Tweeter, Facebook and Television

Networks rely on social networks to design contents.

TV executives explore a formula which will allow them to use Facebook and Tweeter to attract the attention of the younger audience to the screen. This past Oscar Awards ceremony was indeed an important laboratory in this sense. Facebook registered almost two million messages during the four hour broadcast, and Tweeter over one and half million. Hence, from the popular microblog is said that the Oscar’s show that the audience can be mobilized if the social networks integrate into the programming.
The aim of ABC Network was to recapture the younger audience and make friends of this mass of potential supporters. A parallel chat that is becoming more intense, is being exploited by talent shows as American Idol and Factor X. Not to mention the last Grammy presentations, registering its highest ratings in a decade.
Television’s future goes thru the Web, the discussion is not whether the Internet is a friendly or hostile, if it is a source for piracy or audience, what is being debated is how to harness benefits from its utilization. In a recent forum in Los Angeles in which TVMAS was in attendance, a topic being discussed was about the evolution of what was called for many years the small screen but this term is long obsolete as a function of technologies and audience habits. The networks and creative staff use Tweeter and Facebook to get to know their audience.
That Television networks need a strategy so that their programs have a presence in the social networks is evident, this is evidenced by the fact that most of the Television networks already have an assigned division dedicated to the development of these platforms.
As demonstrated during the Oscar Awards, producers still have a long way to go to fit the two worlds. As an example: it is not clear whether integration is being accompanied by an increase in audience, as recognized by the sector’s executives in attendance at the Digital Hollywood Conference. Other key points, are: what to do with a phenomenon like Hulu with their free episode offer? The importance of the contents and new forms of distribution, the audience measurement systems and the public’s participation.
Is the web an indicator of what is to be seen? Yes. But beware, because it also leads to err, as is the case of the series Jericho on CBS. The web called for its return and the producer resuscitated it with a new batch of episodes. But it was a total failure.