Studying the impact of innovation on business and society

The Future of Broadcast Media is Social

Six years ago I had the opportunity to work on an ambitious social project that set out to socialize the living room. Keep in mind, this was before the popularization of social networking as it exists today. In almost every way, this system predicted what would ultimately transform your experience on PCs as well as everything else. It was rooted in the realization that the Web was an isolated and lonely experience and that in order for online and terrestrial content to connect with audiences in the future, a new hybrid was required – one that fused social, consumption, and participation in the overall experience.

For many of those who’ve flown Virgin America and experienced Red, their inflight entertainment system, you can get a feel for what lies ahead. The relevance of Red is less about the on-demand aspects of content consumption and more about the ability to view content with others in flight and socialize on screen during the program.

We become part of the experience and as such, we define the experience for ourselves and everyone else who is viewing and contributing to the conversation.

Many technologists, media industrialists, and marketers refer to the current landscape of content consumption as “The Three Screens,” representing mobile, PC, and also televisions. The three screens are the windows of the world, your world, as you are increasingly empowered to take control of the experiences in which you wish to immerse.

The three screens are powered by an underlying technology platform that fuses the social, mobile, and real-time Web into a Golden Triangle and connected by the devices that deliver an immersive and participatory experience, on-demand, regardless of location.

The Golden Triangle will one day soon engender a shared experience across the three screens, but for the meantime, a resurgence of crowd-powered demand for relevance and personalization is leading a groundswell of change and evolution within each medium.

Today, when you view the trending topics on Twitter, we can see the clustering of conversations around particular programs and events as participants gather around a virtual water cooler to share their reactions and essentially socialize around a focal point. The coalescence of this activity is visible and as it increases in volume, the reach and effects resonate across social graphs attracting outsiders and converting them into real-time participants – motivated by a common sentiment of not wanting to miss out in something that potentially carries cultural significance, albeit finite.

The New York Times refers to this online social phenomena as the Water Cooler Effect. In fact, this social effect is credited with breathing new life into the dwindling audiences for television overall.

According to the New York Times article…

This year’s Super Bowl was the most-watched program in United States history, beating out the final episode of “M*A*S*H” in 1983. Awards shows like the Grammys are attracting their biggest audiences in years. Blogs and social Web sites like Facebook and Twitter enable an online water-cooler conversation, encouraging people to split their time between the computer screen and the big-screen TV.

The Web is becoming part of us and we’re bringing it to everything we experience in the real world and now, also on TV.

Nielsen observed that one in seven people who were watching the Super Bowl and the Olympics opening ceremony was online at the same time. And, that number will only continue to escalate. As such, networks are seeking to capitalize on the social effect. Jon Gibs, a vice president at Nielsen, told the NY Times that he is encouraged by recent Olympic data that shows simultaneous TV-and-Web viewing signaled the growing importance of interactivity to the television experience, “Increased usage of social media is definitely driving the ratings

NBC aired The Golden Globes live on both coasts for the first time this year, and because of the tremendous social boosts it experienced, the network is now planning to recreate the experience for the Emmy Awards this fall. Accordingly networks will also further experiment with methods to trigger viewing and online engagement simultaneously.

A connected and shared experience is defining a new and attractive digital lifestyle.

But as this water-cooler effect gains in influence, its true opportunity lies in its holistic integration in each of the three screens – especially as tablets earn a new role in the consumption and engagement behavior of the digerati.

Today, TVs offer networking capabilities, quite literally. For example, my Samsung TV is connected to my Apple network hub in the living room, which allows it to connect to several social networks including Twitter. While viewing a program, I can view my Twitter stream on screen and also tweet directly from the TV (wish it had a keyboard however.)

Imagine the possibilities if each program was socialized within the screen of my choice. Suddenly my viewing and associated online engagement is liberated from the living room and now enabled from the place and device of my choosing. In the meantime however, the mediums are forcing creativity and as a result traditional perspectives are now complemented with multiple sides in a peer-to-peer format.

