What Is Social Television?

Social TV is defintely the buzzword these days!  From television executives to digital marketing experts, everyone is talking about it and the big boys like Motorola and Spacenet (among others of course) are working on how to tie all these social media platforms together.

Social television is not related to "socialism" (as the word is used in political circles), but is a broad term referring to technologies that support social interactions among viewers - a new and different way of connecting with people that some say is the future of television.

With this new form of social media, it appears that a huge shift in power from the television and media networks to "the people" has already occurred as more and more consumers are cancelling their cable subscriptions and figuring out how to use their computers and TVs together. So, just what is social television?  How does it work? What are its advantages?

Social TV is the union of television and social media. It refers to the phenomenon of people communicating with each other while watching a TV show or discussing with each other about television content using the Internet as a medium of communication. Some people call it Immersive TV and others say Online TV, or Interactive TV.  It is basically like watching television with your family and friends. Only in this case, you are virtually connecting with people from different parts of the world or maybe your next door neighbor, all with the help of the Internet.

Is it the same as Internet TV, Internet Protocol TV, or Web TV?

No, it is not. Internet TV allows you to watch a TV  show by streaming the content to a media player or by downloading it to your computer. Internet Protocol TV is a system that uses the internet, instead of satellite or cable, to deliver television services. Web TV is a system that allows you to watch web-based television shows and programs online. However, there is some ambiguity here because manufacturers are rolling out new TVs with integrated internet capabilities for television that offer more advanced computing abilities and connectivity than your contemporary basic television. Although they are often called Internet TVs, the correct term is Smart TV.

"There are six different types of social media: collaborative (Wikipedia), blogs and microblogs (Twitter), content communities (YouTube), Social Networking sites (Facebook), virtual game worlds (World of Warcraft), and virtual social worlds (Second Life). Technologies include blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, music sharing, crowdsourcing, and voice over IP, to name a few. Many of these social media services can be integrated via social network aggregation platforms." Source: Wikipedia, 2010. Social television relies on the above-mentioned relationships to rebuild TV audiences and it appears that the reconstruction is working. Finally, social equity via social TV - for the people.

As life moves forward with social networking, posting, chatting, friending, gaming and sports, which is a very social activity, television manufacturers and the entertainment industry will jump on the social TV bandwagon bringing innovation and competition to the scene and we, the people, will hopefully be the winners this time around. Where watching television becomes a two-way form of communication rather than where it is now, one-way with television producers and advertisers deciding what, when and how we watch TV.

A friendly warning to the television and entertainment industry: If you don't change, you don't grow. We love change and the remote control is in our hands. So, who do you want to watch TV with? 

 Social TV has Arrived - It's Television for the Internet Age!