The IPTV and broadcasting industry is undergoing an extremely fast-paced transformation as consumers demand access to content anytime and anywhere. At the same time, the busy leisure time of typical consumers include social media, games and all kinds of hobby activities. How can TV operators expect to maintain the loyalty of their viewers in this fierce competition for attention? Having the best content sounds nice, but in order to move away from the negative competition in terms of quality and price of the content itself, new kinds of services are needed. According to several recent studies, adding a social dimension to the TV experience strongly increases the engagement level of the viewer. [1][2][3] The opportunity to interact with other viewers or even with the TV show itself creates a new layer of emotional attachment. Surprisingly, neurological research shows that the temporary detachment from the TV program to social media interaction sparks increased focus and renewed interest in the program when the viewing continues. Less surprisingly, this addictive effect is strongest in sports and reality TV series. Twitter is by far the most popular social media service used together with TV. Additionally, Twitter users show the strongest loyalty rates to TV programs compared to users of other social media services. The popularity and penetration rate of Twitter in combination with TV has quickly become so strong that #hashtags are available not only in the programs themselves, but also in the program guide and other marketing channels. The Finnish national public-broadcasting company YLE (comparable with the BBC in the UK) has been a pioneer in providing hashtags in its metadata. We hope and expect other content providers to do the same thing. We believe that the best possible loyalty and emotional attachment to a TV service is achieved by giving the viewer easy and powerful access to social media services while watching. With a clever integration of Twitter and TV, viewers can enjoy a seamless combination of their favorite content and the joy of sharing the experience with family, friends or the whole connected world. From the TV operator’s perspective, social TV is no longer just a nice add-on; it’s a key success factor as consumers continue to change the rules of the game.

References:

• [1] Nielsen.com
• [2] Warc.com
• [3] Broadcastingcable.com