Canadian Television, CTV, used Social Screen live chats for the “American Idol” TV show on Wednesday, marking the first time Social Screen was used for the show. Social Screen became a live social chat hub for the Canadian fans watching “American Idol”, and will be used again during the May 16 show. 

CTV has been using Social Screen, powered by Arktan, during past big social events, including the Oscars. The chats are usually hosted by celebrities. Wednesday’s debut was co-hosted by Shawn Desman, a popular Canadian singer, and Erika Van Pelt, singer, songwriter, and musician, and past American Idol contestant herself.

Once the fans had logged into the site, they were able to start interacting with the site’s content by posting their comments, commenting on other fans’ posts and content, and even exchanging comments with the site’s hosts, Shawn and Erika. 

Social Screen for the “American Idol” opened up with a bang, generating lots of buzz and interest among the Canadian fans of the show. The fan interaction on the site with the hosts and other fans was very robust and lively. Stay tuned for the encore on May 16!

Digital Hollywood opened up with interesting panel discussions about the current state of content delivery and consumer experiences, and how to create more immersive consumer experiences in the future. The interplay between consumer experiences and respective evolution of software and hardware products was talked about as well, along with ideas for Social TV and second-screen experiences. The following is a summary of some of the key trends that emerged from the panel discussions during the opening day, attended by Arktan.

The physical TV viewing has changed, yet it has come a full circle: In the past families sat together in the same space, watching the same programming. Later on family members sat in separate locations around the home each watching their own programming. Now again families oftentimes share the same space, but this time each watching their own programming, and increasingly on mobile devices.

TV viewing has always been about a story. Storytelling is at the core of TV. How to augment that storytelling is the key question to be answered. Social TV, too, is about storytelling. TV networks must focus on enhancing TV conversation by telling great stories via TV programs and combining viewer interaction with them. 

Social TV is much more than what people are talking about on Twitter and Facebook. For example, X Factor Digital worked with show producers to first really understand how they wanted to tell the story, and then the digital and creative parts got integrated in a top-to-down approach that proved very successful.

The content still has a long way to go to make it truly interactive and engaging. Relevant content will be a key trend now and going forward, and the value of the shows depend on the content that is created. Curation of content therefore is increasingly important as a way to create audiences, to keep them engaged long-term, and in helping to build a social following. The power of social media is very measurable, and includes use of social media intelligence. Shows are frequently changed based on change in engagement metrics; for example, time spent watching the shows. There is huge potential for creating second-screen apps that would deepen the engagement. 

The technology is the way to bridge content with community, but creating isolated digital experiences is not the goal, rather, technology should make the experiences social, and part of community. The goal remains to create compelling, engaging experiences, and deliver augmented reality on digital, providing the right content at the right time at the right place.

The above shows just how interconnected the digital space has become, and the trend will continue to evolve towards increasingly seamless integration across the space.

The spring edition of Digital Hollywood is just around the corner. The event will host a series of presentations and special events showcasing the latest trends in digital technology, media and entertainment, including Social TV, Social Music, and Social Brands.

It will be interesting to see how the Social TV discussion has evolved since the Digital Hollywood event last October, where Arktan was present. Here’s a link to our blog. The consensus then was that real-time social interaction with content will only grow over time. Content is still king, but besides high quality, it has to be also highly relevant, and deliverable on multiple platforms, increasingly so on mobile. Next Monday’s Social TV session is likely to talk about these trends, and their impact on brands.

TV viewers are increasingly interacting with TV shows and their casts in a seamless, real-time environment via social networks and on branded apps in a multi-platform, multi-app digital environment. This dynamic, interconnected landscape of users, brands, application developers, and technology platform providers requires continuous industry-wide innovation and creativity to keep elevating the quality and content of user interaction and engagement.

Arktan is looking forward to being at Digital Hollywood again next week. We will follow up with a blog post highlighting key trends.

Social TV Summit in San Francisco on April 3 hosted lively panel discussions and presentations by executives from many leading brands in the Social TV space. Here is a summary of the key themes that emerged from the presentations and discussions.

