In the past, television has been called the “timid
giant” and a passive viewing medium. It is the not the case anymore. Recently,
it has become bolder, positioning itself as both a reflection of society and a
trigger of profound transformations within it. The new television is not linked
to a device, a location or a time. It follows the viewer behavior and
challenges the established industry. New series accommodate binge viewing,
commentary moves to social media, YouTube and commercial content intermingle.
In addition the viewing ecosystem of smart TV screens with more and more high
definition and 3D capabilities, cheaper and more powerful tablets and smartphones
is expanding. Finally, the number of television viewing applications is growing
fast: programs and channels are becoming applications. So while traditional
television has been declared more of less moribund, there is a renaissance of
TV viewing that is undeniable and it creates a fertile ground for innovation in
content production, distribution, consumption and business models.
In this environment, TV regains its prominent position
as social and cultural experience that it had seemingly lost to the web based
short form video. Culturally, quality television content is now available
everywhere. The social aspects of television, in the past two years, has been
mainly embodied in micro-blogging (Twitter and other messaging) that captures
instantaneous commenting between viewers and a show’ actors and characters or
between viewers themselves. This is seen as a builder of brand loyalty towards
TV properties and of course the advertisement community is taking note.
But, once the channels of communications between
viewers and creators are open, more innovation can take place. For example, In
particular, we want to posit television as a creator of communities;
communities embodied by the idea of "social television." These communities
can be of many types: communities of viewers and creators, communities of
devices to allow viewing of and interacting with television content and
communities of stories that include entertainment, sports, news and reality
shows and integrate the human experience.
Hence, our view, social television brings together
both the human stories at the center of the multimedia experiences of the
Internet age and the devices that interact with each other through them. It is
this essential to address how technology, user behavior and societal changes
are impacting the television of today and how television content in turn
affects society, users and devices. The trends that were started with the
streaming of on-demand movies and television shows on the Internet have now
moved to the likes of Netflix and Amazon competing with traditional
broadcasters for the share of the viewing public and their loyalty to a show.
This will not stop: series “binging” at one’s pace without commercial
interruptions is now accepted viewership behavior and watching television, even
live television, over the Internet is the new normal. This in turn accelerates
the “everywhere and anytime” nature of the new television experience which
relies on wireless and mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, and
cloud based solutions that transcend traditional operators spheres of influence
and geographical boundaries. This allows both local and global content to be
shared socially and virally via the Internet. And the portability and ubiquity
of video capable devices now influences how the content itself is created and produced
with the “crowd” now being asked to participate in the creation process.
We call it the “socialization” of television. And
while a lot of the current crop of new television application targets the audience,
we do not want not limit ourselves to the viewers' point of view, but explore
content production and its adoption and how television becomes another form of
communication. Television content has always been at the center of social
relationships. What was then done in person or via the phone is now achieved
via the web. There is a myriad of applications that enable a group of people to
share a common programming and what they think about it or what they would like
it to be. But can’t we do more? We think so. In our research we have considered
using health-relate programming or drama to generate discourse amongst the
viewers, use a common television interest to mobilize a group of people to
share into a non-television activity or enable the viewers to become their own
“virtual operators” and share video playlists with yes friends and families but
also in more public spaces. And while some of those question the traditional
business models these models are already being shattered by the new offerings and
are already changing to adapt to the reality of the new TV with for example
subscriptions, viewing challenges and check-ins and sponsored content.
Television has changed and will continue to change:
it is no longer merely a piece of furniture, but a rich and impactful medium
for social visual communication.