The Social TV report from media analysts Futurescape features interviews from figures across the media and technology industries and puts forward an argument that as our TVs make the transition to being online devices, social media will provide both a huge opportunity, and a big challenge to broadcast networks.

The “Social EPG”

Online TV services like Google TV, Project Canvas and Yahoo Widgets will allow social media to “enter the TV value chain”, offering social recommendations for viewing directly on your TV screen. As Robin Sloan of Twitter’s media partnership team notes in an interview for the report:

“At some point in the past, people used a printed-out TV guide to decide what to watch and find it on their TVs. Now, most people use the EPG built into their cable boxes. But increasingly, people are also using Twitter. Think of it as a kind of live, living, breathing social EPG. You see which shows your friends are talking about, and you see which shows the whole world is talking about – all in real-time. Increasingly, we think that kind of behavior is going to drive ratings in a significant way.”

Imagine seeing viewing recommendations from your Facebook friends displayed directly on your TV screen, or having the option to watch the currently most-discussed TV show on Twitter, simply by selecting it from its on-screen hashtag. These are very real possibilities.

Social ads come to your TV

By integrating with our TV viewing, Twitter and Facebook have a real opportunity to grab a significant slice of the reported $180bn global TV ad spend.

The report notes that “Connected TVs will enable Facebook to launch socially targeted advertising on the TV set itself. Twitter’s forthcoming (sic) Promoted Tweets have similar potential”.

Social networks have a huge advantage over traditional TV advertisers. They’re sitting on top of a goldmine of realtime, social information that allows them to display just the right ad at just the right time for it to have maximum impact on the audience. Everyone’s talking about weddings after two soap characters decide to get engaged? That could be just the right time to appeal to viewers’ emotional side with romantically themed ads, for example.

Of course, that data could be a real asset for traditional advertisers too. The report notes that Twitter and Facebook “have the ability to provide social graph data to the TV industry, either free or in paid-for services.”

Facebook and Twitter aren’t the only ones with a chance to make a big splash in the Internet-conected TV world. Google is making a big play in the sector via its Google TV service as well as offering TV advertising itself.

Many other players will undoubtedly emerge, but Futurescape’s report shows how the mass appeal of social media services like Twitter and Facebook gives them an advantage. They’ll be all over every TV platform out there, from Google TV to Project Canvas and beyond. That ubiquity, combined with the valuable social data they hold puts social services like Twitter and Facebook in a very strong position indeed.

Source: http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2010/07/08/how-twitter-and-facebook-could-dominate-the-tv-advertising-world/

Image: http://www.dantynan.com/2009/05/27/twitter-tv-a-sign-of-the-coming-apocalypse/

Kidscotv.tv has been designed to boost engagement with children, who can now play a range of games on the site, which features characters Sonic the Hedgehog, Dino Squad and Boo & Me.

They can also upload photos, drawings and jokes and share them with other KidsCo fans.

Paul Robinson, MD of KidsCo, said, “Today’s children are going digital earlier, with the majority already having access to the internet at home. As a channel, we set out to distinguish ourselves in the TV market and have redesigned the website to extend our family-friendly, educational entertainment online. We’ve created an interactive community which offers exciting and fun activities and programming for 6-10-year-olds that complements the channel and provides them with a fun and safe online community.”

KidsCo worked with TV and digital content provider Prism Entertainment to develop the site.

Source: New Media Age

News brought to you by Bearing Partnership, specialists in Digital Recruitment

http://www.nma.co.uk/news/kidsco-launches-online-streaming-and-community/3014022.article

The research company’s ‘Media Migration’ poll sampled the views of 828 adults online, of whom 55 per cent aged 18-24 years old watch television in this way compared with only 12 per cent of over 55s.

Of those respondents who view TV online, only 9 per cent are watching less now compared to a year ago while six times as many people (54 per cent) are watching more TV online.

The survey reveals that growth in this area of media among the younger generations is highly likely with 36 per cent of 18-24s and 30 per cent of 25-34s saying they expect to watch more television via the internet in future.

James Kennedy, research executive in YouGov’s media consulting team, said: “The music world was revolutionised with the introduction of downloading sites such as Napster and consumers switching from going out and purchasing CDs to downloading free (illegal) music to their computers. This transformation could now be shifting to the world of television.”

The public also seem to be unsure as to the law regarding online, TV according to the results.

