March 31, 2011
What Shows Are Viewers Tweeting About and What Does this Mean for Operators?
During the 2011 Oscars, there were over 10,000 tweets per minute- with the event racking up 1.8 million tweets overall. When it comes to Twitter and TV, you usually just hear about the biggest blockbuster events of the year, and the numbers are always impressive.
But what about the day-to-day relationship that Twitter has with TV?
For the past few weeks, TV Genius has been tracking all the TV shows that people tweet about in the UK. We collected data on each show that received at least one tweet per minute during the live broadcast.
Here’s a screenshot of some of the shows people tweeted about:
In the past 6 days, there have been over 38,500 tweets about TV shows, with 90 different shows receiving more than a tweet a minute while they aired. Additionally, each day usually had at least one show that recorded a tweet a second- that’s 3,600 tweets (our data collector could only record a maximum of 3,600 tweets, so many of these shows would have an even higher level of chatter than we captured))
Clearly, many consumers have already bought into the idea of social TV – and are busy sharing what they love and hate on Twitter.
Soaps
The social TV stats show a lot of shows you would expect- soaps, dramas, and reality TV all feature heavily in the list of popular shows on Twitter. Naturally many soap operas like The Only Way is Essex and EastEnders regularly get high levels of exposure on Twitter as a result of their loyal fan base.
Movies
Unexpectedly, we found that movies regularly featured in the data. When an interesting movie airs, it is quickly picked up in the social TV world:
- Zohan: 720 tweets
- Mr Bean’s Holiday: 450 tweets
- Burn After Reading: 225 tweets
News
News programmes also trend when there is a particularly interesting or contentious story. The show Newsnight shows a huge variation in tweets, and it’s easy to tell when an interesting show airs: Tweet levels ranging from 0 to 900 tweets each night depending on the content. For instance, when Newsnight aired a particularly polarizing interview with a UK Uncut representative about protests in London, there were 900 tweets about the show. This is a huge leap in chatter compared to any other episode that Newsnight aired during the week.
Content Discovery & Social TV
One of the interesting facets the data reveals is that the show with the highest audience rating doesn’t always receive the most tweets. The shows that were trending on Twitter tended to have a either a very loyal following (soap operas and reality TV), or showed something that people were opinionated about- be it the bad hairstyle of the lead actress, or debating a political issue.
Twitter trends reveal shows that viewers wouldn’t necessarily know to watch. But they may want to tune in if they know that there is an extra juicy episode of a soap playing or an interview generating lively debate.
People are naturally curious and want to see what all the chatter is about. Channelling Twitter effectively could curate content discovery habits, encouraging viewers to tune into a programme they might not watch otherwise.
P.S.
If you would like to know more about TV Genius’ social TV data, please get in touch