Industry TV taps Social Media to keep the attention of the audience

Trying to exploit the behavior of the two screens of the spectators, television network has built a companion website with streaming video behind the scenes, so that will be seen Oscar winners accepting an award from the TV, then saw celebrate in backstage on the stream.

Experiments like these sudden are a priority in the land of television. As more and more people to chat in real-time on their favorite shows — on Facebook, Twitter and a phalanx of small sites — television networks are trying to figure out how to capitalize.

It's as if people are gathered around the water cooler online — and television executives are hovering nervously nearby, hoping to keep viewers talking and, by extension, by looking at their shows.

Experts such as Ian Schafer, the Executive Director of Deep Focus, digital agency say that Twitter and Facebook about shows well may be "the most efficient way to drive in tune." Although it is difficult to show the link, Mr. Schafer sees first hand when a segment of news catch your attention or a basketball game is tremendous. "I'll say on Twitter or Facebook, you tune in ' Nightline ' or ' 60 minutes now ', and then I'll get people saying, ' Oh, thanks for pointing that out to me, '" he said.

The water cooler effect makes it even more great shows great — the Grammy Awards had its highest in a decade on 13 February — and gives small shows a new way to stand out.

The same day as the Grammy Awards, Howard Stern proved that with his stream of Twitter posts during a re-airing of his film "Private Parts." Suddenly, some folks flipped over on HBO2 to follow and Twitter executives were enthusiastic. Adam Bain, such Executive, wrote, "this is what the producers of TV fiction should do every week."

Acts as Mr. Stern make TV more social, even if viewers are in separate rooms (or States).

"In a sense, you are in the living room, watch collection," said Jeff Probst, host of "Survivor", who used Twitter to talk to fans during the show's season last Wednesday while flying from New York to Los Angeles. Mr. Probst plans to make this a habit weekly view this season.

Television executives say that the chat to deepen the interest of the audience in a show, making them more likely to look next time. BET stunned their competitors when "The Game," a sitcom about relationships of football players with women, drew more than seven million viewers, thanks in part to the feverish chatter online last month. Debra Lee, Executive Director of the bet, said "now we can tell when something is a hit almost immediately — by seeing how many of the topics trending on Twitter belong to us."

Twitter usually lists 10 such words trend at a time, and in the evenings, TV shows are represented.

Television networks, as well as some technology companies, Twitter Chief among them, see the benefits for your business from this behavior. Dick Costolo, the Chief Executive of Twitter, said last week at a mobile Conference in Barcelona that online conversations about TV shows become event programs, "which means people will watch as it happens," blunt the impact of digital video recording.

He may have exaggerated the impact of Twitter — digital recording remains prevalent — but it is clear that many people feel they have to watch some shows as they premiere in order to keep up with conversations online.

"We know that people are multitasking while watching TV," said Albert Cheng, executive vice President for digital media for Disney/ABC Television Group, which oversees the ABC. "The question is: how to take advantage of that and create a completely different experience for consumers?"

"We don't have all the answers," he added, "but surely we are trying different things and seeing how people are reacting."

In this television season, ABC introduced iPad apps for two shows, visits by-canceled "My Generation" and the "medical drama Grey's Anatomy," the synchronization of polls and trivia for previews of new episodes. These applications, Mr. Cheng, double as research laboratories.

Jennifer Preston contributed reporting.

Media decoder: DreamWorks Animation higher profits and report of Imax

Two small but important Hollywood company, DreamWorks Animation and Imax, reported quarterly financial results significantly improved on Thursday.

DreamWorks Animation fourth profit jumped 95 percent, to $ 85.2 million while profit at Imax was 54.2 million, up from $ 4 million the previous year. Both companies benefit from hefty tax breaks, so that the results were pretty misleading as a sign of general health.

Despite its growth, DreamWorks Animation has had lately a tough go of things. The sale of tickets for his latest release, "megamind," fell well short of the expectations of investors and DVD sales for "Shrek Forever after" were soft. The company's operating results reflect the operating losses of approximately $ 35 million related to an online virtual world business and touring production of "Shrek: the Musical."

The company takes out plans to release consistently three films animated feature film a year instead of two. "We're going to remain kind of flexible about it", Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of DreamWorks Animation, told analysts on a conference call.

"Today we would probably say no movies before his time," he added.

On a brighter side, Mr. Katzenberg noted that demand for animated film was "robust" and DreamWorks Animation had its biggest year ever at the box office worldwide — about $ 1.6 billion from "How to Train Your Dragon," "Shrek Forever after" and "megamind." Expectations are high for the next release of the company, "kung fu Panda 2", on 26 May.

IMAX benefited from growth in its network of theatres of large format films and the strong presence for Imax screenings of films like "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: part one" and "Tron: Legacy." IMAX 54 Theatre installed systems, up to 38 a year before, in the fourth quarter. The Imax plans next year, to add 80 to 90 new theatres.

