Social Media And Television

By Julia Bianco on August 14, 2014

For some, television watching is a solitary experience, done on a computer or TV set alone in a quiet, dark room.

For most of us, though, watching TV is something that is done socially, with friends, and with phones. Phones used to connect to social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram …

Using these social networks, we are able to connect with millions of other people around the world through a kind of shared experience that allows us all to engage in the same TV show together at once.

For many, social media is such an integral part of television that it is surprising for them to realize that it has not been studied by many of the major networks. A lot of networks are confused about how to utilize social media, and about whether it actually affects their ratings.

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Nielsen, the primary company for television ratings and other analytics, started releasing information about how TV shows do on Twitter in October of 2013.

Nielsen’s ratings include analytics on how many individual users are sending Tweets, as well as how many people are viewing these Tweets.

This research, which importantly gives an insight into a show’s reach on social media, was the first of its kind, and it gives some interesting examples of how social media can help a TV show that is struggling in the ratings.

There has been a lot of debate over whether or not social media can actually affect TV ratings. Sure, people may be talking about your show, but how many are actually tuning in? How many people will turn on the television after seeing one of their friend’s posts?

According to an August 2013 study by Nielsen, an influx of Tweets about a show led to higher ratings in 29 percent of cases, indicating that, in some cases, talking about a show can lead to actual numerical increases.

This percentage changes based on the type of TV show. It is highest for reality competition shows such as “The Voice” and “The Amazing Race,” where, in 44 percent of cases, Tweets led to higher ratings.

Comedy series showed an increase in 37 percent of the cases, and sports showed an increase in 28 percent of the cases. The least increase was for dramas with 18 percent.

From this data, it is apparent that viewers are more likely to tune in to a show that they can watch starting at any episode (something that doesn’t require prior knowledge, like a reality show or a sitcom), as opposed to something like a drama, where they will not understand the story line.

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“Using time series analysis, we saw a statistically significant causal influence indicating that a spike in TV ratings can increase the volume of tweets, and, conversely, a spike in tweets can increase tune-in,” said Paul Donato, Nielsen’s chief research officer.

“This rigorous, research-based approach provides our clients and the media industry with a better understanding of the interplay between Twitter and broadcast TV viewing.”

Outside of Nielsen, other companies and networks have recently started doing research on how social media affects them and their shows. Many stations reported that, although they had trouble finding a direct correlation between ratings and social media, they did find that increased social media usage led to increased hits on their website. In this way, social media can direct traffic to episodes, although they may not be airing live. Social media can pique curiosity, but not necessarily enough to get people to tune in.

Other networks are much more skeptical. Recently, Alan Wurtzel, the head of NBC Universal, said that he doesn’t believe there is any connection between social media and television ratings, claiming, that social media is “not a game changer yet.”

According to Wurtzel, and many other critics of social media, the correlation is actually reversed– higher rated events lead to more social media, but social media doesn’t bring in more viewers than were already there.

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Wurtzel cited the example of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, saying that only 19 percent of viewers watching the event posted about it on social media, but the events still all received high ratings.

“A lot of people want to show that they are on the cutting edge. One of the things that is on the cutting edge is social media,” Wurtzel said. “Why wouldn’t I want to say to you, ‘we have a potent new way in which we can drive ratings?’”

“It just isn’t true,” he continued. “I am saying the emperor wears no clothes. It is what it is. These are the numbers.”

So the jury is still out on social media and TV ratings. Whether or not increased social chatter actually increases ratings is still up for debate, with supporters arguing on both sides of the issue.

Either way, it is hard to deny that social media is becoming increasingly prevalent in our society, and its effect on the way we think, act, and watch television is still being sorted out.

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