Facebook has always had TV in its sights, and has wanted to create a lot more interconnection between the platform and live programming. And now, it is doing something about it, by rolling out some tools that allow Facebook to be a companion to live TV.
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A recent study by the company, found that:
[quote]85% of people who reported visiting a social network while watching TV said they visited Facebook,”[/quote]
Also, it discovered that:
[quote]Facebook usage peaks in primetime, in every country, and that the maximum daily Facebook audience occurs during maximum TV viewing.[/quote]
It’s only natural that Facebook thought it had to bridge the gap between the two. So, the company developed several tools for broadcasters to integrate the platform into their programming, either as a form of interactivity for users or to allow broadcasters to display certain content during programmes.
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The first of these, is Voting and Polling which has a Hashtag Voting API that helps broadcasters get information from viewers very fast. Voting can be embedded within posts or comment sections – a feature that was seen first at this year’s Teen Choice Awards. Facebook is also giving broadcasters a polling API that will allow them to get people’s views about a live broadcast through the platform.
The second tool is the Photo and Video Submission App that helps viewers engage directly with programming, allowing broadcasters to showcase what people have to say. It’s an easy way to gather multimedia from viewers through a dedicated API that broadcasters can add to their websites or microsites.
Finally, Facebook will allow live events to have their own icons to differentiate them from others, and to make the conversation around them a lot more visually distinguishable. One recent example was for the Emmys, that was available for viewers.
