On the afternoon of Saturday February 12th, HBO2 aired Howard Stern’s autobiographical film “Private Parts”. Ordinarily, people wouldn’t be running to their televisions to tune into a 14-year-old movie that is fairly commonly aired, however this time was different. Stern, who had just started a Twitter account of his own a couple of weeks prior, began to live-tweet along with the film and gave viewers a unique inside perspective that had never been available before.
The television industry is starting to take notice of the fact that viewers have begun communicating with friends via social media applications while programs are being broadcast, and are looking for more of the type of interactive experience that Stern provided his fans. Network executives and producers intend to leverage this new form of digital communication to help keep people interesting in their programming.
“We know people are multitasking while they’re watching TV,” said Albert Cheng, executive vice president of digital media for the Disney/ABC Television Group. “The question is, how do we tap into that and create a whole different consumer experience?”
A recent study by Deloitte showed that nearly half of American consumers between the ages of 14 and 75 browse online while watching television, and a quarter either instant message or text their contacts during shows. Analysts say that this behavior will only increase along with the number of tablets and smartphones in consumer’s homes.
One thing that Cheng’s staff has tried to drive viewership this season is releasing iPad apps specific to some of the network’s shows. The Grey’s Anatomy app, for example, gives viewers new polls and trivia to accompany each new episode.
“We don’t have all the answers,” Cheng adds, “but we are definitely trying different things and seeing how people are reacting.”
Jeff Probst, host of the CBS reality series “Survivor” joined fans on Twitter to discuss this season’s premier episode as he was making a cross-country flight. It went so well that he is planning to continue the live-tweeting throughout the show’s season. “In a sense, you are in the living room, watching together,” Probst says of social media TV-viewing concept.
Social networks are also a hotbed of communication about live events. Twitter made history during this year’s Super Bowl with users sending 4,064 messages each second, and the Grammy Awards had its highest ratings in a decade thanks to social media buzz.
I rarely watch television any more without a tablet or smartphone in hand to at least give me something more interesting than commercials to watch during breaks. It’s good that industry executives are beginning to see that this is becoming a standard among viewers. Now we just need to get them to allow their programming to appear on Internet-streaming TV-devices.