When online TV viewers were asked whether it was a legal requirement to possess a TV licence to watch programmes online, 54 per cent said yes, 31 per cent said no, with a further 15 per cent unsure. In reality, you only need a TV licence to watch live TV on your computer.

Where the public go first for breaking news and current events is also shifting – 56 per cent of 18-24s go online to follow a breaking news story, of whom 43 per cent go to an online news site and 13 per cent to a newspaper website.

In contrast, for over 55s the primary resource was television, encompassing 70 per cent of this age group.

Source: Brand Republic

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http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/1003518/Online-TV-weekly-habit-majority-young-adults/

The new channel, to be found at Lastminute.com/tv, will feature a mixture of ad campaign material and dedicated content. The site is being developed by digital content specialists Adjust Your Set, which has created similar websites for M&S and Thomas Pink.

The move is part of a wider strategy by lastminute.com UK and Ireland marketing director Mark Fells to develop the brand into a one-stop shop for consumers planning their free time.

As well as streaming lastminute.com’s current TV ad campaign, by incumbent ad agency Karmarama, the site is showing a viral video featuring Louis Spence, the star of Sky One documentary series ‘Pineapple Dance Studios’.

The humorous viral, which promoted lastminute.com’s theatre ticket offering, shows Louis traversing London in search of ‘the perfect lift’.

Source: Brand Republic

News brought to you by Bearing Partnership, specialists in Digital Recruitment

http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/1002272/Lastminutecom-launches-online-TV-channel/

Lygo joins as managing director of ITV Studios and will work with Peter Fincham, director of television, channels and online. Lee Bartlett, formerly managing director of ITV Studios, will continue to oversee ITV Studio’s international interests.
 
Crozier, chief executive of ITV, said: “A clear outcome of the ongoing strategy review is the importance of our in-house production arm to the future of ITV’s business.

“Kevin’s appointment underlines our commitment to ensuring home-grown content stays at the heart of our business and our focus on attracting the very best creative talent, both on and off-screen, to ITV.”

When ITV announced its results in March, chairman Archie Norman dismissed speculation that ITV could sell its production arm . He said “content is central to our future”, although he indicated a restructure of its ITV Studios business was likely.

Fincham said: “Working closely with ITV Studios is a high priority for the [ITV] network, as we seek to ensure that we secure the best possible programmes, and talent, for all our channels.  Kevin is uniquely placed to make a real difference to those key objectives.”

Lygo has three decades of broadcasting experience and has held senior content roles at the BBC, Channel 4 and Five. As director of television and content at Channel 4, he has responsibility for all Channel 4 Group’s portfolio of channels.

Channel 4’s acting chief executive, Anne Bulford, called him a “popular and admited colleague” and wished him “every success in his new role”.

She added: “He’s been an outstanding creative leader; commissioning and inspiring many of our most iconic, successful and acclaimed programmes during a period of critical and commercial success.

“He hides his passion for Channel 4 behind a light-hearted manner, but no-one has been more seriously committed to our cause in the last few years.”

Lygo and former Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan are understood to have had a fractured relationship. Lygo lost out on replacing Duncan as chief executive, when former UKTV chief executive David Abraham was appointed in January.

Yesterday, Abraham, who starts at Channel 4 on Tuesday (4 May), addressed Channel 4’s 700 staff members and indicated that he intended to address the fault lines that were perceived between the commercial and programming divisions under Duncan’s tenure.

Abraham said: “The CEO is not the director of programmes, but that doesn’t mean he or she is just the commercial or strategy director either. More than this, only if the CEO is fully engaged as much with supporting content creation as with revenue generation, can the organisation be said to be fully joined up.”

Abraham also signalled he would not compromise Channel 4’s independence in the search for a reinvented revenue model. He said: “I have no intention, and I know Terry [Burns, Channel 4 chairman] and the board has no intention, of pursuing any partnerships in which the independence of Channel 4 is compromised.”

He added: “That would be like cutting out your heart to grow a new limb. It’s not going to happen, not on my watch.”

Source: Media Week

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http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/1000347/Kevin-Lygo-leave-Channel-4-lead-ITV-Studios/

The Sky Player service allows both Sky satellite customers and dedicated Sky Player TV subscribers to access a range of live channels and video-on-demand services through the internet.

