Posts Tagged ‘tv’

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Mobile Monday – GetGlue HD

Monday, August 20th, 2012

This post is part of the weekly ‘Mobile Monday‘ series on news, ideas, and strategies in the world of mobile devices.

GetGlue just released a new version of their iPad app that embraces two huge trends: social TV and personalizing curation. The “Foursquare for entertainment” app is heading in a similar direction as Foursquare itself: de-emphasizing check-ins and shifting towards discovery. The new GetGlue iPad app, dubbed GetGlue HD, aims to become a personalized TV guide with bonus second-screen content.

A personalized guide

The new guide is a personalized list/calendar of shows, movies, and sports “you already like and watch.” The programs shown are based off of what you have already liked and checked in to, so even though check-ins aren’t the main focus of the app anymore, they will improve the personalization of your guide.

For primetime TV viewing, new episodes are emphasized over reruns. There are also notifications for season premieres and finales, and special events such as award shows. Over the weekend, the guide will show recommendations for movies in theaters. Sports fans can check schedules and stats for their favorite teams. An interesting addition is that it also recommends content from streaming services like Netflix and Amazon.

A second screen experience

I always enjoyed using the GetGlue discussion stream as a second screen while watching shows, but with the iPad update it goes so far beyond check-in comments. It pulls in content from other sites, such as Twitter, YouTube, and TV Fanatic. Content I’ve noticed so far has included tweets from a TV show’s official account, episode sneak peeks from YouTube, and episode reviews from TV Fanatic. This is all brought together into a single screen. For those who love socializing their television viewing, this eliminates the need to watch TV with 10 tabs open in their browser: one for looking at tweets about the show, one for the show’s GetGlue stream, etc.

My thoughts on the update

While I do like the look and feel of GetGlue HD, I think it focuses way too much on TV. The movie and sports recommendations are somewhat hidden behind an ‘Explore’ menu, while the guide on the app “home page” is solely TV listing. I do really like that you can choose your cable provider so that the channel something is playing on also shows up in the guide.

What really disappoints me is that you can’t check-in to books, music, games, or topics in GetGlue HD. It seems to me that they are taking away these options, since their website says that GetGlue HD is “Coming soon to iPhone, Android, and web.” There are already personalized TV guide apps, such as Boxfish and Zeebox. And there are other ways to check-in to entertainment, like Goodreads for books and Viggle for television.

To me, what made GetGlue so great was that it was a hub for all entertainment. I thought the next big step for GetGlue would be integration with apps like Hulu, Spotify, and Kindle. Most of these entertainment apps have options to ‘Share’ what you’re watching, listening to, or reading. I saw GetGlue as the Foursquare of entertainment, and similar to how you can share to Foursquare from apps like Instagram, I want to  be able to ‘Share to GetGlue.’ It looks like if that ever happens, it will only be from TV streaming apps.

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Even with time difference, U.S. viewers want Olympics live

Friday, August 10th, 2012

It all started when those 200 or so little globular torches were lit two weeks ago. It started even before the 2012 Summer Olympics’ Opening Ceremonies hit U.S. airwaves, by about 5 hours. Where much of the world saw the much anticipated, awe-inspiring event live, the U.S. saw it in tape delay. Americans didn’t seem to like that, and that’s when the criticism started.

With laptops, smartphones, and tablets, many Americans always have a computer at their fingertips. With so many options for following Olympics, broadcast exclusively by NBC and its multiple networks, live. Apparently NBC felt that with so many gadgets, Americans could surely occupy themselves with the endless number of apps, tweets, and instantaneous bulletins available, instead of live Olympics coverage.

Some have found that airing the Olympics in tape delay allows NBC to effectively choose its programming and to efficiently edit down any superfluous moments. It can build up to and really focus on the drama of the few Lochte-Phelps showdowns or the “Fierce Five” gymnastics squad’s gold medal-win or Misty and Keri’s “threepeat” of gold medals in beach volleyball (spoiler alert?). Imagine watching the drama of beach volleyball’s “Golden Girls” at 2:00 in the afternoon—in broad daylight. Not much excitement to be found there.

But many viewers have come up with their own solution for NBC: broadcast the Games live in the afternoon and again in primetime. Sure, viewership wouldn’t be as high in primetime, but the overall ratings would likely increase when one considers the viewership from both sessions, according to many. According to a Gallup poll, 7 of 10 of Americans who are watching the Olympics “a lot” want top televised events—that means the Lochte-Phelps showdowns, Gabby Douglas’s “golden” all-around night, and Misty and Keri’s “threepeat”—televised both live and on tape delay. Per Gallup’s analysis, “At the same time, higher-income and more-educated Americans are also the most likely to say they want both live and taped television coverage of the most popular events, suggesting these groups might watch even more Olympics — and more ads — if there were live coverage of the most popular events.”

