Opportunities of Social Media in TV Broadcasting

The traditional television broadcasters' audience is getting older and the broadcasters have lost their younger audiences. One of the actions they have taken, is to increase the use of social media in their programmes and shows in order to address their younger audiences. The change, however, has not been straightforward. Social media has been added to the existing broadcasting workflows without examining the possible changes the new media usage would demand. In this paper we use different methods, such as focus group interviews, individual interviews and questionnaires, to obtain opinions and views from broadcasting professionals. Based on these, we discuss on how to improve and rethink the design of the immersive and interactive experience when using social media in TV broadcasting. We are shedding light into the interaction design between broadcaster and viewer, as well as vice versa while using social media. We address questions such as what is the current way of interaction, what are the limits, wishes and opportunities in the future. Our main target is to respond to main improvements and how this can be made commercial and implemented in future live TV.