Social TV: When TV meets social networking

Details

Published on Tuesday, 11 May 2010 22:27

IDate released an innovation report called "Social Video" which addresses the power of Social Networks to TV channels and online video services.

The video site WAT.tv rolled out an upgrade which now includes sharing, recommendations, ratings and Facebook streaming tools.

"Thanks to these new features, Wat has expanded the social dimension of its service and is offering users a richer and more engaging experience by capitalizing on the popularity of the globe’s biggest social network (more than 400 million members),” says IDATE senior consultant, S. Girieud, while pointing out that, “this partnership with Facebook should help attract and keep new users and/or generate more traffic on the online video platform, and so help boost the ad-based monetization of its inventory”.

IDate forecasts that the following process will lead to the ad-based monetization of the inventory:

By integrating a major social network’s most popular tools (Facebook’s Live Feed, Twitter’s tweets), free online TV/video services such as TV channel Web sites, VOD services and video sharing platforms can offer their users a richer viewing experience. Better experiences in turn help create and retain audience and/or additional traffic (more visits and visitors, more time spent, more page views) and thereby generate more ad revenue from a site’s inventory.

The "Social Video" report addresses the following key questions:

• How can TV channels integrate social networking sites into their broadcasting strategies?
• Can social networks help free online TV and video services pull in enough additional advertising revenue?
• Will the social graph be a new performance driver for pay-VOD recommendations systems?
• How can social networks gain from these closer relationships with players in the TV and video industry?
• What strategies are being used by the key TV channels, free online TV and video service providers, pay-VOD players and social networking sites?

For more information on the report, have a look here.