Live television has undergone a rapid change over the past few years thanks to social media. Whereas people once used commercial breaks to talk to whomever they’re watching the show with about what happened, more and more people are whipping out there smartphones and using services like Facebook and Twitter to talk about live shows. Twitter wants to cash in on this with a new television experiment called TV Timelines.
Twitter is launching a bold TV experiment and if it takes, it could change the face of second-screen viewing — at least as far as Twitter is concerned. It’s only fitting since social media has, for the last five years or so been an agent of change for TV. We don’t watch TV the way we used to — at least not anything we’re watching live. The conversations we used to have in our living rooms about Survivor, The Bachelor, Lost The Academy Awards and potboilers like Scandal, have migrated to social media. A recent study by Nielsen says that at least 15% of TV viewers enjoy TV more “when social media is involved.” They’re also, Nielsen notes, still watching live TV. Adults (18 and over) watch over five hours of live TV per day. And when we watch live TV we use social media to engage, react and discuss.