Social TV Industry
Social TV industry is still relatively new, yet polling at the event showed that the majority believes the space has already too many players, and it’s ripe for some consolidation. On the other hand, the majority also believed that there are still opportunities in the space for innovative companies. 

Social TV is not just something that happens. The industry needs to keep innovating to find out what are the best platforms for different ways of engagement. Technology is driving the innovation, and TV networks are among the key players in this new disruptive technology landscape with their ability to meet the scale demands. Social TV second-screen experiences in the meantime provide the audience engagement platform for the shows. 

Social TV Industry Segmentation
Some industry segmentation is apparent. Vendors like Shazam are building engaging apps with exclusive content that drives engagement. Then there are TV networks and companies like WWE, who are building second-screen Social TV experiences around their shows on their own sites and apps. There are also social brands, like Pepsi, who have partnered with TV networks. Andrea Harrington from Pepsi spoke about how Pepsi has been able to successfully leverage its brand marketing expertise and experience to provide highly engaging user experiences around “The X Factor”. 

Social TV Viewers
Social TV viewers are engaged, and demand quality content that is relevant. They are used to multi-tasking across multiple platforms on multiple devices. This is especially applicable with youth and the younger generations. This multitasking has extended to TV. Meanwhile, social media usage has exploded on mobile, having increased by 600% in the last two years, according to Deirdre Bannon from Nielsen. She added that almost 90% of those owning a tablet use them while watching TV.

Christy Tanner from TV Guide spoke about the underlying need people have to connect and interact with each other other. This is highly relevant for TV networks, because people also have the power through social media to influence what shows the networks decide to broadcast. TV shows drive emotion, and social media has provided the platform for viewers to engage and interact with each other, and with the TV shows and their casts. 

The casts and stars of the TV shows are naturally curious to know what viewers are saying about them on Facebook and Twitter, and they follow fans’ tweets and posts very closely. This fan feedback also gives them ideas for making their shows better. For example, "The X Factor" celebrity judge Simon Cowell has been known to modify the content of the shows based on fan feedback from social media.

Social TV Research and Analytics
Social TV research and analytics is emerging as an important part of the industry, helping, for example, brands gauge which TV shows generate the most buzz, what is the mood and sentiment of viewers, and what is driving viewers. The networks are very interested in this data, since increased social media buzz is directly related to TV show ratings. Data from Nielsen shows that 9% increase in buzz translates into 1% increase in ratings.

The shows with the most social audience are the shows that also generate the most buzz on social media networks. Jason Hoch from WWE spoke about this, and gave as an example  “Wrestlemania XXVIII”. The show generated more social media buzz than the NCAA Final Four.

Conclusion
The Social TV space is new, but dynamic, and evolving fast. Some key players have already emerged across different segments in the industry. Technological development continues to facilitate innovation across the board, while TV networks together with brands are working to develop new, better ways to engage the Social TV viewer.

The Social TV world will gather tomorrow at the annual Social TV Summit in San Francisco. This highly anticipated, sold out event is expected to feature exciting presentations and panel discussions by many leading brands, TV networks, and product companies in the Social TV and Social Media space. Arktan is a proud co-sponsor of the event.

Social TV Summit has set up a designated page on their website for the real-time social conversation taking place on the Social Web around the event. The page is called Social Chatter, and it’s powered by Arktan.

Social Chatter is a destination site for those unable to attend the event. It allows page visitors to interact with the real-time speaker presentations and attendee conversations, and all other conversation taking place on the Social Web around the event. The different page tabs allow visitors to choose the content to view, and engage in chat. Event participants can also use Social Chatter to share their experiences in real-time.

At the event location, Social TV Summit will have multiple big screens, powered by Arktan, that will display the real-time, curated conversation taking place around the event on the Social Web. The screens will give event participants a very unique experience of being at the event, while being simultaneously able to view the conversation taking place about the event on the Social Web.

We are very excited about tomorrow’s event, and will write much more about it in a future blog post, so stay tuned!