Facebook Woos TV Networks With More Data
Facebook is laying down a new gauntlet in its battle with Twitter to dominate online conversation around television: more data for broadcasters. — This week, Facebook says it will begin sending weekly reports to America's four largest television networks …
Context & Ripple Effects
Facebook is offering weekly reports to four major U.S. television networks, making its audience conversation data a direct part of broadcasters' TV strategy. The move frames Facebook's contest with Twitter around which platform can give networks the more useful view of audience engagement.
First-order effects
- The four networks gain a recurring Facebook data feed that can inform how they track and respond to conversation around their programming.
- Facebook strengthens its pitch to broadcasters by turning platform activity into a network-facing reporting product.
Second-order effects
- Twitter faces added pressure to demonstrate that its own TV-related conversation data is more actionable for broadcasters, rather than merely more visible in real time.
Third-order effects
- If broadcasters incorporate social-platform reports into programming and promotion workflows, control of audience-engagement measurement shifts toward the platforms that own the underlying conversation data.
The trend: Social networks are competing to become television's measurement and engagement layer by packaging audience conversation as data for broadcasters.