For example, online networks are proving to be effective channels for content experimentation, often extending the audience of a traditional program. The 51st Grammy Awards created additional live programming and partnered with uStream, the leading live online video network, and Facebook to broadcast complementary coverage of the event as an exclusive for the social Web. As a result, the video hosted as many as 200,000 simultaneous online viewers and the ensuing conversations that spilled over into concentric social graphs and networks helped increase the overall TV audience by 35%.

The result of the social effect and the integrated social hooks inherent in today’s online networks will only inspire a genre of connectivity and interaction as programming will eventually feature creative triggers that engender desired responses and action. The same is true for any event, whether it’s on air, live, or on the big screen.

Chloe Sladden is Twitter’s director of media partnerships and her words perfectly capture the sociological impact of social media, “Twitter [and other networks] lets people feel plugged in to a real-time conversation. In the future, I can’t imagine a major event where the audience doesn’t become part of the story itself.”

The water cooler or social effect is only one part of defining a more meaningful experience over time. It is culturally significant as it connects people around common interests in real-time all over the web using events as our participation hub and as our magnet for convergence. The social effect, as a united audience, will also force broadcasters and media to produce more meaningful and engaging programming, content and ultimately experiences, as we are leading the democratization of all media and attention.

Our actions speak louder than our words and as such the change we wish to instill lies beyond taking part in online conversations. We seek a more participatory experience where viewers can also dictate outcomes. Our role will mature from viewer to contributor and this shift will ensure the relevance and livelihood of media while connecting us, as individuals and online denizens, to a more personal and fulfilling engagement and the community that it fundamentally cultivates.

Connect with Brian Solis on Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Google Buzz, Facebook

Please consider reading my brand new book, Engage!


Get Putting the Public Back in Public Relations and The Conversation Prism:



Image Credit: Shutterstock

248 COMMENTS ON THIS POST To “The Future of Broadcast Media is Social”

  1. Wining In Miami says:

    Great Post, Brian. @wininginmiami

  2. gregdelima says:

    Brian this is phenomenal! Love the writing and the wealth of information.
    Thank you!

  3. Maxiosearch says:

    Broadcast media as Brian has mentioned on this post is already turning social, and the change of viewers into active participants make me remember when we were just audience in the Web 1.0 era and we could change that when the 2nd era of the Web became possible. Everything is changing, we can feel that and nobody can deny that video and broadcast media is the future of the next era of the Web.

    BTW, it's a great post Brian. Thanks!

  4. jasoncormier says:

    Brian, I think one of the most obvious and inherent advantages to connecting broadcast media with social is that you are dealing with content that a great number of people are passionate about. This isn't typically a given when considering social media efforts across any number of industries.

    Additionally, you have a very clear set of key performance indicators in the context of a show's advertising/ratings goals. We are very active in monitoring Nielson ratings against social activities… and it's always interesting to consider the nature and amount of social engagement needed to actually move the ratings needle.

  5. mager says:

    Awesome article Brian!

  6. Mike Stenger says:

    We're seeing much more of a shift into integrating the social with everyday tech. Give it a few years and this won't be anything new but something that is just expected from technology. Eventually, we'll be constantly connected through a number of different devices. Brian, what do you see being “too” much?

  7. I think Chloe Sladden, Twitter’s director of media partnerships, did hit the nail on the head when she said, “Twitter [and other networks] lets people feel plugged in to a real-time conversation. In the future, I can’t imagine a major event where the audience doesn’t become part of the story itself.” People want to be part of the experience and social networks allow people to actively participate in event like never before. And I think the sooner broadcast media embraces it the better for them to stay relevant and for that matter survive.

  8. paramendra says:

    The blog post does a good job of pointing in the direction of the New York Times article. I am proceeding to read that as well.

  9. MeganBucher says:

    Brian, you really are a good writer. Well put, especially “The Three Screens.” It made me chuckle a little…as it reminds me of the real life “Triangle of Destiny.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdo79QS2Tcs
    Yes, I have a 2 year old…I make reference to Sesame Street. 🙂 Have a great day!

  10. Ashu Joshi says:

    Checkout ClipSync – which is being used by the likes of ABC. They allow an experience that allows consumers to participate together in watching shows & movies.

