Social Media, the Internet, and the Traditional Media

As I type this, I am listening to a conference recorded in May called "Future of Media". The conference brought together the founder of Tivo, the CEO of the William Morris talent agency, the CEO of Showtime, the founder of Twitter, and the CEO of Cablevision Systems. Some of the general themes of the discussion is the impact of World Wide Web on the distribution of television programs and the use of social media to promote the shows.

What television means today is frequently debated by the panel. The fact that any program broadcast on television can be placed rapidly online is blurring the distinction between television and the Internet. Many programs are being placed simultaneously online and in television signals. How to generate income from digital content is one of the major issues media companies are grappling with. The question of the control of content once it goes digital is strongly connected to this. Concerns about piracy are certainly on the mind of many of the speakers. Moreover, advertising is still the primary source of revenue for most broadcasters, so getting viewers to watch ads, whether in a Tivo recording or an Internet broadcast, is of great importance. Generating viewer numbers and surveying the audience of a particular program undoubtedly becomes more complicated in the digital environment. The William Morris CEO brought up how the changing nature of broadcasting is affecting compensation for actors. As the avenues for distributing television, as well as motion pictures, extend to multiple digital formats, the revenue from those formats becomes an important contractual point of negotiation.

Social media are becoming an increasing important aspect in the promotion of television programs. The Showtime CEO mentioned the Facebook pages created for the channel's sh0ws and some of their more prominent characters. Fans are also using Facebook to make visitors to their pages aware of favorite programs .Twitter is another Web site utilized by Showtime to keep fans informed about what is happening with shows. Many actors and celebrities are using Twitter as a communication tool for engaging with fans and create publicity for recent projects. A couple of the speakers in the panel, however, emphasized that the potential of social media as a way to promote entertainment programs has yet to be extensively utilized.