 2 If you wanted special pay-per-view content, you could have bought a key and literally unlock the paid channels by inserting the key into the remote control. In 1981 Zenith Electronics Corporation, the American brand of consumer electronics, introduced the Space phone3, a hands free speakerphone built into the TV set. This allowed the viewer speak to people while watching TV. Similarly as Qube, Space phone was not a success either. In 2000 we have seen the emergence of thin clients, computers or computer programs dependent on a server. Different thin clients had various computational roles. With AOL TV you could browse the Internet, read emails or chat with friends while watching TV. MSN TV just used TV as a screen for computer. In 2006 ABC.com was the first network website to offer fulllength episodes online for free. Soon others followed (CBS, Fox). Not only could the viewers watch a show whenever they wanted, also they could chat with others while watching. Therefore social interactions in one place made this idea unique. In 2009 TV.com introduced synchronous chatting services, where people watching the same show could talk to each other. With the rise of social media, synchronous chatting services became less relevant, but still, they laid the groundwork for the next generation social TV. In 2012, according to The New York Times, Alan Wurtzel, president of research and
1 Warner Cable's Qube (1978) The Videocassette & CATV newsletter. Available at: http://www.qube-tv.com/qubetv/QUBE-REPORT.pdf (accessed 16 June 2013). 2 Freed K (2000) When Cable Went Qubist. Media Visions Journal. Available at: http://www.media-visions.com/itvqube.html (accessed 16 June 2013). 3 Digital space phone system (1982) FPO IP Research & Communities. Available at: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4465902.html (accessed 16 June 2013).

media development at NBCUniversal, said that we will see the the first social Olympics4. And it became true. Many of the breaking news happened on Twitter. Actually, social media became the forum, the debate ground, the chat room, where everything was being discussed. In 2013 we see the emergence of smart televisions. 5 The simple biggest difference of nowadays social television (comparing to TV.com's chatting services) is that it does not create its own chatting environment. Quite the opposite. It implements the existing social media environment and makes it user friendly and easy to use in combination with watching TV.

What is happening to social TV at the moment

In his book, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, Henry Jenkins explains what it is convergence: By convergence, I mean the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries, and the migratory behavior of media audiences who would go almost anywhere in search of the kinds of entertainment experiences they wanted.6 When speaking of social TV, we have to realise, we usually refer to the use of social media platforms to enrich the experience of consuming a TV program and to possibly extend his audience.7 This means we take the convergence spread across time and space and make it happen at the same moment. People watch their shows and discuss them in real time, as if sitting in the same room, watching the same TV. Deb Roy, associate professor of media arts and sciences at MIT, gave recently a presentation at The Bazaarvoice Summit8 called The Emergence of Social TV. 9 He told a story of him and his wife watching the presidential candidates debate between Romney and Obama. Roy checked his Twitter feed for comments and explanations from friends. This helped him better understand the candidates, he could immediately see what are people thinking (tweeting) and this experience shaped not only his, but also his wife's perspective of what they were watching. Social TV can be a huge transmedia experience when used wisely, but you need a proper audience for it (one that has social media access and proper mobile tools). In the past few days, there has been a political shakedown in Czech republic. The news broke out on Thursday 13th June in the morning when media reported that police started one of the biggest actions in history by entering governmental offices and arresting politicians. There has been live coverage for the whole day. In the evening, when still without official statement by the police regarding the action, I met with friends in a restaurant for dinner. We could not watch the TV, so we took out our cell phones and started
4 Chozick A (2012) NBC Unpacks Trove of Data From Olympics. The New York Times, 25 September. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/business/media/nbc-unpacks-trove-of-viewer-data-from-londonolympics.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1& (accessed 16 June 2013). 5 Dewey C (2013) Samsung, Panasonic take on social TV at CES. The Washington Post, 9 January. Available at:http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/samsung-panasonic-take-on-social-tv-atces/2013/01/08/039efad8-59e3-11e2-beee-6e38f5215402_story.html (accessed 16 June 2013). 6 Jenkins H (2006) Introduction. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: NYU Press, p.2. 7 What is Social TV definition? (2013) The Digital Marketing Glossary. Available at: http://digitalmarketingglossary.com/What-is-Social-TV-definition (accessed 16 June 2013). 8 Agenda (2013) Bazaarvoice Summit. Available at: http://summit.bazaarvoice.com/us/agenda/ (accessed 16 June 2013). 9 Bazzarvoice (2013) The Emergence of Social TV. Summit 2013, video, YouTube, 26 March, viewed 15 June 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5OCyNciIOU>