After NBC’s choice to broadcast the first Lochte-Phelps showdown (400m IM) and Usain Bolt’s defense of his 100m gold, the hashtag “#NBCfail” really started to catch fire on Twitter. A parody account by the name @NBCDelayed has even arisen among the ashes, updating followers on legendary swimmer Mark Spitz’s 1972 Olympic feats, to name a few.

Clearly, Twitter followers are not remaining quiet about the controversy—perhaps stirring the pot yet further—but they’re not out of step with the millions of other Americans who want a live Olympics first and a taped one second. Nothing appears likely to change come this Sunday’s closing ceremonies—what with NBC maintaining an astounding average of 33.6 million viewers per night. Yet this should indicate desire for certain broadcast changes for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics.

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Weekly Wrap – Twitter Tuesday

Tuesday, June 5th, 2012

This weeks’ Twitter Tuesday has a theme: entertainment! It wasn’t even intentional, but the past week saw three great uses of social media, specifically Twitter, involving music, movies, and television. We hope you enjoy it!

Pepsi’s “Live for Now” offers exclusives to followers

Pepsi’s latest campaign, “Live for Now,” has a huge social component, bringing exclusive content and deals to those following the @pepsi Twitter account and the #LiveforNow hashtag.

Throughout the week, Pepsi will tweet about new music and upcoming music festivals using the hashtag. Each week, the account will also tweet out codes for free music credits through Amazon’s MP3 store.

But Pepsi will also be offering unique content on their enhanced brand page. Pepsi will be creating a weekly video series called “Live for Now Music” which will be based off of the top trending artists and music from throughout the week. Twitter’s Advertising Blog states that it’s the first time a partner will be using real-time data to develop original programming.

Lastly, Pepsi will be holding pop-up concerts throughout the summer with Twitter at the center of the action. The concerts will feature artists with large Twitter followings, will be first announced on Twitter, and streamed live on their brand page.

MTV introduces new Movie Awards category with Twitter-only voting

Last Sunday night the MTV Movie Awards aired, an award ceremony based on voting. Usually, voting for all the categories is conducted on MTV’s website. But this year, one category winner was decided completely based on tweets.

While going from category to category on the page for the awards, the Best Hero category had a landing page different from the rest.

Each nominee (Harry Potter from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2, Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games, Captain America from Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor from Thor, and Jenko from 21 Jump Street) was given their own voting hashtag.

The landing page also had the “MTV Tweet Tracker” keeping track of how many votes each nominee had. That way, voters could see if they needed to send out a few more tweets for their favorite hero. The winner of the golden popcorn trophy was Harry Potter.

Miss USA goes social

The MTV Movie Awards weren’t the only competition to get social on Sunday night. The Miss USA pageant doesn’t have a huge online component, but fans can vote for their favorite contestant and the winner automatically gets a spot in the semifinals. But even without voting via Twitter they have incorporated the social network in a large way.

Leading up to the competition, fans could submit questions for the interview portion of the competition via the hashtag #AskMissUSA. The producers will select one of the questions to  be one of the five questions asked to the five semifinalists during the interview portion of the competition. NBC will also show real-time tweets on the screen during the swimsuit and evening gown portions of the show.

That wraps up this week’s Twitter Tuesday! Did you tweet about the MTV Movie Awards or Miss USA? Are you following @pepsi for great music this summer? Let us know!

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Viggle: A TV Junkie’s Dream

Thursday, March 15th, 2012

Watch TV. Check-in. Get rewards. It really is that simple with Viggle, a new app for iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch). Android users, don’t worry too much about what you’re missing out on, because a version for you guys is in the works. Viggle is like a loyalty program for watching and checking-in to your favorite television shows, where you can get real rewards such as a Kindle Fire, movie tickets, or gift cards to Starbucks, iTunes, and more. The rewards are always changing, so if there’s nothing you find appealing you can hoard your points until you find something you like.

Basically, I love this app because it turns something that’s generally unproductive (watching TV) into something useful and fun!

How to check-in:

Viggle uses audio recognition that can recognize many channels. All you need to do is tap “check-in” and wait while Viggle listens to your TV’s audio and searches for a match. Then just confirm the recognition and your points will start adding up! If the audio recognition fails twice in a row (either because you are watching a channel not supported by audio check-in or any other reason), you have the option of manually searching for and checking-in to a program.