    Also while the future of TV will be social – it is likely to change the way it is being predicted and also would have its challenges. One such challenge is typically content creators are loathe for third party or service providers (e.g. Cable Companies – Comcast etc.) to overlay their content as shown above (Twitter stream overlaid on Video).

    • Itzik says:

      Thanks for the credit Ashu, ClipSync is used by many media partners like CBS, MTV, Epix, Showtime, IFC and many more but not ABC (Yet). You are right! Social Viewing and User engagement are the ways people consume video content and in growing numbers. There are many challenges in getting it right and there is a need to provide content creators with the right tools to make their content engaging and Social. These are great times for companies like ClipSync and there are certainly interesting changes in the market.

      -I

  11. Loved today's post, Brian. Thank you! We are, indeed, social creatures that enjoy shared experiences. The “water cooler effect” is a prime example. Engaging, relevant, and real-time content that can be shared and responded to are the ingredients for success.

  12. Tommyismyname says:

    Reading this directly after reading this article on AdAge ( http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=142902 ) makes me wonder the type of future that we're moving into.

    As we become more and more social, the implications of everything being everywhere is both exciting and frightening. Are the masses of people ready to be inundated with broadcast messaging all the time? What do you think are the long term effects of the masses of people getting the same messages over time?

    • Ben Tyler says:

      I think the fact the ipad sold 300k units on day1 with 360k tweets describes where social media is heading. No doubt it is relatively easy to create commercial hysteria over new products and technologies to the point of brainwashing. This is something that politicians are going to be jumping on the bandwagon with.

    • briansolis says:

      I've actually conducted research over the years on the impact of propaganda 2.0…it's powerful and alarming

    • Tommyismyname says:

      So I'm not crazy 😉 Would you be willing to share?

  13. digitalgodess says:

    Great post, and a very useful slide too!

    I am so excited about the Samsung television. I knew this day was coming and I am so glad it is finally here.

    @digitalgodess

  14. kendra24james says:

    Thanks for sharing interesting things with all of us. I like way of your thought process.
    Colon Cleanse
    Teeth Whitening
    Reverse Phone Lookup

  15. Jim Thomas says:

    Brian,
    Really loved your panel at SXSW. This hits home for me with the split screen between social and broadcast. It's a simultaneous experience for the user and makes both media segments more valuable. Thanks for sharing this idea. I'm on my way through your book. So far, it's right on because it proves the title – “Engage.”

  16. Paul Gailey says:

    I´m puzzled that there is NO mention of the elephant in the room called SMS aka the Jerry Maguire sindrome. 96.8 billion text message were sent in the UK alone in 2009, according the MDA- (The Mobile Data Association). Despite the utopia of social media convergence with the three screen scenario described here, broadcasters, particularly those in the reality TV field – who all face continual advertising revenue decline – completely THIRVE on the SMS text messaging channel. Relatively simple but an effective income generator.

    They need compelling monetary arguments to forfeit SMS as the chosen vehicle and embark on technologically possible adventures without proven monetization.

  17. Your website is beautiful and useful. How do I access your site often. Come visit my website at addlink addurl and Linking to websites

  18. click down says:

    …………..

  19. click down says:

    you touches on a good point. An expected ad spend generally means an expected increase of users. Whether or not you take part SMS marketing, your site better look good on a mobile device!
    cell phone text messaging

  20. I think the fact the ipad sold 300k units on day1 with 360k tweets describes where social media is heading. No doubt it is relatively easy to create commercial hysteria over new products and technologies to the point of brainwashing. This is something that politicians are going to be jumping on the bandwagon with.

  21. Yeah yeah ,This XX is the most popular this year!It is a necessity for the chaoshan people! I can recommend a store.I have lots of experiences there,and just bought several pieces yesterday,.The shop has all kinds of XX in various pattern, and several models that cant be find on the market. adidas arenas Signature

  22. Qasim Akinreti. says:

    A exciting voyage into the world of TV production and the oppurtunity of the social media

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Join Our Mailing List

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Stay Connected