The virtual sofa: why TV is the social medium

David Brennan, research and strategy director at Thinkbox, discusses the key findings from Thinkbox and Decipher’s ‘Tellyport’ research project: “One stat that should make advertisers sit up, listen and get very excited is that over half of our sample claim to have gone shopping online while watching live TV”…

For a while during a recent weekend, all of the top 10 trending topics on Twitter were about TV – seven programmes and three ads. This wasn’t just a blip and if you needed proof of the powerful bond TV has with social media, you won’t get a better example than that.

Of course, for us media types, it is rather too easy to get carried away with the influence of Twitter and to forget that it isn’t representative and that it is self-selecting (you read the opinions of people have chosen to follow). Also, what is discussed on Twitter is only the visible tip of an iceberg. TV has always generated chat, but we are only now beginning to monitor it; Keller Fay, the US word of mouth specialists, has estimated that 77% of brand conversations happen face to face and only 6% online. But, nonetheless, the fact that TV can so dominate the Twitter trends list underlines how the never-ending conversation about TV now takes place on a virtual as well as a physical sofa.

TV has always been social; it was a social medium before the term ‘social media’ appeared. After friends and family, TV is people’s second favourite topic of conversation and we have always loved to gather round, watch and discuss TV together. Sharing is a basic human need and social media has made sharing the TV experience almost effortless. Even if we are physically alone, the world is at our fingertips thanks to the internet and the ease of being online as we watch TV.

It is the nature of the online conversation – and how it might develop – that formed a major plank in our new ‘Tellyport’ research project with Decipher. We questioned 3,000 people with digital TV and broadband and tracked claimed viewing behaviour over the last two years as on-demand TV has become more established; we also ‘tellyported’ five families into the future of TV by equipping them with the latest TV technologies – including 3D internet-connected TV sets and smartphones, which could interact with the TV set – examining how their viewing behaviour was affected, and also comparing their behaviour to five other early adopter families to understand which behaviours might cross into the mainstream.

Our research revealed the extent to which two-screen viewing (watching TV while also using companion internet-enabled device such as a laptop, tablet, or smartphone) and the synchronous use of TV and social media is developing.

We are now at the point where 60% of people (in our digitally-enabled sample) claim to concurrently watch TV and go online at least two to three times a week, with one in three (37%) claiming to do so every single day. 44% claimed to have used social networks such as Facebook and Twitter while watching TV.

However, respondents strongly rejected the concept of having their social media activity up on the TV screen. Facebook was deemed unsuitable for a shared TV screen due to its personal nature; viewers prefer to use their laptop or mobile. Viewers were certainly keen to social network, chat and research around TV content using a companion screen, such as a laptop or mobile, but the TV set was seen as the place for TV content and activities related to finding something to watch. This was the guiding principle in people’s approach, and so the most popular apps were those that lead to content like all the broadcaster catch-up services and Lovefilm.

One stat from the research that should make advertisers sit up, listen and get very excited is that over half (52%) of our sample claim to have gone shopping online while watching live TV. This was borne out in the focus groups where there were excellent examples of TV advertising leading to online purchase, mostly directly but sometimes via social media or price comparison sites.

And the research also underlined the importance of sharing TV with other people and how the internet enhances viewers’ enjoyment of TV. 37% claimed to have chatted online about TV content – programmes or advertising; 19% claimed to have shared TV content on a social network; and 9% claimed to have joined a TV-related Facebook fan-group.

Interestingly, we also discovered that, in another sign of TV and online’s complementarity, social media actually motivates viewers to watch live TV, both to be part of the chat but also in case they encounter ‘spoilers’ online that would ruin a time-shifted programme.

There is more work to be done in understanding the relationship between TV and social media and how two-screening behaviour will evolve as more people get internet connected TVs, but we are now in a position to see the benefits that social media brings to TV from a transactional, promotional, emotional and engagement standpoint.

The biggest benefit, though, is to broadcasters because social media is making live TV more rewarding. Just as catch-up TV services increase viewing to live linear TV channels (because they help more viewers to avoid ‘dropping out’), so social media are making live TV essential. TV is the catalyst for the biggest conversations and you need to watch live to be part of them, with laptop or phone at the ready.