Social Video - Tv's Killer App

[Tastatura]

As television audiences migrate online, media companies are eyeing social networking as a possible killer app for hooking viewers through their laptops. From simple chat rooms to unique games, the race is on to develop content that complements traditional shows — the more creative and addictive the better.

With increasing broadband penetration, online video is in the midst of a boom: According to a May report, Americans watched 12 billion videos across sites like Hulu and YouTube even as TV's numbers continue to decline. Meanwhile, online communities like Flickr and Facebook continue to snowball in size and popularity. The addition of social features to sites run by MTV, CBS and others seems like the next logical step.

But it's not enough to simply slap social features onto a video player. If companies want audiences to come, they need to deliver the goods in the form of quality shows and videos that will capture viewers' fancy.

[blog.wired.com...]

What'ya think - new fad or real direction?

[HugeNerd]

I might not be the true target audience here...but as an 18-35 y/o male, I should think I fall into a targeted demographic. In any case, I watch quite a bit of "t.v." on my computer. In fact, I enjoy using free, legal viewing services to watch shows on the computer in my bedroom. It's perfect for me in that I never have to remember what time the show airs, what channel it's on, to set a recording (even though DVR is amazing as well and you can set series recordings...), etc. I also think that 30 second or 1 minute ads placed where the show is cut for commercial breaks is better than 3-4 minutes on television. At the same time, I do not now, nor will I likely ever, feel the need to "socialize" about these television shows. So for someone like me, forcing cumbersome social network aps on me would have the opposite effect -- I would stop using sites like Hulu or YouTube.