You can also use audio check-in with previously-aired programs from your DVR, given that the program was recorded in the past 7 days. However, manual check-in only works with shows that are currently airing.

Ways to earn points:

  1. Check-ins – The easiest way to earn points in Viggle is to check-in to TV shows. The amount of points you get depends on the show, when you are watching it, and how long you are checked-in. The baseline for points is 2 points per minute you are checked-in to the show. So if, for example, you are watching an hour-long episode of your favorite show and check-in to Viggle 10 minutes into the episode, you will earn 100 points, at the very least. But new episodes of some shows (usually the more popular shows) also have bonus points that you can earn once you’re checked-in to the show for 10 minutes. The best way to find shows with bonuses is through the “What’s On” tab.
  2. Content in the app – You can also earn points by watching videos and advertisements within the app, or playing along with certain live events. For example, during The Oscars, you could get extra points for predicting winners, answering polls, and answering trivia related to the program. Viggle does an excellent job with engagement, and I love the opportunities to earn more points during commercial breaks!
  3. Inviting friends – You can also invite friends to use the app via email, and when they check-in for the first time you will get 200 points!
  4. Sharing check-ins – Lastly, you even get a few extra points for sharing your check-in on Facebook or Twitter.

Have you downloaded Viggle yet? What do you think? If you have not downloaded it yet, I suggest you do so before the next time you pick up your television’s remote!

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Weekly Wrap – Twitter Tuesday

Tuesday, February 28th, 2012

First open heart surgery on Twitter

Memorial Hermann Northwest Hospital in Houston, Texas paved a new road for healthcare and social media on February 21 when they were the first to live tweet an open heart surgery. During the double coronary bypass of a 57 year-old male, surgeons tweeted and posted pictures and even YouTube videos. The informative and groundbreaking Twittercast used the hashtag #MHopenheart for users to follow.

The doctor performing the surgery, Dr. Michael Macris, wore a helmet cam that sent photos and videos to a computer. There was an additional camera in the operating room, and his colleague Dr. Paresh Patel provided updates on the surgery via tweets. The hospital later compiled all of the content from the Twittercast into a Storify that can be found here. Warning: pictures and video are pretty graphic.

Pope Benedict XVI brings Lent to Twitter

The Pope has already tweeted from the Vatican’s Twitter account, but now his Lenten messages will be on Twitter and he will soon have a personal account. His new account will not always have tweets written by him, but he will approve each one.

The Vatican also launched a social networking project on Ash Wednesday called Pope2You. Each day of Lent, the account will tweet themes from that day’s papal message in several languages. Over the coming months, messages from other papal speeches and documents will be tweeted as well. Msgr Paul Tighe, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, explained “many of the key Gospel ideas are readily rendered in just 140 characters…”

Twitter celebrates J.K. Rowling

On Thursday, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling announced that she would be taking a stab at writing adult fiction, and Potter fans rejoiced. Several hashtags including “Thank You J.K. Rowling” and #rowlingreturns were Trending Topics, including some relating to Harry Potter, even though the new book will reportedly be very different from the Harry Potter books. Even fictional characters such as Rowling’s characters Lord Voldemort and Professor Snape tweeted about it.

Oscar gets Social

The Academy Awards were this past Sunday and while the social activity was nowhere near that of The Grammys, it still generated over 4 million social comments/mentions. Some fast facts about the award show from Mashable:

  • The “most social” moment was when Octavia Spencer won Best Supporting Actress with 31,216 mentions per minute
  • The most mentioned actor and actress were Jean Dujardin and Meryl Streep
  • The most mentioned movie was The Artist

Another measure of how “social” an award show is how many comedic Twitter account spring up from it. In this case, we have @OscarsAudioGuy making fun of the show’s sound problems, @AngiesRightLeg inspired by the slit in Angelina Jolie’s leg, and @JLosNipple which “may have” made a brief appearance onstage.

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Weekly Wrap – Twitter Tuesday

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

The Grammys set social TV records

According to CBS, Sunday’s Grammy Awards saw the second largest audience in the show’s history. But viewers weren’t just watching the show, they were discussing it on social media also. According to a Mashable article, the Grammys got 13 million social mentions, becoming the top entertainment event in social TV. For comparison, the  runner-up (the 2011 VMA’s) got only 3.1 million social comments. Some of the most social moments were Chris Brown’s performance, when Adele performed as well as when she won Album of the Year, Jennifer Hudson’s tribute to Whitney Houston, and Paul McCartney closing the show.

