On Sunday night the final season of Weeds premiered, a centerpiece of premium cable that helped define Showtime’s footprint across TV. Season two of Episodes — the hilarious Matt LeBlanc plays “himself” — also took off to fans’ delight. Borgias, The Big C and Shameless have all added to the Showtime’s arsenal, already riding high with Dexter and Homeland. We spoke to newly appointed Vice President of Digital Services, Brian Swarth about Showtime’s social TV strategy.
Sunday night’s premiere of Weeds (the final season) did well on social. According to Trendrr, last season’s premiere had 21,894 comments and this year it jumped to 44,731. “Social activity surrounding the show has more than doubled, demonstrating that its audience remains engaged and willing to incorporate social into the viewing experience as it enters its eighth season,” Trendrr CEO Mark Ghuneim told Lost Remote. “Closing the show with XTC’s Dear God did not hurt either,” he added.
According to the network’s release, Swarth “will be responsible for overseeing all mobile, digital creative and marketing, technology and production, iTV and digital content production groups within the Digital Media Group, as well as driving external digital partnerships.” His previous experience includes A&E, AMC, MTVN, Warner Bros., IAC and EPIX.
We interviewed Swarth about Showtime’s social TV iPad app, their Facebook fan reach, how their business model allows them to use social differently from ad-supported TV and how he’s keeping his eye on ACR technology. He even dished a bit about plans to launch sneak peaks of the new Dexter season across the social web.
Lost Remote: What’s your background, how did you get to Showtime?
Brian Swarth: For the past 14 years, media and entertainment has been my sweet spot. I’ve held various roles at Warner Bros. Pictures in interactive marketing and MTV Networks in marketing, strategy and business operations. Prior to Showtime, I headed up client strategy for a digital agency based here in NY where I focused on the media and entertainment space.
LR: How does Showtime approach social TV and using social media to reach viewers?
Brian Swarth: At the core of social TV, is the notion of driving viewers to linear television so they can interact with a passionate community during or immediately following their favorite shows. We enable this type of audience engagement in a number of ways.
Last year we developed and launched the SHO Social app for iPad (above), a companion app that lets users answer polls, make predictions about plot points and share their reactions with other fans, all while watching their favorite Showtime shows live. We’re extremely proud of this app, which won a Webby Award this year for “Integrated Mobile Experience”. Our team currently has a 2.0 version in the works that should be ready this fall.
While branded environments like the SHO Social app are important to us, there are also a number of 3rd party platforms out there. If it’s the right fit for us, will look to partner.