Twitter Goes Hollywood?
The web is abuzz today with talk of a “Twitter TV show.” I'm even getting folks asking me if they can audition. Indeed, there are a lot of interesting developments happening in the television space—MTV, G4, CNN, E! and various independent production companies …
Context & Ripple Effects
Twitter's reported competition-series plan builds on television networks' earlier use of the service to spread programming messages. Twitter's rapid traffic growth had also made it a more consequential media channel than it was when that outreach began.
The confirmed work with Reveille Productions and Brillstein Entertainment Partners marks a shift from broadcasters using Twitter for promotion toward producers treating the service itself as entertainment-development material.
First-order effects
- Reveille Productions and Brillstein Entertainment Partners gain a formal role in developing a Twitter-linked competition series, while Twitter gains an entertainment-industry route beyond its web service.
- Twitter's audience and brand become inputs to a television project rather than only a promotional channel for other networks' shows.
Second-order effects
- Networks that had already used Twitter to spread their message face pressure to make audience participation around programming more central, as production companies explore the platform as a format source.
- Twitter's value proposition to media partners broadens from distribution of short updates to participation in entertainment development, giving it another partnership path without relying on advertising.
Third-order effects
- If social services are repeatedly adapted into television formats, online audience activity becomes a programmable entertainment asset as well as a promotional channel.
- The boundary between platform companies and television producers may narrow as producers seek built-in communities rather than developing audiences solely through broadcast marketing.
The trend: Social platforms are moving from TV promotion tools toward partners whose audiences and interaction patterns can shape entertainment formats.