Twitter partners with satellite providers

Twitter recently announced two new partnerships, with Iridium and Thuraya, the world’s largest satellite providers, to provide even greater access to Twitter SMS. This service will come in handy at times when phone lines and the Internet are inaccessible, such as war zones and during natural disasters. Twitter is making moves to insure that the service can be accessed in as many parts of the world as possible. But since not all carriers support Twitter SMS, they also have set up “long codes”, which people can use to send tweets.

Is Oprah desperate for ratings?

While many people were tuning into The Grammy Awards on Sunday night, Oprah was tweeting to make sure viewers didn’t forget about her network, OWN.

One tweet in particular caught the attention of many, including the audience measurement company Nielsen. “Every 1 who can please turn to OWN especially if you have a Nielsen box,” she tweeted to over 9 million followers around 9 p.m. The backlash was immediate, with people questioning whether her account was hacked or if she was really “that desperate”. Nielsen tries hard to ensure that viewers in their samples are not pressured to change their viewing habits and are “looking into the incident”. Oprah apologized and, at Nielsen’s request, removed the tweet but is still responding to followers calling her out about it.

Twitter jerseys finally spread to North America

Sports teams around the world have begun promoting their Twitter presences on the field by replacing the names on players’ jerseys with their Twitter handles. But this weekend, the Philadelphia Wings (@PhillyWings) became the first reported sports team in North America to do so. The indoor lacrosse team debuted the jerseys in their game against the Buffalo Bandits on Sunday, which they won. The jerseys were auctioned off after the game, raising over $13,000 for the American Cancer Society. Team spokesman Zack Loyd told The Star that when the players were told about the idea preseason, more than half of them were already active on Twitter. He also said “We were just looking for a way to gain more regional and national exposure.” Well, mission accomplished!

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Social Media Reacts to Whitney Houston’s Death

Monday, February 13th, 2012

The announcement of Whitney Houston’s death, at age 48 on Saturday evening, was first reported on Twitter, 27 minutes before the news hit mainstream media. The Associated Press confirmed Houston’s death (cause still unknown) on Twitter by citing her publicist, but not before two people tweeted the story from their own sources. In the first hour surrounding Houston’s death, about 2.5 million tweets and retweets occurred, amounting to more than 1,000 tweets a second, according to data from Topsy Labs. Friends, musicians and celebrities tweeted tributes to Houston, eliciting thousands of retweets. Houston’s death took place on the eve of the 2012 Grammy Awards, generating even more buzz as the Recording Academy quickly arranged a tribute for the loved singer.

There seems to be an emerging trend of large-scale death announcements being made on Twitter, including Amy Winehouse, Steve Jobs and Osama Bin Laden.  The fact that Whitney’s death was tweeted before being officially announced, reveals social media’s emerging role. As more people look to tweets for breaking news, rather than mainstream media, Twitter is becoming a primary and reliable news source in society.  Celebrities are expected to release statements on Twitter, for example in regards to Houston’s death, and how many retweets they get shapes their social proof. Social proof plays a role in Twitter and social media because the more we hear about social media’s influence on breaking news, the more we rely on it for news.  In another sense, the more influence a person is perceived to have on social media, the more reliable and believable they become.

When you heard about Houston’s death, what source did you use to confirm the news?

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Weekly Wrap – Twitter Tuesday

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

Twitter provides insight on cardiac arrest

Researchers at University of Pennsylvania have performed two recent studies that look at how social media, Twitter in particular, “can be used to help save lives and disseminate information relating to cardiac arrest.” In an article from The Daily Pennsylvanian , one of the researchers explains that they wanted to look at Twitter to “monitor what’s happening or understand what’s happening in non-emergencies, so that when emergencies happen we can be better prepared to use the tool to provide up-to-date accurate information to people.”

One study looked at over 60,000 tweets relating to cardiac arrest, CPR, AEDs, and resuscitation over the span of one month. Only 25% of the tweets had “real information”, such as about real symptoms, locations about events, or articles. These tweets were categorized as either personal, information sharing, or related to news media.

A second study looked at questions being asked on Twitter about cardiac arrest. The researchers found that people tweet questions about  CPR and proper procedures. In the future, they hope to look at what happens when they send information back to the people asking questions.

Another Chris Brown tirade

Last Thursday, Chris Brown had another one of those meltdowns he’s become so famous for. After someone tweeted about his assault on ex-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009 (super touchy subject for him), he went on a profanity-filled tirade ending with a vow for the AMA’s: “I wake up thinking of living my life….. YOU wake up thinking of me! NOW I REALLY CANT WAIT FOR THE AMA’s! u dont have to respect me now… but u will.” After his rant, he deleted his entire timeline, which now only has 2 tweets.