From this summer, Sky customers will be able to watch the Sky Player through Humax’s Freeview HD and HD digital TV recorder boxes, as well as the set-top box manufacturers from Fetch TV and 3View. IP-enabled TV manufacturer Cello will also offer Sky Player.

The announcement follows a speech yesterday (14 April) by BSkyB chief executive Jeremy Darroch at the MIP TV 2010 conference, where he said new distribution channels were an “opportunity” for “value creators” such as Sky.

The chief executive said BSkyB’s adoption of new distribution channels was about “ensuring that customers can access Sky content on their terms, and that Sky is extracting full value from the £1.7 billion it spends each year”.

BSkyB first announced in March that it was set to launch its online TV service Sky Player across a range of new internet-connected TVs and set-top boxes.

Source: MediaWeek

News brought to you by Bearing Partnership, specialists in Digital Recruitment

http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/996913/BSkyB-expands-reach-Sky-Player/

The broadcaster is positioning ITV.com as the hub for all digital activity, with an overhaul of its Britain’s Got Talent site allowing fans to interact with the judges as well as each other in more depth.

However, ITV still refuses to sign any full-length content or ad revenue-sharing deals with YouTube, despite missing out on a potential windfall following the millions of views Susan Boyle received on the platform last year

New activity includes an iPhone app, while ITV.com/talent will allow fans to interact with each other and people at the shows in real time.

Kate Bradshaw, deputy MD and head of online commissioning at ITV, said, “We’ll have people at the shows providing live updates on Twitter and Facebook. Currently we have some 327,000 Facebook fans, and we’re expecting this figure to rocket.”

Ben Ayers, social media manager at ITV, said, “We learned a lot of lessons from The X Factor last year. The live chat application will be ramped up, something we haven’t done before for Britain’s Got Talent.”

ITV is hosting an official channel on YouTube for the show, but will show only clips and direct users to ITV.com for full-length content.

Industry observers believe ITV’s resistance to revenue deals with YouTube is sensible. Nigel Walley, head of digital media consultancy Decipher, said, “It makes all its money from TV. It’s policing YouTube as it wants to earn money from ITV.com.”

Ian Maude, analyst at Enders, said, “ITV can afford to experiment. The risks of diminishing its brand and losing control of its ad revenue more than outweigh the revenues it would gain from YouTube.”

Source: New Media Age

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http://www.nma.co.uk/news/itv-builds-interaction-for-britain’s-got-talent-around-own-website/3012207.article

The independent production company is also creating a digital media board, chaired by Endemol chief operating officer Lucas Church, and David Flynn, MD of Remarkable Television.

The board will look after all of Endemol UK’s digital media activities including original digital productions and multi-platform brand extensions.

Tim Hincks, CEO of Endemol UK, said, “In order to build on the significant digital success we’ve had under Peter in the UK, it’s essential our digital business takes its rightful place at the creative and commercial heart of the company rather than being run as a separate division. The digital media board achieves this by bringing together our brightest creative minds with the most experienced business and digital media executives in the company.”

Endemol UK’s forthcoming digital projects include Channel 4’s The Million Pound Drop, which will use social networks to give viewers the chance to play live for a million pounds. 

Source: New Media Age

News brought to you by Bearing Partnership, specialists in Digital Recruitment

http://www.nma.co.uk/news/peter-cowley-leaves-endemol-uk/3011866.article

The positions will be on an interim basis while the proposed on-demand TV service from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, Arqiva, BT and ISP TalkTalk awaits the go-ahead from the BBC Trust.

Rose joins from the BBC where he was future media controller of the vision and online media group. Previously he was head of digital media technology, responsible for delivering the BBC iPlayer and creating a unified embedded media experience across the Corporation’s online properties. He joined the BBC from music download service Kazaa/Altnet where he was chief technology officer.

Hunt joins from Freeview where he’s director of marketing and communications. He was previously marketing director of Project Kangaroo and has been MD of creative ad agency St Luke’s.

Project Canvas director Richard Halton said, “It’s great to welcome two such experienced individuals to the project. They both bring key skills and expertise in their fields that allow us to begin the next phase of Project Canvas as we await the outcome of the regulatory process.”

Project Canvas has been criticised by Virgin Media and BSkyB, which are concerned it will distort fair competition in the video-on-demand market

Source: New Media Age

News brought to you by Bearing Partnership, specialists in Digital Recruitment

http://www.nma.co.uk/news/project-canvas-appoints-technology-and-marketing-heads/3011696.article