checking Facebook and Twitter for news. Most of the serious news came from mainstream media, especially the Czech state television tweets were the most informative. Early during the case the Czech TV started using special hashtags, which later on became the most trending hashtags of the day. This way we could follow the news by TV on Twitter. Also, Czech TV managed to update their YouTube stream and posted videos of interviews and statements by state officials. Even though me and my friends have not watched TV live, we knew what was going on there, because the reach of the broadcasting was augmented by social media. So, the total engaged audience was much bigger than just the viewers. This would not be possible if the TV did not take part in the social media conversation.

Social TV trends
When Comedy Central, an American cable and satellite television channel, on 15 th March 2011 aired its roast of Donald Trump with the hashtag #TrumpRoast, the cable network saw its highest-rated Tuesday night ever10. Comedy Central placed the hashtag at the bottom of the screen and waited what will happen. That night the #TrumpRoast hashtag was used more than 27,000 times11. It was the first time, hashtag was used in TV. In his speech12 Deb Roy addressed this issue as the social soundtrack of TV. According to him social media is part of the TV as soundtrack is to movies. One can not be imagined without the other. As I mentioned what happen during the recent crisis in Czech republic, the same thing has been happening everywhere and Roy calls it social amplification of the TV. Obviously, the trend has started in the US and for example in middle Europe we only see TV media engaging on social media via their accounts. In the US, when you turn on the television and there is a TV show on, you can see the hashtag at the bottom of the screen. Of course, people would tweet and post on Facebook also without the hashtag, but the conversation would be much more fragmented. By showing a hashtag, as a universal sign to join the conversation, TV networks embrace social TV. Another example of using social media in TV is American Idol TV show aired on Fox. Audiences take part in the outcome of the show by voting via Twitter, every now and then the host reads live tweets and not long ago Fox introduced instant Twitter polls where audiences can answer to yes or no questions by using special hashtags 13. The real time interaction is one of the reasons why it is better to watch the show live than to record it and watch later.

What the future holds

Almost all of the statistics regarding social TV stress Twitter as the lead social media. It is because of the use of hashtags. An easy way how to join the conversation. All you need is a Twitter account, you post a tweet, include the hashtag (which turns into a clickable link) and your tweet will appear to anyone who looks for the same hashtag. Facebook has been on the sidetrack of social TV because of no easy way to engage with
10 Slutsky I, Patel K (2011) Is Social Media Killing TV? Ad Age. Available at: http://adage.com/article/digital/socialmedia-killing-tv/227028/ (accessed 16 June 2013). 11 Kattan A (2011) Television Goes Social! Socialnomics. Available at: http://www.socialnomics.net/2011/06/13/television-goes-social/ (accessed 16 June 2013). 12 Bazzarvoice (2013) The Emergence of Social TV. Summit 2013, video, YouTube, 26 March, viewed 15 June 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5OCyNciIOU> 13 Stelter B (2013) Now on Idol, Viewers Can Tweet While Contestants Sing. The New York Times, 26 February. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/27/arts/television/american-idol-fans-can-now-tweet-theirviews.html?_r=1& (accessed 16 June 2013).

live broadcasting. This is changing by introducing hashtags to Facebook.14 Now, with Facebook and Twitter, the two biggest social media players, it is only the matter of time, when more TV networks will join the emergence of social TV. One of the reasons for not going for it was that in the particular country (for example Slovakia or Czech republic), Twitter is not widespread. On the contrary, Facebook users are a majority and it might work. With the rise of social TV, television networks step into a new era. One of the deciding factors will be also the rise of mobile devices in the particular country, be it a mobile phone, tablet or small notebook. Of course, the coverage of internet connection is another issue which can embrace or slow down the rise of social TV. Be that as it may, television networks should adapt to the change and use it to their advantage. For example, driving young people to watch live TV again.

14 Press Association (2013) Facebook to introduce clickable hashtags. The Guardian, 13 June. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jun/13/facebook-to-introduce-clickable-hashtags (accessed 16 June 2013).