This incident is one in a long list of Twitter fights Brown has gotten himself into. Earlier this year, he got into it with B2K’s Raz B, Tyler the Creator, and Odd Future’s Frank Ocean. The “best of” the most recent episode of this series can be found here.

Simon Cowell has a new medium for insults

That’s right, Simon Cowell is on Twitter, and it didn’t even take 24 hours for him to get into his first Twitter fight. After tweeting “I love being on Twitter. Thank you for allowing me to beat the other three judges in the popularity poll. Paula looked like she’d sucked on a lemon.”

Piers Morgan, who used to work with Cowell on Britain’s Got Talent, responded “Save your breath Simon. Nobody’s watching X Factor. My show’s about to start.” To this, Cowell simply said “Look up the word ‘deluded’ in your dictionary.” At this point, Morgan pointed out that Cowell isn’t as popular as he thinks, with Morgan having over 1 million followers more than Cowell. But Cowell is apparently on a mission to have the highest follower count.

At least another judge from X Factor USA is on Twitter. After all, the show does have a partnership with Twitter.

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Weekly Wrap – Twitter Tuesday

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

New partnership between X Factor USA and Twitter

A new partnership between Twitter and the TV show The X Factor USA will add Twitter to the list of ways audience members can vote, in addition to voting by phone, text messages, online, and mobile apps.

The new form of voting will be through direct messages to the account, not regular tweets. Normally, you can only direct message someone if they are following you, but Twitter has made it so that anyone following @TheXFactorUSA can vote. More details on how to vote can be found here.

Steve Martin turns tweets into a book

On October 27, funny guy Steve Martin (@SteveMartinToGo) tweeted: “Due to absolutely no demand, soon I’m publishing a book of my tweets. Many of your replies included! All my profits to charity.”

The book, titled “The Ten, Make That Nine, Habits of Very Organized People. Make That Ten.” is slated to be around 112 pages of Martin’s tweets and fan replies. It’s expected to be released around June 2012.

The book’s description explains that, “With over 1.4 million followers (a number growing by the day), and a now famously uncanny ability to pack 140 characters with a maximum amount of humor and wit, Steve Martin has defined what it means to be a celebrity in today’s world of social media.”

Lady Gaga reaches 15 million followers

Lady Gaga (@LadyGaga) has become the first Twitter user to have 15 million followers, with the newest million added in the past 28 days. Gaga and her Little Monsters have set many records on Twitter before.

Over at All Twitter, they did the calculations and if Gaga continues amassing followers at her current speed, she should be expected to hit 20 million followers between March and April 2012.

Kim Kardashian files for divorce, takes over Trending Topics

On October 31, Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) filed for divorce from her husband of 72 days, Kris Humphries. After all of the publicity surrounding the wedding, including a 2-night, 4-hour wedding special on E!, the news of divorce has caused quite a stir.

On Twitter, several joking hashtags and  Trending Topics began circulating, including #ThingsLongerThanKimsMarriage, which is still the number one Trending Topic.

While the public may not have been sensitive, Kim’s sisters Kourtney and Khloe tweeted support for their sister. Kim has not tweeted anything since the news of her divorce broke.

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Weekly Wrap – Twitter Tuesday

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

Samuel L. Jackson joins Twitter

Samuel L. Jackson announced on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon that he finally joined Twitter. He even sent his first tweet from an iPad while onstage with Fallon, after having some humorous trouble with auto-correct. Jackson has quite a distinctive voice and manner of speaking, which his followers will be happy to know isn’t toned down at all on the social network. You can watch the video of Jackson tweeting here.

Senator uses Twitter to help with weight loss goals

Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri started a weight-loss plan in May that included healthy food, cardio, and Twitter. Back in May, she tweeted about being unhappy with her weight and deciding to make changes. As the pounds came off, she used Twitter as an accountability tool. A well-known dieting tip is to share your goals and progress with people around you, both to receive support and to keep yourself from slacking and “letting down” your supporters. The Senator occasionally posted updates on her fitness since May and received a lot of encouragement. On October 8, she tweeted that she’d met her goal and lost 50 lbs.

NBC gives Grimm followers sneak peek of the new series

Grimm is a new series on NBC that premieres on October 28. But beginning on October 14, all followers of the show’s official Twitter account have the chance to watch it early. The account sends followers a direct message with a unique access code to use to view the premiere.

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