How social TV is changing in Europe

Over the past year we’ve seen some major innovations in social TV come from Europe. From Zeebox, to Tweek.tv, to StatsForce.TV and more the use of social platforms by TV companies and the innovation coming from it is increasingly mirroring that of the U.S. One of the biggest conferences in the continent that heavily addressed social TV issues was IBC 2012, which took place earlier this fall in Amsterdam. We interview James Nuefeld about his experience at the conference in Amsterdam and his thoughts on how social TV is changing across the content.

Neufeld works at Molden Media, a German based company whose expertise is in graphics production and more. He previously ran marketing for Never.No. As social platforms continue to make the world seem smaller and smaller TV is faced with a fascinating problem. I big revenue for content owners is exporting television shows (in their original format) for DVD releases and airings on networks in different countries. With the internet, it’s extremely easy to access content. As Europe’s social TV ecosystem matures it will be interesting to see if these types of business models will change.

Lost Remote: What is IBC and why were you there?
James Nuefeld: IBC is Europe’s largest broadcast media exhibition and conference. Over 50,000 people attend the exhibition to see the latest gear from vendors and manufactures. It’s pretty massive and it covers everything from cameras and lighting to automation and distribution systems. They also produce a top notch conference which is mainly geared towards broadcast technology and business. This year they had some particular big name key notes fromJames Cameron and Will.i.am.I was at IBC to exhibit and chair a conference session on targeted advertising.

Nuefeld: Yes and no. Pretty much every session or company exhibiting had some sort of tie-in to social media. Although the scene and vibe is quiet different in many ways. Europe faces some unique challenges when it comes to social TV. The diversity of languages and platforms is something networks and broadcasters have to deal with. Overall I think the hype is just as prevalent, however in terms of implementations it’s not as common as in America. For example, it’s incredibly rare to find programs with #tags baked on to the lower third.

LR: How are technology vendors and manufacturers reacting to social TV in Europe?
Nuefeld: I think they are right in the thick of it. A lot of social TV innovation is coming from the region. I’d actually say innovation from a technology standpoint is more diversified in Europe. In the US you’ll notice a handful of companies competing in a very similar vertical (i.e. analytics, or second screen communities). That seems less common in Europe, companies and startups are doing a great job of identifying key issues and building, not only solutions, but a lot of diverse ways of dealing with challenges and creating new opportunities.

You also have the big international players that are not specific to Europe. I saw nearly every major graphics company providing solutions to get social media content on-air or integrated into broadcast workflows. This is great to see. A year ago this was still a big problem for broadcasters.

LR: Do you see any differences in the social TV case studies presented in Europe to those presented in America?
Nuefeld: I saw a lot of great examples and use cases for integrated social strategies and second screen apps. However there where also a number of people who set out to “Bust the Myth” on the whole social buzz equals ratings topic. I’d summarise this difference as a dose of realism with a touch of scepticism. A few studies presented, like the paper presented by Nick North from GfK, pointed out that social buzz had very little or no impact on viewers tune-in habits. It seems this stems from the fact that the two anchor social networks (Facebook & Twitter) are not as prevalent in all regions as they are in the US, and if they are, they’re not always used in the same way. Any buzz that is measured, is often in such low qualities, it’s impossible to map it back to any meaningful impact on TV.