via Red Bee Media originally tweeted by Jesse Redniss
Here is what many in the Social TV sector don’t want to point out. Twitter is already the market leader although not considered a “Social TV” app or platform.
Twitter seems to be winning the battle as the platform of choice for real-time interaction around live and event TV. Their aim is simple; get broadcasters to weave the Twitter platform into their shows.
And broadcasters have no choice but to get involved with Twitter and social TV. The conversation is already taking place; it’s taking place during the broadcast window, and it’s taking place on platforms that they don’t own. Ignoring the conversation is no longer an option, so by working with Twitter to understand and exploit the platform, broadcasters are able to consolidate and drive the conversation. This can be done by creating official hashtags around properties, developing formats that allow for Twitter integration, or to influence the narrative of shows.
But by creating a common language and constructing datasets that leverage the activity driven by broadcast television, it’s Twitter that’s building the value. These datasets provide extensive intelligence about the audience: from audience measurement to engagement, content discovery, and (crucially) advertising.
Twitter is very clear that its business model is advertising and it will surely seek to exploit that data directly with advertisers.
Data is a powerful currency and ownership of it puts Twitter in the box seat. Twitter can provide the data ‘back’ to broadcasters to power applications and services that haven’t been thought up yet – including, perhaps, new forms of advertising that are personal, social and designed for the new medium of connected TV.