Media decoder: In agreement with Netflix, new revenue for CBS

CBS will likely earn approximately $ 200 million over the next two years under the deal that has reached this week with Netflix to stream TV shows from the library's network, an analyst estimated on Wednesday.

The two companies have announced a non-exclusive deal for some TV shows on Tuesday, giving CBS a new source of incremental revenue and giving Netflix promote its customers a little more streaming content.

The content includes "Medium", which has recently been cancelled; "Flashpoint", which is shared with CTV in Canada; and a series of old shows as "Frasier," "family ties" and "Cheers." (Some of the shows included in the package are associated with other networks, but were distributed from the study of CBS).

Above all, the deal excludes all largest exhibitions of CBS, reaffirming the position of network television is first and the Web is in second place for now.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Barclays analyst note, said Wednesday that the deal was worth about $ 200 million to CBS.

"We believe that the deal is a clear positive for CBS, the network is now able to monetize its library content in new ways and incremental without detracting from that content or undermine existing revenue streams from ad buyers or distributors," said analyst note.

Scott Koondel, President of CBS Television Distribution, struck a similar tone in a statement announcing the deal. "We will continue to pursue distribution partners that are not exclusive extra additive to our global business," said Mr. Koondel.

The two-year agreement gives CBS an opportunity to renew for another two years.

For now, CBS remains the only one of the four major networks that do not share any TV shows with Hulu, the site Web TV which is partly owned by ABC, Fox and NBC. NetFlix has already offered by other major networks, but don't have the rights for as many shows as Hulu does.

The fact that companies like Netflix are bidding for the rights to transmit TV programmes is seen as a positive for networks like CBS, as long as the networks don't give their main source of income, the old-style broadcast.

You are exaggerating the role of social media in Egypt?

A lot is said about the role of social media, Facebook, especially mobilizing and fueling the popular revolt in Egypt. Some are already calling it a revolution of Social Media. Wael Ghonim, activist Internet 30-year-old who has become one of the most recognizable faces of the movement in Egypt, dubbed Egypt 2.0 in an interview with CNN on Friday.  It is difficult to say how much of that credit is earned and how much it is pure hyperbole.

But a quick look at some numbers is instructive.

For a popular movement, the basis of Facebook in Egypt is rather small, if considered as a percentage of the total population. The Egypt has currently approximately 5.2 million users of Facebook, according to SocialBakers a site that maintains detailed statistics on Facebook use around the world. That is less than 7 percent of the total population of Egypt. In other words, less than 7 out of every 100 Egyptians are Facebook users.

On the contrary, in Tunisia, close to 21 percent of the population have Facebook accounts, Quatar use about 33%, Kuwait about 21 percent, while in Facebook in the United Arab Emirates is used by 37 per cent of the population. Even conservative of Saudi Arabia has 12 percent penetration, going by the numbers of SocialBakers.

Sure, the Egypt ranks an impressive 23 213 countries in terms of number of persons from a country who have signed up for Facebook. However, when this number is treated as a percentage of the total population, Egypt drops to 127 place in General.

The statistics are not a lot different from another perspective as well.  Only approximately 31 percent of those who have access to the Internet in Egypt have signed up for Facebook accounts--a lot of them the last few weeks. On the contrary, almost 60 percent of those with Internet access in Tunisia have Facebook accounts, while the number is close to 50 percent in the UAE.

What the figures show that is the hallmark of social media in Egypt--at least as measured by Facebook use--Tis less than one might imagine from everything that is said. It would be interesting to look at the numbers of Twitter, if those were available to see how you stack up.

For a tool that allegedly helped to topple a Government, using Facebook in Egypt seems to be relatively small, even compared to countries in the region. Even if it wasn't, that's really beside the point.

At the end of the day, Facebook and Twitter and YouTube and all other social media services are just tools that enable better communication.  Just as newspapers and radio and TV. They are the means not the message.

Social media has certainly played a role in the dissemination of information about what was going on in Egypt to citizens and to the rest of the world. When the Egyptian police in Alexandria allegedly beat 28-year old Khaled Said to death last June, was the photo of his face changed into a Facebook page called we all Khaled Said, which may have sowed the seeds for the popular dissent. Social media amplified what was happening, because he gave a few citizen journalists a way to show and tell others what they were seeing and experiencing.

The question is how many of those tens of thousands of singing in Piazza Tahir also in recent weeks has seen those images, or messages to Twitter or YouTube videos?  How many still had access to the Internet to know these things? After all, revolutions that occurred throughout history without Twitter or Facebook or TV or newspapers. When people get pushed around long enough, these things tend to happen. And all you need is often only a small spark to turn the whole thing.

This was a victory for the people of Egypt. Not social media.